Specialists on Islam despair at American ill will toward this religion and its adherents, especially the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. Their many efforts notwithstanding, Americans continue to dislike Islam and Muslims. Reasons for this antipathy concern their predominantly Christian and European legacies. On the one hand, Christians inherited a legacy of hostility to Islam dating back to when Europeans viewed Muhammad as an epileptic and Islam as a heresy. On the other, no other peoples have threatened Europe so often and severely as Muslims: think the conquest of Iberia, Sicily, and the Balkans.
Although contradictory, popular images of Muslims tend to be negative: oil sheikhs rolling in money and street urchins begging for baksheesh; cunning merchants and ferocious warriors, women locked up in harems or lewdly belly dancing.
At a time when the United States depends heavily on Muslims for supplies of oil, solidarity against Soviet expansion, and resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, such stereotypes complicate American foreign relations. So, to combat them, American academic and business institutions have made valiant (if self-serving) efforts better to delegitimize such views and spread positive information about Islam and Muslims. Some examples of each:
- A leading professional organization, the Middle East Studies Association, has published studies entitled American Images of Middle Eastern Peoples: Impact of the High School and The Image of the Middle East in Secondary School Textbooks to understand how negative attitudes are transmitted.
- An elite group has sponsored a travelling exhibition and other activities to celebrate the current year 1400 of the Islamic era (November 1979-November 1980) to celebrate Islam and make it appear less alien. Oil companies have generously contributed to this and other endeavors; for example, the consortium of American oil companies in Saudi Arabia has for years gratis distributed ARAMCO World, a beautiful magazine devoted to showcasing Muslim and Middle Eastern. Other companies give out lavish wall calendars illustrating Muslim art, fund archeological digs, and contribute to Middle East studies centers.
Even as I acknowledge the usefulness of this service, I question their assumptions and expectations which may not only be mistaken, but even dangerous. They take for granted that the burden for bad relations between Americans and Muslims rests entirely on the American side; if only we would change, Muslims will readily respond and more respectful, friendly relations will follow. But this ignores the major cause for antagonism, namely Muslim attitudes towards the West.
While every religion encourages solidarity among believers and some opposition to non-believers, Islam does so more emphatically.
With regard to solidarity among believers: its scriptures urge Muslims to unite under a single political leader, never to go to war against each other, and to consider each other as equals. Many lesser bonds also contribute to Muslim solidarity, including the widespread use of Muslim names (Muhammad, Hasan, Abdallah, etc.), the Arabic language and script, praying together toward Mecca, the prohibition of pork and alcohol, and Islamic law (the Shari'a) more generally.
The creation of Pakistan vividly displays the force of such Muslim solidarity: Muslims in the Punjab and Bengal areas, about a thousand miles apart, thought that Islam gave them enough in common to create a new country in 1947 with two distant wings. But the dissolution of united Pakistan in 1971 also pointed to the hopelessness of this ideal.
As for antagonism to non-Muslims: the strength of any community depends in part on opposition to others and Muslims are no exception. While warfare is prohibited between Muslims, it is encouraged, even required under certain conditions, against non-Muslims. The world divides into the Land of Islam and the Land of War; this fundamental division carries hostility to non-believers to a level not paralleled in any other religion. It gives non-Muslims everywhere – in America, Europe, Africa , India, China – the feeling that an irreducible difference separates them from Muslims. While Islam favors fellow monotheists (Jews and Christians in particular) over polytheists, all non-Muslims are commonly lumped together and equally disfavored. Individual Muslims may abandon this world view, but no community ever has.
Thus do Muslims distinguish themselves more sharply and with greater hostility than do any other religious group. Therefore, attempts to foster good will dwell only on American attitudes miss the basic problem, which lies on the Muslim side. While non-Muslims should certainly try to understand and respect Islamic traditions, it is naïve to think that, short of a fundamental transformation of the religion, any Muslim people will ever see non-Muslims positively.
Daniel Pipes teaches history at the University of Chicago.
