Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Last week on Uncommon Knowledge, Peter Robinson asked me how to draw the distinction between radical and moderate Moslems. The question is so important that I''ve decided to devote some time to it on Ricochet.
Exhibit A: Mona Eltahawy tells Tariq Ramadan where to shove his burqa.
Bravo, Mona. Now, Tariq Ramadan is often lauded--much like Imam Rauf of Ground Zero Mosque fame--as an exemplary moderate Moslem. If you're unfamiliar with the controversy surrounding him, start with these pieces by Ian Buruma and Paul Berman.
To sum it up in a sentence, Berman believes Ramadan is the "gateway drug" to radical Islam. Whether or not he's right, I note there is no such ambiguity about Mona Eltahawy--and note also that she is a self-described, practicing Moslem. Mona, clearly, is the barrier to radical Islam, not the gateway to it. (By the way, I'll be discussing burqa bans with her this weekend on Bloggingheads TV--I'll let you know when that's up.)
Peter and I were only able to begin discussing this issue on Uncommon Knowledge; and obviously, I have a lot more to say. Here's my position, in brief:
- Yes, there are a lot of Moslems who are moderate, in the sense that they are not implacably hostile to the West, not remotely interested in undertaking activities that threaten Western security or constitutional democracy, nor in fact particularly political at all. In many cases, Moslems who are superficially hostile to the West are not lost causes: The hostility is cosmetic, or fashionable; it goes no deeper than many Americans' vague distaste for the French, and could turn around quite easily upon greater knowledge of, and exposure to, the attractive aspects of Western culture and political life.
- That said, many Moslems (politicians, academics, clerics) believed by the West to be “moderate” are in fact our enemy. They are also the enemies of moderate Moslems. They know and understand the West far better than we know and understand them, and they are winning the propaganda war—winning the war, generally.
- It is as inaccurate and dangerous to US foreign policy to believe that there are no peaceful Moslems as it is to believe that there are only peaceful Moslems. I’ve been living in an Islamizing Europe and in the Islamic world for about twenty years. When told—as I sometimes am—that Islam is inherently so warlike that we have no hope of doing business with the Islamic world, I know immediately that I’m talking to someone who has never set foot in the Islamic world. Likewise, the moment someone assures me that Islam is always a religion of peace, I know I’m dealing with someone who is either completely inexperienced of this region or an outright propagandist.
- If most Americans have no idea how to answer these questions, this is not because they’re stupid. It’s because the Islamic world is huge and vastly complex; the languages spoken in the Islamic world are hard to understand; the cultures of the Islamic world are profoundly alien to the West; and because the Moslems who aren’t peaceful aren’t stupid, either: They lie.
- I’m continually astonished by the unwillingness of the American media to do the difficult investigative and analytical work of figuring out who is who. It’s impossible, literally impossible, to get a deep sense of what’s going on in Turkey from the US media right now, for example—no publication is doing this kind of reporting at the level it needs to be done, and the ideological bias of the mainstream media has reached a point beyond parody.
- Where these issues are concerned, there's no substitute for on-the-ground observation and laborious investigative work--and this is often boring work, like examining the complex networks of financing behind certain political figures and trying to figure out if it means anything that Politician X took a donation from Corporation Y, on whose board serves Cleric Z, who seems to be associated with a chapter of the Moslem Brotherhood in Village K. No wonder no one wants to do it.
But this work is utterly necessary, and someone's got to do it.
To this end, Moderate Moslem Watch will now be a regular series here on Ricochet. In the coming weeks, I'll be discussing so-called moderate Moslems--some of whom you may know, some of whom you may not--and making the case for doing business with them, as genuine friends of the West, or denouncing them as the frauds they are.
Next up: Fadela Amara and Ni Putes Ni Soumises.
Stay tuned.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Awesome, awesome post. I agree with every single point you make. (Ramadan is a particular bugbear of mine.)
Is Fadela Amara even a Muslim?
Aug '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Ms Berlinski,
Awesome post. I 'll be telling friends and relatives read you. It's a relief to know you are going to do this.
May '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Perhaps the U.S. prison system is yet another gateway drug, or maybe just a gateway. Apparently, its a hotbed of Islamic conversions. However, I still believe that the noteworthy moderate Muslims you have been showcasing are noteworthy to the extent that they are non-Muslims. As you had posted earlier. The posse of depots that formed the Khmer Rouge regime did what they did because they were communists. They attempted to nationalize the factors of production as communists, by definition, yearn to do. Yet, there have been communist and socialist leaders of nations in the past who have failed to attempt to nationalize the factors of production. To that extent, they were non-communists and non-socialists. The same applies to Islam. Is Islam, like communism, to take partial blame for the behaviour of its radical adherents?
May '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Claire, thanks for doing this series. A "guided tour" is much appreciated!
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Thanks, all. Michael, yours is a very good question that I'll absolutely address, and sooner rather than later.
