As
the crisis that has emerged in the aftermath of
the publication of the infamous cartoons that claim
to depict the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings
of God upon him, escalates, we would do well by
stepping back and attempting to analyze the situation
as dispassionately as possible. By doing so, as
Muslims, we can hopefully formulate a more productive
and meaningful response, and avoid being exploited
by either side in the ongoing conflict. Saying this,
I do not mean to imply that Muslims are not justifiably
angry over the caricatures. However, I would agree
with those who argue that responses that involve
wild outbreaks of frenzied violence are inappropriate,
and they only affirm what the cartoonist is trying
to imply. Namely, that Islam is a religion that
encourages obscurantist violence and terrorism.
The current crisis shows the
extent we Muslims are vulnerable to media manipulation,
superficial shows of piety, and counterproductive
one-upmanship militancy. If we start with the issue
of media manipulation, it is clear that Western
and Eastern media outlets played a large role in
stirring up Muslim, and now Western sentiments.
When the crisis initially broke in September, it
was barely a blip on the media radar. Few outside
of Denmark even knew of the cartoons. The Danish
Muslim community, appropriately, by and large ignored
the story.It was only after a campaign undertaken
by a delegation of Danish Muslim community activists
to stimulate greater interest in the issue that
the crisis reached the proportions we are currently
witnessing. These activists traveled throughout
the Muslim East trying to draw attention to the
issue. When the issue was popularized by Iqra
and other Arab satellite channels, and the cartoons
were reprinted by several European papers, the crisis
deepened. In light of that reality, it would be
hard to deny the role the media has played in sparking
and now perpetuating the crisis.
A question we must ask is if
these cartoons, which are an example of hundreds
of other anti-Islamic slights occurring daily in
Europe and America, were not brought to the attention
of Muslims by the media, would we be undergoing
the current brouhaha? - Clearly not. That being
the case, what does this say about our strategic
vision? What does this say about our level of political
maturity? And what does it say about our ability
to engage in meaningful proactive work? The answers
to these questions are obvious. We get angry about
Israeli troops breaking the bones of Palestinian
children, as long as it is in the media. When it
disappears from our television screens, our interest
vanishes with it. We raise millions of dollars for
those affected by the Tsunami, as long as the images
of death and destruction are beamed into our homes
by the media. However, when the coverage shifts
to other issues, the donations dry up. As for those
crises that do not make the news in a big way, such
as the ongoing famines in Mali, Niger, and the Horn
of Africa, we are hardly stirred to action.
Furthermore, we go on living
our lives oblivious to the ongoing abuse of Islam
and our Prophet, peace and blessing of God upon
him, until it becomes a major media event. At that
point based on urgings issued by parties, the origins
of their dubious agendas unknown to us, we are expected
to drop everything and hastily rush into the fray.
In many instances, our ill-conceived actions only
make the situation worse.
Sometimes, those actions may
constitute superficial shows of piety emanating
from the mob hysteria underlying them. In the mob
we are empowered, and find it easy to confront our
opponents, defy the rule of law, behave with wanton
abandon, or engage in other acts which under the
proper circumstances we may view as supporting Islam.
In terms of more constructive mass actions, such
as emerging into the streets by the tens of thousands
to protest the brutal, authoritarian regimes that
make a mockery of the prophetic ideals of justice,
mutual consultation, and service to the oppressed
and downtrodden of society, we come up terribly
short. Similarly, there are no credible grassroots
efforts towards forming effective anti-defamation
organizations to bring constructive legal action
against transgressing organizations and individuals,
on a fulltime, proactive basis. As individuals,
we find it difficult to support the Prophet, peace
and blessings of God upon him, by adorning ourselves
with his lofty character traits, or reviving His
Sunnah in our daily lives.
On the other hand, as mentioned
above, it is all too easy to get swept up into the
mob hysteria generated by the crowd, and then engage
in outrageous actions that only affirm the offensive
claims of the transgressing cartoonist. It is as
if we are saying, �We�ll show the Kafirs
our Prophet, peace upon him was no terrorist! We�ll
defame the symbols of their religionburn their embassies, murder their
unsuspecting innocents, and behead the bloody cartoonist
if we get our hands on him.�
This brings us to my third point, that of counterproductive,
one-upmanship militancy. It is during these crises
that all Muslims are supposed to drop everything
and join the latest �Jihad� fad. Those of us who
urge restraint are mocked as not being militant
enough, or ridiculed as cowards who are afraid to
�stand up to the real enemies of Islam.� No differences
in understanding, interpretation, or strategy are
allowed, because there is only one correct approach,
the one stumbled upon with the aid of modern, sensationalizing
media.
