Townhall.com, Where Your Opinion Counts
Talk Radio:   Bill Bennett   Mike Gallagher   Dennis Prager   Michael Medved   Hugh Hewitt   
BREAKING NEWS  LeftArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican   RightArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican  
Columns, funnies & more in your inbox!
Login | What's Hot
  • Check the boxes and send us your email address to receveive your free newsletter
  • Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
  • Townhall.com’s weekly inside scoop on what’s happening behind the scenes in the world of politics. When news breaks, we report.
  • Signup to receive the latest daily Townhall cartoons
Thursday, October 11, 2001
Suzanne Fields :: Townhall.com Columnist
Islamic culture - where terror trumps beauty
by Suzanne Fields
Forward Print Share Single Page
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
 
Poll
Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


What a country. While the nation is still mourning its dead from Islamic terrorists, "West Wing," the popular television series about a fictional president in the White House, demonstrates how quickly everything becomes current and topical. Although the characters in the current episode insist that terrorism is bad, their main point is that we've got to be careful not to scapegoat Muslims just because they look like or sound like our image of terrorists from the Middle East. "Bad people can't be recognized on sight," we're told. "There's no point in trying." It's important to warn against prejudice. But we're told by our leaders to be especially alert to anything or anyone that might be suspicious. The message of "The West Wing" is simply to "drop your eyes and look the other way." That's silly, and contemptuous of all the Muslims in this country who want and deserve to have us look in their eyes with the respect we show all fellow Americans. We can take pride in the fact that our leaders have been eloquent in speaking out against prejudice against Muslims. President Bush visited a mosque, and more power to him. No religion or ethnic group should be the object of hate because their co-religionists are accused of crimes. But neither should we be blind to reality. Violence and viciousness directed against the United States is coming from fanatics who revel in their religion, however they have distorted it. If we had been a little more alert to the rhetoric of their leaders, we might have been more aware of their intention to strike at the country they call the "Great Satan." Those who would analyze the behavior of the terrorists are confronted with motives that are complex and extensive. The Islamic terrorists hate us for our power, our pleasures, our openness, our democracy, our wealth, our support of the tiny democracy in their midst they call the "little Satan," and for all our faithlessness and fun. Though these fanatics live on a wacky fringe of Islam, we shouldn't be oblivious of the origins of that wacky fringe. Readers, mostly well meaning, send me chapter and verse from the Koran, which they read as documenting hatred for all those who do not believe in the purity of Islam as the terrorists do, but here's the rub: The Koran, like all sacred texts, is laden with ambiguous and paradoxical meanings, which lend themselves to distortion as it is interpreted and reinterpreted (and misinterpreted). What is clear, however, is that for several decades, Islam, more than any other of the world's great religions, has been the fountain of hatred toward the West in general and the United States in particular. Just as you don't have to be a weatherman to see which way the wind blows, you don't have to be a political scientist to observe that contemporary Islamic culture has not quickened a single democracy anywhere in the world. "From the 1950s, and especially once the fall of communism in 1989-1991 had freed the Muslim states of the Soviet bloc from their straitjackets, Islam has taken the lead in anti-Western activity politically, religiously and militarily," writes David Selbourne in the London Daily Telegraph. "It has brandished guns in one hand and sacred text in another, demonizing America, Zionism and Christianity." When we bend over backwards not to stereotype "the good Muslim" we should take care not to fall flat on our backs. The collapse of the Soviet Union rendered us giddy with notions of endless and uninterrupted progress. We envisioned a world marching steadily toward the democratic uplands of modernism. We felt safe from polarizing political ideologies. Samuel Huntington, a Harvard professor of political science, saw it differently, identifying what he called a "clash of civilizations," with different cultural and religious groups fighting it out for superiority. Since Sept. 11, his interpretation has been greeted with greater seriousness and debate. As Osama bin Laden was quoting the Koran and the terrorists were striking cold terror in the hearts of New Yorkers (and Americans elsewhere), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in midtown Manhattan was preparing three shows of Islamic art. In them an observer can see exquisite presentations of calligraphy of the scriptures of the Koran, ceramics of brilliant mosaics that decorate Islamic altars, paintings with gorgeous colors and graceful narratives of Islamic life, exhibiting the beauty of another side of the Islamic culture. This is exactly the art and beauty that militant Muslims are determined to destroy, as the Taliban demonstrates. And this is the grace and beauty overpowered by the destruction wrought by Islamic terror downtown. We should not flinch from a hard look at the contradiction.
Share:
Forward Print Single Page
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author

Suzanne Fields is a columnist with The Washington Times.

Be the first to read Suzanne Fields' column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox.

©Creators Syndicate

Join The Debate!

Post Your Comment
(0 comments so Far)
View in ascending order     View in descending order
Sign Up to Post Your CommentsSign Up to Post Your Comments
If you are already registered, click here to login. Otherwise, please take a few seconds to register with Townhall.com. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to post your comments immediately, use the action center, get podcasts, and more!
Note: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.
Salutation:
First Name:
*
Last Name:
*
Email:
*
Nickname:
*
Note: Nick name will be shown when you post comments.
Address 1:
*
Address 2:
City:
 *
State:
 *
Zip:
 *
Phone:
       
Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
(Bi-Weekly) We highlight the best opportunities from our partners for surveys, action items and more.