The main concern is terrorism

  Thomas R. Pickering

It requires no particular genius to know that Islam has become of special interest to many in the West. From tourists and travelers worried about their safety to senior leaders of government, in religious denominations, among academics and in the press, the issue is a hot-button topic.

What does the West, in this case particularly the United States where I live and work, think about Islam? How can the issues be managed?

The main source of concern relates to terrorism. The major focus, from Bali to Baghdad and from Madrid to Mazar-e-Sharif, has been on the intimate linkage between Islamic fundamentalists and the use of the terror tactic. So much so, that events like Oklahoma City (where American extremists were tried and found guilty) and the fateful assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (involving Jewish extremists) are almost passed over or ignored.

A second dimension in this doleful analysis of course extends beyond Islamic fundamentalists to Islam as a whole. While President Bush seems careful, after having made his "crusade" allusion several years ago, to distinguish between Islam and terrorism, others are not. Some readings of parts of the US press can certainly lead to the malign and in my view badly mistaken conclusion that the war on terrorism has become a war on Islam. That would be an unparalleled tragedy and one probably sought by our enemies, the progenitors of terrorism, coming from groups such as al-Qaeda and its affiliates and supporters around the world. In this struggle, as in any other serious effort in life, we ought to heed the wise counsel of Hippocrates to the medical profession: "First, do no harm".

Elsewhere, others are taking a different and somewhat more sophisticated approach. It remains, however, sequestered for the moment among academics who have studied Islam, diplomats who have sought understanding and cooperation with our friends in the Arab and Muslim world, and groups of religious leaders seeking reconciliation, cooperation where possible, and mutual understanding as a basis for avoiding the calamities of mindless confrontation. Their success so far has been limited and sporadic, but they continue to work at the task.

To some extent, those bent on understanding and reconciliation in the United States face not only their own limitations in influence noted earlier, but those of their colleagues and friends within the circle of Islam. Leadership there seems to have been hijacked by the extremists; the press regularly dotes on their confrontational public declarations to the pleasure, I am sure, of those who seek wider confrontation. Here, those working to build bridges often express the need for "a little help from their friends", but what they receive comes often on a personal basis and in conferences behind closed doors and blinded windows.

Nor, on the western side, is all necessarily well in the religion department. There are, as we all know, some among the Christian right who seek their own form of association with the Middle East and the issues of the religious divide. Often mesmerized by the words "Judeo-Christian heritage", they seek to find common cause with the Jewish presence in the Holy Land and champion it because of their belief that postulates a pre-messianic presence of Israel in the Holy Land.

What happens after that is more problematic. However, the present expressions of these views give rise, on the one hand, to unquestioning support for the settlements in the "territories" and, on the other and in a diametrically opposed fashion, the creation of antagonism and animosity toward Islam. For example, there is a rejection among some in this community of the commonality among the three Abrahamic--or, for the sake of balance, "Ibrahimic"--faiths, of belief in a single, common deity, and a denial that the Allah of Islam is the shared common God of all three faiths.

It is not easy to know how to respond. Many who have analyzed the growing divide insist that the heat and emotion of the present will subside over time. Others, more activist in their course, seek the leaders, the understanding, and the dialogue with Islam that can help to temper the confrontation and relieve the apparently growing divisions. The latter course seems only right under the circumstances. The world as seen from East and West is too interconnected, too interdependent, and now too closely related to be torn apart by eleventh century-style religious controversy. One has only to look at the decades of history when Islam and the West coexisted to understand the value and the necessity of this wiser course.- Published 22/12/2005 © bitterlemons-international.org

Thomas R. Pickering's long career at the US State Department included postings as ambassador at the UN, the Russian Federation, India, Israel and Jordan, and culminated in the position of under secretary of state for political affairs.