Engaging the Other: Public Policy and Western-Muslim Intersections

Engaging the Other

10.1057/9781137403698 - Engaging the Other, Edited by Karim H. Karim and Mahmoud Eid

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Also relevant by the editors

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Islamic Peril: Media and Global Violence (2000, 2003)

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From Ethnic Media to Global Media: Transnational Communication Networks among Diasporic Communities (1998)

Changing Perceptions of Islamic Authority among Muslims in Canada, the US and the UK (2009)

Re-Imagining the Other: Culture, Media, and Western-Muslim Intersections, co-edited with Mahmoud Eid (2014)

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Interweavement: International Media Ethics and Rational Decision-Making (2008)

The Right to Communicate: Historical Hopes, Global Debates and Future Premises, co-edited with Aliaa Dakroury and Yahya R. Kamalipour (2009)

Exchanging Terrorism Oxygen for Media Airwaves: The Age of Terroredia, edited (2014)

Mission Invisible: Race, Religion, and News at the Dawn of the 9/11 Era, co-authored with Ross Perigoe (2014)

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Engaging the Other

Public Policy and Western-Muslim Intersections

Edited by

Karim H. Karim and Mahmoud Eid


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engaging the otherCopyright © Karim H. Karim and Mahmoud Eid

All rights reserved.

First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN: 978-1-137-40368-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Engaging the other : public policy and Western-Muslim intersections / edited by Karim H. Karim and Mahmoud Eid. pages cm ISBN 978-1-137-40368-1 (hardback) 1. Western countries—Relations—Islamic countries. 2. Islamic

countries— Relations—Western countries. 3. Civilization, Western. 4. Islamic civilization. 5. East and West. 6. Muslims—Western countries— Social conditions. I. Karim, Karim H. (Karim Haiderali), 1956– editor of compilation. II. Eid, Mahmoud, 1970– editor of compilation.

DS35.74.W47E64 2014 303.48'2182101767—dc23 2014023965

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Design by Amnet.

First edition: December 2014

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1


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To those who endeavor to bring about productive engagement between

Self and Other


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Contents

Preface ixKarim H. Karim and Mahmoud Eid

1 Engaging the Other 1Mahmoud Eid and Karim H. Karim

2 Toledean Testimony: Reconquista, Architectural Convivencia and the Man from La Mancha 17H. Masud Taj

3 Christian and Muslim Principles of Debate: Renewing Discourse in the Public Square 43Marianne Farina

4 European Education and Islam: Liberalism and Alterity 67Shiraz Thobani

5 Muslim Civil Society in Eastern and Western Contexts 89Karim H. Karim

6 Bridging Civilizations: The New Hermeneutics of Islamic Law 111Anicée Van-Engeland

7 The Inner Clash of Civilizations within the Muslim Ummah 133Steven Kull

8 Public Policy and Muslims in Western Societies: Security and Integration 151Mahmoud Eid

9 Political Participation among Muslims in Europe and the United States 173Jocelyne Cesari


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viii ● Contents

10 Producing Alternative Media Discourses on Muslims 191Faiza Hirji

11 Public Policy and the Clash of Ignorance 213Mahmoud Eid and Karim H. Karim

About the Contributors 227

Index 231


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Preface

This book examines Western-Muslim engagement in policy contexts. We invited major scholars to write about the specific topics of civil society, edu-cational curriculum, government policy, inter-communal relations, legal reform, media production, political participation, public discourse, public opinion, and responses to public policy. The volume deals with various ways in which the Self has engaged with the Other in Western-Muslim intersec-tions, and explores ways of enhancing such interaction in domestic and trans-national contexts. It provides empirical information that demonstrates the possibilities for productive interactions domestically and internationally.

Engaging the Other: Public Policy and Western-Muslim Intersections is simul-taneously published with its companion volume Re-Imagining the Other: Cul-ture, Media, and Western-Muslim Intersections. The main aims of the these books are to study in an original manner (1) the role of mutual cultural ignorance as a cause of conflict between Western and Muslim societies and (2) the possibilities of engaging constructively with each other. This set of publications examines the complex relationships between the two civiliza-tions by drawing on historical and contemporary material. Whereas several books on related topics have been published in the last decade, this project is a unique and innovatively structured multidisciplinary endeavor that builds a new theoretical model and approaches the issue from the perspectives of both Western and Muslim societies. Whereas each book stands on its own, we believe that Engaging the Other appeals to readers specifically interested in the study of policy issues relating to conflict, culture, diaspora, education, immigration, interfaith dialogue, intercultural and international relations, Islam and the West, law, media, multiculturalism, national security, political participation, public discourse, public policy, and religion.

This set of books appears at a timely juncture that marks the withdrawal of Western military forces from the long war in Afghanistan. Even as the con-flicts between Western and Muslim societies proliferate, public support for expensive and bloody wars has declined, and policymakers are more receptive


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x ● Preface

toward alternatives to militarization and securitization. The intensification of the debates on Muslim immigration to Western countries provides a domes-tic frame for the project’s topicality. Despite their differing values, Western and Muslim civilizations overlap with each other in many ways and have demonstrated the capacity for productive engagement. It is unfortunate that, in spite of a mountain of academic research produced on the shared Abra-hamic heritage and the long history of collaborative relationships, our time is marked by an escalation of the clash to a global scale. Much of Western-Muslim interaction is characterized by a mutual lack of awareness of the his-tory in which each culture played a vital role in shaping the other.

This project draws from the critique that the concept of clash of ignorance poses. The concept was initially proposed by the late Edward Said in a brief magazine article. A growing number of academics, policymakers, religious leaders, and media commentators are making references to this idea; however, it has not yet been fully developed as a theory. We published a well-received article exploring the basic ideas of the clash of ignorance thesis in 2012 in the Global Media Journal—Canadian Edition. The present project provides theoretical and empirical substance to this thesis in a multidisciplinary and internationally authored set of volumes. Contributors are from the academic fields of architecture, communication and media, conflict resolution, educa-tion, international relations, Islamic studies, law, literature, Middle-Eastern studies, political psychology, politics, social anthropology, theology, and translation.

This timely and innovative project that takes the lead in the elaboration of the undertheorized and underresearched clash of ignorance paradigm coincides with the twentieth anniversary of Huntington’s introduction of the clash of civilizations thesis, which has run its course. As Western and Mus-lim societies are experiencing exhaustion from the “war on terror,” students, policymakers, and publics are well disposed to alternatives to the conflict model. The project makes a compelling argument for shedding the old and tired modes of understanding intercivilizational relations, and offers fresh and thought-provoking possibilities for productive interactions between cul-tural and religious groups in the twenty-first century.

Karim H. Karim and Mahmoud Eid


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ChaPtEr 1

Engaging the Other

Mahmoud Eid and Karim H. Karim

Conflict is endemic in human interaction, but it is not inevitable. Some clashes tend to result from the placing of relationships within a zero-sum framework in which the Self sees itself as losing when the

Other makes a gain, and vice versa. When opposing parties view each other as a danger they feed on mutually induced fears and produce a rising spiral of conflict. Such adversarial conceptualizations tend to disregard the possibili-ties for fruitful engagements with the Other.

This book presents a series of studies that examine several types of interac-tion that have taken place historically and in contemporary times between people of Western and Muslim backgrounds. The chapters speak to the importance of public engagement in the areas of civil society, education, foreign affairs, immigrant integration, international law, intercultural rela-tions, media production, political participation, public discourse, and pub-lic security. Policies adopted by governments and organizations as well as responses to them by various publics are examined. The chapters by Jocelyne Cesari, Mahmoud Eid, Faiza Hirji, Karim H. Karim, Steven Kull, Shiraz Thobani, and Anicée Van-Engeland look at the ways in which public opinion as well as the approaches of institutions have enhanced or impeded a better understanding and engagement with the Other.

