Author: Robert Asghar
Publication: The Wall Street Journal
Date: August 9, 2002
Innocents are killed in Murree,
Pakistan , at a school that I visited from time to time as a teenager.
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl loses his life in Karachi, a
town that was once my home. And an Islamabad church is attacked, just a
few miles away from another previous home. In each incident, the name of
Allah is invoked. The question is then asked once again: Is Islam a religion
of peace?
Many Muslims are peaceful, and I
was raised in one such family. However, it's quite clear that they are
by and large not the hosts of the party, but rather bashful guests. For
the sake of their faith -- and for the sake of a world that Islam professes
to care about -- the time has come for them to step forward, take control
of their assembly, and kick out those who preach a more violent version
of the faith.
My family's story intersects in
odd ways with the narrative being played out globally. While recognizing
the demands of self-defense and just war, I have a pacifistic streak; that
streak did not seem to be accommodated within Islam, so I affiliated with
another religion, much to the chagrin of my family.
Here is where they began setting
a good example for their faith. Many such families toss out apostates in
the best-case scenario and often do much more -- a Kurdish immigrant in
Sweden killed his adult daughter in January for defying their heritage.
But my family made peace with my decision and kept me in the fold.
When it came to light after Sept.
11 that Pakistani madrasas had nourished a culture of hatred, my father
used a significant amount of his life savings to build new schools in his
mud-hut hometown village -- schools that would offer a liberal education
and inculcate an anti-extremist approach to civil life and offer economic
opportunity to marginalized youths.
Such acts come at the risk of inflaming
the passions of radicals. People like my father will need the support and
protection of like-minded moderates. Most Muslims are in fact both moderate
and cowardly, but perhaps understandably so; they are buffeted by bullying
forces unlike anything we know. American agnostics who dislike saying the
Pledge of Allegiance, like spoiled princesses who feel a pea under a stack
of mattresses, have no idea how good they have it.
The bullying limits opposition to
nothing more than snide mutterings among progressives cowering at dinner
parties in Pakistan , Palestine or Saudi Arabia. Far be it from them to
challenge extremism publicly, however -- it's not worth the fight or the
trouble, in their minds.
But now their very civilization
is at stake -- and so is that of the West. It's time to put one's money
where one's prayers are. The rest of the world is looking on with puzzlement
and fear, wondering where the heart of Islam lies. In all likelihood, the
outcry against Islam will grow deafening in coming months and years. This
will polarize moderate Muslims: Either they will feel under attack and
align themselves fully with their fundamentalist cousins, or they will
become radical moderates, fighting for the honor of Islam against these
backward cousins. The former scenario would be a disaster for the planet.
Here, one can learn from white Americans.
Fifty years ago, racist views were tolerated, even encouraged by mainstream
society. The Marge Schotts of our nation used to get away with their rantings,
thanks to the tepid response of most white citizens; but now, such bigots
are ostracized with devastating swiftness. Sure, you can be a racist --
but you'd better keep it under wraps if you plan on working in this town
again.
Let that be a lesson for Muslims.
Too many people have been thrown out of Muslim families for being insufficiently
fundamentalist. Start throwing out sons and daughters for being insufficiently
peaceful. Too many Muslims are more bothered by competing forms of monotheism
than by demonic forces rumbling in their own camp. Too many hundreds of
millions of Muslims can tolerate, rationalize and even promote violence.
All this must change, and change now.
Granted, the language of the Koran
can seem aggressive and belligerent to some ears. But let the graceful
image of Prophet Mohammed, depicted by scholars such as Huston Smith, become
the normative one for Muslims and Westerners alike. The prophet was long-suffering
and merciful toward Meccan authorities who had abused him during his ministry.
Let a Palestinian child meditate on that. Let Muslims tolerate no lower
standard of civic life, and divorce all those who would object.
The five million Muslims who call
the United States home are the best candidates to step forward and set
this standard. Doing so would give Islam an authentic claim as a religion
of peace.
(Mr. Asghar is a Los Angeles-based
editor of management and leadership books.)
