Unless Moslem societies get democracy and rule of law where responsibility for failures is seen as lying in their own rulers and the choices of the voters, how do we cope with a Moslem society that has a belief system as common as this?
All cultures have a certain belief in magic and what Westerners call “conspiracy theories” to explain otherwise unexplainable events. In the Islamic world, there is a lot of attention paid to sorcery and magic, and people accused of practicing such things are regularly attacked and sometimes executed. Conspiracy theories are also a popular way to explain away inconvenient facts. ...
This easy acceptance of fantasies is exploited by leaders throughout the Middle East, and the Moslem world in general. Leaders who know better, build on these fantasies as a way to maintain their control over the population. The problem is a dirty little secret in the Moslem world, that leaders and academics don't even like to discuss it openly, much less with infidels. But it is real, and you can read all about it in the local media, or overhear it in the coffee shops.
While we aren't immune to this type of thinking, it is far less prevalent here. God knows, I've written that if I ever succumb to Obama Derangement Syndrome and can't honestly (I have biases of education and outlook, obviously) judge his defense and foreign policy actions, I'll stop blogging.
But there is little resistance to the tidal wave of fantasy thinking and lack of responsibility in the Moslem world. Moslems and Arabs more generally who come to America have had great success in working within our system to do well. So it isn't any failing of individual Moslems or Arabs. As I've also noted, most Moslems here would probably be considered heretics by the jihadis and their cheering section. Every time I see a Moslem woman in head covering driving a mini-van, I feel I'm watching a blow against the jihad.
The war on terror is a grand counter-insurgency in support of a tiny minority of reformers who can see that Moslem society must modernize. Our military actions are merely the necessary means to hold back the jihadis who can't be effectively fought by Moslems themselves so that reformers can change Islam from the inside so that the religion is not as hospitable to jihadis. Strengthen the reformers and weaken thejihadis, and more who sit out the struggle out of fear of jihadis may jump in to side with the reformers.
So I don't jump up to condemn the Arab Spring or the Obama administration's response in general. I don't expect fast results. I don't expect continuous progress. I don't express broad progress. It would be nice. But that's not realistic. But it isn't realistic to think that supporting autocrats who promise to suppress jihadis is the way to protect ourselves in the long run. Remember, these autocrats--including "secular" Saddam--simply try to use a tamed form of Islamism to bolster their rule even as they might fight the "feral" Islamism that targets the autocrats, too. Autocrats have to go to have any progress. Jihadis have to be discredited as an alternative. And some form of democracy and rule of law has to be promoted to win this long war.
The tide of war isn't receding--the tide of direct large-scale American military campaigns is receding. The war for the soul of Islam goes on, and we have to win it rather than hang the Mission Accomplished banner across the figurative coffin of Osama bin Laden. The next jihad could make the current one look like the police matter so many wish it to be.
Have a super sparkly day.