This multidisciplinary volume appears against a background of the domi-nant discourses that have placed Western and Muslim societies in a “clash of civilizations” (Huntington, 1996). It foregrounds the reality that they have actually coexisted in a state of mutual interdependence for almost one and a half millennia—contributing to the growth of each other’s societies and to those of others. Despite the current state of conflict between Western gov-ernments and militant Islamist1 groups, there is a long history of productive


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2 ● Mahmoud Eid and Karim h. Karim

engagement between the Western and Muslim civilizations. This happened even during wars such as the Crusades. Barrie Wharton notes that “there exists very little historical evidence for the theory that Islam, and therefore Muslim communities, cannot be accommodated within or integrated into a Western European societal landscape”; on the contrary, “there are many simi-larities between the ideas of citizenship and socio-political organization held by both Muslim communities and secular Western European society” (2008, p. 48). Marianne Farina’s chapter in this book discusses the similarities between Christian and Muslim principles of engaging discursively with the Other. Media reporting often sensationalizes conflicts between the long-standing residents of North America, Europe, and Australasia and Muslim immigrants, but the larger reality is that of peaceful settlement (e.g., Abbas, 2005; Eid, 2014a; 2014b; Haddad, 2002; Leonard, 2003). Nevertheless, some television programs have been attempting to provide a nuanced por-trayal (e.g., Dakroury, 2008; Eid & Khan, 2011; Hirji, 2011), as discussed in Mahmoud Eid’s and Faiza Hirji’s respective chapters.

Despite the positing of “fault lines” between civilizations by Samuel Hun-tington (1996), history has demonstrated a profound interconnectedness between the peoples of the world. Cultures have been sharing their advances in knowledge with each other from time immemorial. Human advancement would not have been possible without the exchange of the particular insights that various groups brought to the common treasury of knowledge. People learned from each other how to make more efficient tools, organize more productive societies, and deal more humanely with each other. Art, literature, music, philosophy, religion, science, and technology have crossed borders and continents and mutually enlightened civilizations around the planet. How-ever, there have also been streams of bloody conflicts running through his-tory. Notwithstanding the remarkable advancements of our times, human beings have continued to carry out enormous destruction of lives and prop-erty. But even in the darkest days, there remain rays of hope. Whereas religion has often been appropriated to support a multitude of nefarious causes, it has also often inspired profound expressions of kindness and the aspiration of harmony among peoples. Contemporary ethical codes have roots in the teachings of various faiths around the world. Religious thought and engage-ment along with secular philosophy and activism by individuals and groups seeking a better life for all have also brought peace and reconciliation among peoples.

It is a commonplace to refer to the interdependence brought about by glo-balization. However, the reliance of diverse groups upon each other existed for millennia even as they quarreled with each other. Trade in goods and ideas as well as the migrations of people have interwoven the cultures of countries


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Engaging the Other ● 3

that are thousands of miles from each other. We are bound together by expres-sions drawn from the major languages of the world, foods transplanted from one continent to another, and by religions, ideologies, and genes. Diasporas such as the “Black Atlantic” (Gilroy, 1993) straddle Africa, the Caribbean, South America, North America, Europe, as well as other parts of the world. Current migration continues to bring different peoples together. Christians and Muslims live in almost every corner of the planet. Unfortunately, this has occasionally led to significant conflicts in some countries even as individuals and groups strive to work together for the common good.

The presentation of the world’s civilizations as completely distinct from each other and as destined inevitably to clash almost completely ignores the long and productive engagement between peoples. Huntington was not the first to present the world as essentially characterized by conflict result-ing from difference (Hobson, 2014). This mode of thinking has had a sub-stantial impact on the conceptualization of the relationship between various regions by policymakers in varied but interconnected domains such as edu-cation, foreign policy, immigrant integration, media production, and pub-lic security—some of the topics dealt with in this volume. Huntington had come to view the world in a binary mode in which NATO and Warsaw Pact countries were completely separate and different from each other. After the Cold War, he globalized this model and applied it as a framework to analyze relationships between civilizations. These interactions were mainly presented in a conflictual manner and as a way for the U.S. government to prepare for potential clashes with various Others.

The “West” and “Islam” have been presented in scenarios such as those of Huntington as inimical geopolitical actors locked in a deadly struggle. These complex and changing social entities are constructed as being monolithic and static in their composition. Like other human groupings, they are what Benedict Anderson (1983) has called “imagined communities”—imagined as existing in particular forms by their own members and by others. The geopolitical terms “West” and “Islam” have locked the imagination into narrow ways of thinking about complex realities. They tend to prevent the consideration of the vast pluralism that exists on both sides and the acknowl-edgment that they are constructed entities whose individual components have had long-standing relationships across what are considered to be civi-lizational borders. Indeed, Richard Bulliet (2004) makes an intriguing case for an “Islamo-Christian civilization” based on the many commonalities in outlook as well as the many harmonious interactions between Christians and Muslims.

Highlighting episodes of conflict often eclipses a long and generally pro-ductive history of engagement between the two civilizations. Both sides have


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produced dominant images of each other that are highly negative and inhibit a coming together. Among Muslims,

the West is seen as a superior model in terms of technological progress and its more advanced political system, but also as an immoral civilization and a bullying, arrogant, and imperialist power . . . in the West, the Islamic world is seen as inferior, weak, aggressive, and hostile, to the extent that the general per-ception of the Arab-Muslim is that of the unwanted immigrant, the religious fanatic, and the dreaded terrorist. (Gafaïti, 2008, pp. 113–114)

These two mirror images are symbiotically locked into presenting each other as incorrigible villains who are a danger to the Self (Karim & Eid, 2014). They affect public opinion and policy, as discussed in Steven Kull’s chapter in this book. The ongoing intersections between members of Western and Muslim societies tend to be viewed through these lenses, and the overall pro-ductivity of the interactions between the two sides is often lost in the fog of discursive war.

The contemporary Muslim and Western dominant discourses’ mutual construction of the Other as completely alien is all the more surprising given the intense level of engagement between the two over a very long period. On the one hand, Islamist ideologies tend to distance themselves not only from secular Western cultures but also from Jews and Christians with whom Mus-lims have had an intimate relationship from the time that Islam was founded. On the other hand, Western history books tend to make only passing refer-ences to the influence of Muslims on medieval Europe. Whereas “Islam” was Europe’s primary Other and with whom it had occasional wars, the influ-ence of Muslims suffused the northern continent in the Middle Ages—their ideas, art, architecture, music, words, foods, crafts, clothes, technologies, and medical techniques were commonplace in many European cities and were much sought after where they were not. It appears that an almost systematic purging of the Muslim presence was carried out at the dawn of the colonial period, as H. Masud Taj’s chapter in this volume shows.

Colonialism coincided with the rise of “scientific” racial categorization and racist ideologies in Europe (Hobson, 2004; 2014), aiding in the ratio-nalization of the subjugation and exploitation of nonwhite peoples (Berg & Wendt, 2011). A dominant discourse emerged in Western societies that promoted an attitude of cultural superiority and an almost complete dis-regard for other traditions, social institutions, values, societal conditions, cultures, and political institutions (e.g., Alvi & Al-Roubaie, 2011; Evans, 2010). As European powers gained control of the rest of the world, a racial triumphalism appeared to erase the historical debts to other civilizations, whose contemporary peoples began to be treated as little more than subjects


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to be ruled and anthropological curiosities to be studied. Academia played a key role in furthering these discourses (Said, 1978). In such a societywide and organized form of constructions, “we are bound to face ‘institutional-ized ignorance’—that is, an epistemological system, a state and its institu-tions that intentionally and systematically produce misrepresentations of the Other in a discourse whose objective is to maintain its citizens’ igno-rance about the rest of the world” (Gafaïti, 2008, pp. 103–104). Even in areas that are supposedly characterized by academic objectivity, there “exists a widespread Eurocentric bias in the production, dissemination and evalu-ation of scientific knowledge” (Joseph, 1987, p. 13). In this worldview, a self-developed “West”— independent or only marginally shaped by external influences—emerges victorious in terms of culture, “race,” and civilization by colonizing the rest of the world. This triumphalist discourse, pursued over several centuries in Western societies, has become a dominant narrative that shapes the understanding of the Other in various aspects of social life from the treatment of immigrants to the development of foreign policy.

