Where Are the Moderate Muslims?

We are still just getting a clearer picture of yesterday’s attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three of his staff.  A similar angry, armed mob also attacked the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, which resulted in more general destruction, injury, vandalism and demonstrations of Muslim extremist hatred for America.  What we have not seen, as usual, nor are we likely to see, is a swell of protest against these actions from moderate Muslims – not in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, or most important, Muslim-Americans.  Why not?  Where are the Moderate Muslims?

I do not condone the sentiments and often the behavior of those who are Muslim-phobic in this country, and I fully understand that most Muslims worldwide are not extremists engaging in or supporting of terrorism and political violence.  But it becomes increasingly irritating to not see this larger Muslim World stand up to the extremists – the violent, ignorant, bullies – in their ranks.  As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.  He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

These most recent incidents were apparently set off by an obscure, amateur video that is extremely anti-Islam and, of course, deeply insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.  And as stupid as it may seem to us, the extremists believed the video was a blockbuster Hollywood movie that was going to be released to coincide with the 11^th anniversary of the September 11^th attacks.

According to today’s New York Times:

“The trailer was uploaded to YouTube by Sam Bacile, whom The Wall Street Journal Web site identified as a 52-year old Israeli-American real estate developer in California.  He told the Web site he had raised $5 million from 100 Jewish donors to make the film.  ‘Islam is a cancer,’  Mr. Bacile was quoted as saying.

“The video gained international attention when a Florida pastor began promoting it along with his own proclamation of Sept. 11 as ‘International Judge Muhammad Day.’  In a statement on Tuesday, the pastor, Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., called the film ‘an American production, not designed to attack Muslims but to show the destructive ideology of Islam’ and said it ‘further reveals in a satirical fashion the life of Muhammad’.”

Lest you’ve forgotten, it was Mr. Jones who, a while back, thought threatening to burn a copy of the Koran would be helpful in fighting terrorism and strengthening positive relationships between the US and Muslim nations.

I don’t want to devote too much space to noting that in today’s impossible 24-hour news and politics pace of life and governing, it is regrettable that Gov. Mitt “Foreign Policy is a Distraction” Romney felt both obliged and entitled to immediately criticize the President’s initial response.  After all, in the middle of The Campaign, everything is fair political game for a kick in the balls.  “America First,” indeed.

For the record, Obama’s “objectionable” statement was as follows: “While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.”

No, I want to concentrate on the fact that contemporary, moderate, ordinary-folks-just-like-you-and-me-Muslims have never collectively done anything to disparage the brethren who are making them look bad and are doing nothing to make the world better – in general or for Muslims in particular – with their violence, hatred and, frankly, a complete lack of sense of humor about themselves and what they believe in.

If you really believe in what you say you believe in – whatever that may be – you don’t get crazy every time someone writes a book or draws a cartoon or makes a movie that offends you.  You let it roll off your back at the least, and peacefully protest about it at the most.  And it would also have been nice, in this instance, if the protesters had given the US some slack, given our support of the Arab Spring and our efforts to avert a Libyan genocide.

To his political detriment, President Obama has consistently tried to walk a fine line between improving relations and communication with the Muslim World and maintaining a consistently supportive policy with Israel.  For his efforts, he’s been accused by the radical American Right of being a Muslim; and rejected, even reviled, by American Jews for not doing enough for Israel.  Instead, Obama and the US have been attacked by Muslim extremists who have no understanding of a culture in which ideas are expressed that are not shared by government, religious leaders, or the populace at large.

If the vast majority of Muslims just want to live their lives and practice their religion in peace, they must show some collective gumption and stand up for sanity and order.  If they don’t, the extremists will make it even worse for them, as well as incur reprisals that would otherwise be unnecessary; it will be a self-fulfilled prophecy, realized in large part by those who stood by and did nothing.

The Challenges of Compromise

President Obama said what was necessary in his Middle East speech today. He spoke truth to the power of change. He spoke of an entire region in transition and the importance of U.S. and global support for peaceful revolution. It was not until the last ten minutes of his 50-minute speech that he addressed the unceasing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in that regard he talked about the necessity for compromise. Compromise sucks. Particularly if you have strong feelings about one side of an issue. That said, the fact that neither Israel nor the Palestinians are especially pleased with his remarks is proof that he found a practical middle ground.

