Islam and Americans

Two or three weeks ago, I had a long conversation with my parents about the nature of Islam. They had recently finsished reading a book which argued that Islam, in its entirety, was fundamentally immoral and that the rest of us ought to confront it as we would confront fascism or racism.

My response was to say that it might be the case that my morality and theirs did oppose Isalmic moraility in its essence. There might be things about that religion that we found repugnant, and if so we had an obligation to oppose it. On the other hand, such did not seem to be the case. Too many Muslims, including those protesting in Iran, did stand for inclusion and democracy and the like. Too many Muslims, including those fighting for reform in Yemen, want to protect the rights of women and girls. To say that all Muslims, so long as they really are Muslims, are wrong is a factual error as much as a moral one.

Andrew McCarthy, of The New Republic, agrees with my parents. He writes:

As head of Central Command, General Petraeus’s area of responsibility includes Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. That is, CENTCOM is the U.S. military’s bridge to the Muslim umma, much of which despises America. The vast majority of Americans couldn’t care less about that. It is Islam’s problem, not ours — we’re not dying to be loved by a dysfunctional civilization that produces most of the planet’s terrorists. But for the Wilsonians who deem it worth our time, money, and lives to try to remake the Islamic world, Muslim animus is something that must be addressed — otherwise, they’d have to concede that there is nothing we can do about it, that Muslims resent more than appreciate our help, and that their grand project is thus a fool’s errand.

To say that the entire umma hates America represents a destructive and, more important, factually inaccurate approach to the state of the world. If we base our actions on this view, we will do more damage than good to ourselves.