Such a reactive, haphazard approach
is counterproductive for a number of reasons. First
of all, it destroys the basis for proactive work
based on the existence of a strategic vision. As
long as the enemies of Islam know that they can
mobilize the Muslims to chase after an unimaginable
number of distracting issues, divide our ranks by
those issues, and diffuse our energies through their
debate and the pursuit of their resolution, they
will possess a trump card that will affect our ability
to unite and work more effectively towards creating
and implementing an agenda capable of effecting
meaningful change in our circumstance. It also blinds
us to the underlying agenda that reckless spontaneous
action might be unwittingly serving.
For example, it is interesting
that these events have come to a head in the immediate
aftermath of the stunning landslide victory of Hamas
in the Palestinian elections. That victory has rekindled,
both in the East and the West, the debate around
the implications of supporting democratization in
the Muslim world when the biggest winners will be
Islamic parties and movements. There are secularists
in both the West and the Muslim world who advocate
ending the democratizing experiment on that basis.
However, they know that denying the democratic will
of the Muslim peoples cannot be done without the
support of the masses of people in Europe and America.
These masses, especially in Britain and America,
are increasingly wary of their governments� nefarious
agenda for the Middle East. However, the frightening
images of crazed crowds rampaging, looting, and
burning provides a powerful justification for the
extreme, repressive policies being advocated by
the far right for dealing with Islam and Muslims,
both domestically, and internationally. Democracy
in the Muslim world, they argue, will bring the
advocates of mob rule to power.
If brutal draconian measures,
such as those employed to end the democratization
process in Algeria in the early 1990s, are employed
elsewhere, the Western public will be psychologically
prepared to accept those measures, because of the
fear that has been created around the �Islamic�
alternative. That fear can not only be used to justify
denying the democratic will of the Muslim peoples,
it can also be used to justify denying their legitimate
strategic ambitions. A recent editorial in the Jerusalem
Post links the fanaticism of the cartoon protests
to the lawful nuclear ambitions of Iran. It states,
�If anyone wants to appreciate why the West views
with such suspicion the weapons programs of Muslim
states such as Iran, they need look no further than
the intolerance Muslim regimes exhibit to these
cartoons, and what this portends.�
This crisis has also occurred
in the immediate aftermath of the appearance of
the latest �Bin Laden� tape, intensified warnings
of an imminent major terrorist attack in the West,
something "on the scale of 9/11," and it coincides
with the escape of the alleged mastermind of the
attack on the USS Cole from a Yemeni jail. The fear
associated with the latter two events, combined
with the images of hysterical protesters, work to
create a climate that can support unprecedented
measures if another major terrorist attack were
to occur in the near future �whoever the perpetrators
may be.
In addition to the setbacks
on the psychological front, the current crisis indicates
just how bad we are losing in the Jihad of ideas.
It is not without significance that the ultimate
objective of Jihad is linked to ideas. The Prophet
Muhammad, peace and blessings of God upon him, was
asked about a man who fought to display his bravery,
another who fought out of fealty to his tribe, and
a third who fought to show off. Which had fought
in the Way of God? He replied, peace and blessings
of God upon him, �The one who fought to make the
Word of God uppermost has fought in the Way of God.� Is the nature of the current
campaign working to make the Word of God uppermost?
Every Muslim needs to ask that question.
As Muslims, we are carrying
the Word of God in an increasingly secular, militarized,
and alienated world. What it means to carry that
word is not an unknowable abstraction. We carry
it by following the concrete example of our Noble
Messenger Muhammad, peace and blessings of God upon
him. In carrying the word, he endured unimaginable
abuses and he persevered through them because he
was inspired by a grand vision. That vision was
to see his people saved by the life-giving, life-affirming
message of Islam. No greater illustration of this
can be given than the story of his expulsion from
the city of Ta�if, after the arrogant leaders of
that town unleashed the fools, slaves, and children
against him.
In the aftermath of that onslaught,
the Prophet, peace and blessings of God upon him,
humbly raised his hands towards the sky and prayed:
O, God! Unto you alone do I
plead my lack of strength, the paucity of my efforts,
and my humiliation before the people. O, the Most
Merciful of all! You are the Lord of the oppressed,
you are my Lord. Unto who have you dispatched me?
To a distant host who receives me repugnantly? Or
to an enemy you have authorized over my affair?
If you are not angry with me, I care not. It is
only your goodness I seek to be covered with. I
seek refuge with the Light of your Face, through
which the darkness is illuminated and all the affairs
of the world and hereafter are rectified, that you
do not cast your anger down on me, nor cause your
wrath to settle upon me. There is neither strength,
nor power but with You.Two significant events are then
related after this prayer was uttered by the Prophet,
peace and blessing of God upon him. First of all,
when presented with an offer by the Angels that
God crush the city of Ta�if, the Prophet, peace
and blessings of God upon him, refused saying that
perhaps from the offspring of the offending hosts,
there would emerge those who would worship God.
