by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n One of the most\u00a0widely circulated<\/a>\u00a0newspapers in the world, Egypt’s\u00a0Al Ahram<\/em><\/a>, recently ran a\u00a0fake picture<\/a>\u00a0depicting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak walking in front of US President Barack Obama and a pack of other Mideast leaders. In fact, based on the original photo, Mubarak, the octogenarian, appeared trailing last.<\/p>\n Why the outlandish deception by an internationally recognized newspaper founded in 1875?\u00a0Al Ahram<\/em>\u00a0editor\u00a0Ossama al-Saraya<\/a>\u00a0defended the fraudulent photo by referring to it as an “expressionist photo \u2026 a brief, live and true expression of the prominent stance of President Mubarak in the Palestinian issue, his unique role in leading it before Washington.” All well and good, but beyond the euphemisms and rationalizations, the fact remains: by portraying something that was not true, the state-run\u00a0Al Ahram<\/em>\u00a0intentionally tried to deceive the people.<\/p>\n On the one hand, as\u00a0Wael Khalil<\/a>, the Egyptian blogger who first called attention to the altered photo pointed out, this anecdote is a snapshot of the routine deception the Egyptian government foists on the people: “They lie to us all the time. Instead of addressing the real issues, they just Photoshop it.” On a deeper level, this incident reveals that, contrary to common belief, the fundamental problem facing the reformation of the Islamic world is not merely doctrinal; it is cultural.<\/p>\n Consider: even though Sharia law promotes various troubling doctrines \u2014 the subjugation of non-Muslims and women, animosity to the non-Muslim world, even the use of deception, as in the case of the Mubarak picture \u2014 the one hope has been that only “radical” Muslims follow these mandates. And this is true, consciously speaking. Unconsciously, however, sharia’s teachings have become so imbedded in the Muslim psyche, permeating the worldview of all people born or bred in the Islamic world, regardless of whether they are “moderate” or “radical,” indeed, regardless of whether they are Muslim at all.<\/p>\n Marshall Hodgson coined the term “Islamicate” to describe this phenomenon, which refers “not directly to the religion, Islam, itself, but to the social and cultural complex historically associated with Islam and the Muslims, both among Muslims themselves and even when found among non-Muslims” (The Venture of Islam<\/em><\/a>, vol. 1, p.59). Daniel Pipes agrees: “Shar’i regulations were also at the heart of many Islamicate patters\u2026 [T]he Muslim approach to politics derives from the invariant premises of the religion and from fundamental themes established more than a millennium ago” (In the Path of God<\/em><\/a>, pgs. 91-93).<\/p>\n In other words, if Muslim culture is more mind-molding and consequential than Muslim doctrine, still, the former has strong roots in the latter. Thus, while radical Muslims\u00a0consciously<\/em>\u00a0seek to uphold the letter of the law, moderatesunconsciously<\/em>\u00a0adhere to its cultural, social, and political manifestations.<\/p>\n In this context, then, Egypt’s\u00a0Al Ahram<\/em>‘s Photoshop deception is consistent. Because Muhammad, and by extension Sharia, permit deceit, or\u00a0taqiyya<\/em><\/a>, it was only natural for deception to find its way into the socio-political culture of Islam. So, whereas the radical Osama bin Laden consciously tries to implement Muhammad’s injunction that “war is deceit<\/a>,” secularist Hosni Mubarak and his regime, including at\u00a0Al Ahram<\/em>, have been unconsciously molded by it. More to the point, aside from the Western media and opposition groups to Mubarak, the so-called “Arab Street” is hardly scandalized by this event, seeing it as a natural occurrence \u2014 not so much because the Mubarak regime is particularly deceptive, but rather because the use of deceit to stay in power is consistent to the Islamicate mindset.<\/p>\n Lest one still doubt that aspects of a religion can become casually embedded in the social fabric of a civilization, one need look no further than to Christianity, which continues to exhibit an unconscious influence on the secular West, including upon those who most disavow it. After all, tolerance, human rights, a desire for peace, being the “nice guy”\u2014 indeed, all of those concepts most championed by today’s liberal secularist, did not develop in a vacuum, but rather from precursor concepts held by a 2,000 year old religion, concepts which were then absurd and today aberrant, but which nonetheless conditioned the West’s secular mindset accordingly.<\/p>\n