Aid Policy In War-Torn Countries Book

Some of them do

Mark LeVine, who is a professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, Culture and Islamic Studies at the University of California, Irvine wants to champion what he calls "cultural jamming" as a means to bridge the cultural abyss between the Middle East and the West.

I think this idea has a certain appeal since cultural jamming is the practice of satirizing the power structure. It can be a force for understanding between the Middle East and the West, but primarily it is a force against established power, whether eastern or western. It is a natural product of the young, who do not yet have much power, but who will indeed have power in the future. So I am in sympathy with LeVine's enthusiasm; however as young people become older and take on the responsibilities of their societies and weld the power, will they not become the satirized?

One of the points Levine makes early in this ambitious book is that the narrow-minded, fundamentalist culture of e.g., Kansas, is similar to the narrow-minded, fundamentalist culture of the jihadis. In a broad sense the fundamentalist Christians of America and the fundamentalist Muslims of the Middle East are just opposite sides of the same intolerant, ignorant coin. They both believe that they have the one real God on their side, and regard people who believe differently as going to straight to hell.

Consequently, LeVine's conclusion that "they" don't hate "us" because there really is no monolithic "they" or "us" is technically correct. Generalizations that pigeonhole people are always wrong except as handy ways to talk. The so-called "culture" of the West with its McFoods, its NASCAR races, its mindless TV, its "football," its Hollywood movies and its gross commercialization is really just the commercial culture of America. The real culture of America is much more complex and includes a plethora of subcultures from blue blooded New Englanders living on inherited wealth to Spanish-speaking illegal aliens who work in our fields and kitchens. It includes Harvard graduates and burger-flippers; blue states and red; people who believe in democracy and the separation of church and state, and evangelicals who are waiting anxiously for the Rapture. It includes the legacy of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain and Al Capone, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, atheists and true believers, Nobel Prize winners and Paris Hilton. It includes millions of Muslims as well as Christians of every stripe, Buddhists and Hindus, Midwesterners, Southerners, Californians and people who have never left North Dakota.

American culture, as crass as it often is, is not the villain. The use of military power exclusively for perceived American interests, and the economic exploitation of less developed nations is what is causing a lot of pain in the world today, and is what justifiably could cause others to hate us. Invading Iraq and causing the death of tens of thousands of Iraqis and the suffering of millions more, is what fosters hatred. Artificially supporting our rich and massive agribusinesses so that Third World farmers can't compete also engenders hatred.

But a lot of the hatred is a legacy of colonialism. Only time will heal those wounds.

Still, there are cultural differences in the aggregate that must be understood and appreciated before the twain of the Middle East and the West can harmoniously meet. Education in the West and particularly in the US is based not on the Qu'ran, as it is in Muslim countries (nor on the Bible), but upon secular histories and the authority not of religious leaders who interpret holy books, but on scientific authority. There is separation of church and state in the West while in Muslim countries typically it is believed that political power comes properly from God and not from the people. While in the West we may be persuaded to think of the Middle East as backward and even evil, that is not part of the classroom instruction. However, a denigration of Western ideas and institutions is part and parcel of Islamic education where the focus is tightly on the teaching of the Qu'ran. We only have that sort of narrow focus in our more conservative religious schools.

These are real cultural differences. When everyone in Saudi Arabia has as much chance to secure a decent living as a Saudi prince, when Iranians can listen without fear to Western music, when Palestinians are represented by politicians that are really working for their benefit instead of playing out revenge scenarios, when the oil profits benefit the people as a whole and not just the ruling classes (or special interests in the West)--in short when everybody has a greater stake in the societies, there will be a lot less hatred, and cultural differences will be seen in a more benign light.

One final thing: LeVine wants the US to declare a truce with Muslim countries. (See page 330 and following.) But even though I agree that the US's "war on terror" is at best a misnomer and at worse a crusade, I don't think declaring a truce makes any sense at all. We are not at war with Islam or Muslims or Muslim countries. To declare a truce would falsely say that we were. Also a declaration that we have sinned in the past (colonialism, etc.) and now apologize is of limited value. We can apologize for the slaughter of Native Americans, for enslaving Africans, even for killing of the Neanderthal if we like. And I suppose Muslims could apologize for forcing innumerable peoples to embrace Islam or else. I don't like any of that sort of thing because I, in particular, enslaved nobody and killed nary a Native American. I cannot apologize for those who did.

What is needed is a declaration of intent to not exploit others or otherwise do nasty things to them. That's what LeVine ought to be calling for.

--Dennis Littrell, author of "The World Is Not as We Think It Is"