'Clash of fundamentalisms' unfolding
This debate covers a wide range of views, including the conspiracy theory book by a French writer, The frightening fraud, which goes to the extent of claiming that the Sept 11 attacks were a Pentagon concoction to pursue an already prepared American global agenda.
Then the prominent American Orientalist, Bernard Lewis, came out with his version of latter-day Islamic history regarding What went wrong?' — with the Muslim world, that is, trying to analyse why it lags behind the West now when it was way ahead almost a millennium earlier.
Amidst this debate is a highly readable bestseller by the London-based Pakistani Tariq Ali. Titled The clash of fundamentalisms, the book makes the point that ''the war against terror is a clash of fundamentalisms, religious versus imperial. Each is marked by time-honoured features, a shameless use of disproportional military power by one and a carefully targeted fanaticism by its other.''
''The two forces are hardly equal. One is a product of despair, the other is an empire,'' he writes.
The two 'fundamentalisms' are graphically satirised on the book's cover through an imaginative computerised make-over: The cover has 'Mullah Bush' (US President George W Bush sporting a flowing white beard with Taliban-like headgear).
The back of the book has Osama bin Laden donned in a Western-style coat and tie, speaking from behind the White House podium.
The 'bushman' and the 'caveman' are appropriately equated, fighting each other from extremes that do have a common denominator largely motivated by hatred reinforced by violence.
Interesting insights
During a recent conversation with Tariq Ali, he provided interesting insights into how he saw the changing world, with his focus increasingly the Islamic past in Europe.
His last novel was on the Muslim rule in Spain, and he provides fascinating details about that period.
Cordoba matched Baghdad in learning and knowledge with more than 100 public libraries. In Toledo, a city north of Cordoba, the Muslims had set up what was the world's first School of Translations, where books in different disciplines and languages were translated by people deployed for this job.
He refers to what he calls is virtually "a rape of a mosque in Cordoba", where a cathedral has been built over it, and also to the fact that Jews and Muslims co-existed in harmony in Islamic Spain.
The demise of Muslim rule coincided with the eviction of Jews from Spain who were provided with succour by Muslims in the Maghreb, notably Morocco.
The friction among the 'People of the Book' is relatively recent, attributable to the events in Palestine after the creation of the state of Israel.
This tolerance, a cardinal principle of Islam, was also evident during five centuries of Muslim rule under the Ottoman Empire of Turkey.
In his book, Tariq Ali refers to Ottoman rule as "a remarkable enterprise on many levels. It was a multi-religious state with the rights of Jews and Christians recognised and protected. Many of the Jews expelled from Portugal and Spain were granted refuge in the Ottoman lands.''
Tariq Ali attributes the virtual extinction of Islam in Spain after the final defeat of the Muslims in 1492 to infighting and internecine strife.
Wars of succession frittered away energies of Muslims in killing co-religionists, weakening all Muslims in the process.
His next project should be even more interesting — a novel on the four centuries of Muslim rule in Italy, in its southern part, the island of Sicily.
''Had the Muslims not wasted themselves in strife from within, they would have taken Rome, which would then have been a centre of Islam, like Istanbul,'' Tariq Ali added.
This intellectual journey into rediscovery of roots is important, because after Sept 11, there is great yearning to understand and learn more about Islam among Westerners.
While there is a lot of negativism regarding Islam and Muslims in the media, the fact remains that for the first time questions are being asked as to the assumptions underpinning policies of key Western countries.
The Holy Quran is now a bestseller in the United States, while the most popular poet is that Sufi giant, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, born in Balkh (currently Afghanistan) and died in Konya in Turkey.
Introspective look
As Westerners seek answers to questions about Islam in the aftermath of Sept 11, it is imperative that Muslims too take an introspective look rather than engage in an incessant blame-game that is like a Sisyphean quest for foreign demons or conspiracy theories for their every ill and problem.
As the zest for inquiry, learning and knowledge which motivated Muslims in the past to attain new heights of glory takes a backseat, the Muslim world seems to be losing out in the domain of education and building institutions that can outlast individuals.
Learning lessons from the past, the Muslim world must move on while taking stock of the malaise and stagnation afflicting most of its societies. Even the richer Muslim countries have found that their affluence has not yet been translated into influence.
There is an interesting aspect of how history returns to haunt those who run away from it.
Perched close to Nottingham Castle is a monument whose plaque reads: "In the memory of the officers, NCOs (non-commissioned officers) and private soldiers of Her Majesty's 59th Regiment who fell in action or died of wounds or disease during the Afghan Campaigns of 1878, 1879 and 1880. Erected by their comrades".
There are the names of 51 British soldiers who died in Afghanistan 120 years earlier, mostly in Kandahar, the scene of much fighting even in the 21st century Afghan Campaign.
If the past is to be a guide to the present, the emerging Clash of fundamentalisms is perhaps unwittingly reopening old wounds. Whether it is Afghanistan or the West's interaction with Muslims, both sides need to imbibe lessons from their historical experiences. — IPS
