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 MaximsNews Columnist

Anwar Ibrahim

Bridging the Chasm between the West and the Muslim World

     Anwar Ibrahim is the former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Malaysia.  For six years he was a political prisoner and was only released from jail in September, 2004.  

Internationally, his courageous and firm refusal to surrender his principles and ideals in the face of the unprecedented attacks on his political and personal life have enhanced his standing in the West, while his message of tolerance and reform resonate within the Islamic world.

He is regarded worldwide as a credible, principled, and progressive Muslim leaders who can bridge the gulf between the Islamic world and the West.

Anwar Ibrahim is a MaximsNews Columnist, please see the related articles: 

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Anwar is scheduled to take up a fellowship at the School of Advanced International Studies in Johns Hopkins University, Washington, in the coming week.  

AnwarIbrahim@MaximsNews.com



 
          UNITED NATIONS -- 25 March 2005 / www.MaximsNews.com  / More than a decade ago, at a gathering of eminent Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars and leaders at Georgetown University in Washington, I had said that even though the civilizing mission of the West had passed, it had been replaced by a new mission. 

This was the mission of democratization, one that was being pursued not only with convincing intellectual argumentation, but was backed by the mightiest firepower known in human history.

Little did I know then that this firepower was eventually to be met with an even greater power, more insidious, more frightening: the power of hate, extreme hate that manifested itself in a form so violent in its magnitude, so terrifying in its immensity, that when it was finally unleashed on Sept. 11, 2001,  it shook the world.

I was languishing in solitary confinement in a Malaysian prison that tragic day when I was told of what had happened. 

A few days later, I wrote an essay for Time magazine titled "Stop Hijacking Islam."

The article received mixed responses. 

Those who had already made up their minds about Islam being a religion for fanatics and zealots criticized the essay as being "too soft." 

Those who were generally anti-West or more particularly anti-the Bush administration condemned the article as a fine example of "sucking up" to the Americans.

I would like to take this opportunity afforded by MaximsNews to go beyond these stereotypes and examine the common ground that we "Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Confucianists, Easterners and Westerners" share.

To begin with, I believe we all share the quest for peace, justice and truth. 

I believe we share the view that the question is not who is right and who is wrong, but what is right and what is wrong. 

The question is not whether communities or indeed civilizations will clash, but whether communities, nations or civilizations ought to clash. 

Indeed, the fundamental question is how we can realize this universal quest for justice, peace and truth.

Islam enjoins Muslims to choose the middle path when conducting their affairs. 

This principle of moderation is the key for Muslims throughout the world to live in peace and harmony not only with people of other religions but also among themselves.  

It was this approach for instance which had been used for hundreds of years by Muslims in South East Asia living in multicultural and multi-religious societies. 

Instead of clinging on dogmatically to inflexible doctrines or living in isolation from other communities, Muslims in South East Asia took a pragmatic approach in social, economic and political life.

Islam's tradition of tolerance of course is not confined to South East Asia. 

In AD 529 Emperor Justinian ordered the closure of the great Academy that had been established by Plato. 

Because of Justinian's intolerance of religions other than Christianity, Europe descended into the Dark Ages.

A century thereafter, Islam was established and as it spread its wings, it was marked by a cardinal principle, that is, the freedom of choice. 

For the first 200 years after the advent of Islam, there existed more than 100  schools of law to give the religion the critical mass needed for cultural and political dynamics to flourish. 

The coming of Islam improved the position of the Nestorian and Monophysite Christians who had been subjected to severe disabilities under Byzantine rule. 

Conversely, Islam developed in a largely Judeo-Christian environment with Jewish and Christian scholars actively participating in the transmission of Greek thought into Arabic.

As the religion spread in later years, the land of Islam was the preferred refuge for Jews and other persecuted communities. 

For example, we know that the greatest figure of medieval Judaism, Musa ibn Maymun (Maimonides) found a freer environment in Cairo in the 12th century under Muslim rule than in the Andalus under Christian rule.

The Islam of the Prophet Muhammad, therefore, is not the Islam of those Muslims who insist that there is only one interpretation of the Quran and the Sunnah and that others who do not follow their way are either infidels or apostates; it is not the Islam of extremists, who hold no truck with alternative views about attire, ritualistic practices or principles of doctrine. 

Islam is not the religion of terrorists, who blow up buildings killing innocent women and children. 

Islam is not totalitarian. 

It is democratic.

We know that the vast majority of Muslims in the world largely reject the doctrines of violence and hatred preached by extremist groups. 

It is a rejection borne out by a deep seated aversion to the senseless slaughter of innocent lives, an aversion to any doctrine which claims that followers of other religions have a lesser right to the sanctity of life, an aversion borne out by the natural dignity of man. 

Terrorist attacks in the name of Islam therefore constitute the hijacking of Islam. 

It is an insidious usurpation of the legitimacy of religion.

Yet why has Islamic extremism begun to assert itself as a conspicuous force not just in the Middle East, but in other parts of the Muslim world?

History has shown that people who have been politically marginalized will eventually revolt against their oppressor. 

The Arab-Israeli conflict is a case in point. 

If Palestinians continue to see their condition as a result of some alliance between Israel and the United States to deprive them of their homeland, then suicide bombers will continue to grow in numbers. 

The answer is not more firepower or more targeted killings.

Today's preoccupation with the war on terror is seen by many as merely a military war to hunt down terrorists and bring them to justice. 

But I believe in the long run, it is a war of ideas. 

Criss-crossing this frontline are socio-economic progress, poverty; and dispossession.

We ought to realize that terrorism cannot be answered merely by the use of force, however potent it may be. 

In this regard, declarations by superpowers that they seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror can be seen as pious platitudes if they continue to only brandish warships and fighter jets, riding roughshod over world opinion.  

The arrogance of power will never win the hearts of the people though it may subjugate them.

It will also be sheer hypocrisy if while fighting in the name of democracy these same powers continue to condone the excesses of autocratic regimes or remain silent to the blatant abuses of power committed by them.  

Is the current chasm that divides the Muslim world and the West, thus, a result of a clash of civilizations? 

In the aftermath of 9/11 there are those who, having warned of such a clash, now say "I told you so." 

There are those who seek to portray this chasm as the harbinger toward the final showdown between Islam and the West.

This is not only a simplistic rationalization but a dangerous doctrine. 

It is dangerous because it breeds paranoia and fuels hatred and suspicion. 

If accepted it means that unless one civilization gives in to the other, then the world will be heading for some kind of Armageddon. 

Unfortunately, these war drums are beaten by proponents on both sides of the divide.

To bridge the gap, we must work toward the creation of a civil society. 

We must engage ourselves in civilizational dialogue. 

Protracted mutual distrust and miscomprehension can only lead to greater confrontation. 

The Muslim world must see the West beyond the blinkers of the Crusades, colonization and Palestine. 

The West must see the Muslim world beyond menacing fundamentalists, suicide bombers and 9/11. 

It's an issue that has stirred serious debate at the highest levels of international politics and diplomacy, as evidenced by the discussions I've had recently with leaders such as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former South African President Nelson Mandela and senior officials and intellectuals in places as varied as Australia, London, Paris and the capitals of the Arab world.

          AnwarIbrahim@MaximsNews.com