Muslims who are willing to die for a despicable ideology keep popping up. In addition to the Christmas bomber, the latest culprit is the Jordanian double-agent who infiltrated a CIA base in Afghanistan, killing seven Americans and another Jordanian agent when he blew himself up.
What’s going on? Jordan is considered a moderate Arab nation, at peace with Israel and ruled by a Western educated king who has been cooperating with the United States against Islamic extremism for some time. Jordanians themselves have been victims of Islamic terrorism, most prominently in the Amman hotel bombings in 2005. Anyone who has spent time in the kingdom cannot but rave about the hospitality and friendliness of Jordanians. A thriving Christian community has existed in the country since the birth of Christianity and the government has since independence embraced a tradition of avowed secularism.
Are these simply crazy men perpetrating these acts time and time again or is there something more alluring about the extremist message that we are missing?
Much of what is to blame is perception and insecurity rather than reality. Columnists like Tom Friedman talk about the Narrative- a popular cocktail of half-truths that is broadcast to the Muslim masses by Jihadist media, Arab intellectuals, mosque preachers, and satellite news stations with the tacit approval of many regimes in the Middle East. It blames all the problems in the region on a Jewish-Christian conspiracy against the Muslim world, deflecting attention away from bad governance at home and towards an external other. Governments from Iran to Saudi Arabia to Egypt quietly take heart at this potent mix of vitriol that diverts the Muslim street, focusing their anger on an external threat. Murderers like Osama and Zawahiri ride the wave of propaganda, signing up recruits.
Friedman rightly says that Muslims need to start taking responsibility for their problems instead of blaming everything on outsiders. Stop complaining about stupid Danish cartoons and start speaking out against suicide bombers who kill women and children.
Does that mean as Americans we should be absolved of all responsibility for the temptations of Islamic extremism among Muslims? No, sorry Tom, it doesn’t. Completely absent from Friedman’s analysis is any truthful accounting of America’s continuing role in perpetuating the anti-Western attitude of Muslim masses. After all, America gives billions in military and economic aid to countless regimes in the Muslim world that torture and oppress their own populations. That is reality, not perception. There is a reason why the intelligence agencies of Jordan and the United States are so close- Jordan is a clearing house for CIA rendition programs that bring countless suspects to Jordanian soil for the “enhanced interrogation” that cannot take place by law in an American prison. Some of these individuals were probably radical Jihadists well before they entered these programs. Others were further radicalized because of them.
The story is the same across the region- in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Israel, Pakistan- American treasure continues to flow to governments that crush dissent and violate human dignity on a daily basis. This makes all of our rhetoric about democracy and the fight against extremism ring hollow among the people who need the most convincing. People are not stupid. They recognize the difference between words and deeds. When governments we support terrorize their own populations, the American war on terror looks like a bad joke. And more sinister individuals can make a compelling argument: “Look. These are the real American values. Palestinian children sitting destitute next to their murdered mothers. Innocent people picked up and incarcerated for expressing an opinion. Families kicked off land they have lived on for generations by religious extremists claiming the God of Abraham gave it to them.” For many on the Muslim street, America stands for two fundamentally contradictory systems. At home, people of any ethnicity and faith are free to pursue their dreams like in no other country in the world. But abroad, considerable resources flow from a democratic government in support of tyranny and injustice.
Friedman attributes no responsibility for any of this to America or the Muslim and Israeli proxies it supports. He behaves exactly like the Arab intellectuals he criticizes, foisting the entire problem on the “other” and taking no ownership. This kind of base jingoism appeals to the FOX News watching truck driver from Wichita. It shouldn’t be the tenor of a thought leader at the New York Times who has traveled extensively in the region and certainly knows better.
Extremism of any kind burns bright when fueled by sympathy within the broader population. It turns to ash when that sympathy is revoked. Witness the gains in Iraq and Pakistan, a result largely of a popular backlash against the indiscriminate violence of Islamic terrorism. In this sense, the broader global Muslim population has always been the key to real victory in the war against terror.
But when American values ring hollow, when what we say is so obviously inconsistent with what we do and who we support, tyrannical regimes and terrorists alike are emboldened. The longer they can hide behind American hypocrisy, the longer it will take to expose their own. When we don’t measure up to our own standards, our enemies reap the benefit.
By all means, Muslim society should be willing to take a good, critical look at itself and stop the blame game. Is America and the West willing to do the same? Tom?
Thoughtful rebuttal to Friedman. That we haven’t had a fundamental debate about the valuation of aid to some of these regimes (esp. Israel and Egypt) amidst the post-9/11 era is a travesty.