What's your problem with Islam?
SITTING IN THE CAPITAL of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with a metal arrow on the ceiling of my hotel room pointing to Mecca, I feel impelled to write about our troubles with Islam. Four years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, which were perpetrated in the name of Allah, most people in what we still loosely call the West would agree that we do have troubles with Islam.
Why? What's the nub of the problem? Here are six different views often heard in the West but also, it's important to add, in Muslim countries such as Iran. As you go down the list, consider which one matches your opinion.
1. The fundamental problem is not just Islam but religion itself. The world would be a much better place if everyone understood the truths revealed by science, had confidence in human reason and embraced secular humanism. What we need is not just a secular state but a secular society.
This is a view held by many highly educated people in the post-Christian West, especially in Western Europe. If translated directly into a political prescription, it has the drawback of requiring that 3 billion to 5 billion men and women abandon their fundamental beliefs. Nor has the track record of purely secular regimes over the last 100 years been altogether inspiring.
2. The fundamental problem is not religion itself but the particular religion of Islam. It does not allow the separation of church and state, religion and politics. The fact that an Iranian newspaper gives the year as 1384 points to a larger truth: Islam is stuck in the Middle Ages. What it needs is its Reformation.
Two objections to this widespread view are that it encourages monolithic thinking about Islam and that it is based too much in Western terms (Middle Ages, Reformation). If we mean by Islam "what people calling themselves Muslim actually think, say and do," there is a huge spectrum of different realities.
3. The problem is not Islam but Islamism. Fanatics such as Osama bin Laden have twisted a great religion into the service of hate. We can separate the poisonous fruit from the healthy tree.
This is the view promulgated by George W. Bush and Tony Blair. But then, they're not going to insult millions of Muslim voters and the countries that the West relies on for oil. Do they really believe it? Put them on a truth serum, and I bet they'd be closer to No. 2. On the other hand, this analysis is made with learning and force by distinguished specialists on the Muslim world.