Jul '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
To this end, Moderate Moslem Watch will now be a regular series here on Ricochet.
The first point is a shibboleth of the left. If they only understand us more, they'll like us more. The world never works that way. Life ain't an Afterschool Special.
The second point is unknowable because Western nations only believe in peaceful Moslems and rapidly acquiesce to violent outbursts.
Lastly, I'd like to see to what degree Mark Steyn disagrees with your assessment.
The Moderate Muslim watch is a waste of time because these "moderates" have no power and wish to not have power. If they are such a majority of the population, what keeps them from asserting their will? Answer that question and you'll have the answer if there are any moderate Muslims.
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Great post! Mona is exaclty why I so opposed "draw Muhammad" day. Why insult Mona? We shouldn't forget Mona is on our side and run over her in our fight against the bad guys.
Claire - I'd be interested in Mona's thoughts on Muhammad cartoons when you speak to her.
Sep '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
TY in advance! I look forward to learning. I sometimes get mad as H at the American media’s shallowness and lazy reporting, but I am long past the point of astonishment.
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Tommy De Seno: Great post! Mona is exaclty why I so opposed "draw Muhammad" day. Why insult Mona? We shouldn't forget Mona is on our side and run over her in our fight against the bad guys.
Claire - I'd be interested in Mona's thoughts on Muhammad cartoons when you speak to her. · Oct 6 at 4:55am
Very good question: I'll ask.
Jun '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Allow me to rephrase the debate. It's not about Islam vs. the West. The problem centers on the conflict between Islam and modernity*. Since the world is not going to return to a mythical 7th century Muslim utopia, how does the West aid the Islamic world in the process of coming to terms with modernity? This, I think, is where we need to make our stand.
*Modernity in this sense includes classical western liberalism as a foundational pillar of our culture.
Jun '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Also, the "choice" to where a burqa is an obvious dodge. If you can force a woman to take the veil, you can most likely coerce her to state publicly that it was her "choice."
Jun '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
To Hell of course!
May '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Ditto to the bravos. My hope would be that we could engage Fareed Zakaria on this topic. If the MSM is going to get smarter about this issue, that's where it needs to start.
Jun '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Cas Balicki
To Hell of course! · Oct 6 at 6:17am
I'll let the error stand as is.
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Thank you, Claire, for the on the ground education. I will be using a lot of your insight on the local level when I work with my clergy putting together their panel on Islam for my temple. I had a brief experience with moderate Islam in Atlanta when my father was dying and his doctor was a Pakistani woman and practicing Muslim. (Yes, she wore a head scarf.) She was smart, kind and obviously had no problem working within a large Christian population or with my Jewish father.
Aug '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Michael Tee
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
The first point is a shibboleth of the left. If they only understand us more, they'll like us more. The world never works that way. Life ain't an Afterschool Special.
Nice attitude, M.T, but wrong.
There's a lot about the superficial aspects of Western culture as-is that should appall any self-respecting woman, and it doesn't surprise me one whit that girls exposed only to that (as in all too many places in my Big City) cling extra-hard to some Muslim identity as a way of avoiding worse humiliation.
It isn't hard to look at modern youth culture and come to the conclusion that the girls are all supposed to be whores -- or worse than whores, since they're not even getting paid for it.
Had I not been exposed to better examples of Western culture growing up, I myself might have "reverted" and taken the veil out of sheer disgust.
Hence the name "Ni Putes Ni Soumises".
Jul '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Is it just me?
Christiane Amanpour makes my teeth hurt.
Sep '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Claire,
I have always been intrigued by Daniel Pipes 1995 article The Western Mind of Radical Islam. I'm not asking you to comment on his later work, but was curious what you thought of that article.
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
I think the central question I would like to ask any "moderate" Muslim, especially someone like Tariq Ramadan, is simply: Do you want to see us all live under Shari'a Law, or Western Law? In my brief reading on Ramadan that question never gets adequately answered.
May '10
Re: Moderate Moslem Watch: Mona Eltahawy
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
To this end, Moderate Moslem Watch will now be a regular series here on Ricochet.
I thought it already was.
As I can live with atheist and pagan friends, I can live with Muslims (and have done so). It's their actions that matters in regard to our foreign policy. And there's a bad track record in mostly Muslim nations. Why that trend exists and if it can be stopped must be answered.
Turkey is a weak example of peace if justice and religious tolerance are dependent on violent and authoritarian government,
Furthermore, as First Things' Father Neuhaus argued convincingly while he was alive, religion is not merely private and cannot be divorced from the public square. Separation of church and state is not separation of religion and government. I and many other Americans do not consider secularism an advisable strategy. Citizens should be free to vote and participate in politics and society without filtering of motivations or arguments.
And, as I've explained before, poor leadership does not entirely absolve regular citizens of responsibility for their laws and customs.