The April scandal within the Catholic Church concerning the priests who molested children has led me to be sharply critical of Jesus and Christianity. I think that Jesus Christ was a bad, immoral person.
How many readers are furious with me right now? Probably a lot. How many are equally furious about Reverend Jerry Falwell's almost identical comments about Islam in an interview with 60 Minutes? He said Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was a terrorist and a \violent man, a man of war."" To his credit, he also said he believed that ""most Muslims are people of peace and want peace and tranquillity ... and abhor terrorism."" The article went on to state that two other protestant clergymen, Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson, ""have been sharply critical of Islam and Muhammad in the past year.""
My friends and I had a good laugh about the article, but it points to some very disturbing trends. Would anyone ever make these sorts of statements about Jesus Christ? No, and if they did, they would be met with an outpouring of rage. The statements themselves don't make sense how can the long dead Prophet be responsible for what's going on in the world now? It is incredibly presumptuous of all of these clergymen to assume that they can understand the attitudes and nature of Muhammad from reading a few books. What makes statements about Muhammad more legitimate?
It seems to show that we as a society are willing to accept huge simplifications when it comes to Islam. What does that reveal about us? Edward Said, historian and professor, wrote in his 1978 book ""Orientalism,"" ""One aspect of the electronic, postmodern world is that there has been a reinforcement of the stereotype... Television, the films and all the media's resources have forced information into more and more standardized molds. As far as the Orient is concerned, standardization and cultural stereotyping have intensified the hold of the nineteenth-century academic and imaginative demonology of 'the mysterious Orient.'"" This is nowhere more true than in the ways by which the Near East is perceived.
Three things have contributed to making even the simplest perception of the Arabs and Islam into a highly politicized, almost raucous matter. One, the history of popular anti-Arab and anti-Islamic prejudice in the West, which is reflected in the history of Orientalism. Two, the struggle between the Arabs and Israeli Zionism and its effects on American Jews as well as upon both the liberal culture and population at large. Three, the almost total absence of cultural position making it possible either to identify with or dispassionately discuss Arabs or Islam.
Unfortunately, the prejudices reflected in Falwell's interview have been hundreds of years in the making. We must all be aware of the flaws, not only in our own personal belief systems but in entire bodies of thought. Believing in Orientalism makes it impossible to understand Muslim faith because it is impossible to understand an idea when you won't acknowledge its complexity. Misunderstanding only creates hatred and widens the gulf between Christians, Americans, Muslims and Arabs. We all need to work together to break down barriers that demean and simplify any group of people, even if they are rooted in hundreds of years of scholarly tradition.
