Why God and Allah Don't Talk

Many struggle to obtain a profound awareness of Islam and the Middle East.

There have been many myths and beliefs about the Islamic people that have caused collective behaviors and attitudes toward the Middle East.In this issue, we provide an interview that may bridge the gap between

Islam and the West and help discover cross-cultural commonalities between the

two.

First off, what are the major similarities and differences between Islam, Judaism and Christianity?

Historically they developed in sequence and can be seen as an ongoing expression of monotheism originating in the Middle East. Islam regards itself as the continuation and completion of Judaism and Christianity. Like Judaism, Islam has a very strong emphasis on law, and like Christianity it has a very strong teaching about a judgment day and heaven and hell. Like both religions, Islam has a particular (and to us, familiar) rule of moral and ethical behavior. Additionally, the Qur'an contains many stories from the Bible, so if you look at the Qur'an you have a lot of things that would be familiar to Jews and Christians. As far as differences, the most notable thing would be the exclusive way that each religion regards, or has tended to regard, its scripture. Along these lines, I always find it interesting that students who accept the resurrection of Jesus as a natural fact also regard Islam's account of Muhammad's revelations as far-fetched. Then again, some people have a more tolerant approach.

What causes the conflict between Christians and Muslims?

It comes down to a number of things. First, it's the history of competition for land and power, because as Islam developed it created an empire and all empires spread by force. Islam conquered a tremendous amount of territory in the largely-Christian Byzantine world of the Mediterranean in the 7th and 8th centuries, and very quickly too, and so it presented a serious political threat to Christian Europe. Out of that political challenge there came a lot of religious dispute and rancor, and a long history of polemical attacks from both sides. Later on we have more unpleasant history: the Crusades in the 11th-13th centuries and European imperialism in the 18th-20th centuries, to name just two examples. All of this history has shaped Christian-Muslim relations.I think ultimately the conflict is a combination of political history and religious intolerance: disputes about who has the "correct" version of True Religion. This kind of thinking, which we might call Absolutism, is the cause of a lot of conflict.

What is the difference between the Sunnis and Shiites and why are they fighting?

The difference between the Sunnis and Shiites originated in the first century of Islamic history, when there was a dispute about political authority and who is qualified to govern the community as the political and religious leader. Out of that political dispute emerged the Shiite sect. They believed that only someone who was descended from the prophet's family was qualified to rule on behalf of all Muslims. The Sunnis believed that whoever was elected by the representatives of the community was qualified. So it was a political dispute, it has never been a theological dispute. Strictly speaking, Sunnis and Shiites can pray in one another's mosques. In actual practice, because the two communities are so polarized due to a long history of antagonism, they usually don't worship in one another's mosques or intermarry and or even have close social relations. The present conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq dates back to the founding of Iraq after World War One, and it is a big subject unto itself.

Was it America that unleashed the ferocity of the conflicts in the Middle East?

Certainly we unleashed the conflicts-and that's an important word, "unleashed"-in Iraq. The conflicts are religious, between Sunni Muslims and Shiites, and also ethnic, between Arabs and Kurds. The conflicts between those groups have been around for a while, but for most of the 20th century they were suppressed by strong authoritarian rule. That did not begin with Saddam by the way, it began much earlier after World War One with the first king of Iraq, King Faisal, who struggled to govern this crazy-quilt artificial state created by the British called "Iraq." And when Faisal's monarchy was eventually overthrown there was a succession of military rulers and Saddam was simply the last of them. Prior to the creation of modern Iraq there were four centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule, which suppressed animosities by incorporating people within a dynamic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Muslim empire. The animosities may have been there, but the ruling powers kept them in check. What happened when we went into Iraq in 2003 was, we overthrew Saddam but also, unfortunately and tragically and foolishly, we undid their entire government and their police force and their military. So there was literally no Iraqi political, judicial, military, or legal authority to maintain order and the communities quickly dissolved into communal hostilities. Iran and outside Arab interests certainly also played a role, but it was the U.S. that let the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, and it was a terrible mistake that we-and the Iraqi people-continue to pay for.

Why is there a collective behavior or attitude toward Islam?

There is a long history of Western thinking about Islam, but I think America's collective attitude towards Islam and the Middle East began in the late 1970s with the Iranian Revolution. This is when probably most Americans first become aware of Islam as a religion, and they regarded it as a threat because of the taking of the embassy and seizing of American hostages. Few people, predictably, asked why this was happening. What began in the 1970s absolutely took off after September 11, no question about it. September 11 was a watershed event in shaping American opinion towards Islam and the Middle East. I think it mobilized people, and it was a tragic event not only because of the loss of innocent lives, but also because there was such a strong reaction against Islam and the Middle East instead of a thoughtful response: but of course that's what warfare does. So instead of September 11 being what we call "a teachable moment," people reacted very emotionally. And the most obvious example, or rather what this led to, was our invasion of Iraq two years later, which was a disaster from the very beginning because Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with September 11 and Bin Laden and Al Qaida. The members of Al Qaida hated Saddam, they called him an infidel and wanted him dead. And Saddam was a tyrant, certainly, but do we invade Iraq for that reason? There are many tyrants in the world. More to the point, Bin Laden was in Afghanistan.