Grow Up, Middle East!

Townhall.com ^ | August 2, 2007 | Victor David Hanson

[Kaslin]

Radical Islamists love to scream about the "decadent" West. Everything from our operas to our attitudes about women outrage these loud pious critics.

As part of their condemnation, fundamentalist Muslims say they put a higher premium on family values and reverence for the past than crass modern Americans and Europeans do. But that is hardly true.

In Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, unforgiving sharia law administered by stern state clerics dictates the cutting off a hand for theft.

Is there less stealing then? Not at the highest levels at least. Sheiks from the ruling House of Saud are notorious for gambling and squandering abroad their nation's collective petro-wealth. But few such royals walk around Riyadh with missing limbs from "judicial amputation."

Recently on a British Airways flight to London, members of Qatar's royal house were outraged that its princesses had been seated next to male passengers who weren't related to them. Was this a clash of civilizations?

Not quite. The entire entourage was, in fact, returning from an all-day shopping spree in Milan, Italy. The angry members of Qatar's royal house may claim outrage at gender equality, but they seem to have no problem with the libertine West when it comes to splurging their kingdom's wealth on luxury items.

This type of hypocrisy in the Muslim world is not limited to supposedly devout oil-rich Gulf sheiks who cherry-pick Western sin. Terrorists -- with one foot in the 7th century and the other in the 21st century -- want it both ways, too.

How often have we heard Ayman al-Zawahiri, the mouthpiece of al-Qaida, damn the disruptive culture of the West? Yet he has no reservations about broadcasting his infomercials using video technology made possible by a secular science unique to Westernized culture. And does the observant Zawahiri object that his pals, the pious Taliban, are linked to heroin traffickers?

Jihadists champion sharia law, too. But when captured, they hire sophisticated secular Western nitpicking lawyers to sue over conditions in Guantanamo or incarceration in British prisons. Al-Qaida, of course, complains about everything from American troops once stationed in Saudi Arabia to even the U.S.'s failure to sign the Kyoto accords. Meanwhile, by blowing up religious shrines across Iraq, they show far less respect for mosques than we do.

There is a general pattern in these various paradoxes of fundamentalist Islam, both its violent and non-violent manifestations.

Supposedly Western sins, such as drugs, bribery and rampant consumerism, turn out to be as common in the Muslim world as they are here. In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality even seems to be tolerated as long as it is not overtly discussed in public. Indeed, the only real difference may be our Western tendency to talk freely in a secular context about controversial topics rather than hide or repress their presence.

Moreover, it is not always what we do in the Middle East, or even who we are, that infuriates the radical Muslim world. Its frustration also rises out of fascination with the West -- and the ensuing religious embarrassment over wanting what we enjoy.

It's worth noting that the United States is not hated in numerous other places, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where it has had a military presence or adopted controversial foreign policies.

In contrast, the peculiar furor at the U.S. in the radical Islamic world arises because our culture, when viewed on DVD, satellite television and the Internet, is judged to be incorrect in the ideal world of 7th-century Islam -- and impossible for conflicted Muslims to enjoy fully in the 21st.

Of course, our foreign policy, or even the crassness of Western pornography, can inflame this preexisting anti-Americanism. But, ultimately, there remains this divide between vibrant modern life that is the product of the Western Enlightenment and a static tribal order that is not.

What to do? The time is over both for coffee-table talk in the West about a pie-in-the-sky "reformation" needed in Islam, and the endless habit in the Middle East of blaming others for self-inflicted miseries.

Instead, right now we should hold the Muslim world to the same standards of tolerance that we demand of ourselves -- no more apologies for things like our insensitive cartoons or excuses for their insane anger against novelists. In turn, the Middle East must grow up and accept, like the rest of the world, that there are social and cultural costs and consequences for any who wish to embrace the benefits of modernism.

[Biggirl]

Thank-you for showing the hypocracy of the Muslims and ME. As the article says truly, the Middle East needs to GROW UP!

[Biggirl]

Bookmarked just in case I get into a debate with a Moslem.

[YouGoTexasGirl]

Victor Davis Hanson’s article is right on the money.

Rich Americans create jobs and a better life for every one involved. Rich MEers, Mexicans, and other impoverished nations largely create luxuries for themselves at the great expense of the poor.

[Pontiac]

the Middle East needs to GROW UP!

They just started using pull-ups I don’t expect their voice to start changing for another thousand years.

[Biggirl]

But it will be their stuborn attitude that will send them into the very dust bins of the 21st century bigtime.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

They haven’t “grown up” in 1400 years.

Ultimately the request will be “Blow Up, Middle East!”.

[beachn4fun]

One thing I noticed Hansen forgot to mention in his article. A large portion of those ME men come to the US for education. If you look at the history of many of the terrorists you’ll find that they were educated in the United States.

[USS Alaska]

Bookmarked just in case I get into a debate with a Moslem.