Muslims have had ongoing interactions with Jews, Christians, and peoples of other religions almost since the emergence of Islam, some 14 centuries ago. When the early Muslims moved out of the Arabian Peninsula and initially encountered the learned cultures of neighboring areas, they were eager to follow the Prophet Muhammad’s counsel to acquire knowledge wherever it existed. This region was part of the vibrant Hellenic world where the works of art, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, religion, and science were studied. The openness of Muslims to other cultures provided for their own intellectual flowering. It comes as a surprise to contemporary Muslims that certain key aspects of the Islamic faith that have become integral to its struc-tures of belief owe their development to scholarly methods derived from other civilizations. The only textual sources that emerged from Muhammad’s time were the Qur’an and the Hadith (the Prophet’s sayings). In the next few cen-turies, Muslims developed the basis of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (kalam), and philosophy (falsafa). However, the production of these bodies of work required the intellectual tools of analysis and philosophical reasoning that Muslims acquired from others (Fakhry, 1983). Aspects of architecture that are now thought to be iconically Muslim, such as the dome and the arch, were also borrowed from Roman and other cultures. The roots of waqf, the charitable Islamic endowment vital to the growth of Muslim societies, are to be found in Byzantine civilization.

During the Middle Ages, Church authorities in Europe restricted the reading of works that were thought to be contradictory to officially approved Christian teachings. This caused the narrowing of scholarship and eventually led to a general decay in knowledge, with some exceptions. However, even as


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Europe declined intellectually, the study of the writings from ancient Greece and elsewhere continued in what is now called the Middle East. Muslims encountered scholars who were well versed in the knowledge of the day. They came upon renowned academies of learning such as those of the city of Jondis-hapur, which was the intellectual center of the Iranian Sassanid Empire. For centuries it had been an institution for studying and training that attracted Greek, Indian, Persian, and Roman scholars in medicine, philosophy, theol-ogy, and science. A translation movement ensued. Mostly Nestorian Chris-tians rendered numerous manuscripts into Arabic. This access to the most advanced knowledge of the day increased and promoted intellectual growth. Scholars of various religious backgrounds living in Muslim-majority lands contributed to the store of human learning.

The influence of Greek knowledge on the consciousness of Mus-lims was vital for the flourishing of their cultures in the medieval period (Araeen, 2010). Their interactions with the intellectual endeavors of East-ern Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists allowed for the further growth in various disciplines—such as the arts mathematics, and medicine (e.g., Clark, 2007; Daiber, 2009; Islahi, 2004; Montgomery, 2000; Perry, 2010). Muslim scholars, spurred by Islamic teachings regard-ing the importance of knowledge, embarked on a quest for learning that had a lasting impact on subsequent civilizations and intellectual movements (e.g., Brezina, 2006; Daiber, 2009). Indeed, Hobson (2014) remarks that the European Renaissance and the Enlightenment would have been impos-sible without the massive transfers of knowledge from Muslim societies in the Middle Ages.

There was extensive trade across the Mediterranean and along the routes between the lands ruled by Christians and Muslims. European borrowings from Eastern societies in areas such as agriculture, astronomical observa-tion, civic life, coinage, irrigation, law, mathematics, metalworking, and medicine (Wickens, 1976) form the fabric of Western civilization. Without them Western societies would not have had the basis of many techniques and advancements that characterize modern life. Europe was exposed to “new foreign products, institutions, ideas and technologies . . . Asian textiles, most notably silk . . . Islamic glass, pottery and paper . . . leathers . . . new foods that they had never tasted, including oranges, bananas, rice and sugar” (O’Brien, 1999, p. 390). Among the vital contributions of numerous Muslim scholars is the influence of Ibn Rushd (Latinized as “Averroes,” d. 1198) on the development of European philosophical rationalism and Ibn al-Haytham (“Alhazen,” d. 1040) on scientific empirical observation. Maritime technolo-gies developed by Muslims made possible the European “voyages of discov-ery” (Hobson, 2014).


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It is noteworthy that “the first Christian universities exhibited many strik-ing features in common with the Muslim centers of learning which arose in the tenth and eleventh centuries” (Ebied & Young, 1974, p. 3). The Canon of Medicine, a 14-volume medical encyclopedia was completed by Ibn Sina (“Avicenna,” d. 1037) in 1025. Based on a combination of his own practice and medieval medicine in Muslim civilizations as well as on the writings of the Indian physicians Sushruta (sixth century BCE) and Charaka (third cen-tury BCE), ancient Persian and Chinese scientists, and the Roman sage Galen (d. 217), it served until the sixteenth century as a standard medical text in European universities and centers of learning elsewhere (Wulff & Skydsgaard, 1998). A prominent Muslim surgeon Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (“Albucassis,” d. 1013) authored al-Tasrif that was translated into Latin and became one of the leading textbooks in Europe (Al-Andalusi, Salem & Kumar, 1996).

The Muslim engagement with non-Islamic thought also produced some heated philosophical debates, as when Zakariya al-Razi (“Rhazes,” d. 925), drawing upon Platonic-Pythagorean influence, proposed that prophecy was superfluous. Ibn Tufayl (“Aben Tofail,” d. 1185) wrote about independent human thought, equality, freedom, and tolerance—ideas that later appear to have influenced Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Emmanuel Kant (Attar, 2007). This was part of the massive transfer of knowledge from Muslim-majority lands to Europe in the time leading up to the Renaissance and Enlightenment (Saliba, 2007). Indeed, it appears that the knowledge produced by Muslims was as prevalent in Europe at that time as Western knowledge is globally in contemporary times (O’Brien, 1999). It is not sur-prising then that the portraits of al-Razi and Ibn Sina were displayed in the great hall of the School of Medicine at the University of Paris (Essa & Ali, 2010).

Arabic texts were often translated first into Hebrew or Spanish (frequently by Jewish intermediaries) and then into Latin, because of the paucity of scholars who were fluent in both Arabic and Latin (O’Leary, 2003). Masud Taj’s chapter in this book demonstrates how key Arabic phrases from the Qur’an remained present in the common language of Spanish Christians long after Muslim rule in Iberia had ended. The engagement between Mus-lims and Christians in Spain was so close that the latter borrowed heavily from the core of the Islamic faith in producing certain masterworks of the Renaissance. Miguel Asin Palacios (1926), an early-twentieth-century Span-ish Catholic priest and scholar, drew a link between Islamic symbolism and one of the earliest literary masterpieces of the Renaissance. He concluded through extensive research that the eschatological scheme of Dante Aligh-ieri’s (d. 1321) Divine Comedy was based on Muslim writings on the Prophet Muhammad’s ascension to heaven (miraj).2 Similarly, Taj’s chapter in this


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book discusses the strong evidence of Muslim influence on the composition of Miguel Cervantes’s (d. 1616) The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, which is considered to be a classic of Western literature.

By the time the European Renaissance began to flourish, an intellectual decline had started to set in the East—first in Arab lands and later in other places under Muslim rule. This was prompted, among other reasons, by philosophical and theological conformity (Fakhry, 1983; Hoodbhoy, 1992). Conservative scholars expressed fierce hostility to the forms of thought that had been derived from non-Muslim sources. They promoted a limitation of theology to those origins that were considered to be authentically Islamic. In doing this, they sought to reverse generations of engagement with other cultures that had led to the evolution of many Muslim civilizations. They also fiercely attacked Sufis and the Shia as well as Sunnis who did not con-form to the rigid practice of the faith that they preached. Their puritanical approach that deferred to the first three generations of Muslims gave rise to the Salafi movement among Muslims, which has grown in strength in recent times. Conservative influence in discouraging intellectual and cultural pur-suits appears to have played a significant role in the steady decline of Muslim achievements in science, philosophy, literature, art, and architecture.