This incident is well known. A lesser known incident
associated with the journey to Ta�if occurred when
the Prophet, peace and blessings of God upon him,
was preparing to reenter Mecca, in the company of
his companion Zaid bin Haritha. Zaid asked, �How
can you reenter their presence when they have expelled
you?� The Prophet, peace and blessings of God upon
him, replied, �O, Zaid! God is bringing about through
these events you have witnessed a great opening.
God is most capable of assisting His religion, and
manifesting the truth of His prophet.�
One of the most disturbing aspects
of the current campaign to �Assist the Prophet,�
for many converts, like this writer, is the implicit
assumption that there is no da�wah work being undertaken
here in the West, and no one is currently, or will
in the future enter Islam in these lands. Therefore,
it does not matter what transpires in the Muslim
East. Muslims can behave in the most barbaric fashion,
murder, plunder, pillage, brutalize and kidnap civilians,
desecrate the symbols of other religions, trample
on their honor, discard their values and mores,
and massacre their fellow Muslims. If any of that
undermines the works of Muslims in these Western
lands, it does not matter. If it places a barrier
between the Western people and Islam, when many
of those people are in the most desperate need of
Islam, it does not matter. If our Prophet, peace
and blessings of God upon him, had responded to
those who abused him in Ta�if with similar disregard,
none of the generations of Muslims who have come
from the descendants of those transgressors would
have seen the light of day.
These campaigns of desperation
also implicitly display a lack of confidence in
God�s ability to protect his religion and defend
the honor of His Prophet, peace and blessings of
God upon him. We should do what we can do within
lawful limits, and then we depute the affair to
God. When we despair of help from God and find ourselves
with limited strategic resources, we sometimes press
forward with the most desperate tactics imaginable,
taking little time to assess the compatibility of
those tactics with Islamic teachings, or their long-term
implications for the cause of Islam, especially
in the West.
There are certainly more constructive
and productive ways to defend the honor of the Prophet,
peace and blessings of God upon him. Why are we
calling for a �Day of Outrage� when our Prophet
has instructed us repeatedly not to become angry?
There are surely times when we should become angry
for the sake of God. However, under the current
circumstances, are anger and outrage appropriate
responses? Why not a �Day of Familiarization,� where
we teach people who the Prophet was and what he
really represents, peace and blessings of God upon
him? Why not a �Day of Sunnah,� where we all vow
to revive a Sunnah we have allowed to slip away
from our religious life. Such a day could also include
the Sunnah of showing concern for ones neighbors?
We could visit them and tell them about Islam and
our beloved Prophet, peace and blessings of God
upon him.
Whatever we do, as Muslims in
the West, we may be approaching the day when we
will have to "go it alone." If our coreligionists
in the East cannot respect the fact that we are
trying to accomplish things here in the West, and
that their oftentimes ill-considered actions undermine
that work in many instances, then it will be hard
for us to consider them allies. How can one be an
ally when he fails to consult you concerning actions
whose negative consequences you will suffer? No
one from the Muslim east consults us before launching
these campaigns. No one seeks to find out as to
how their actions are going to affect our lives
and families. The confused incompetence of the Muslim
countries around the issue of moon-sighting, a situation
that has painful consequences for Muslims here in
America is bad enough, the added pressure generated
by these reoccurring crises is becoming unbearable
for many.
We have a generation of Muslim
children here who have to go to schools where most
of them are small minorities facing severe peer
pressure. During these crises they do not have the
luxury of losing themselves in a frenzied mob. Their
faith is challenged and many decide to simply stop
identifying with Islam. Is that what they deserve?
If they are largely lost to Islam, what is the future
of our religion here? We have obedient, pious Hijab
wearing women, who out of necessity must work, usually
in places where they are the only Muslims. Should
their safety, dignity, and honor be jeopardized
by the actions of Muslims halfway around the world?
I reiterate that I am not saying
these cartoons, and other denigrations of our religion
and our Prophet, peace and blessings of God upon
him, should be totally ignored. Imam Shafi�i stated
that anyone who is angered and does not respond;
he is a jackass. However, our responses should be
weighed on the basis of a strategic calculus we
construct. Their timing should be determined by
that calculus, not by media sensationalizing. They
should be undertaken in consultation with those
who will be directly affected by the responses they
generate. And their long-range implications should
be deeply considered.
In
conclusion, one should not see the ongoing crisis
as a clash of civilizations. Phenomena as deep and
complex as civilizations cannot be thrown into conflict
overnight by media-driven campaigns. A clash of
civilizations would also involve the overwhelming
majority of people identified by a particular civilizational
nexus. The current crisis is the result of a regrettable
incident that has been exploited by an uncivilized
minority of provocateurs both in the West and the
East to advance their conflicting agendas. As long
as that exploitation continues, the crisis could
aptly be called the clash of the uncivilized.
