October 24, 2003

A CLASH OF INCIVILITIES

By Tom Plate

An American general and an Asian leader are being most unhelpful

LOS ANGELES -- What is it about the increasingly tense world situation that makes me hope someone like Shirin Ebadi comes to grace the cover of Time magazine as Person of the Year?

Ebadi, the celebrated Muslim, defies mullahs and muckrakes on behalf of the oppressed in Iran. This human rights lawyer and Tehran University lecturer is everything a modern woman (or man) should want to be: articulate, passionate and -- above all -- reasonable. Her selection for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize was a stroke of nicely timed diplomacy from Oslo, where the annual decision is made. She is not only the first Iranian to win this honor, at a time when her country had been smeared as a core triad
member of George Bush’s ‘‘axis of evil,’’ but also the first Muslim woman, at a time when Islam’s image in America is almost as bad as America’s image in Islam.

This mutual ill-imagery is unfair to both sides. But it gains currency when men who should know better reveal themselves at their worst.

Consider the recent remarks of American Lt. Gen. William Boykin: Muslims seek to destroy America, he said in a speech, ‘‘because we’re a Christian nation.’’ A key figure in the U.S. anti-terror campaign, Boykin decried Islam as idolatry because Allah was not ‘‘a real God’’ and claimed the United States was being targeted ‘‘because we’re a Christian nation ... and the enemy is a guy named Satan.’’

No, Gen. Boykin, the enemy is a guy like you who plays into the hands of Islamic extremists working hard to convince Muslims that all Americans are like you. Well, we’re not.

Not any more than Islam is but the blustery bigotry of Malaysia’s outgoing prime minister. In a speech in his home country at the biggest Islamic summit since the 9/11 horror, Mahathir Mohamad executed a reverse Boykin: ‘‘Today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.’’ It was the task of Muslims to defeat Jews who have “become a world power,’’ declaimed the 77-year-old Malay, who in private comes across as a careful thinker but in front of a major audience can become a rhetorical roller derby.

When the big boys behave as badly as this, the infamous clash of civilizations theory may come down to a clash of incivilities. Islam and Christianity are great religions that need not be at sword’s edge. But they may not be able to overcome their worst enemies -- their own blowhards, giving them a bad name.

At the same time, neither Boykin nor Mahathir is stupid. The prime minister says Islam’s troubles are party due to Jews. What he is really moaning about is the Muslim world’s own lethargic economic progress and Washington’s continued backing of Israel in its relations with the Palestinians. The latter especially plays into the hands of Muslim extremists who view America as irredeemably pro-Israel and thus anti-Islam. And that extreme view plays into the hands of those in America who, like the general, are paranoid about the Muslim world.

Americans are beginning to get a taste of the worst of worldwide Islamic bitterness. President Bush, who has consistently preached religious tolerance (and thus should fire Boykin), has just had his eyes opened in the Philippines. Some leftist parliamentarians walked out of his Manila speech, and because of mounting security concerns his visit there was cut short. Imagine -- an American president, with legions of bodyguards and battalions of armed watchers, hustled out of a Southeast Asian country that’s an ally! But the fact that many Muslims perceive the U.S. war against terror as a Christian crusade against Muslims (see general’s comments above) threatens to make whole patches of the globe unsafe for Americans.

Even at home, Islamic irritation is becoming a force with which to be reckoned. At a speech to an Arab-American group in the United States, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), who aims to become our first Jewish president, was practically booed off-stage defending U.S. policy on Israel. That’s unfortunate -- but that’s today’s geopolitical reality.

The general and the prime minister are both to be condemned for their hideous statements. Boykin should go, and Mahathir, who leaves as prime minister on Nov. 1, should pipe down for good. But the contentious issues of Islam’s relative lack of modernization and the unsettled Palestinian question won’t evaporate, even if neither one blows off again. Hotheads may cool down, but unless more people like Ebadi get control of the debate, we’re in trouble.

In this now-roiling global village, living saints like her are needed to light the looming darkness that bodes to envelope the world.

The above weekly column has just appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser, The South China Morning Post and The Straits Times of Singapore. The author, Tom Plate, is a regular columnist at these three papers. The column also appears in other world newspapers, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Japan Times and The Korea Times. Email him at: tplate@ucla.edu.

For publication and reprint rights, contact the author directly or John Simpson (john.simpson@latsi.com) of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate International.


Bio Remarks: Tom Plate is a professor of Policy and Communication Studies at UCLA where he founded the AsiaMedia. He is a regular columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate International, the South China Morning Post, The Straits Times and the Honolulu Advertiser. He is a member of the World Economic Forum, the Pacific Council on International policy and the author of five books. He has worked at TIME, the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Mail of London.

Previous Columns:

Asia 101: The President's Journey (October 20, 2003)

Get A Grip on Yourself! (October 16, 2003)

A Growing Peace Dividend: Unity in Prosperity? (October 9, 2003)

Asian Images of America and Australia (October 6, 2003)