by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n T<\/span>he war against Islamic jihad continues to be compromised in the West by the dominant narrative that supposedly makes sense of the conflict. In this scenario, the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful moderates, while the jihadists exploit a distortion of Islam fueled by modern discontents. To the left, these discontents are created by Western neo-imperialist and neo-colonialist adventurism, oil-industry greed, a culture-destroying globalization, irrational \u201cIslamophobia\u201d and \u201cOrientalism,\u201d and continuing support for Israel\u2019s \u201coccupation\u201d of Muslim territory and thwarting of Palestinian nationalist aspirations. To the right, a lack of political freedom and economic development dashes Muslim hopes for a better life and leaves them prey to jihadist propaganda. Both interpretations, however, are based on unfounded assumptions.<\/p>\n The first assumption is the existence of large numbers of \u201cMuslim moderates.\u201d Indeed, Muslims who want to integrate their faith with liberal democracy, pluralism, human rights, and economic development exist and deserve our support. But I challenge anyone other than scholars to name one of their spokesmen. The moderates surveyed by Joshua Muravchik and Charles Szrom in their recent\u00a0Commentary<\/i>\u00a0article \u2014 Kamran Bokhari, Said Edin Ibrahim, Amr Hamzawy, or Abdel-Aziz el-Sherif \u2014 have a negligible influence with the Muslim masses compared to that of bin Laden or the Muslim Brotherhood or the mullahs of Iran. And these moderates are just as marginalized in the West, where instead the duplicitous Tariq Ramadan is promoted and celebrated as a \u201cmoderate\u201d despite his adherence to the radical doctrines of the Muslim Brotherhood. If large numbers of Muslim moderates existed, and if such moderation were typical of most Muslims, then wouldn\u2019t these spokesmen have a higher profile and a greater constituency among their co-religionists?<\/p>\n On the contrary, moral and economic support for jihadist organizations continues to run high among Muslims across the world. In other words, millions and millions of Muslims admire and support organizations that supposedly have \u201cdistorted\u201d Islamic doctrine. Consider the arrogant, elitist assumption behind this belief: millions of Muslims are so ignorant of their own faith, or so traumatized by political or economic distress, that they can\u2019t tell when someone is distorting Islamic doctrine, and so like children they irrationally \u201cact out\u201d against their own best interests. I think it more likely that these Muslims indeed understand their own faith and support the jihadists because they call for a \u201creform\u201d of Islam, which does\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0mean, as we Westerners assume, interpreting Islam to make it compatible with tolerance, pluralism, or democracy. Rather, it means returning Islam to its traditional doctrinal purity and practice.<\/p>\n Yet here in the West, even usually right-thinking commentators like Muravchik and Szrom fail to take seriously the power of jihadist doctrine. At the end of their article they write that, compared to communism, \u201cradical Islam is a fragile and perishable ideology.\u201d This is backwards: communism was \u201cfragile and perishable,\u201d because it grew out of modern superstitions like materialism, atheism, and scientism, and it was imposed for the most part on religious peoples whose traditional spiritual aspirations it thwarted and traduced. So-called \u201cradical\u201d Islam, however, is more correctly\u00a0traditional<\/i>\u00a0Islam, a return to the doctrine of jihad documented in Islamic scripture and history, the spiritual dynamic that created one of the world\u2019s greatest empires.<\/p>\n Recognizing the power of traditional spiritual aspirations and imperatives makes better sense of Muslim behavior than does our own Western materialist or psychological explanations. Take the case of Pakistan. The \u201cTalibanization\u201d of the tribal regions is intensifying unchecked, with the Pakistani security forces, police, and military doing very little to stop it. Why not? Why not accept American military help in rooting out these radical distorters of Islam supposedly despised by the vast majority of Pakistanis? Because Musharraf would most likely fall from power if he more actively cooperated with the Americans and were seen to be their puppet. In other words, to a critical mass of Pakistanis, cooperating with the Americans to root out \u201cdistorters\u201d of their faith who murder their fellow citizens is worse than allowing the Taliban to grow in power and kill even more Pakistanis. The dominant narrative would explain this phenomenon by talking about a lack of political and economic freedom (the right) or anger over American neo-imperialist sins against Muslims (the left), both of which blind Pakistanis to their private and national interests. A more convincing explanation is that there is wide support for the jihadists because they are battling the infidel, just as good Muslims have done for fourteen centuries according to the precepts of Mohammed.<\/p>\n Attributing Muslim behavior to reactions to what we do, rather than to Muslim understanding of traditional Islamic doctrine, fuels other distortions, such as the currently popular mantra that American sins against Muslims account for their hatred of us. In reality, the United States has saved more Muslim lives in the last twenty years than anybody else on the planet. In Kosovo, Bosnia, Kuwait, and Iraq Americans have stopped Muslims from dying and liberated them from an oppressive despot. Yes, Muslims have died in the process, but they are a fraction of those killed by Hussein, not to mention those killed by other Muslim tyrants and terrorists. And America has pumped billions into the Palestinian Authority, an organization of terrorists and kleptocrats that has squandered every opportunity to achieve its ostensible goal of a Palestinian state, all the while we continue to pressure our loyal ally Israel to negotiate and compromise with those who want to kill her citizens.