In Focus: Some modesty, please When lambasting Islam for alleged ties to terror, critics forget that one in five on the planet are Muslims and that Islam is a vast civilisation, writes Galal Nassar At the World Conference against Racism, held in Durban in August-September 2001, Israel's "racist policies" were thoroughly denounced. Then things changed. After 9/11, the blame shifted to Arabs and Muslims, and stayed there. Six years later, and thanks to the notoriety of Osama Bin Laden and his like, we're still the bad guys. Arabs and Muslims may denounce terror all they want, but that doesn't count. The Arabs and Muslims were the worst victims of terror, both home-grown and imported, for decades, but that doesn't count either. Over the past century or so, domestic terror has escalated in the Arab and Muslims worlds at the hands of extreme and insular groups that claim a monopoly on truth. Some of those groups have had explicit or implicit support of the West. A few were custom-made by the West. But that doesn't count. The battle raging today is not fought by armies alone, nor is it about economics or ideology, not anymore. It is all about culture. Speaking at a UNESCO ceremony in 2001, the former French president, Jacques Chirac summed it all up. He said that the 19th century was about nationalist conflict, the 20th century about ideological conflict, and the 21st century about cultural conflict. Globalisation has turned the entire world into a "global village". I have ranted against globalisation on occasion, but globalisation has certain advantages. Therefore, the Arab, Islamic, Third World elites, along with enlightened European and Western elites, have a duty to advocate human rights, knowledge, and the culture of tolerance and justice across the world. They have a duty to turn the world's scientific and technological advances into prosperity, safety and progress for all. The offensive drawings of the Prophet Mohamed, which appeared in a Danish paper and several European publications, brought angry and swift reaction, and so did certain remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI. But we haven't reacted enough to the anti-terror laws passed in the West, although those laws are clearly designed to harass Muslims and Arabs. And Guantanamo doesn't seem to arouse the outrage it should. With a few exceptions, the West is wrong about the Arabs just as the Arabs are wrong about the West. This is true in politics as in culture. Muslims number 1.4 billion or so around the world. They are a majority in 57 countries (hence that number of members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference) and a substantial minority in many others, including India and Ethiopia. There are 16 million Muslims in Russia alone. One out of five people on this planet are Muslims. One out of every three countries is dominantly Muslim. So I ask you, are all these people guilty of terror? It is wrong to lump all Muslims together or reduce Islam to one of its many strands. It is wrong to identify all Muslims with Islamists, or a small minority within them. But this is exactly what those who speak about the "Islamic threat" or "Islamic peril" do. Those who speak of Islam in tones of hostility forget that it is a creed embodying the cultural heritage of hundreds of millions of people. There are people in our world who say that Muslims have a natural "penchant" for terror and aggression. They say so because they overlook the subtleties of Islamic beliefs, law and systems. They fail to recognise the diversity and varied spectrum of communities that live under Islam. Muslims hold variant views on politics, society and international relations; their views are influenced by their interests, goals and precepts. How many Muslims do you think support Al-Qaeda, or the Taliban? How many are reassured by beheadings and suicide bombings? Not even a significant minority. Most Muslims are averse to a Taliban-style regime. Most are adamantly opposed to the bloody tactics of Al-Qaeda. Most were incensed when the Taliban bombed the Buddhist temples in Bamiyan, an act of utmost disdain for human heritage and aesthetical ideals. The Taliban's contempt of women, social progress, civil society and human civilisation is unacceptable to most Muslims. Arab and Muslim societies, like all other human societies, have a legacy of civilisation. They have ideals to uphold. And they have their cultural, political and ideological differences. Muslims hold variant opinions on development and progress. Muslims share a sense of identity, but Islam is more than a religion. It is the sum total of the achievements of many nations and ethnicities. Despite what the hardliners may say, Islam is not a barrier to modernity, democracy and human rights. The Western view of Islam is flawed, and then again that view is far from unified, for it consists of many divergent strands. But the political Western view of Islam remains prejudiced. Likewise, the Arab and Islamic view of the West is over-simplistic. Often, history is reduced to a conflict between Islam and the West. This conflict is invoked by those who need an ideological crutch to lean on. They speak of an inevitable, historical conflict. They invoke the crusades and the early times of Islamic conquests. According to extremists on both sides of the divide, the current conflict is but a continuation of the past. It is a moral and religious conflict that cannot be resolved. Western civilisation, according to extremists in our midst, is no more than a Judeo-Christian one. Westerners are all infidels, some may argue. But those are the ones who do not wish for a peaceful end to the conflict. Those are the ones who fail to see the need for mutual recognition and shared human principles. Politics is more about interests than creeds. Culture, meanwhile, is a bridge of communication among people, a search for shared values, and a quest for knowledge. Culture is the accumulation of knowledge. And knowledge is power, as Francis Bacon used to say. Arabs and Muslims have to develop their power through knowledge. According to UN development reports, the Third World, including Arab and Islamic countries, have a long way to go toward recognising knowledge and freedom and promoting the rights of women and minorities. Partnership and dialogue can help. We need to talk and recognise the many things we all have in common. It is easy to blame the West, but what good would that do? Globalisation comes with certain responsibilities for both Westerners and Muslims. Muslims have legitimate concerns over Western racism, now that prejudice has spilled from politics into culture. When Muslim sanctities are treated with disrespect, when the faith is ridiculed, everyone suffers.
