Former Libyan PM: Why Do Arabs Ignore Their Flaws?

Former Libyan prime minister Abd Al-Hamid Al-Bakkoush published an article in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat titled, "Hasn't the Time Come to Stop Hiding the Flaws." The following are excerpts of the article:

The Arabs Ignore Their Shortcomings and Make Them Virtues
"They say that the camel cannot see his hump. Perhaps this is somewhat descriptive of our behavior. Yet while the camel cannot see, we… do not want to see…"

"Anyone following the affairs in which we engage and of which we write or speak in this era will easily discover that we obliterate our cultural, political, and economic defects. Any observer will discern our supreme efforts to ignore our shortcomings and present them as virtues."

"We do not consent to harbor any flaw, in neither our past nor our present. With regard to our future - well, it is a campaign of achievements and triumphs that cannot be described or enumerated."

"If by chance we admit to any defect, it is the exception that proves the rule - [the rule] according to which we have no flaws. Panic grips us at every criticism. We are furious at anyone who mentions shortcomings to us… and act as if we were a 'beautiful garment,' brilliant in its whiteness, made ugly only by the mud slung at us by our adversaries who hate our national identity and lie in wait for our religions."

The Arabs Blame All Problems on U.S. Conspiracies
"See how the West and its leader America conspire against us with the aim of spoiling the wonderful relations among the various [Arab] countries. See how every time one Arab grabs another by the throat we attribute it to a foreign scheme. Wasn't Iraq's invasion of Kuwait an American plot carried out by the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad…?"

"We ignore - and if only we did not know the truth - that we have such a quantity of harmful caprices and ambitions that no one could have sown them in our breasts. We keep making mistakes and then act as one to conceal the intentions [behind them], and obliterate what is clear to all."

"For some time we have been dealing with the Palestine issue. Although our defeats at the hands of the Jews came successively, one after the other, no observer could hear us utter a single admission of defeat - as if we have been racking up victories over the Zionists since 1948."

"Yes, we have toppled Arab thrones we did not like, and established various kinds of republics - even the kind that is inherited [i.e. the Assad regime in Syria]. Likewise, we have nationalized property and capital and founded revolutionary and socialist parties. We have eliminated agents and foreigners and never ceased giving speeches, singing songs, and organizing demonstrations. Are these not all achievements and victories?!"

The Arabs Do Not Take Seriously Either War Or Peace
"To date, we have not acknowledged that we did not take the eternal Palestine problem seriously; thus, we can be seen beating the drums of war and clearing our throats in order to threaten [our enemy] while not [really] thinking of war and not preparing to wage it. Furthermore, even after we declared that peace was our final option, the signs of our lack of seriousness are still evident in us; thus, we do nothing to achieve peace. We dream of achieving what the victors achieve when they sit at the negotiating tables; yet we ignore, with clear naiveté, that in the final analysis anyone incapable of enduring war gets the loser's share in negotiations."

"This lack of seriousness also controls our outlook on the future relationship between us and the state of the Jews. We see those who support the [theory of] the conflict of civilizations - those who talk about [the conflict] being one of survival, not one of borders - grabbing each other by the throats and talking excitedly. Some talk of the establishment of a united Arab state, while disregarding [the fact that] disintegration is a mental condition, not a condition contingent upon borders. We also ignore [the fact that] the establishment of the great Arab state will, in our present situation, be nothing more than the establishment of an empire, in the face of whose violence the cruelty of the Jews will pale."

On the Backwardness of Muslims
"Others among us also ignore the facts of our time. They do not go forwards, but backwards, and dream of the Muslim state that was. In their opinion, it is enough to be God-fearing - at which we are not sufficiently earnest - to ensure that Allah will arrange victory for us in all our battles with our enemies…"

"Oh, how we would wish that our defects would begin and end with lack of seriousness and placing the consequences of our failures on the shoulders of others. But things do not go as we might wish. The absence of the virtue of modesty and the loss of the trait of open-mindedness are two examples of the many flaws that are too numerous to count in this article."

The Arabs Are Outside the Circle of Progress
"We ignore [the fact that] we are outside the circle of progressives in this era. We make an ongoing effort to hide this flaw, by boasting of our ability to consume the [West's] achievements, or by attributing these achievements to our 'spiritual' civilization - [while in fact] the legacy of [our civilization] is no greater than memories we compete amongst ourselves in talking about. We imagine ourselves to be superior to the culture of the West; in moments of modesty, we [merely] state that we refuse to learn from Western culture."

"Although we consent to consume its achievements, we continue to call it by the names we most loathe, and are glad that this allows us to conceal the backwardness from which we suffer. Isn't someone who consumes achievements the same as someone who attains them??!… We do not lack for audacity in claiming that it is we who taught them [the West]; we do not hesitate to present our efforts at saving their 'material' culture from perdition…"

"Are we not like the bearers of a message of progress who lost it [along the way] - but deny it?" [1]

He's not the only one. Granted the Muslims who hold these views are few and far between, but they are out ther. And deserve our respect and support.

Moderate Muslims Speak Out Against Extremists

Well before September 11 courageous American Muslims were warning their fellow Americans about the danger of Islamic extremism. On Jan. 7, 1999, Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani addressed a State Department forum on the topic "Islamic Extremism: A Viable Threat to U.S. National Security." "Here at home," he said, "we see a threat that will grow if the leadership of this country does not quickly stop the kind of extremist ideology that is filtering in - the same extremist ideology that is being spread all over in many places around the United States."

Born in Lebanon, Kabbani is chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, a Fenton, Michigan-based organization that emphasizes the common heritage of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Calling militant Islam "something that is going astray from Islam," Kabbani argues that traditional Islam stresses "moderation and tolerance and love … and living in peace with all other faiths and religions."

In his 1999 speech, Kabbani singled out Osama bin Laden and warned that "something major might hit quickly." He said bin Laden had formed a coalition with the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Jihad-al Islami to wage terror against the West. And he warned against Muslim nonprofits in the U.S. "whose job is only to collect money and to send it … to extremists outside the United States."

Another important American voice for a tolerant Islam is Khalid Duran. Duran has taught at Islamabad University in Pakistan, the University of Berlin, and American University. He is the editor of TransIslam, a quarterly journal of Islamic issues, and he is the founder of the Ibn Khaldun Society, an educational network of independent Muslim academics. To promote greater understanding between Jews and Muslims, The American Jewish Committee commissioned him to write Children of Abraham: an Introduction to Islam for Jews (2001).

In his book, which was praised by prominent Muslims throughout the world including Jordan's Prince Hassan, Duran criticizes militant Islamic regimes such as Iran and Sudan that violate the rights of nonbelievers. He writes that militant Islam in those countries and in terrorist groups like Hamas "is a form of late twentieth-century totalitarianism. It follows in the wake of fascism and communism, has been influenced by them, and seeks to refine their methods of domination." He argues that the concept of jihad-understood by many Muslims as fighting against the evil within or self-purification-has been hijacked by extremists who use it to justify holy war. The book also warned against bin Laden.

Muslims like Kabbani and Duran are often denounced by "mainline" Muslim groups when they speak out-and they can be in physical danger. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) bashed Duran's book in a press release and questioned whether he was Muslim by suggesting that he had a "mysterious identity." After reading the CAIR assessment, a militant sheikh, 'Abdu-I-Mun-im AbuZant, called Duran an "apostate" in a Jordanian newspaper and issued what many considered an edict for him to be killed. When this was publicized, CAIR's New York chapter issued a press release saying the death threat was a "cheap publicity stunt" concocted by Duran and the American Jewish Committee to sell books "at the expense of Muslims."

Khaled Saffuri, chairman of the Islamic Institute, shares many of CAIR's views about Duran. "Khalid Duran's not a Muslim," Saffuri told me in a November interview for Insight magazine. When I asked Saffuri to explain his opinion, he would only say, "If you read his book about the introduction of Islam to Jews, you will see that Khalid Duran has nothing to do with Islam." Saffuri made similar remarks on the United States Information Agency television show "Global Exchange," broadcast overseas in 1999. When asked about the biggest impediment to Islam in the U.S, he replied that "there are some sects or denominations that claim to represent Islam, and their ideas and views are different and alien from those of mainstream Islam." Most likely he was referring to Duran and Kabbani. Saffuri speculated that "some of these entities are supported by Zionist organizations and entities unfortunately."

In his speech to the State Department Sheikh Kabbani noted that many advocacy groups with extremist agendas claim to be the official voice of Islam in America. He lamented that the media and government officials ignore moderate Muslim voices and concluded: "The problem of extremism is a big danger, and it can be solved if the West better understands Islam and build bridges with the moderate Muslims, the traditional Muslims. This way, the Muslim community will eliminate the extremist threat from within."

Capitol Research Center

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