The Pragmatists

As I've said before, I'm listening to an excellent book by Bernard Lewis on CD. He is the world's leading scholar on Islam, and so thoroughly knowledgeable that it boggles my mind at times. One very intriguing thing he points out is the fact that there are essentially three groups into which we can categorize Muslims interacting with the West.

First, there are those Muslims which, despite the difference in religion, see at least some kinship towards the West and towards Christendom, and so are content to live peaceably with them. These, primarily because of the third group, may in fact be in minority.

Second, there are those Muslims who are viciously hostile to the West, and believe that it embodies the antithesis of Islam, and that it is the duty of Muslims to fight the West wherever they can. This can range from those who participate in an Islamic Cold War, such as Iran, to the outright terrorists, such as Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda.

Third, and most importantly, there are those Muslims who despise the West, and all that Western Civilization and Christendom embody, but nevertheless recognize its power, and so make some kind of peace or relationship, though they consider it only a temporary stage, before the moment for the final war is at hand.

As Bernard Lewis says, it would be wise not to confuse the second and third groups (such as perhaps happened when we were fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, eagerly supplying Osama bin Laden, who was content to have a relationship with us at that time).

With the simultaneous processes of Shi'a Islamic revolutions springing across North Africa and the warming to the West by Mo'ammar al-Qhadhaffi, we see a prime example of this. There is a willingness to deal peacefully with the U.S. and the West by this undeniably clever leader, while he in fact simply recognizes the potent force that the U.S. wields.

When the time is right, this relationship may in fact be a source of great harm for us. In the eloquent words of the Libyan leader himself to a crowd only days ago, as he announced the fact that Libya was, officially, a Shi'a state, "What we have given to the U.S. with our left hand, we quietly took back with our right!"