Americans fear Muslim discourse

Long before his venom-filled August 28, 2010 "Restoring Honour" rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, Glenn Beck opined that "Islamic extremism [was] the biggest threat to our way of life since World War Two".

More recently, the Gainesville doozy entertained the globe for a few days, as the Reverend Terry Jones threatened to burn copies of the Quran. While the Florida preacher pretended to represent his non-denominational "Dove Outreach Centre", in reality he was peddling a Pentecostal vision, anxiously waiting for the Holy Spirit to fight satanic forces. Even Martin Peretz, The New Republic's allegedly liberal editor-in-chief, got into the act by writing: "Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims."

Public opinion polls have revealed catastrophic numbers, as a majority of Americans harbour very negative views of Muslims and, even worse, of Islam itself. At full steam, the hypocrisy wagon was barrelling along the airways, under the command of both a lunatic fringe and scared but innocent warmongers. The theme-du-jour was book-burning, which built on the tradition of flag-burning, fostering on righteousness that was ready to scorch the earth at will, preferably from distant drones.

Against this onslaught, President Barack Obama's 9/11 Pentagon address came across as rather subdued. Obama's declaration that "as Americans, we will not and never will be at war with Islam" could not compete with Peretz's gut-wrenching contention: "I wonder whether I need honour these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse". Obama's "it was not a religion that attacked us that September day.

It was Al Qaida, a sorry band of men, which perverts religion", Peretz pre-empted with this gem: "I wouldn't close my eyes or our eyes to the increasing number of both naturalised and native-born citizens who enlist in the Islamic terror networks of our time, here and abroad".

On September 13, that is a day after The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof highlighted the Peretz quote in a thoughtful even if biased opinion piece, The New Republic editor issued an apology for toying with the Constitution, but not for opining that "Muslim life is cheap". Apparently, this was "a statement of fact, not value", which is so wrong that one is stunned by its viciousness. Can a leading member of the American intelligentsia dwell in such ignorance about the Middle East and the Muslim World at large?

Peretz partially recanted his assertions and claimed that he had no hatred in his heart, only "deep anxiety about the dangers of Islamism, and anger at the refusal of certain politicians and commentators to adequately grasp those dangers". Yet, it was precisely such declarations of dubious fact that inflamed the public, and provided fodder to bigoted commentators and lazy politicians lacking both the intellect as well as the savvy to imagine what long-term consequences their vitriolic bombasts can have.

Worrying statistics

When one reads opinion polls that reveal how 52 per cent of Republicans believe that it is "definitely true" or "probably true" that "Barack Obama sympathises with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world", or when 61 per cent oppose the construction of the Park 51/Cordoba House project in New York City, one wonders where these folks get their information. Who feeds the 70 per cent of Americans who concur with the premise that proceeding with the plan to build an Islamic community centre two blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan would be "an insult to the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Centre"?

Beyond the Jones and Beck media frenzy, fashionable folklore for mad villains, there is something much more nefarious under way. There is a fear that the Judeo-Christian stronghold on socio-political discourses in the US is coming to an end.

What used to be the mainstream, which sadly explained Christian support for Israeli atrocities all these decades, is no longer a valid proposition. Like a Phoenix, a Judeo-Christian-Muslim paradigm is rising, which means that Muslim norms will need to be taken into account. Lest one is confused, in the post-9/11 world, with the US at war in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the Muslim world, those Americans who may have despised and blamed Muslims for every act of terrorism are having a whale of a time differentiating between allies and terrorists.

Intellectuals are struggling with their programmed hostilities, nurtured by bookish hatred, and must now explain differences. Many do not seem equipped to tell. What is certain is that it becomes nearly impossible to hate a community that is part and parcel of the body politic.

As Americans come to terms with their relative innocence, the warpath leads not just to faraway lands, but through the heartland too. Obama has spoken eloquently against the Terry Jones of this world, but he needs to check his hypocrisy by ending the indiscriminate use of deadly drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. That would send the right message to his befuddled citizenry, including its prized intellectuals who believe that "Muslim life is cheap".

Dr Joseph A. Kechichian is a commentator and author of several books on Gulf affairs.