Share this story!            

US policymakers urged to read Akbar Ahmed’s book on Islam

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Dr Akbar Ahmed was described on Wednesday as “a worldly man of letters who profoundly believes that collective good can be accomplished by individual acts of good conscience — that each of us (Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu) must connect with others and live out our convictions for our common humanity in the face of tribalism, religion and other dividing forces.””

In an op-ed piece in the Washington Times, Tom Blankley, commenting on the American University academic’s new book ‘Journey into Islam’, finds the work “particularly heartbreaking” because of the author’s conclusion that “due to both misjudgments by the United States and regrettable developments in Muslim attitudes ‘the poisons are spreading so rapidly that without immediate remedial action, no antidote may ever be found’.” He writes that the writer was one of the new Pakistan’s “best and brightest” and led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah had hoped to build a modern democracy and overcome tribalism and the more obscurantist aspects of Islam, while still being “good Muslims”.

Blankley writes, “Even one or two years ago, I think Dr Ahmed was reasonably hopeful that his views had a fighting chance around the Islamic world. So my jaw dropped when I got to page 192 of his new book and he described his thoughts while in Pakistan last year on his investigative journey: ‘The progressive and active Aligarh model had become enfeebled and in danger of being overtaken by the Deoband model...I felt like a warrior in the midst of the fray who knew the odds were against him but never quite realised that his side had already lost the war.’ He likewise reported from Indonesia — invariably characterised as practising a more moderate form of Islam. There too his report was crushingly negative.””

Blankley, crediting the author with holding a “respected place in the Muslim firmament around the globe,” reports Ahmed as recording 50 percent of Muslims in the countries he visited with his students in preparation for the book want Shariah law, support the Bali terrorist bombing, oppose women in politics and support stoning adulterers too death. Indonesia’s secular legal system and tolerant pluralist society is being “infiltrated by Deoband thinking” while “dwindling moderates and growing extremists are a dangerous challenging development”. The book, according to Blankley, should be read by Washington policy-makers and journalists “because it delivers a terrible message of warning both to those who say things aren’t as bad as Mr Bush says and we can rely on the moderate voices of Islam winning with a little assist from the West, and for those who argue for aggressive American action to show our strength to the Muslims (because, in Bin Laden’s words, they follow the strong horse).”

According to Ahmed, the “moderate” voice is in near hopeless retreat across the Muslim world and should not be counted on. Secondly, whatever President Bush’s intentions, US aggression only serves to strengthen its enemies. Blankley quotes Ahmed’s conclusion, “Although the planet’s societies are running against time...(we must) transcend race, tribe and religion and cherish our common humanity, every individual must become the message.” Blankley concludes his review of the work with the words, “But for those of us who don’t expect the milk of human kindness to suddenly start flowing, it behooves us to read Dr Ahmed’s honest assessment of the real state of Muslim world attitudes and coldly reassess our various policy prescriptions in its light. These are grim times, but we must resist indulging ourselves in hopeful fantasies. Every piece of our national security calculations must be realistically assessed against the available facts. What is working, what isn’t, what to do?”

Home | National

Share this story!