The Enlightenment in Western societies widened the scope of scientific inquiry and made it qualitatively different from that of previous eras (Hood-bhoy, 1992). The arrival of European colonial powers in Muslim domains brought the realization of the extent to which the latter had fallen behind scientifically. Whereas advancements in military armaments had paralleled those in other forms of technology when Muslim societies had flourished, their weaponry could no longer match that of the Europeans. Most Muslim-majority lands came under European control within a matter of decades. Even though colonial rule has now ended, Western societies continue to wield enormous influence in Muslim-majority countries economically and technologically. Whereas some adherents of Islam have sought to understand the cultural and philosophical bases of Western power, others have been wary of what they view as erosion of their ways of life, as Kull discusses in his chap-ter in this book. This perception is not limited to Muslims, but is shared by many in other societies who have complained of Western cultural imperial-ism. The growing military presence of the Western states in Muslim-majority countries in recent times has increased the fear among a significant number of Muslims of the threat posed to their cultural and religious integrity.

This has led to a militant anti-Western posture among some and to acts of terrorism against Western and domestic targets by groups such as al-Qaeda.3 Ironically, these militants have an affinity for things Western even as they attack Western targets. It is noteworthy that several of the hijackers of the


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attacks on September 11, 2001 had technical training in Western institutions of higher learning. Their worldview, which seeks a purity of religious piety, appears to be removed from their own experiences and the sources of their material knowledge. They find the justification for their violent actions in their narrow interpretations of the Qur’an and the Hadith while others are inspired by these primary sources of Islam to embrace compassion and car-ing toward all of humanity. Al-Qaeda and its affiliates appear to subscribe to the clash of civilizations thesis and seem to be ignorant, like their Western counterparts, of the history of productive engagement between Western and Muslim societies.

Huntington’s paradigm ignores the reality that the supposedly “ clashing” civilizations are actually growing closer in the contemporary world in terms of economic and political ties (Bajpai, 1999). David Coulby sees it as a clash “between tolerance and intolerance and, in this, the European and Christian side has far from the monopoly of virtue” (2008, p. 311). The clash of civili-zations argument is considered limited in both its underlying interpretation of Islam as fatalist and its failure to account for Muslim public opinion (Acev-ado, 2008). Kull’s chapter in this book carefully parses the distinctions in Muslim attitudes on various issues about relations with Western societies and demonstrates that they are remarkably complex. In presenting a reductive and generalized understanding of Muslims as being philosophically passive in comparison to Christian and Western counterparts, Huntington’s thesis disregards the nuances of human identities and relationships. To present the hugely pluralist “West” and “Islam” as static, monolithic entities is to misun-derstand the dynamics of culture.

Evolving relationships between sections of different civilizations pro-duce shifting parameters of belonging. There exist widely held, albeit vague, notions of what constitutes a civilization and what conglomeration of groups a particular civilization contains. Close scrutiny reveals many unresolved questions about who is to be included or excluded in a civilization; the inter-nal debates on what sets of identities comprise the Self and the Other often give rise to some of the most bitter quarrels. Therefore, a thesis that presents a world neatly divided into well-defined and discrete civilizational blocs and then pits them against each other is dangerously simple-minded. It is a view of the world shared with the ideologues who willfully ignore intercultural links to pursue a path of conflict.

This multidisciplinary volume brings together historical and contemporary studies to understand better the perceptions and interactions of various forms between Western and Muslim societies. Its contributors examine approaches in which the Other can be engaged from the perspectives of architecture, civil society, education, governmental policies, history, law, media discourses, and


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political participation. Knowing the historical range of cultural relationships between Western and Muslim societies reveals the narrowness of the contem-porary constructions of the reciprocal Other. Many leaders and institutions on both sides are ignoring the centuries-long engagement, propagating views about the Other that are not informed by the profound commonalities of the Abrahamic religions or the rich exchanges of ideas between their adherents.

Chapter 2 discusses the fall of Toledo which was a significant event in Europe’s intellectual history in the course of the Christian Reconquesta of Muslim Spain. H. Masud Taj examines three monuments in the city: (1) Cristo de la Luz, erstwhile Mosque of Bab al-Mardum 999; (2) Museum of Visigothic Culture, erstwhile San Roman of 1085; and (3) El Transito, erstwhile Synagogue of Samuel Halevi Abulafia 1360. The design and inscriptions of these structures are a testimony to the continuing engagement of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish cultural influences in the architectural imagination.

Chapter 3 explains how the renowned medieval Christian and Muslim thinkers, Thomas Aquinas and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali understood that debate is an effective pedagogy for discovering truth. Marianne Farina dis-cusses how al-Ghazali reminds his readers that in debate one must be open to the possibility of truth coming from the “mouth of the opponent.” Aquinas, in searching for a method to renew theological study, chose the disputation—which involves an open and sincere consideration of opposing points of view. Although our era is filled with the complexity of dynamic instantaneous interaction through the Internet, the basic insights of al-Ghazali and Aquinas have bearing on our approaches to renewed discourse with the Other.

Chapter 4 discusses the educational policy context in Europe that has been dominated by controversies including the banning of the hijab in French lycées and the surveillance of Muslim students on British campuses. Shiraz Thobani asks: Can educational systems committed to liberating minds from cultural prejudice attain this aim under conditions that are reinforcing the alterity of politicized cultural groups? He analyzes the case of Muslims in European education, focusing on issues of representation and relationality, to probe into the oppositional claims of cosmopolitan and culturalist perspec-tives. In engaging with the assumptions of both these approaches, the chapter moves toward a more refined position on the development of cultural literacy appropriate to the conditions of the twenty-first century.

Chapter 5 reviews the long-standing presence of voluntary associations in Muslim polities, some of which provide essential services to the public. Karim H. Karim explains that these associations may not necessarily concep-tualize their own existence in the terms of contemporary liberal ideas of civil society, but they generally function like their counterparts in Western coun-tries. There have been broad-ranging kinds of interactions between Muslim


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civil society associations and other institutions in Western societies, leading to major confrontations at one end and close collaboration at the other. The historical senses of Muslim identity as well as the varying conceptualizations of what constitute the local and the global are shaping the relationships of individual Muslim organizations with other institutions.

Chapter 6 deals with the idea of reforming interpretations of Islamic legal sources by classicist Muslim jurists of the nineteenth century. Anicée Van-Engeland argues that it is only recently that challenging classic, hardliner, and traditional interpretations became viable in Islamic jurisprudence. The method of ijtihad has been useful in defining new approaches and under-standings of Islamic legal sources, taking universal human rights as a font of inspiration and bridging gaps between civilizations. Van-Engeland illustrates this approach with national examples, whose success relies partly on civil soci-ety’s promotion of the new hermeneutics of the Shariah and on the ethos of the UN’s “Dialogue among Civilizations” program.

Chapter 7, based on an exhaustive collection of polling from Muslim countries, demonstrates that many Muslims are experiencing an inner clash of civilizations—between their desires to engage with the broader world and to protect their traditional Islamic culture. Steven Kull explains that abun-dant majorities support democracy and say that it is compatible with Islam, even when presented the radical Islamist argument that it is not. At the same time they express support for Islamist principles making Islam and Shariah the basis of legitimacy. United States foreign policy has often framed Mus-lim political dynamics purely in terms of an outer clash between secular and Islamist groups, with the United States favoring secular forces. This approach has consistently played into the hands of radical Islamist groups as it intensi-fies the perception of American hostility to Islam.

