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September 27, 2006

Bet on the Pope, Not the National Intelligence Estimate

The National Intelligence Estimate so loudly in the news this week contains some interesting nuggets about countering extreme Islam:

Greater pluralism and more responsive political systems in majority Muslim nations would alleviate some of the grievances jihadists exploit. Over time, such progress, together with sustained, multifaceted programs targeting the vulnerabilities of the jihadist movement and continued pressure on Al-Qai'da, could erode support for the jihadists.

What are these vulnerabilities, and how to exploit them?

The jihadists' greatest vulnerability is that their ultimate political solution -- an ultra-conservative interpretation of shari'a-based governance spanning the Muslim world -- is unpopular with the vast majority of Muslims. Exposing the religious and political straitjacket that is implied by the jihadists' propaganda would help to divide them from the audiences they seek to persuade.

More responsive political systems in Muslim majority nations might be seen as an alternative to the jihadists' "religious and political straitjacket."

This is reasonable, and has been offered in one interpretation or another as a reason for the war in Iraq for some time. It makes sense, given the idea that Muslims feel they have an alternative to jihad in those places.

But at the same time, there is something missing from this strategy. There is a spiritual need felt by many Muslims that goes unfilled by either material progress or democratic advancement. Those alternatives should be viewed then as part of the solution, but not the entire answer. Consider the comparison of Communist insurgencies and what seems to be a presently Islamic-inspired one, in the article, Mao in Mufti: Insurgency Theory and the Islamic World:

In contrast with the militant Communist mindset, that of the militant Islamist has an anti-materialistic orientation and a spiritual goal. Thus, an appeal to the “heart and mind” might not suffice because “soul” is a key element of the Islamist worldview construct. Although the patent victory of capitalist-democracy in the Cold War undermined the Communist worldview, that is largely irrelevant in the current conflict with the radical Islamists. Showing a better way to worldly utopia (classless society) hardly counts when the focus is spiritual salvation. But is the focus always spiritual salvation? Perhaps not. Muslims, as any people anywhere, can become pre-occupied with the tasks of making a living. However, when those tasks become too overwhelming, there are many symbols, traditions, institutions, opinion-leaders, and other prompts to remind them that religion offers the best remedy – the true solution. To challenge this “truth” would be very counter-productive. It is nonsense to presume that, since the former Communist societies of Russia and China abandoned Marx’s dialectical materialism, Islamic societies could bypass the Qur’an.

This argument indeed goes to the heart of many of our popularly construed notions of what a victory will look like: some Muslims will wake up one day and see a chicken in every pot, two cars in the garage, and a pluralist political system and decide they don't need violent extremism. But many will still want the spiritual fulfillment that comes from jihad, however false or shallow that may seem to those of other faiths.

It seems that the preponderance of those who fall into this latter category are to be found in Europe. Earlier this summer, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations released a report entitled Violent Jihad in the Netherlands: Current Trends in the Islamist Terrorist Threat. It offers a sobering look at how those who already come from a relatively affluent society with liberal democratic traditions are nonetheless attracted to jihad anyway:

While their parents often still practice Islam within the traditional cultural context, young Muslims are often confronted with a rapidly modernising, more secularized culture which conflicts with local religious traditions. These young people have not been fully secularized themselves, and they continue to struggle with existential and religious questions, seeking answers in an Islam which is increasingly divergant [sic] from a local cultural context. Althought Muslims worldwide are faced with globalization and modernization, young Muslims growing up in secular Western societies, in which Islam is just one more religious and cultural movement, are much more acutely confronted with problems of existential and religious orientation. [p. 31]

While being repulsed by the choices of these young people, one cannot help but feel sympathy for their thirst for something more than mere secular pabulum. A further part of the Dutch report details how young Muslims in the Netherlands go about in creating a faith for themselves:

The scope for an individual interpretation of Islam, combined with religious ignorance among young European Muslims and their insufficient command of Arabic, leads to a relatively simple, often non-coherent ideology which justifies the use of violence against people with different ideas. With the help of radical websites and chat sessions, they compile a radical 'cut-and-paste' version of Islam from Koran quotations which they reshape into a revolutionary pamphlet of global violent jihad. [p.32]

How can this be countered? These young Muslims are so many blind men feeling an elephant and describing it as they go. It must be truly frustrating to have spent a great deal of time and effort concocting a religion out of ignorance and, in this case, Arabic illiteracy, only to have it infantilized by a European elite that sees all such efforts as not only equal, but throwbacks to unenlightened, non-secular ages.

The recent efforts of the Pope then make more sense. His speech at the University of Regensberg reads almost as a prelude of more interesting insights to come. For now though, he is chiding a university faculty to have a wider conception of the relationship of reason and faith than they previously have:

Here I am reminded of something Socrates said to Phaedo. In their earlier conversations, many false philosophical opinions had been raised, and so Socrates says: "It would be easily understandable if someone became so annoyed at all these false notions that for the rest of his life he despised and mocked all talk about being - but in this way he would be deprived of the truth of existence and would suffer a great loss". The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur - this is the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. "Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God", said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university. [emphasis added]

Is the Pope setting up the intellectual elite of Europe for something more to follow, perhaps, getting them ready for a dialogue that examines reason and faith among both Christianity and Islam?

Lee Harris, writing in the Weekly Standard, opined thus:

Here he is like many European Muslim leaders and ideologues, Tariq Ramadan for instance, who believe that the continent has been overcome with a spiritual malaise, a lack of purpose and self-esteem. Unlike secularism, Islam is a worthy competitor for men's souls--it is just an inferior doctrine, self-evidently so because it did not produce Europe. Moreover, and this is the point of the text Benedict cites, Islam is incapable of producing a Europe because its conception of God does not assume a rational divinity.

Now the Pope says this excerpted text does "not in any way express my personal thought." Really? So, the Vicar of Christ does not believe that Catholic doctrine is superior to Muslim teaching? Sure he does. The Pope does not want Christian Europe to regain its spirituality by becoming less rational, like Islam, but through an expanded concept of reason--one large enough to encompass a creator who is Himself rational.

And perhaps one large enough to encompass an Islam open to rationality as well? In any case, addressing a "continent [that] has been overcome with a spiritual malaise, a lack of purpose and self-esteem" is the missing portion of our strategy. It will be very difficult for any US government agency -- diplomatic or otherwise -- to address this void. But keep your eye on the Pope.

Posted by Chester at September 27, 2006 9:06 PM

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Posted by: Papa Ray at September 30, 2006 10:53 PM

Posted by: ctc at October 3, 2006 12:31 PM