What this book makes clear, and I
have just finished it, is that we have utterly missed the shift in Arab
sentiment throughout the Middle East and the
Islamic world after 9/11. It has
happened from the ground up and the advent of face book has allowed the
movement to self organize.
Democracy has arrived and is
looking over your shoulder and demanding transparency now.
We can forget about all the old
conflicts in the Islamic world. They no
longer matter at all. Some will attempt
to drag it out awhile, but none will survive.
Unbelievable as this may seem to
be, I think that the Israeli Palestinian conflict will simply peter out and
turn into a free trade confederation with open borders driving the economies of
their neighbors. This sounds impossible but the flow of information is
reeducating every dark corner of the Islamic world and creating an insatiable appetite
for the fruits of modernism. Today, even
a child can call a strongman’s bluff.
What this book makes clear is
that Islam is been inoculated against extremism of all kinds and is actively
expel such tendencies from now on.
On 9/11 I wondered where the
people were. It just took a while for
them to recover and confront the reality and decide what t0o do about it all.
'Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World' Book
Review:
Robin Wright uses her four decades of journalism experience in the region
to go beyond the usual sources in seeking a clearer understanding of the social
and political upheaval underway.
Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World
Robin Wright
Simon & Schuster: 320 pp., $26.99
It might seem odd to appropriate the title of a song from an English
punk band for a book of in-depth reporting about the evolving political
situation in largely Muslim nations, but the Clash's understanding that culture
and politics are inextricably intertwined is precisely Robin Wright's point. In
"Rock the Casbah," she provides invaluable context for what she
rightly terms "the epic convulsion across the Islamic world" by
listening to voices we don't usually hear.
Wright focuses sections of her book on Islamic youth culture as an
instrument of change. Young Muslims, she finds, do not believe their religion
requires them to live by rules that have more to do with the practices of a
patriarchal 7th-century society than the teachings of the Koran. But many of
them are also "strikingly religious and observant." They want to lead
modern lives, and they want democratic accountability from their governments, but
that doesn't mean they think the secular West has all the answers.
"In this so-called war of civilizations, we're giving the finger
to both sides," says Muslim punk rocker Michael Muhammad Knight. The
comment clearly illustrates Wright's central contention.
Anyone seeking deeper understanding of the Arab Spring needs to read
Wright's formidably well-informed book. A former correspondent for the Los Angeles North Africa
as part of a broader trend: "the counter-jihad, which is unfolding in the
wider Islamic bloc of fifty-seven countries as well as among Muslim minorities
worldwide." Muslim citizens are not only overthrowing autocratic regimes,
she believes; they are also rejecting the violent extremism of Al Qaeda and the
Taliban and the fundamentalist Islamic ideology that fuels terrorism and guides
theocracies such as Iran
Young Muslims — more than half of the Islamic world is under 30 — are
at the forefront of this change, not just on the barricades in Egypt and
Tunisia but on the concert stage in Marrakesh and on television in Saudi
Arabia. Part 2 of the book, "A Different Tune," goes far beyond the
usual platitudes about Facebook and YouTube (though it happens to be true that
they empowered the Arab Spring revolts) to explore Islamic rap, "pink
hejab" {the Islamic head scarf} feminism, "satellite sheikhs"
who preach a more tolerant form of Islam, and Muslim poets, playwrights comic-book
artists and stand-up comics who challenge stereotypes and restrictive theology
while affirming their faith.
As Wright notes, their balancing act between religion and modernity can
make Western observers uncomfortable. Her depiction of young Muslim women,
"committed to their faith, firm about their femininity, and resolute about
their rights," will spark some qualms in non-Muslim feminists. They may
find themselves cynical about the assertion that "hejab is now about
liberation, not confinement" and troubled by one activist's admission that
"it's a deal between a Muslim girl and society. I agree that I will wear
hejab in order to have more space and freedom in return." Wright is
perhaps overly optimistic about female empowerment via Muslim modesty, a
criticism that could also be made of her implicit suggestion that cultural
ferment facilitates political progress. But her central contention is
unassailable: it's not for outsiders to determine the shape of change in
Islamic societies.
Wright's in-depth knowledge of those societies' cultures and histories
informs every page of "Rock the Casbah." Even the first section,
which chronicles the overthrow of Tunisia's and Egypt's rulers, as well as the
sustained though ultimately fruitless protests against Iran's rigged 2009
election, furthers our comprehension of those well-known events by expanding to
cover developments less familiar to Western readers. She cites a 2007 letter to
Osama bin Laden from Saudi Sheikh Salman al Oudah as evidence that even
conservative Wahhabist clerics such as Sheikh Salman have come to see Al
Qaeda's murderous tactics as crimes that disgrace Islam. She chronicles
homegrown revolts against Al Qaeda (in Iraq's Anwar province in 2006-07) and
the Taliban (in Pakistan's Swat Valley in 2009) to back up her contention that
support for extremism had plummeted among Muslims even before there was a
political alternative other than U.S.-supported autocracies. "People are
angry at America
No comments:
Post a Comment