Chapter 8 discusses the widely debated contemporary government poli-cies regarding immigration, refugees, and security in relation to Muslims’ engagement and integration into multicultural Western societies. Mahmoud Eid explains that while Muslims are expected to integrate into mainstream society, the effects of policies on social cohesion are still questionable. Social discrimination against Muslims is still evident as Western discourses tend to consider Muslims as Others who are blamed for extremism, deviant values, and causing social problems. Eid discusses clashes between Western govern-ments and Muslim immigrants within the context of security and integration policies, and sheds light on contemporary efforts of integrating and engaging Muslims. He suggests possibilities for policymakers to develop approaches that enhance social cohesion.

Chapter 9 discusses the explicit assumption of the public discourse in Europe and in the United States that public expressions of Islamic religion


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and identities indicate the lack of civic engagement of Muslims in Western countries. Jocelyne Cesari shows that there is scarce data to support such a claim, and presents analytical reviews of the most significant polling and quantitative surveys conducted among Muslims in major European countries and in the United States over the last decade.

Chapter 10 talks about how depictions of Muslims have been widespread in television programs, particularly those involving terrorism and crime. Faiza Hirji explains that such programs usually play on stereotypes and a fear of Islam as a religion of extremists. Hirji looks at alternative discourses that can be found in North American reality television, comedy, and drama. Characters and plots of certain programs are examined to assess whether they succeed in breaking down stereotypes. She also studies the difference in venue, economic and social pressures, and public reactions to identify the paths to follow if producers wish to present Muslims in balanced and compel-ling manners.

Chapter 11 concludes that public policy can be informed by a better under-standing of the historical and contemporary engagements between Western and Muslim civilizations. Mahmoud Eid and Karim H. Karim explain that despite the prevalence of clashes produced by ignorance, a nuanced under-standing of public opinion and behaviors of people reveals another reality. There are numerous instances of the members of Western and Muslim societ-ies moving from conflict to cooperation. Individuals and organizations have found common ground between the principles underlying Islam and post-Enlightenment Western societies, enhancing pluralism, social justice, human rights, the rule of law, and cross-cultural engagement.

Notes

1. See Karim (2014) for the distinctions among such terms as Islamist, Islamic, and Islamicate, among others.

2. However, even though Dante borrowed the structural form of the miraj narrative of the Prophet Muhammad’s heavenly ascent, he actually placed the figure of Muhammad in hell, in conformity to a polemical stance toward Islam.

3. See Eid (2008; 2014c).

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ChaPtEr 11

Public Policy and the Clash of Ignorance

Mahmoud Eid and Karim H. Karim

Due to the contemporary social and political climate in the world, it is more important than ever to acknowledge and investigate both Eastern and Western contributions to civilization. This may allow

for the creation of insight and enlightenment that can instigate building bridges of appreciation and understanding among people of various cultures and ideologies (AbuSulayman, 2011). It may be possible to reduce conflict between “the East” and “the West” by acknowledging the ways in which these two entities have interacted in the past. Rather than the focus on the grim realities of current conflict and destruction, it is suggested that a reflective process take place, striving to pay homage to the individually unique legacies of both Islam and Christianity. There is vast evidence that demonstrates the ways in which people of various religious backgrounds have worked together to share knowledge and further the development of humanity throughout history (Morgan, 2007). This process can encourage humans to understand critically the true elements of interaction. In this, we must ignore a history of ignorance that forgets, misunderstands, suppresses, and rewrites the truths of our existence.

Whereas the clash of civilizations thesis (Huntington, 1993; 1996) con-tinues to be influential in Western and Muslim societies, several scholarly, political, and religious commentators (e.g., Aga Khan, 2002, June 23; Al-Nahayan, 2005, April 8; Asani, 2003; Ferrero-Waldner, 2006, March 27; Said, 2001, October 22; Tauran, 2012, March 17) have stated that the conflict between segments of Western and Muslim civilizations can be understood as stemming largely from ignorance, rather than being inevitable and endemic


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outcomes of cultural or religious difference. The common Abrahamic roots of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as of contemporary Western philosophy offer the basis for mutual understanding at a profound level (e.g., Arkoun, 1994; Neusner, Chilton & Graham, 2002). Nevertheless, ignorance about the Other lies at the basis of continuing clashes. Certain influential academics and policymakers have chosen to put aside the vast store of knowl-edge about the many productive interactions between the two civilizations over hundreds of years.

Edward W. Said (2001, October 22) appears to have coined the term “clash of ignorance” in a Nation magazine article that was published six weeks following the 9/11 attacks. The short essay was written as a critique of the clash of civilizations thesis, and he seems to have offered the heading “The Clash of Ignorance” as a counter to the title of Huntington’s article (1993) and book (1996); its form mimicked and mocked the latter. The clash of ignorance thesis does not position itself as a template for providing formu-laic explanations of unfolding engagements between cultural collectivities. As opposed to the epistemologically rigid scope of the clash of civilizations model, it promotes a greater openness of inquiry. Said suggests that instead of the grand theory approach of the clash of civilizations, “it is better to think in terms of powerful and powerless communities, the secular politics of reason and ignorance, and universal principles of justice and injustice” (2001, Octo-ber 22). Such heuristic approaches facilitate critical analysis of the relation-ships between peoples in history and in our times, rather than restrict them to ideologically limited modes of inquiry. The clash of ignorance thesis fore-grounds the ways in which ignorance is formed, perpetuated, and exploited.

Two major programmatic attempts to counter the clash of civilizations thesis have been the “Dialogue among Civilizations” and the “Alliance of Civilizations” initiatives. The former was promoted by the previous president of Iran, Mohammed Khatami. A foundation was established in Switzerland in 2007 and several international conferences have been held. Anicée Van-Engeland’s chapter in this book discusses this initiative in the context of legal debates in Iran. The leaders of Spain and Turkey sponsored the Alliance of Civilizations initiative in 2005 to promote international cooperation against extremist militancy by encouraging intercultural and interreligious dialogue between the Western and Muslim societies. It runs international gatherings, programs, and training under the leadership of a United Nations High Repre-sentative. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, a non-state transnational agency, is also working toward fostering more productive engagement between Western and Muslim societies through the building of museums and parks. Karim H. Karim’s chapter in this book examines the initiatives of this and other Muslim civil society organizations in overcoming the clash of ignorance.


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Public Policy and the Clash of Ignorance ● 215

The contributing authors of this book, writing from the perspectives of the study of architecture, civil society, education, immigrant integration, legal reform, media production, public discourse, political participation, public opinion, and security, have indicated various ways in which policy can be informed by a better understanding of the historical and contemporary engagements between Western and Muslim societies.

We have discussed the relevance of relational theory to re-imagining the Other elsewhere (Karim & Eid, 2014b). This approach also has significant value in the context of policy with respect to engaging the Other. Devel-oped largely by feminist scholars, relational theory provides ways to concep-tualize interactions between Self and Other (Downie & Llewellyn, 2012). It foregrounds the connectedness of human beings as opposed to liberalism’s dominant presentation of the self-contained individual. The building of soci-ety and its institutions, domestically and internationally, necessarily requires collaboration between Self and Other. Both are affected by each other’s poli-cies and actions; the Self ’s well-being is not isolated from that of the Other. Given the patterns of migration and globalization in contemporary times, this is true of multicultural societies affected by immigration and by all other societies that engage in social, cultural, and economic relationships with each other. Mahmoud Eid’s chapter in this book discusses approaches for policy-makers in Western multicultural societies, within the context of security and integration policies, to make efforts toward overcoming the clash of igno-rance through productive engagement of Muslim immigrants in such soci-eties. Policymaking, therefore, has to account for a larger sense of Self that includes the Other.

