An Anti-Islamist Manifesto--a critique

From the beginning of the Prophet Mohammad's incident--I decided to sit this one out. Not because it was not important, but rather, because I thought that anything I would want to say is being in one form or another said. That what was needed was not another opinion -- but rather ideas on how to find common ground among different sides-- all of whom incidentally believe they are right. Until, a few days ago when I read An Anti-Islamist Manifesto on 3quarksdaily which by the way is one of my favorite blogs. The Manifesto is signed by 13 people so far: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Chahla Chafiq, Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Irshad Manji, Mehdi Mozaffari, Maryam Namazie, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, Antoine Sfeir, Philippe Val and Ibn Warraq.

There are several points that made me pick up my pen, or keyboard that is -- and I would like to point them out to the dear signees.

1-- my objections, dear signees, begins with the first line --the tag line of the manifesto which reads: "Together facing the new totalitarianism--After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces ... a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism. " Dearintellectualss--as the manifesto describes its' writers and the eventual throng of signers--I am sure everyone of you has his / her reasons to feel the need to pick up arms against this new global threat. But I must warn you that you are using the same language as the Bush administration, and the Christian Right in US. Why academics and writers find it necessary to use this language is what I find disturbing--because I am sure at least some of the signees know that Islam, Islamism, and Muslims have not conquered any notable part of the world, actually they have been loosing ground, they have not made any conquest based on racial.Ideologicall, or anyotherwisical ground to dominate anyone in the world. question is: On what grounds are they a threat comparable to The Soviet Empire, Nazi Germany, or even Idi Amin? Fact is this language and the subsequent call to arms is somewhat nonsensical -- and the day will come that all you dear signees will be somewhat embarrassed of having signed this document--and will be making excuses. See you then.

2-- WOW this is a big one "We reject cultural relativism" , this one is a milestone in Western Civilazion's 4 centuries long endeavor in search of enlightment. Thanks guys for making things really simple for us like so many well wishing intellectuals before you such as Hitler, Stalinn, J. Edgar Hoover, Pol Pot,...You have shown us the correct path to enlightment--reject everything that is different, because :YOU GUESSED IT, WE ARE RIGHT AND THEY ARE NOT. Congratulations, this was a big one -- you have really made us proud.

3-- When I first moved back to Iran in 1993 -- one of my main problems was to get real news--and thus considered myself very lucky to get a copy of the IHT through a very special friend. This is only 13 years ago and this I think demonstrates how quickly things have changed and how far behind we are in adapting to new realities. Freedom of speech when applied to 1993 and to local or even national (albeit very small)l newspapers made perfect sense to guarantee the free flow of information, and to prevent potential tyrants from controlling the media and thus societies. Back in those days no one in Tokyo would be able to, would have any reason to, or even care to read a small Danish newspaper unless ofcourse he was a Dane living in Tokyo. But today, I think without going to the usual song and dance about the miracle and wonder of IT--it has become painfully obvious that in the truly Global Village (another term I truly despise--but that is for another article) we need to develop new sensibilities to coexist with our newfound next-door neighborss. Its a fact of life -- just like it is a fact of life that we now must think of cheap Asiann labor everytime we consider the security of our Danish Jobs. This new sensibility is a must -- just like the necessity to respect our next-door neighbor --even if he is an Abdullah- looking fellow, whome we didn't invite to live next door. Yes dear signees, these days our neighbors may look and think differently, yes this is unsettling , but so are a number of other things that are more important which I'm sure we will get to in time if we were not made confused by false global threats. This new village and the make up of our neighborhood has more to do with Western technology, International Finance, and even Bill Gates than with the new global threat of Islam. Islam happens to be the new neighbor that among all others is probably more different, and tends to disagree with us energetically and vociferously. We can either learn from them, reason with them, and affect them culturally--teaching tolerance by being sensitive and tolerant--or incinerate them while they are asleep. The second, can hardly be a worthy choice for the West.