A reader remonstrates:
You are right, Islam has a problem right now and your description of it as "ressentiment, but with God re-attached" is perfect. However, I don’t think it’s helpful to dismiss a supportive Muslim who is concerned about his faith and culture being painted with a broad brush. The exchange has re-clarified (I keep reaching this conclusion and keep forgetting it) for me that this cancer is a problem that can only be excised by Islam itself – we can’t win this struggle, but we can lose it. This conclusion, of course, leaves me with the question of our role in Islam’s internal struggle. It reminded me of a parable that’s attributed to Native Americans. (I’m not sure if this attribution is accurate.)
When asked about spirituality, a Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner:
"Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time."
When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, "The one I feed."
In terms of our actions, so little is clear in this struggle. However, I suspect that our most helpful role is to find ways to feed the good dog and starve the bad dog. I fear that your post, while making an important point, was written in a way that starves the good dog and may feed the bad dog. Not to say that we can’t be critical of elements within Islam, but we can’t get sucked into forgetting that worldwide, a tiny fraction of Muslims will actively support violence. The rest oppose it, are too scared to oppose it, or are on the fence. They are barraged with messages that we will never respect them, understand them or help them in any lasting and meaningful way. You and Tony Blair are correct – we have to win this by living our values, not using them as justification for imposing them world-wide and suspending them at home. This is why, even though I consider myself liberal, I oppose any redeployment out of Iraq that would widely be perceived as abandonment.
I hope my postings did not conflate all Muslims into the bad category. I am sorry if they unintentionally did. My intent was the opposite: to clarify the sickness that is there and encourage the healthy within the Muslim world to combat it. The problem is, in part, however, the touchiness of the healthy. They shouldn’t immediately suspect every Western criticism of Islamism and Wahhabism of being criticism of Islam as a whole.
The Dish 