This approach helps to deconstruct the clashes resulting from ignorance about the inter-connectedness of people. Such ignorance is often manufac-tured through the manipulation of knowledge by some elites who see it as a means to divide and rule (Karim & Eid, 2014a). The self-interest of these actors lies in de-emphasizing the ties between particular peoples. In the case of conflicts between Western and Muslim societies, the narratives of alienation have been deeply sedimented over many generations. Relational theory offers an alternative to the dominant discourse of “fault lines” (Huntington, 1996) separating civilizations. Its framework helps to generate questions that inter-rogate received wisdom on the supposedly essential enmity between peoples.

The chapters in this book have shown the commonality of worldviews between Western and Muslim societies, a history in which the two have demonstrated a deep engagement, and a continuing search to work with the Other. This has occurred despite a conflictual discourse that pervades both sides. Negative images have led to deep suspicion, the formation of public opinion that is mistrustful, and the development of policies that treat the


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Other harshly. Nonetheless, individuals and institutions continue to reach out in the hope and optimism of better relationships.

Spain under Muslim rule is often lauded as a prime example of plural-ist interaction between people of different ethnicities and faith, known as the Convivencia (e.g., Carroll, 2001). However, Mark Cohen (1995) states that violence remained a feature between the communal relationships. H. Masud Taj’s chapter in this book shows how individual Christian rulers defied the call to crusade against Muslims, but instead engaged in largely peaceful relations. This was to have enormous benefits for the cultural and intellectual growth of Europe in the following centuries. Alfonso VII’s (d. 1157) far-sighted policy of amicable relations with the Muslim ruling family of Saragossa ensured that “scientific learning converged in Toledo making it the prime center of knowledge in Europe and a treasure trove for translators.” Alfonso X (d. 1284) published the first collected European legal code con-taining “civil, public, and ecclesiastic laws, with political and procedural rules pertaining to foreign relations,” a foundational text that drew extensively on Muslim jurisprudence. Before the arrival of Muslims in Iberia, Jews in the peninsula were facing removal at the hands of Visigothic Christian rule and were saved by the arrival of Muslims. Five centuries later, Alfonso X’s laws with respect to them were much kinder. (However, this was not to stave off the erasure of Judaism and Islam by Spanish rulers in later centuries.)

Alfonso X was himself a product of the Convivencia. He studied Arabic at a madrasa that had Muslim, Christian, and Jewish students. He sponsored translations of Arabic literary materials as well as books on law, science, tech-nology, mathematics, geography, agriculture, and so on, giving rise to a vastly accelerated transmission of knowledge that had an incalculable impact on European intellectual history. This thirteenth-century endeavor was impor-tant in laying the groundwork for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Muslim scholars became familiar names in Europe under their Latinized appellations of Averroes (Ibn Rushd), Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham), Algoritmi (al-Khwarizmi), and so on.

Jewish translators played a key role, transferring Arabic writings into Hebrew or Spanish—which facilitated their transmittal into Latin. As Taj notes, “the foremost Jewish medieval philosopher, Maimonides of Cordoba, composed his major works in Arabic.” Jewish life was deeply steeped in Arabic culture—its language, architecture, design, even the Islamic religion. As evi-dence of this, Taj deciphers Arabic words written in gold proclaiming “safety and security, pride and dignity” in a fourteenth-century synagogue in Toledo. These principles of the Shariah have deep resonance many centuries later in the contemporary conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In the present-day relations between them, characterized by mutual recrimination


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and racism, there is a desperate need for re-imagining the Other by both Jews and Muslims by recalling profound forms of engagement between them in earlier times during which there was safety and security as well as pride and dignity. These relationships were facilitated by the wise policies of Conviven-cia pursued by some Muslim and Christian rulers.

Arabic phrases, including those from the Qur’an, appeared to have become part of daily discourse among non-Muslims in medieval Spain. This mun-dane but deep interfaith engagement is evidenced in legal documents and tombstones of Christians centuries after the Reconquista of Muslim princi-palities by Christian forces. Mutual interreligious references are also visible in the art of Muslims and Christians in the period. The contemporary dominant discourse’s monochromatic telling of the historical conflict between the two sides is challenged by the seemingly unexplainable affinities between them, even as Christian figures participating in Crusades against Muslims read the Qur’an and wore ceremonial garments on which were woven blessings in Arabic. Such nuances, however, appear to be too complex to be accommo-dated into the clash of ignorance narrative that prioritizes unremitting cul-tural and military conflict. Contemporary policymaking in foreign policy and immigrant integration needs to understand better how it has been pos-sible for peoples of different faiths and ethnicities to come together in man-ners of deep mutual respect even in an environment of war.

The apparent ease with which the interfaith engagement between Mus-lims, Jews, and Christians took place is perhaps attributable to the profound affinities between the Abrahamic religions (Karim & Eid, 2014a). Marianne Farina’s chapter in this book examines the similarities in the ideas about debating the Other as expressed by two of the most eminent medieval schol-ars among Muslims and Christians, al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and Aquinas (d. 1274), respectively. “Drawing from these traditions, we might find ways to restore contemporary public discourse so that it fosters constructive social interaction and decision-making across cultural, religious and ideological borders.” Both thinkers promote what Farina terms “intellectual magna-nimity,” which is characterized by an openness to listening to the Other with the objective of approaching the truth and improving the well-being of society.

Aquinas and al-Ghazali favored the dialectic method in pursuing sacred and secular knowledge. The movement here is from polemics to consulta-tion. “It should not matter whether truth emerges from the arguments or questions of an opponent.” al-Ghazali held the position that, in the course of debates, the adversary should be allowed to recast his arguments so that he can provide his best explanation. He denounced the self-serving grandstand-ing in public, favoring more private engagements that had a sincere interest


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in reaching the truth. This is reflective of the overall Islamic approach to the acquisition of knowledge that promotes learning from the Other. However, in our times, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, would deny education to people, especially women; similarly Boko Haram in West Africa are opposed to Western culture and learning. Even as they claim to be adhering to the supposed fundamentals of Islam, they are turning their backs on enlightened Muslim tradition.

Aquinas drew his ideas from the Ibn Sina’s interpretation of Aristotle’s thought, among other sources. In contrast to the dominant mode of apolo-getics common to his Christian contemporaries, he, like al-Ghazali, sought enhancement of arguments from both sides: “We must love them both, those opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth and both have helped us in finding it.” His method involved first establishing what was common to both debaters, and then moving on to seeking new knowledge that would be of larger benefit. Farina is critical of contemporary media and other fora for public discussions, which tend not to be concerned with the search for truth and betterment of society. This turn toward ignorance has led to severe political impasses in domestic and international affairs. She suggests that there is much to be learned about productive discursive engagement by contemporary society from the medi-eval thinkers of both religious traditions.

It is worth noting that both al-Ghazali’s and Aquinas’s writings on debat-ing the Other appear in pedagogical texts that they composed for aspirants within their respective traditions. Shiraz Thobani’s chapter in this book moves forward several centuries to examine the principles of education formulated in the European Enlightenment. Among the contemporary challenges for school curricula in Europe is to provide instruction that responds to the plu-ralism stemming from immigration and globalization, and that also fosters societal cohesion. Thobani asks, “How are emerging generations to be guided on inherited identities and yet be open to affiliate with the wider collec-tive of humanity?” He examines contemporary cosmopolitan and culturalist assumptions relating to education policy and finds them inadequate to the necessary task of enabling cultural literacy among young people.

Curricula and pedagogies continue to be affected by colonial sensibilities in which the European Self ascribed itself the mission civilisatrice that would supposedly raise the non-European Other to “enlightened civility.” The pres-ent-day encounter of the grandchildren of the previously colonized with the grandchildren of the former colonizers in classrooms is decontextualized as the state sanctioned education systems fail to deal with the palpable effects of the past. Even as they seek to integrate immigrant students into the receiv-ing society through citizenship instruction “issues of power . . . continue to


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perpetuate frictional attitudes which instead need to be aired and debated explicitly.” Educational policy in Western immigrant receiving countries needs to deal openly with the past in order to overcome the ignorance that engenders clashes.