A debate implies logic so there is no chance for that to happen. If you get into a confrontation with a mooselimb, bring a .357.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Bernard Lewis has written several books on the Middle-East and Islam. He opines that the problem is that the Islamic World has not gone through “The Enlightenment.” Western Civilization accomplished this centuries ago, and the rest of the World (not Islamic) has adopted Western Civilization’s achievement.

[Travis McGee]

Islam is incurable, as long as it is based on the koran.

[Mr. Jeeves]

As part of their condemnation, fundamentalist Muslims say they put a higher premium on family values and reverence for the past than crass modern Americans and Europeans do.

Without a reverence for individual liberty, "family values" are just another means for a tyrannical culture to impose its will upon a society.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I would agree with that assessment.

I don’t believe that the “Islamic World” is ever going to go through an “Enlightenment” to a meaningful degree.

Instead they are going to do their damnedest to bring the rest of the world back into the realm of the unenlightened.

[Tolik]

Victor Davis Hanson:

...There is a general pattern in these various paradoxes of fundamentalist Islam, both its violent and non-violent manifestations.

Supposedly Western sins, such as drugs, bribery and rampant consumerism, turn out to be as common in the Muslim world as they are here. In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality even seems to be tolerated as long as it is not overtly discussed in public. Indeed, the only real difference may be our Western tendency to talk freely in a secular context about controversial topics rather than hide or repress their presence.

Moreover, it is not always what we do in the Middle East, or even who we are, that infuriates the radical Muslim world. Its frustration also rises out of fascination with the West -- and the ensuing religious embarrassment over wanting what we enjoy.

It's worth noting that the United States is not hated in numerous other places, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where it has had a military presence or adopted controversial foreign policies.

In contrast, the peculiar furor at the U.S. in the radical Islamic world arises because our culture, when viewed on DVD, satellite television and the Internet, is judged to be incorrect in the ideal world of 7th-century Islam -- and impossible for conflicted Muslims to enjoy fully in the 21st.

Of course, our foreign policy, or even the crassness of Western pornography, can inflame this preexisting anti-Americanism. But, ultimately, there remains this divide between vibrant modern life that is the product of the Western Enlightenment and a static tribal order that is not.

What to do? The time is over both for coffee-table talk in the West about a pie-in-the-sky "reformation" needed in Islam, and the endless habit in the Middle East of blaming others for self-inflicted miseries.

Instead, right now we should hold the Muslim world to the same standards of tolerance that we demand of ourselves -- no more apologies for things like our insensitive cartoons or excuses for their insane anger against novelists. In turn, the Middle East must grow up and accept, like the rest of the world, that there are social and cultural costs and consequences for any who wish to embrace the benefits of modernism.

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[darth]

I met a few in grad school. It seemed to me that the ME students get a huge inferiority complex because they expect American girls to be easy. They interpret the rejection that they experience to prejudice when it its their boorish, mysoginistic behavior that causes the rejection. I heard bin Laden had such an experience.

[vetvetdoug]

when it is their boorish, misogynistic behaviour that causes the rejection .

This doesn't even mention that ME and Asian men are noted for being underpowered in the man department and couldn't light a fire in women even if they were in Hell.

[Tolik]

A large portion of those ME men come to the US for education. If you look at the history of many of the terrorists you’ll find that they were educated in the United States.

There is a conventional wisdom expectation that education brings enlightenment. Our society is definitely kinder than, lets say, 150 ago. And that was kinder than a 150 years before it. So, it is largely true in the Western World, while certainly not always, with small and large exceptions. Anyway, the current openness of the West for young people of the world to be educated here, when they can, was pointed at as a moderating force. It still may work for many, but the recent notable example of the homicide doctors in Britain is definitely troubling.  If there can be an argument that engineering education is values neutral, medics are trained to protect human life. There are numerous examples through history of doctors treating enemy soldiers. These "British" doctors, not just one person, but a whole group, treating patients while plotting to kill others - is astonishing. As many noted here, if Islam won't moderate itself, a terrible collision with it will be inevitable. We can bicker about our tactical mistakes here and there, but the train is still moving in the direction of a bigger fight.

[kellynla]

Sooner or later we are going to have to give the muzzies the jihad they so desperately want...and this time we will finish the job. The muzzies have never gotten over the arse whipping they received in the Crusades.

“Invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”
Ann Coulter

Semper Fi,
Kelly

[reagan_fanatic]

I heard bin Laden had such an experience.

Goats are turned off by that type of behavior too?

[Paradox]

Rich Americans create jobs and a better life for every one involved. Rich MEers, Mexicans, and other impoverished nations largely create luxuries for themselves at the great expense of the poor.

That is a valid observation. We (in the West, but especially America) create wealth. In most other parts of the world, it is a "zero sum game", where in order for one man to win (get rich), another must lose.

This simple fact is something that Leftists just can't comprehend.