These Guys Are Easily Surprised

In an essay on ABCNews.com, Beliefnet.com's Steven Waldman and Deborah Caldwell proclaim themselves astonished that Americans are suspicious of Islam:

A surprising new ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll shows that after starting out surprisingly tolerant, public opinion of Islam has become more negative.

• The percentage of Americans having an unfavorable view of Islam has jumped from 24 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent now.

• The portion of Americans who say that Islam "doesn't teach respect for other faiths" rose from 22 percent to 35 percent.

• A total of 73 percent of Americans do not feel they have a good basic understanding of its beliefs and tenets, and that, too, has risen, from 61 percent last winter. This suggests that any additional information people have gleaned about Islam has confused more than clarified.

The authors do make a nod to the obvious, acknowledging that "there was a cognitive dissonance" between assertions that Islam is a "religion of peace" and "a continuous stream of suicide bombings in the name of Islam" and that "the reality is . . . that Islam is now being used as a justification for violence--not by a few, but by many. Though many Muslim leaders criticized the terrorists, few stated that the problems with Islam's misuse were dangerously widespread. As a result, Muslim leaders may have lost some of their credibility."

Indeed. But isn't the biggest problem here the Orwellian campaign by the news media to deny that militant Islam is what it is? A year ago the Society of Professional Journalists issued a set of "guidelines" aimed at whitewashing radical Islam. Among them:

5. When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity. . . .

8. Avoid using word combinations such as "Islamic terrorist" or "Muslim extremist" that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity.

Here's an example of how this approach works. Today's New York Times profiles a Cairo-based Web site called Islam-Online.net:

Islam Online says it wants to present a positive view of the faith to non-Muslims, to strengthen unity in the Muslim world and to uphold principles of justice, freedom and human rights. Scholars of the region say they see the Web site as a leading example of efforts by moderate Muslims to push for the Islamization of societies by nonviolent means.

We wanted to see just how "moderate" this site really was, so we logged in. Here's some of what we found:

* An article by one Umberine Syed entitled "The Bush Junta's Class Act: Subservience to Zionist Diktat." Writes Syed: "Bush's commitment to the Zionist entity"--that's Israel-- has been clearly vetted by the Zionist lobby."

* A fatwa (religious opinion) endorsing terrorist murder: "There is a big difference between a mere suicide and 'sacrificing one's soul for the sake of one's country.' So it is incorrect to term resistant acts staged against aggressors or imperialists as 'suicide operations,' because these resistant acts, which result in martyrdom, bring tremendous reward."

* Another fatwa against Palestinian refugees accepting compensation from Israel for their losses: "Islam stipulates for Muslims a requisite religious duty if a part of their land is usurped, i.e. entered and occupied by force by their enemies. This duty is that Muslims should go to war to restore that part and drive the enemy out of it whatever the cost."

To be sure, we've seen much more extreme stuff than this on other Muslim Web sites. But if this is "moderate," it's hard to see how anyone can claim Islam--at least as it manifests itself in the Arab world today--is a religion of peace.

There is, let's be clear, a distinction between Islam and Muslims. Most of the world's billion or so Muslims, whatever their sympathies, are not terrorists, and there is no reason to think they could not flourish given freedom and a genuinely peaceful religious culture. Probably the Muslim country that comes closest to that goal is Turkey, which has had a relentlessly secular government for some 80 years. Turkey holds elections Monday, and the Jerusalem Post's Barry Rubin reports on an intriguing development:

The really important new party--and the one which polls predict may get the highest number of votes--is the Ak (White) party. This party's fate and the course it sets may prove of exceptional international importance, for the Ak party is running as a moderate Islamic grouping, a sort of equivalent to Europe's Christian Democratic parties.

For example, the party favors Turkey's membership in the European Union and good relations with Israel.

"Many Turkish secularists," Rubin notes, "are suspicious" of Ak, which "emerged from a split in the far more radical Islamist party." But "if it succeeds and proves really moderate, the Ak party could be a trendsetter for Islamist politics elsewhere." This must be the goal of the war on terror: to tame Islam, to force it to make its peace with civilization.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2002