Thobani suggests an analytical approach that goes beyond merely seeking to address cultural representations of the Other, but delves into how groups form such images and then deal with them. Such a method would decon-struct the stereotypical portrayals and study the complexity of human identi-ties and encounters. It would promote the engagement of the Self and the Other in ways in which each is seen as having intrinsic value. “The act of cultural translation calls for a literary sensibility where the educator as author engenders free thought by allowing the subjects of historical encounters to speak in their own authentic voices, and goes further in fostering dialogue through which the tutored recognize their own subjectivities also as self-productions in need of translation.” As in the medieval texts on engaging discursively with the Other, examined by Farina, Thobani also finds value in fostering an open cross-cultural dialogue that is not ideologically circum-scribed by the Self ’s hegemony.

Karim H. Karim’s chapter in this book addresses the workings of Muslim associations society within regions of the Muslim Self and in engagement with the Western Other. Contemporary concepts of civil society arose from Enlightenment thought, but the idea of organizations operating autono-mously from the state existed many centuries before that time. Muslims have had a long tradition of institutions that were largely independent from rulers. However, even though the contemporary idea of civil society is a facet of the Western Enlightenment, it was under Western colonialism that Muslim associational life lost part of its autonomy. The postcolonial state, organized along Western lines, continues to exert varying levels of control over Muslim civil society.

Muslim immigrants to Western countries tend to organize themselves in forms familiar to them in their lands of origin. The many associations that they have established are meant to serve the needs of communities as they engage with the larger society in which they have settled. Some of these institutions have been important actors in advocating for greater rights for Muslims in Western states. They also tend to bring to light the injustices affecting members of the worldwide ummah in the public discourses of their adopted countries. In this, the local and the global are frequently linked in the policy frameworks of Muslim civil society associations in Western coun-tries. This has had several repercussions for the way that the larger society and governments view and engage with them. Acts of terrorism committed by or inspired by organizations in Muslim-majority lands have led to suspicion and


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severe treatment of entire Muslim communities in Western societies. This is often shaped by the broader state of ignorance about the Muslim Other and has enhanced conflict.

The very tensions caused by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7/7, as well as other events characterized by intercultural clash have led to increased efforts by Muslim civil society to search for ways to engage productively with Western societies. Whereas some institutions have tended to promote isola-tionism, others have looked for ways to build bridges with other communi-ties and governments. This has taken the form of both, working with the state as well as challenging its policies. Several Muslim organizations have looked for common ground between the principles underlying Islam and post-Enlightenment Western societies—promoting pluralism, social justice, human rights, the rule of law, and inclusion. Such approaches have led to sev-eral productive partnerships between the Muslim Self and the Western Other.

Anicée Van-Engeland’s chapter in the volume discusses the ways in which civil society has worked to bridge Western and Muslim civilizations in the arena of international law. It presents the argument that the use of ijtihad; i.e., the exertion of a personal effort to interpret the sources of Islamic law, can help to align the laws of Muslim-majority countries with universal human rights. In working to reform national laws, judges, lawyers, lawmakers, and members of parliament are also having an impact on the positioning of their respective states with respect to international conventions. Van-Engeland views these developments within the UN-supported project on “Dialogue among Civilizations” that would help to diminish clashes borne of ignorance.

Such a dialogue becomes the means to ensure that international legal regimes that purport to be “universal” have local cultural legitimacy by reflecting all human civilizations. In allowing the validity of the Islamic basis of the law of Muslim-majority countries, the UN would also be acknowledg-ing the importance of religion and spirituality in shaping the values of mem-ber states. This would enable the international organization to transcend “the constant opposition between secularism and God’s law” and to develop pos-sible solutions to deal with this impasse. Such a move would open the door for Muslim-majority states to develop policy frameworks that seek to facili-tate a balance between religion and secular concerns in contemporary society.

Steven Kull’s examination of several series of surveys conducted in Muslim countries suggests that there is a strong internal debate regarding, on the one hand, an engagement with Western societies and, on the other, the protec-tion of Muslim cultures from foreign influences. Multiple polling reveals that contrary to “radical Islamist ideology most Muslims reject the notion that there is an inevitable violent clash between Muslim and Western societies.”


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Many followers of Islam tend to have a cosmopolitan openness toward the world, saying that they are keen to obtain Western education and training. However, there appears to be a simultaneous attraction and resistance with respect to Western culture, which some feel has destabilized ways of life in Muslim societies.

There is a keenness among Muslims with respect to preserving their tradi-tions. “They have not forgotten that for much of Islam’s history, its culture was by many measures more advanced than European culture.” Muslims’ faith and its values served them well for many centuries, and many tend to believe that the significant achievements of the past can be emulated in the future. Nonetheless, the majority finds compatibility with certain key aspects of Western societies, such as democracy, in opposition to the ideas of groups such as al-Qaeda. Kull notes, however, that it is important to discern the nuances in these positions. Western observers often tend to view Muslim opinions in binary manners in which “good Muslims” are liberal, moderate, and completely Westernized, and “bad Muslims” are fundamentalist, extrem-ist, and traditionally Islamic. Such simplistic perspectives are frequently at the bottom of the clashes of ignorance as witnessed in President George W. Bush’s infamous statement “You are either with us or against us in the fight against terror” (You are . . . , 2001, November 6).

Many Muslims perceive the U.S. government to be hostile to Islam and adopt a defensive position toward it. U.S. foreign policy has tended to exac-erbate these feelings. It has often supported harsh regimes that have sought to suppress groups that have identified themselves with Islam. Kull observes that “this approach has largely backfired and consistently played into the hands of radical Islamist groups.” He suggests that policymakers need to recognize that adherence to religious values and traditions is widespread even among Muslims who hold an amicable position toward Western societies, and that the United States has to work out ways of engaging with them in a respectful manner.

In this vein, Mahmoud Eid’s chapter in this book discusses possible approaches for policymakers in multicultural Western societies to facilitate productive engagement with Muslim minorities in the context of govern-mental policies of security and integration. Muslim immigrants clash with Western governments and dominant cultures that fear, misunderstand, and sometimes repress them, through discourses of othering and blaming. Eid explains that “attitudes toward immigration in Western societies have become substantially negative, and short-term immigration policies put Muslims at a disadvantage” in the years after 9/11. As a result, the prevailing public percep-tions were constructed in support of alienating the Muslim Other.


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While the Western mainstream media portrayals of Muslims were domi-nantly supportive of governmental policies, Eid highlights some efforts by Western media to provide alternative production of TV programming that is somewhat fair and balanced in portraying Muslims as positive step toward engagement with the Other and in helping social cohesion. Although policies of security and integration in Western societies have caused the promotion of anti-Muslim sentiments among the majority populations and that social life “for immigrants of non-European origin in Western societies can be chal-lenging due to the struggles associated with developing or maintaining place within Western identity frameworks,” Eid emphasizes positive aspects of gov-ernmental policies that help overcome such climate. Multiculturalism, for example, “has been adapted by various governments in an attempt to reduce racism, celebrate differences, and eradicate the necessity of assimilation.”

Eid provides examples of both positive and negative outcomes that Mus-lim immigrants experience when adjusting to a Western society. This does not only support the possible engagement with the Other, but it also suggests that oppressive and forceful measures for integration of Muslims into society can have counter outcomes. Islam plays a fundamental role in the daily life of its followers; hence, it can be a motivating force toward integration of Muslims when efforts are made by both sides toward the construction of knowledge, or the elimination of ignorance about this religion. Policymakers need to alleviate Muslim alienation, increase mutual knowledge, consult with Muslim opinion leaders and activists, engage Muslims in policymaking, and gain better understanding of contemporary debates among Muslims.

