The failure of the American-Islamic discourse

Submitted by Ibn Filastin (United States), Apr 30, 2005 at 22:35

In regards to what the gentlemen Henry Rubello said, a lot of the cultural and ideological frame work for fascism comes from the hegelian totalitarian-political model, which is profoundly influenced by christianity. So sir, I'm afraid you are wrong about the linkage between Christianity and mass-murder--if you would like a more direct connection I would suggest the crusades or colonial periods of European history.

But the issue at hand is not which religion has been exploited the most or the worst, the question is why do we allow faith to be the arsenal of political opportunism? Whether you call yourself an imam or a cardinal, a secularist or a democrat, you do not have the right to make exclusive a religion or culture that encompasses millions of other people with millions of different relationships with their God.

That is the failure of the American-Islamic discourse. Clowns from the left and the right have appeared with reductionist explanations of revivalism in the Middle East, conjuring a caricature of Eastern and Western civilizations perpetually at odds like Popeye and Pluto fighting over Olive Oil. The irony here is that the supposed cannon of contemporary Islamic fundamentalism was opposed to this sort of capitalization of Islam by theocrats and, for lack of a better term, Muslim-curia.

Unfortunately, it would appear that policy-makers and theorists would rather cling to their fragile little dogmatisms than actually read the material and accept more pluralistic modes of discussion.

*salam

*If any of you are interested I would suggest:
Euben, Roxanne. "The Enemy in the MIrror."
Qutb, Sayyid. "Social Justice in Islam."
Binder, Leonard. "Islamic Liberalism"
Eickelman, Daniel. "Islamic Political Ethics"

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".