Action Alert: Buffalo News op-ed

The Buffalo News published an editorial by Mitch Albom this morning, which questions if the Islamic world heard Obama's speech in Cairo. The article was written in response to a bombing this past week in Pakistan, which killed 40 Pakistanis in prayer, in their mosque. The author criticizes the whole Islamic worlds response to the incident:

"If something like that happened in America, we’d be talking about it for a year. Yet it happens in Pakistan, and I don’t see Muslim leaders around the world screaming for this to stop. I don’t see Arab world presidents or prime ministers or princes lamenting the bloodshed in speeches that call for an end to the violence.

"In fact, there’s not a whole lot beyond a few condemnations and the head-shaking acceptance that this is the way it is, the way it has been for centuries and the way it will be for the years to come. Eyes for eyes. Teeth for teeth. Murder in the name of God."

This generalized critique of the Islamic world stinks of American exceptionalism and ethnocentrism; exceptionalism in his "not here in America" attitude and ethnocentrism in his latent allusion to Islamic cultural savagery. Meanwhile, Mr. Albom gives Obama the status of a failed savior- the Western missionary who has tried so hard to save the doomed culture of the East; but was simply not listened to. It is this latent ethnocentrism that we must be on guard for.

The article went on to to blast Islamic fundamentalism without equally doing justice to other forms of religious fundamentalism: "Remember, Taliban sympathizers claim they are aligned with the purest and most stringent form of their religion. These aren’t atheists bombing mosques. These are people who consider themselves true believers. So true, they would kill for it." Now, the suicide bombing he was referring to was incredibly unjust, inhumane and disgusting; however, it is unfair to say that religious fundamentalism affects only Islamic society. This is a problem even here in the United States. Only a week ago, a Christian fundamentalist walked into a church and killed a doctor who performed late-term abortions. One conservative commentator appears to have condoned the murder! And in Palestine, Jewish Fundamentalists have for years violently attacked Palestinians. In one memorable case, a Jewish fundamentalist walked into a mosque during early morning prayers and shot over 30 Palestinians dead; this was in Hebron. There is no exception for the West; fundamentalism is an evil that permeates all religions, Western or Eastern.

In summary, Mr. Albom has not appeared to listen to Obama. The U.S. is not at war with Islam. There is no clash of Fundamentalism's; rather, it is only there if you choose to see it. This attitude will prove fatal if we continue to effect change across the Middle East through a modern form of "cultural imperialism." We cannot "bring democracy" to the Middle East; rather, we must work within the culutral attitudes prevalent in the area and listen to what the people want, not what we would like to see. This will bring change.