A nuanced understanding of Muslims’ beliefs and actions can overcome the clash of ignorance, as Jocelyne Cesari shows in her chapter. She examined data on the political engagement of those who are residents of Western coun-tries. Whereas the dominant discourse suggests that Islamic religiosity pre-cludes active participation in Western political spheres, the findings of several surveys do not support this view. The research revealed that while Muslim engagement in formal activities such as voting in elections is weak, it registers much better in volunteering and working for civil society associations. “In the United Kingdom, a Home Office Survey on religion found that Muslims have the highest levels of civic participation among faith-based groups.” The level of activity varies from country to country, but Muslims have high rates in attending demonstrations and signing petitions as well as in giving to char-ity; the latter probably reflects the view by a vast majority of adherents that this is a pillar of Islam.

There are differences according to age in how Muslims view the relation-ship between faith and the societal participation, with a larger number of people over the age of 30 holding that the two are compatible. This may


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reflect Islamic beliefs in the importance of maintaining a balance between deen (religion) and dunya (material existence). Whereas there are common stereotypes in Western societies about a supposed lack of desire to integrate into the receiving country among those who are religiously oriented, Cesari notes that “an assertive belonging to Islam influences civic engagement.” Even though this finding appears counterintuitive, it is actually not out of the ordinary as it replicates the relationship between faith and political par-ticipation in the American population generally. The recognition of the link between Islamic religiosity and public engagement is critical for policymak-ers working in multiculturalism and immigrant integration; it also provides a better understanding of Muslims for those who are involved in the area of national security.

Faiza Hirji’s chapter deals with one of the major purveyors of stereotypes about Muslims: television. Dominant media discourses show the followers of Islam to be either violent, barbaric, undeservedly wealthy, and/or hypersexual even though these descriptions do not fit the vast majority of Muslims. This is deeply problematic especially since there are more than 1.5 billion adherents of Islam in the world and, even though its following in Western countries is much smaller than that of Christianity, it is larger than that of any other reli-gion. There are occasional media representations of Muslim men and women as being progressive, but their appearance pales in comparison to the torrent of their images as terrorists.

Hirji discusses some of the few attempts to present alternative portray-als. She asks key questions from the perspective of the policies of media producers: “Do we emphasize normality, or normalize difference? Do we acknowledge difference and celebrate it?” Her analysis shows that television would serve its viewers best by representing the nuance, complexity, and diversity that is actually reflective of Muslim communities. The standard typecasting of the “good Muslim” juxtaposed with the “bad Muslim” speaks to an artificial binary that promotes ignorance about the Other. It takes courage and creativity on the part of script writers and producers to present materials to audiences that challenges the standard stereotypes. They risk losing the sponsorship of advertisers who are often fearful of the lobbies that are more comfortable with promoting the clash of civilizations rather than seeking ways of overcoming it. The programs that Hirji analyzes gives some indications of how it is possible to present Muslims as engaging with Western societies in ways that reflect their normality as opposed to an alien Otherness.

This book has examined, through multiple perspectives, how the members of the two civilizations can move beyond conflict to cooperation. The clashes that have characterized the beginning of the twenty-first century have caused


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extensive havoc in the lives of individuals and communities. It is vital that both sides are able to re-imagine the relationship between Self and Other (Eid & Karim, 2014) and develop policies that lead to productive engage-ment. Contributors to this book have demonstrated that Western and Mus-lim societies have been intersected in multiple ways over many centuries, and that they have benefitted enormously from their interactions. However, those who seem to favor conflict or are seized with complete distrust of the Other have participated in concealing the legacy of collaboration and have sought to construct a future that will be marked by conflict. They promote clashes of ignorance that have already drained national treasuries and shattered families. However, an increasing number of people are coming to recognize that it is time to explore seriously options other than those shaped by securitization and militarization. Individuals and institutions around the world are begin-ning to question the ways in which they have imagined the Self and the Other, and are moving toward the development of possibilities and policies for productive engagement.

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about the Contributors

Jocelyne Cesari directs the Islam in World Politics program of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and the international Islam in the West program affiliated with CRNRS in Paris and Harvard University. Dr. Cesari has published works on a broad range of subjects, including Islam and global-ization, Islam and secularism, immigration, and religious pluralism. She has recently authored Why the West Fears Islam (2013).

Mahmoud Eid is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communica-tion, University of Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Eid is the author of Interweavement: International Media Ethics and Rational Decision-Making (2008), and co-author of Mission Invisible: Race, Religion, and News at the Dawn of the 9/11 Era (2014). He is the editor of Exchanging Terrorism Oxygen for Media Air-waves: The Age of Terroredia (2014) and Research Methods in Communication (2011), and co-editor of Basics in Communication and Media Studies (2012) and The Right to Communicate: Historical Hopes, Global Debates and Future Premises (2009). Dr. Eid is the editor of the Global Media Journal—Canadian Edition, and he serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals and as an organizing committee member for various international conferences. Dr. Eid contributed several book chapters and journal articles, and presented numerous papers at global conferences.

Marianne Farina is a religious sister of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross and an Assistant Professor at the Dominican School of Phi-losophy and Theology in Berkeley, California. Dr. Farina has published on issues of contemporary religious faith in Christian and Muslim contexts. She has also ministered with Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Tribal communities in Bangladesh, and worked in projects that promote interfaith dialogue.


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228 ● about the Contributors

Faiza Hirji is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, McMaster University, Canada. Her recent work includes the book Dreaming in Canadian: South Asian Youth, Bollywood and Belonging (2010), which examines the representation of Muslims in Indian films. Dr. Hirji has also published on the formation of online communities by Muslim Canadians, e-health, and feminism in television and music.

Karim H. Karim is Director of the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam in Ottawa, Canada. He is Professor of Communication Studies at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication in Ottawa, where he previously was the Director. He has also been a Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, UK, and a Fellow of Harvard University’s Center for the Study of World Religions. Professor Karim won the inaugural Robin-son Book Prize for Islamic Peril: Media and Global Violence. He has also pub-lished extensively on diaspora, pluralism, and multiculturalism. His works have been widely cited, and he has been a distinguished lecturer at venues in North America, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Karim holds degrees in Islamic Studies and Communication Studies from Columbia and McGill universities.

Steven Kull is a political psychologist at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He studies public opinion on public policy and has led in-depth studies in the United States and the Muslim world. Professor Kull conducts global polling for BBC. He established the Center on Policy Attitudes to give the public a greater voice in public policy. His most recent book is Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America (2011).

H. Masud Taj is Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Carleton University where he also lectures on Muslim Civilizations. He delivered the keynote address at the 2nd International Conference of Islamic Art & Architecture in India. Masud Taj’s forthcoming book is titled Liminal Spaces. A previous work, Alphabestiary (with Bruce Meyer), was featured at the International Festival of Authors, Toronto. His other work, Nari Gandhi, is archived in the Carleton University Library’s Special Collections.

Shiraz Thobani is Head of Curriculum Studies of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. He has led the development of international school curri-cula that approach Islam from humanistic and civilizational perspectives. Dr. Thobani is the author of Islam in the School Curriculum: Symbolic Pedagogy and Cultural Claims (2010), and coeditor of Narrating Islam: Interpretations of the Muslim World in European Texts (2010).


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about the Contributors ● 229

Anicée Van-Engeland is Lecturer in Law at SOAS’s School of Law. She has several publications in the areas of international human rights, international humanitarian law, Islamic law, human rights in Iran, refugee issues, terror-ism, and torture, including her book The Distinction Between Civilians and Combatants in the 21st Century (2011). Dr. Van-Engeland is an associate edi-tor of the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights.


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Engaging the Other: Public Policy and Western-Muslim Intersections

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Transcript of Engaging the Other: Public Policy and Western-Muslim Intersections