Agree or Disagree?
An interesting quote from Andrew Sullivan today, that I wanted to throw out there. I know we’re not a comment-heavy blog, and for that matter probably not with a lot of readers who don’t already agree with the premise, but it struck me as worth pulling out and examining. What do you think? Agree or disagree? You can probably guess where I stand, but I haven’t yet seen it phrased like this.
Perhaps our greatest delusion is believing we can do anything much about the internal convulsions of Islam in grappling with modernity. The forces behind this are far deeper and greater than any foreign policy initiative from the distant US can reverse or channel. We may just have to endure, with prudential defenses of nascent democratic life in Afghanistan and Kurdistan, and make sure we do not violate our own constitutional freedoms in the meantime. Or we can hope that the nascent Muslim civil war brings the world of Islam to its senses
That’s an important premise to examine, no? I mean really, that’s central to the entire foreign policy question of the last 7 years. There are more than a few ways you could approach it, but it strikes me as worth dealing with head-on.
So what do you say? Comment or email.
I think Sullivan is incorrect. American diplomacy and cultural “soft power” can, and has, substantially affected the course of Islamic movements in numerous nations. For better or worse, we’re the ones defining “modernity”. That puts us in a defining role in the struggle whether we will it or not.
And, of course, we’ve affected those movements through military intervention as well; that aspect of our influence is more directly under the government’s control.
Comment by Rojas — 8/14/2007 @ 11:28 pm
I’m dating a pretty Muslim girl from Pakistan right now, and she seems nice and sane…
except when she whips off the Burqa and we go at it.
Comment by weltschmerz — 8/15/2007 @ 2:21 am