Why are Muslims annoyed with the West?
I’ve just gotten around to reading this good “Letter from Karachi” by freelance journalist Madiha Tahir published in Foreign Affairs in May. Occasioned by the embarrassing ban on Facebook in Pakistan, which in turn was occasioned by an ill-judged “Everybody Draw Mohammad Day” Facebook page set up by an artist right here in Seattle named Molly Norris, it offers a helpfully vivid glimpse of some of the fractures within Pakistani society. It also states the obvious about the larger global context succinctly and well:
“Like the defenders of the ban in Pakistan, many in the West also imagine a monolithic Islamic community. Incendiary Facebook pages, the French burka ban, and the anti-Islam advertisements placed on New York City buses by the right-wing blogger Pamela Geller and the Stop the Islamization of America campaign are just some of the West’s reactions to that community. All of this – combined with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and drone attacks in Pakistan – has led many young Pakistanis to understand that they are being attacked because they are Muslims.”
A Mosque Maligned
A very good, thoughtful essay by Robert Wright of the New America Foundation, someone I’d love to meet and recommend Pakistani-Americans seek out and cultivate:
“No doubt Osama bin Laden, if apprised of the situation, would hope that Rauf will cave in to these demands and ritually denounce Hamas. Because the Muslims who are most vulnerable to bin Laden’s recruiting pitch are, it’s safe to say, at least somewhat sympathetic to Hamas. And if moderate Muslims like Rauf can be pressured into adopting Israel’s position, and thus be depicted by truly radical Muslims as Zionist tools, that will make them less effective in their tug of war with bin Laden for the hearts and minds of the vulnerable.”
What I do and why
I’ve just published a statement under this title on a dedicated new page of my website. It explains succinctly, I think, where I’ve come from and where I’m at in terms of my writing, publishing and public speaking going into this fall and then 2011 – the book I’m writing on Haiti, plus ongoing promotion of my Pakistan books. I’ve also written a fresh bio, which is now online on my Bio page.
Am back at my desk, online, and in the swing of things, after ten days or so in an undisclosed location recuperating from an extremely busy and exhausting winter and spring. Am feeling refreshed and looking forward to meeting old and new friends in my travel this fall to Haiti and around the US, and hopefully to Pakistan early in 2011 to launch Overtaken By Events there.