<\/p>\n Here at home, we continually trumpet our admiration for Islam and its glories; we anxiously cultivate Muslim \u201cmoderates,\u201d many of whom are shills for jihadists; our airport security aggressively wands and probes old ladies and children so that some young Muslim male won\u2019t be traumatized by \u201cracial profiling\u201d; our courts bestow Geneva Convention \u201crights\u201d on captive murderers explicitly excluded from those rights by that same Convention; our intellectuals and scholars castigate the West and blame it for the dysfunctions of Islamic states; and we take into our country the sons and daughters of Muslims who tell us over and over they want to kill us. Yet despite all these appeasing beneficia bestowed on Muslims, we are still hated as the \u201cGreat Satan.\u201d<\/p>\n This behavior makes sense only if one attends to Islamic doctrine: all non-Muslims are \u201cinfidels\u201d whose destiny is to convert, die, or live under Islamic subjection. It doesn\u2019t matter what we do\u2013\u2013unless we convert to Islam or stop pursuing our own national interests. Our very existence is an affront to the believers and an impediment to the fulfillment of Allah\u2019s will, and our global success is a bitter reminder of how far Islam has fallen from the glory days of its dominance, when Europe trembled at Allah\u2019s warriors. A critical mass of Muslims know this, and that is why they support the jihadists, even at the price of freedom, security, and prosperity. Until we discard the dominant narrative and take seriously and counter the spiritual imperatives and motives driving the jihadists and their millions of supporters, our chances of success in this struggle will remain bleak.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a92008 Bruce Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What’s in a word? by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The war against Islamic jihad continues to be compromised in the West by the dominant narrative that supposedly makes sense of the conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,840],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1oM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5227,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/doublespeak-unveiled\/","url_meta":{"origin":5380,"position":0},"title":"Doublespeak Unveiled","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 26, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Muslim \"moderates\" are true to spirit of Islam by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers As stalwart as the Bush administration has been in the current conflict with Islamic jihadists, judging from the op-ed in last Saturday's\u00a0New York Times\u00a0by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2015,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ten-years-of-lessons-unlearned\/","url_meta":{"origin":5380,"position":1},"title":"Ten Years of Lessons Unlearned","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Ten years after 9\/11 many politicians and pundits continue to misinterpret Islamic jihadism. Typical is the following comment from Senator Joseph Lieberman\u2019s\u00a0essay\u00a0in\u00a0Foreign Affairs, in which he speaks of \u201can ideological struggle within Islam, waged between an extremist minority that seeks to enslave the world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5468,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/murder-in-gaza-why-israel-and-not-fatah-is-demonized\/","url_meta":{"origin":5380,"position":2},"title":"Murder in Gaza: Why Israel and not Fatah is Demonized","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers In Gaza the fighting between Fatah and Hamas has escalated to the point of all-out civil war, replete with dead women and children, kneecapping, and handcuffed prisoners thrown from roofs. Meanwhile in Lebanon, the Lebanese army continues to shell a Palestinian refugee camp, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":967,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-muslim-brothers-get-paid-to-threaten-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":5380,"position":3},"title":"The Muslim Brothers Get Paid to Threaten America","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Remember last year\u2019s giddy bipartisan enthusiasm over the \u201cArab Spring\u201d? President Obama claimed that Egyptians merely wanted \u201ca government that is fair and just and responsive,\u201d Senator John McCain asserted that Libyans were aiming for \u201clasting peace, dignity, and justice,\u201d while Senator Joseph Lieberman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-palestinian-playbook\/","url_meta":{"origin":5380,"position":4},"title":"The Palestinian Playbook","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thronton Frontpage Magazine The most depressing thing about the Obama administration\u2019s foreign policy debacle unfolding in the Middle East is that for sixty years we\u2019ve repeatedly experienced the same Islamist game plan for defeating us that is being employed today. There is no tactic currently being used by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Palestine"","block_context":{"text":"Palestine","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/palestine\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2494,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/oslo-and-the-dangers-of-moral-equivalence\/","url_meta":{"origin":5380,"position":5},"title":"Oslo and the Dangers of Moral Equivalence","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The revelation that the perpetrator of the terrorist attacks in Oslo, Anders Behring Breivik, is a self-described Christian and conservative is sure to provoke an outburst of the moral equivalence favored by apologists for jihadism. Ever since 9\/11, those unwilling to confront the theology\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5381,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions\/5381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}