Ronald S. Kraybill The headlines tell only part of the story: a venerated mosque decapitated in Samarra, Muslims and Christians slaughtering each other in Nigeria, raids on Christians in Egypt.
Few Westerners hear what is said in the Muslim world. In early February, a popular TV program in Abu Dhabi, a moderate Islamic location, ran a segment about a small-fry Italian politician who, reacting to the Danish cartoon controversy, called on the pope for a new crusade. The title of the segment was worded to arouse: “A New Crusade?” The show also aired on U.S. Arabic channels and presumably many other Islamic countries. The messages from growing extremist groups on the streets are much more inflammatory.
Just as many in the West believe there is threat from the Muslim world, large numbers of Muslims believe a vast threat to their beliefs and their way of life exists from the West. Fearful people on all sides easily find disturbing gestures from the other side and hold these up as indicators of the future. We are at a grave pass. What to do?
First, recognize the nature of the problem. This is not a short-term battle with a few crazy terrorists. It is a long-term struggle for the hearts and minds of a community of millions who have experienced prolonged and pervasive humiliation. The Muslim world has suffered setback after setback, politically, economically, educationally, technologically, socially, for many centuries.
Whereas most Western nations have for several hundred years been governed by leaders widely considered to be credible representatives of the people, most Muslim countries were colonized and remain in the grip of elites who have managed to retain imperial powers. The Muslim majority in most countries despise their own corrupt and oppressive leaders only slightly less than they resent the West for its arrogance, its decadence, and its willingness to support oppressive Muslim governments.
Second, recognize the strategy of extremist Islam, a growing but still minority faction. The real audience of the 911 attacks was not America, it was the struggling, weary, angry but passive Muslim masses. Remember, bin Laden was on the fringes and he knew it. So he borrowed a strategy that guided communist revolutionaries for decades: drive apathetic moderates into your own extremist arms by provoking enemy attack. There could have been no man in the world more happy than Osama bin Laden on the day George Bush launched the Iraq invasion.
Like a crafty matador goading a tiring bull, bin Laden continues to bait. After many months of silence, he issued in January 2006 a new round of threats