Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Is Osama Bin Laden Martin Luther?
Thursday, March 1, 2007

My old friend Fareed Zakaria has an intriguing piece in Newsweek suggesting that we are, at last, seeing a Reformation in Islam, which he deems as both good news and bad. He says the dominant reality in the region is the growing schism between Sunni and Shia -- from the violence in Iraq, to warning of a Shia crescent in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, to the Palestinian turn to Shia. Here's a summary, provided by the WSJ:

Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri founded al Qaeda in the 1980s as a pan-Islamic organization. To that effect Mr. bin Laden initially resisted sanctioning violence against the Shiite minority in Afghanistan during the war against the Russians. Similarly, after the invasion of Iraq, Mr. Zawahiri reproached al Qaeda's head there, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for attacking Iraq's Shiites.

Nevertheless, Mr. Zarqawi's approach has won out. Al-Qaeda's anti-Shiite message has boosted its appeal among a Sunni minority disenfranchised by the fall of Saddam Hussein. However, while the anti-Shiite stance might boost al Qaeda's appeal in "Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and some parts of the gulf," Mr. Zakaria says it means that everywhere else al Qaeda has lost its original appeal as a uniter of Muslims against a common, powerful enemy.

While al Qaeda finds itself dragged into an internal battle between Muslims, the U.S. should stay out of it, Mr. Zakaria says. This way it can ensure that what is a war between sects evolves into a war of ideas. "Islam must make space for differing views about what makes a good Muslim," says Mr. Zakaria. "Then it will be able to take the next step and accept the diversity among religions, each true in its own way."

The idea is certainly appealing here: Sit back while Islam fights an intramural battle and spends more time fighting with one another than with the outside world. Daniel Benjamin made a similar argument a few weeks ago. But I think the rising Shia argument is very weak; where are the new recruits going to come from? Shia seems to have topped out at 15% of the Muslim world. And maybe Bin Laden's dream of being a pan-Islamist might not give him the possibility of uniting the entire Muslim world, but isn't 85% of it fairly substantial? The real issue of Bin Laden is what percentage of the Muslim world is committed to fighting the West vs. what percentage is committed to trying to coopt its financial model. In places like Morocco, which is outside the Shia sphere, that is the real battle. I think there is quite a difference between a sectarian battle within Islam for the future of the faith vs. an internal reform movement that substantially changes the base theology, which is what the Reformation was about.

Labels: Islam, Middle East

Posted by B Feiler at 7:00 AM
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