Daniel Pipes: Twenty Years of Illusion about Islamism

The following by Daniel Pipes is reposted with permission:

Twenty Years of Illusion about Islamism

by Daniel Pipes
June 2, 2012
Cross-posted from National Review Online

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2012/06/twenty-years-of-illusion-about-islamism

The U.S. and the Middle East In a Changing World," at Meridian House International, in Washington, DC. After some throat clearing about the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kuwait War, and the Arab-Israeli conflict, Djerejian gave what has been called "the first major U.S. government statement on fundamentalist Islam" and, in just over 400 words, sketched out a policy that has been held to with remarkable consistency over the subsequent 20 years.

Barry Rubin: Is Islam Innately Evil? Is Islam Innately Good? Why This Debate is A Waste of Time

Is Islam Innately Evil? Is Islam Innately Good? Why This Debate is A Waste of Time

by Barry Rubin

We all know that the number of Muslims who explicitly put forward a systematically coherent moderate theology of Islam is very small. We also know that radical Islamists pretend to be moderates and fool people in the West. We also know that foolish or dishonest people in the West claim that Islam is innately moderate; that Sharia law as it will inevitably be interpreted at present is no big deal; and that the radicals are a minority, hijackers, or will soon become moderate. People must know the truth about these issues.

However, it is also true that the number of Muslims who are anti-Islamist in politics and relatively moderate in their politics and practice of Islam number in the tens and even hundreds of millions. Their motives range from liberalism through ethnic (Berber; Kurdish) or state nationalism, conservative views that do see Islamism as improper, those who find refuge in the West and want to acculturate to it, ruling groups and their supporters who don’t want Islamists to cut off their heads, etc. These people are our actual or potential allies in the battle against Islamism, and we better understand that and find ways to work with them, even if we don’t agree on everything.

How can we find a way to blend those two different factors and combine them into a standpoint and strategy?

At a moment when we should be analyzing existing political movements, ideas, actions, and the Western failure to meet this threat there is a wasteful, unending battle that subverts the effort to understand and explain what’s happening.

Barry Rubin: Debate in the Mainstream Arabic-Speaking Universe: Only One Flavor Available

Debate in the Mainstream Arabic-Speaking Universe:
Only One Flavor Available

By Barry Rubin 

A couple enters a diner 

Man: What have you got?

Waitress: Well, there’s egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam,,,,or Lobster Thermidor au Crevette with a Mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam.

Wife: Have you got anything without spam?

Waitress: Well, there’s spam egg sausage and spam, that’s not got much spam in it.

–Monty Python, “spam skit”


Westerners tend to believe that the debate in the Arabic-speaking universe is sort of like debate in the West. Despite differences there is supposedly pragmatism, a strong sense of reality, and the underlying desire for material prosperity, stability, and peace. Of course, such things exist but often there is a strong element of fantasy and a powerful dose of hatred. Consequently, the policies and results are commensurate with that input.

And remember that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that al-Jazira is a source we should look to for real news. Here is a pretty typical example of a recent al-Jazira program. The Russian guest is a vicious antisemite who writes articles accusing Israel of being responsible for all of the world’s problems and especially those of the Middle East. He supports the Syrian regime. The Arab guest is a supporter of the Syrian revolution. But both of these men–who are on the opposite side– agree that the Jews are behind everything!

Fjordman Interview: Europe Is The Sick Man of the World

Tundra Tabloids has the English translation of an interview blogger/writer Fjordman has given with the German newspaper Junge Freiheit: Europe Is The Sick Man of the World.

An excerpt:

I have studied Arabic language at the American University in Cairo and lived in Egypt during the terror attacks of September 11th 2001. I am not sure I would describe this as a turning point since I was already growing skeptical of Islamic culture and mentality before that time, but things certainly escalated after this event.

Barry Rubin: Who’s the Leading Authority in Defining Islam? Ayatollah Western Media

Who’s the Leading Authority in Defining Islam? Ayatollah Western Media

by Barry Rubin

The Washington Post has an article by Michael Gerson attacking Newt Gingrich’s warning that the imposition of Sharia law is a tremendous danger to U.S. interests. I’m only interested here in how the article reveals an element of Gerson’s worldview. (Don’t miss the really cool observation at the end of this article.)

Gerson writes:

“Gingrich joins Iranian clerics, Taliban leaders and Salafists of various stripes in believing that the most authentic expression of sharia law is fundamentalism and despotism.”

So who is going to determine the “authentic expression” of Sharia law? Gerson? The Washington Post? The clerics most liked by Washington Post writers regardless of the size of their following? You can’t create some ideal Sharia law and then say that there’s nothing to worry about.

Barry Rubin: When Romanticism Trumps Reason You Get Radical Chic Catastrophes

When Romanticism Trumps Reason You Get Radical Chic Catastrophes

Remember the war against Franco,
That’s the kind where each of us belongs
He may have won all the battles
But we had all the good songs!
–Tom Lehrer

By Barry Rubin

The radical is always the more glamorous. People wear Che Guevara tee-shirts. They don’t wear Samuel Gompers, A. Phillip Randolph, Edouard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, or Jean Jaures tee-shirts, yet those largely forgotten social democratic and labor heroes achieved far more benefit for reform and workers without murdering a lot of people.

Barry Rubin: Why Do Western Elites Minimize Radical Threats in the Middle East?

Why Do Western Elites Minimize Radical Threats in the Middle East?

See Prof. Rubin's article: Syria: No Longer Revolution, It is A Civil War, A Guide to the Battle

By Barry Rubin

A leading journalist heard my analysis on the rise of the radical Islamists, how U.S. policy is helping them, and why this is a disaster. His response? How could I say that Hamas was radical and wanted to wipe out Israel since it had not continually attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip?

Although this remark was about a very specific issue, I understood the general concept underlying it. To be a radical or extremist, many Westerners seem to believe, means you are a drooling loony, a caricature of a bomb-throwing revolutionary, like a rabid dog unable to stop himself from biting anyone within reach.

If you wear a tie and jacket, or just a jacket, or speak patiently and protest your moderation, or have patience you cannot be a radical.