Critical Mass

Over the last five years, most newsworthy Islamic activity has been negative—bombings, minority oppression, throwing tantrums (and Molotov cocktails) when upset by the "insensitive" West, beheading Americans on television, etc. The standard response from the left has been that the majority of the world's billion Muslims are peaceful and non-radical, but that they don't covered by the news. I've always hoped this is the case, but I've been troubled by the seeming lack of denunciation and anger towards the Islamic radicals from the so-called peaceful mainstream. Christians always distance themselves from abortion-clinic bombers and zealots who fancy themselves modern Crusaders; why can't Muslims? Well, they're beginning to--or at least they're finally showing up in the news. The Christian Science Monitor reports that

thirty-eight Muslim scholars from 20 countries sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI urging mutual tolerance and respect…and 500 prominent Muslims signed a religious ruling rejecting violence against civilians on Tuesday. Neither got much publicity... [although] the letter has been widely covered in the Muslim world."

CSM interviewed Tim Winter, a Muslim scholar at Cambridge, who believes there is—as CSM describes it—“a growing awareness on the part of Muslim leaders that they don't communicate effectively with the West.” Winter presciently observes that one reason for this is the lack of a hierarchical structure in Islam, a “central bureaucracy” like the Catholic Church. “If someone who belongs to the Catholic Church misbehaves they can immediately issue a denunciation,” says Winter, while at the same time “it’s hard for outsiders to see what the consensus of Muslim orthodoxy is.” Fortunately, Winter believes that “the Muslim world is [finally] waking up to the fact that it needs to improve its public relations skills.” I assume that means replacing beheadings with news conferences and peaceful letters.

There has been some significant advancement. For example, amidst the Danish cartoon controversy, roughly the same group of scholars mentioned above published a letter calling for tolerance. In addition, a collection of fatwas signed by 500 Muslim scholars is endorsed by Jordan’s King Abdullah, who believes that “true Islam forbids wanton terrorism and aggression.”

So what can the West do? For starters, it’s clear that Western media could do more to publicize mainstream Muslim calls for tolerance rather than report solely on sensationalism. Second, we can help Muslims learn more about the rich political and philosophical foundations of our culture from the last few centuries, rather than the decadent social culture of the last fifty years. Muslim countries do not have to welcome Madonnas, pole dancers, or used car salesman in order to embrace basic human rights and equality for all men and—make sure you get this, Muslim nations—women.

It's too early to tell if these conciliatory Muslim leaders will be true to their word; after all, over the centuries the West's enemies have had a knack for using our language of rights and tolerance against us. But I am tentatively optimistic.