I believe we should
promote Muslim moderates right here in America. And why I'm returning an
award to the ADL.
by
Fareed Zakaria
Ever since 9/11, liberals and conservatives have agreed that the lasting
solution to the problem of Islamic terror is to prevail in the battle of
ideas and to discredit radical Islam, the ideology that motivates young men
to kill and be killed. Victory in the war on terror will be won when a
moderate, mainstream version of Islam—one that is compatible with
modernity—fully triumphs over the world view of Osama bin Laden.
As the conservative Middle Eastern expert
Daniel Pipes put it, “The U.S. role [in this struggle] is less to offer its
own views than to help those Muslims with compatible views, especially on
such issues as relations with non-Muslims, modernization, and the rights of
women and minorities.” To that end, early in its tenure the Bush
administration began a serious effort to seek out and support moderate
Islam. Since then, Washington has funded mosques, schools, institutes, and
community centers that are trying to modernize Islam around the world.
Except, apparently, in New York City.
The debate over whether an Islamic center
should be built a few blocks from the World Trade Center has ignored a
fundamental point. If there is going to be a reformist movement in Islam, it
is going to emerge from places like the proposed institute. We should be
encouraging groups like the one behind this project, not demonizing them.
Were this mosque being built in a foreign city, chances are that the U.S.
government would be funding it.
The man spearheading the center, Imam Feisal
Abdul Rauf, is a moderate Muslim clergyman. He has said one or two things
about American foreign policy that strike me as overly critical —but it’s
stuff you could read on The Huffington Post any day. On Islam, his main
subject, Rauf’s views are clear: he routinely denounces all terrorism—as he
did again last week, publicly. He speaks of the need for Muslims to live
peacefully with all other religions. He emphasizes the commonalities among
all faiths. He advocates equal rights for women, and argues against laws
that in any way punish non-Muslims. His last book,
What’s Right With Islam Is What’s Right With America, argues that the
United States is actually the ideal Islamic society because it encourages
diversity and promotes freedom for individuals and for all religions. His
vision of Islam is bin Laden’s nightmare.
Rauf often makes his arguments using
interpretations of the Quran and other texts. Now, I am not a religious
person, and this method strikes me as convoluted and Jesuitical. But for the
vast majority of believing Muslims, only an argument that is compatible with
their faith is going to sway them. The Somali-born “ex-Muslim” writer Ayaan
Hirsi Ali’s advice to Muslims is to convert to Christianity. That may create
buzz, but it is unlikely to have any effect on the 1.2 billion devout
Muslims in the world.
The much larger issue that this center raises
is, of course, of freedom of religion in America. Much has been written
about this, and I would only urge people to read Michael Bloomberg’s speech
on the subject last week. Bloomberg’s eloquent, brave, and carefully
reasoned address should become required reading in every civics classroom in
America. It probably will.
Bloomberg’s speech stands in stark contrast to
the bizarre decision of the Anti-Defamation League to publicly side with
those urging that the center be moved. The ADL’s mission statement says it
seeks “to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and
ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.” But Abraham Foxman, the head of
the ADL, explained that we must all respect the feelings of the 9/11
families, even if they are prejudiced feelings. “Their anguish entitles them
to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted,” he
said. First, the 9/11 families have mixed views on this mosque. There were,
after all, dozens of Muslims killed at the World Trade Center. Do their
feelings count? But more important, does Foxman believe that bigotry is OK
if people think they’re victims? Does the anguish of Palestinians, then,
entitle them to be anti-Semitic?
Five years ago, the ADL honored me with its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. I was thrilled to get the award from an organization that I had long admired. But I cannot in good conscience keep it anymore. I have returned both the handsome plaque and the $10,000 honorarium that came with it. I urge the ADL to reverse its decision. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation.