Extract :
The Islamic Threat Today
Fear of Islam is not new. The tendency to judge the actions of Muslims in isolation, to generalize from the actions of the few to the many, to disregard similar excesses committed in the name of other religions and ideologies (including freedom and democracy) is also not new.
At time it seems that the attitude of the West toward communism is being transferred to or replicated in the elevation of a new threat, ”Islamic fundamentalism.”[1]
In the nineties, the effects of this polarization are seen in the prevailing tendency of many governments in the Muslim world, Israel, and the West, as well as the media and many political analysts, to conclude, without regard to the diversity of Islamic organizations and specific social contexts, thaht “Islamic fundamentalism” is inherently a major global threat.[2]
Cognizant of a Western tendency to see Islam as a threat, many Muslim government use the danger of Islamic radicalism as an excuse for control or suppression of Islamic movements. They fan the fears of a monolithic Islamic radicalism both at home and in the West, much as many in the past used anticommunism as an excuse for authoritarian rule and to win the support of Western powers. The banning of Islamic organizations, imprisonment of activists, and violation of Human rights are excused with the plaintive plea, “We are facing young fanatics threatening our future.”[3]Western stereotypes of a united worldwide fundamentalist movement are exploited by Arab diplomats from states with strong Western ties, who declare: “Fundamentalism is international in scope. It has branches everywhere…Fundamentalism expansion will eventually threaten the industrial nations when most Arab countries have been destabilized.”[4]
Whatever their differences, the concerns of some Arab and Muslim governments have found a ready ally in the Israeli leadership. Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin has said: “The Arab world, and the world in general, will pay if the cancer of radical-fundamentalist Islam is not halted at the academy of Khomeini and his followers in Iran.”[5]
The focus on radicalism and the equation of Islam with an extremism thaht threatens the West has become commonplace in government and in the media. A selective (crise-oriented and headline-driven) analysis of Islam and events in the Muslim world by prominent scholars and political commentators too often informs articles and editorials on the Muslim world. Among them, “Don’t Look for Moderates in the Islamist Revolution.”[6]”A Holy War Heads Our Way,”[7]”Clash of Cultures: Rise of Islam in France Rattles the Populace and Stirs a Backlash,”[8]”Focus Islamic Terror: Global Suicide Squad,”[9]”American Jihad,”[10]and”Algerians in London Fund Islamic Terrorism.”[11]
A sensationalized monolithic approach reinforces facile generalizations and stereotypes rather than challenging our understanding of the l”who” and the “why” of history, the causes or reasons behind the headlines. This selective analysis fails to tell the whole story, to provide the full context for Muslims attitudes, events, actions, and fails to account for the diversity of Muslim practice. While it sheds some light, it is a partial light thaht obscures or distorts the full picture. As a result, Islam and Islamic revivalism are easily reduced to sterotypes of Islam against the West, Islam’s war with modernity, or Muslim rage, extremism, fanaticism, and terrorism. Fundamentalism and terrorism have become inextricably linked in the minds of many. Selective, and therefore biased, analysis adds to our ignorance rather than our knowledge, narrows our perspective rather than broadening our understanding, reinforces the problem rather than opening the way to new solutions. It contributes to a climate in which, like the attitude toward communism in the Mc Carthy era, not to be simply dismissive of Islamic activism is viewed as being biased or sympathetic toward the enemy.
Book: The Islamic Threat Myth or Reality ?
Author: Pr John L. Esposito
Second Edition
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press, 1995.
[1]This attitude is exeplified in Hirsh Goodman, « The Green Curtain » The Jerusalem Report(June 3, 1993).
[2] Judith Miller, “The Challenge of Radical Islam” Foreign Affairs 72:2(Spring1993). For an alternative perspective, see Leon Hadar, “What Green Peril ?”ibid.
[3] “Tunisia Warns of Islamic Radicals,” Washington Times, October 25,1991.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Michael Parks, “Israel Sees Self Defending West Again”, Los Angeles Times, January2, 1993.
[6] Peter W. Rodman, “Don’t Look for Moderates in the islamist Revolution,” International Herald Tribune, January4, 1995.
[7] Fergus M. Bordewich, « A Holy War Heads Our Way, » Reader’s Digest(January1995),pp. 76-80.
[8] Thomas Kamm, “Clash of Cultures: Rise of Islam in France Rattles the Populace and Stirs a Backlash,”Wall Street Journal, Jnuary5, 1995.
[9] “Focus: Islamic Terror: Global Suicide Squad,” Sunday Telegraph, January1, 1995.
[10] Steven Emmerson,”Jihad in America,”1994
[11] “Algerians in London Fund Islamic Terrorism,” Sunday Times, January1, 1995.
