American concerns about Islam

While studying at the University of Jordan, a professor asked me to write a paper about "the reasons for Islamophobia in America."  I spent the next two months laboring on the paper, which was entirely in Arabic.  I had to take it one painstaking sentence at a time, then review the entire thing with a native speaker over the course of several tutoring sessions, but at last I had a finished product and was ready to present it to the class.  I distributed copies the week prior, then came to class prepared to discuss what I'd written.  This was the gist of my paper:

Americans have a lot of questions and concerns about Islam.  They hear things about its doctrines, and see things happening in Muslim societies, that make them worry.  Discussing these concerns is very difficult, and they might anger and upset you, but if you really care about improving the way non-Muslims see your faith, you need to understand these concerns and be prepared to respond to them.  I am your friend, and have lived among you and enjoyed your hospitality as Muslims for two years, so I offer these thoughts with great respect for you and your religion.  This paper is intended to help you better understand and respond to American fears about Islam.

The presentation was a disaster.  Although many students privately told me the paper was helpful to them, the professor was irate.  Before I could speak more than a few sentences, he launched into a 30-minute tirade, which was largely about how the Mossad was responsible for September 11th.  I never got another chance to speak.  When I tried taking another class with this same professor the next term, he wouldn't let me join his class.

I think my paper completely blindsided him; he was expecting me to parrot what he and many other Jordanian Muslims believed, which is that Americans are only afraid of Islam because the usual suspects like Jews, oil companies, and neoconservatives spread horrendous lies about them through the political and media organizations that they control.

So just what are these concerns that Americans have about Islam?  They should be familiar to most anybody who is reading these posts, but I'll list some of the major fears that Americans harbor: (1) That Islam is inherently more violent than other religions, was "spread by the sword", and advocates conversion or subjection of infidels through war or jihad (2) That Islam is a totalitarian ideology, not just a religion, and is incompatible with democracy and liberty (3) That Islam is supremacist and is incapable of granting full rights to religious minorities (4) That Islam is misogynistic (5) That Islam allows and encourages deception if it serves the faith (6) That Muslims are trying to replace secular U.S. laws and institutions with shariah and (7) That the largest American-Muslim organizations have extremist links and are the vanguard of this effort to Islamize America.

Many Muslims and non-Muslim apologists believe these are nothing more than hateful lies, and don't even deserve to be engaged with.  As I've already stated, I disagree with that approach.  I believe that every single one of these concerns is vastly overblown, but I also believe that each is rooted in a seed of truth; that is why anti-Islamic authors can seemingly marshal so much evidence and sound so convincing to worried Americans.  I will not endorse any of these concerns, but neither will I dismiss them outright.  In coming posts I will do my absolute best to separate truth from falsehood, to explain where each concern comes from, and explain where legitimate concerns blur into wild conspiracy theories.  I will pay special attention to the ways that Muslims themselves are dealing with and responding to Islam's more concerning aspects.

Here are a few of my conclusions front: Classical Islamic jurisprudence emerged in a specific tribal and medieval culture, and it enshrines many rulings that are extremely problematic today and justify some of the concerns that non-Muslims have about Islam.  This classical body of law has force in many Muslim countries, which is one reason we see some of the same recurring problems in these societies.  However, this body of law is not absolute and determinative in the way that Islam's critics would have us believe.  Muslim reformers are working on a variety of different approaches to reform this body of law, and ordinary Muslims are often perfectly content to integrate the best Islamic principles with concepts like democracy, human rights, and tolerance.  I believe an Islamic Reformation is already underway, although it is so diffuse that we've had a hard time recognizing it.  Deep problems remain in the Islamic world that have religious motivation, and non-Muslims are right to be concerned and vigilant, but they need to be extremely careful not to encourage a paradigm that sees the West as being at war with Islam.  A healthier strategy is to recognize the seismic debates underway in the Muslim world, be extremely selective in identifying our true enemies, and give the rest of the Muslim world the breathing space to pursue its own path of reformation.  I personally believe this is happening faster than most of us realize.

*** NOTE: As I write these posts, I'm quickly realizing the pitfalls of spreading out an argument over so much time and space.  I am undoubtedly inviting misunderstanding, but I'll keep doing my best.