Speaking to VP Cheney and others at American Enterprise Institute the other night, Bernard Lewis did what he does best: warns that we are involved in the Crusades with jihadists whether we like it or not. Masking hysteria in (impressive) erudition, he ignores all signs of modernity in the Islamic world, and treats
Osama bin Laden as representative of Muslim attitudes toward the west. They want to destroy our societies and we must give them no quarter.
And then there are the appeasers:
In Europe, as in the United States, a frequent
response is what is variously known as multiculturalism and political
correctness. In the Muslim world there are no such inhibitions. They
are very conscious of their identity. They know who they are and what
they are and what they want, a quality which we seem to have lost to a
very large extent. This is a source of strength in the one, of weakness
in the other…
The Islamic radicals have even been able to find some allies in Europe… They have a left-wing appeal to the anti-U.S.
elements in Europe, for whom they have so-to-speak replaced the
Soviets. They have a right-wing appeal to the anti-Jewish elements in
Europe, replacing the Axis. They have been able to win considerable
support under both headings.
I defy Lewis to show me "considerable support" for Islamic radicals among leftwing multiculturalists. I doubt he’s spoken to Muslims either. He seems not to know anyone outside a book, and yet he claims to understand Muslim psychology: their identities, and who they know themselves to be.
These ideas are dangerous. Lewis was a White House guest, adored by Cheney; his idealization of the use of force in responding to radical Islam helped move Bush into the Iraq debacle. He sold us "the clash of civilizations," in Cold War terms. But in the Cold War, the west was at odds with a totalitarian ideology
that had successfully captured European states. This time around we are at odds with traditional societies
that are struggling with modernity and radical movements. Their people don’t wish to be freed by the west, nor do they want to be led by Osama bin Laden. Lewis overlooks our many allies in that world, the educated Muslims, many of whom have come to the west not to burn it down but because they like what we want, personal freedom, intellectual freedom. We have to find common ground with them if we want to hasten reform of Islam; and denounce extremist, discredited answers.
