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The topic, Dialogue Among
Civilizations, is itself intriguing.
The Webster dictionary offers several definitions of the word
civilization. The one
that seems to fit this occasion best reads as follows:
"Civilization. The
culture characteristics of a particular time and place."
Conference sponsors wish the
dialogue to deal with the present time-as well as the future--and
surely no one will dispute the fact that culture characteristics
differ from one place to another and sometimes within a single
country.
In my new book, Silent No More:
Confronting America's False Images of Islam, a book that I hope will
soon become a bestseller worldwide, I mention the clash of
civilizations forecast by Professor Samuel Huntington.
If I understand his writings correctly, the professor forecasts
a serious clash between Islam and the West.
It is in respect to that somber
forecast that I offer a few comments.
I am not an expert on civilizations
past, nor on Islam, or even on my chosen religion, Christianity.
I make no pretense at scholarship, but I have had broad, unique
experiences during my 80 years, some of which may be of interest.
I had a late start traveling through
Islam. I reached the age
of 52 and already had served for 12 years as a Member of Congress
before I had a conversation with a person I knew to be a Muslim.
That may strike you as strange, perhaps hard to believe.
If so, bear in mind that America had
only a tiny Muslim population prior to World War 11.
Today the U.S. Muslim population is in the neighborhood of
seven million, but most of them remain largely isolated from
non-Muslims. They tend to
live in tightly-knit neighborhoods in metropolitan areas.
My hometown of about 30,000 people has a Muslim population of
ten. That averages one
Muslim in every three thousand.
Most Americans never encounter
people they know to be Muslims. They
have never read or heard a verse from the Quran.
Any impressions of Islam they hold are apt to be false.
With the passage of time, the
dispersal of Muslims throughout the non-Muslim community will occur.
This transition will help promote interfaith understanding, but
the process will take time. Most
Americans, including many Christian clergy, are misinformed about
Islam. They believe
that Muslims condone terrorism and abuse of women, oppose democracy,
and worship a strange, vengeful God.
During the past quarter-century and
especially during the past three years of book preparation, I made up
for lost time in my personal quest for correct information about
Islam.
Any way,
I have a simple theme on the dialogue among civilizations to
offer here. Perhaps some
will say it is simplistic, and perhaps it is.
As the result of my life experiences, I am convinced that the
following statements are valid:
1. A clash between the Islamic
civilization and the West is not inevitable.
In fact, in the absence of some unexpected calamity, the clash
will not occur.
The two civilizations understand
each other better today than yesterday.
They will understand each other still better tomorrow.
The cultures are moving closer to each other.
In the bright light of education, the perceived differences are
eroding, and, although certain fundamental characteristics will
survive, additional erosion is certain to occur in the future.
Time is also on the side of
interfaith understanding. With
energetic work on the part of well-intentioned individuals in Muslim
countries as well as in the United States, the tide of understanding
and mutual goodwill will rise steadily, even sharply, in the tomorrows
ahead.
Muslims are the second largest and
fastest growing religious community in America.
They are already more numerous than Jews and are expected to
double their numbers in less than twenty0 years.
To me, it is a mistake to describe Islam as Eastern and
Christianity as Western.
Christianity is prominent in many
areas of the East. In
demographic terms, Islam is more a part of the West than Israel and
Judaism.
If a silver lining can be found in
the September 11th catastrophe, it lies in the aftermath-the large
volume of civilized discussion and publication in America that deals
with Islam. Most of it is
educational and constructive. Some
commentary is destructive and bigoted, but it is far outweighed by the
positive and helpful.
In the absence of a calamity, time
will be on the side of decency and harmony.
As Muslims grow in number and become dispersed throughout
America, non-Muslims will gain understanding of the basic doctrines
and beliefs that link Islam with Christianity and Judaism.
They will feel comfortable with Muslims and welcome them into
the U.S. mainstream.
The American people are
fundamentally fair-minded. They
seek the truth and want to help abused people.
If a clash between Islam and the West does occur, it will arise
mainly from ignorance, the obvious antidote to which is the truth.
Many years after a college professor
taught me logic and ethics, he wrote a profound observation.
Listen to his words, "The
expressed purpose of each [major] religion is peace, unity, harmony.
It is interesting to speculate what might be accomplished if
the religions could only cooperate to achieve their expressed
goal."
Christians and Muslims should be
working together toward their common goals.
Much needs to be done.
2. The days and weeks immediately
ahead may be critical in settling whether a clash of civilizations
will develop.
Today, the point of greatest danger
is Washington, D.C.
As a Republican who urged Muslims to
vote for George W. Bush in 2000, I find it difficult to defend his
official work these days, especially his rhetoric.
The president invites U.S. Muslim
leaders to the White House for discussion and prayer, but he demands
that Muslim nations, and all others, cooperate with him in his war on
terrorism or stand guilty of being for tyranny and against freedom.
It is a demand that gets strong applause on political hustings
across the American countryside, but others worldwide view it as gross
arrogance.
When his secretary of defense,
Donald Rumsfeld, my former colleague in the U.S. House of
Representatives, makes a case for preemptive military assaults against
nations believed to possess weapons of mass destruction, he sounds
more like an Israeli defense minister than a senior official of the
nation that proudly champions the rule of law and human rights through
the years.
When the president labels Iran,
North Korea and Iraq as the axis of evil, he insults political forces
in North Korea and Iran that he should be attempting to cultivate.
Iran and Iraq fought a bloody war a few years ago and have
otherwise been at odds for years.
Iran and North Korea are moving toward conciliation.
Bush should not try to force them into Saddam Hussein's arms.
Perhaps each new president-elect
should be required to take an elementary course in diplomacy before
taking the oath of office.
Bush's worst shortcoming is his
failure to recognize the plight of the Palestinians as the central
foreign policy issue of perhaps two billion people worldwide,
including more than one billion Muslims.
The president has not met with any Palestinian officials since
becoming president but routinely rolls out the red carpet to Ariel
Sharon, the butcher of Beirut, and offers unstinting sympathy and
support to Israel but none to the Palestinians.
To him, the Palestinian-Israeli
dispute is a vexing impediment to his war on terrorism, while perhaps
two billion people, irate over the hypocrisy of U.S. policy, see the
issue the other wary around. He
seems oblivious to the close concern that Muslims feel for each other,
wherever they may live, and the outrage of all Muslims against the
United States because of its complicity in Israel's longstanding
brutalizing and dehumanizing of Palestinians.
Bush is unwittingly placing himself
at odds with the vast majority of Muslims worldwide, a separation that
could quickly become a chasm-even a harsh struggle that some might
call a clash of the Islamic civilization against the West.
Individual citizens, including
everyone gathered here today, can have an impact on the course of
events. Each of you
can find ways to help the American people gain an accurate
understanding of Islam. Each
can find ways to alert President Bush to the peril of his present
course, either directly or through acquaintances in America.
Each of you can help avert a
needless, destructive clash of civilizations.
February / March 2002
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