Given what’s been going on in the Middle East for the past six months – and what continues to occur – it would have been impossible for the President to make entirely pro-Israel comments, and indeed, it would not have been in Israel’s best interest. Similarly, had he suddenly placed America in an entirely pro-Arab/ Muslim position, it would have been a terrible betrayal of Israel and, in this instance too, not a stepping stone to a viable peace.

Those who choose to maintain a completely anti-Obama position, such as whoever’s writing the hateful and slanted American Blood Eagle blog, which called him Imam Obama and said he’s an anti-Semite, would do well to get a grip. In general, it would be really helpful if people stopped flinging terms like racist and anti-Semite around as if they were just handy catch-all phrases for things they don’t like. These words and what they represent are very powerful and it’s vitally important to make a distinction between those who take positions with which one disagrees and leveling such strident accusations.

As you probably know by now, the thing Mr. Obama said that upset Israel’s most ardent supporters is that Israel should return to the borders it had prior to the 1967 War, and that "long-term occupation" was untenable. Yes, that stung. But compromise means giving up something you care about. The President also said that Israel’s security interests must be protected, called for a non-military Palestinian state, and acknowledged that it is reasonable for Israel to resist negotiating with parties openly committed to its destruction. Guess who's unhappy about that?

In my opinion, President Obama made the most honest, pertinent and all-encompassing speech about the Middle East ever uttered by an American President. The very fact that he discussed the region as a whole and not just the Israeli-Palestinian “issue” demonstrates that.

There are those who are already dismissing the speech as a campaign tool and disparaging the President’s wisdom and sincerity. This is both disingenuous and counter-productive. There is no denying that Barack Obama is a politician and that as such he has done many things over the past three years that have been a body-jarring jolt to the progressives who put him in office. In a number of important instances, he has given the idea of “compromise sucks” disheartening new meaning.

But with this most-recent speech on the Middle East, Obama has shown an intelligence, understanding and sensitivity regarding complicated issues in an increasingly shrinking and technologically-connected world that is nothing less than laudable. If he’s gearing up for a nothing-left-to-lose second term, presenting us with the Obama we thought we were getting in the first place, America, the Middle East and the rest of the world will be the better for it.

Independence Day in Egypt

I whole-heartedly congratulate the Egyptian people on their non-violent revolution – successfully deposing their despotic, thieving “president” and creating the opportunity for new lives in a free country. Watching your joy as you celebrated in the streets made me feel so happy for you. Thank you for giving the world something to admire and feel hopeful about. I wish you luck during what will likely be a difficult transition. And I hope, for your sake as well as Israel’s, that your future will give you a secular democracy, rather than new oppression by an Islamic Fundamentalist theocracy. You deserve to be rewarded for your courage, for giving up the devil you knew. You don’t deserve new devils!

Life On Mars (Not Really, I’m Confused)

One of my local public television stations (WLIW-New York) is currently re-running the original British version of the cop-drama Life On Mars (there was recently a US version on ABC, but I never saw it). It’s about a contemporary young police detective in Manchester, England, who has a car accident and “wakes up” back in 1973. Has he gone mad? Is he dead or in a coma? Or has he actually gone back in time? He doesn’t know which. So, while being tormented by sounds and visions from his past (in the future…), he tries to make the best of it in the `70s, coping with crooked, violent cops who don’t play by the rules and who are severely hampered by a lack of high technology. The show is very trippy. It’s very good. And the first song on its soundtrack is David Bowie’s 1973 hit Life On Mars, which is also trippy and good, even though I have no idea what it’s about.

And I like the series a lot, in part because it’s star, John Simm, is very appealing, but more because I, too, feel like a displaced person, lost in time, transported back and forth among the past, present and future, horrified and amused by the culture and events around me.

As of an hour ago in Egypt (3:00 a.m. their time), the massive crowd in Tahrir Square, Cairo, were beyond themselves with anger and despair, wondering what part of “Leave now!” Mubarek doesn’t understand (actually, just won’t accept). They’re calling for 20 million Egyptians to protest in the streets nationwide tomorrow, and wouldn’t it be an amazing thing if that happened? Those in Tahrir Square are talking about storming the palace – storming the palace, for godsakes, in 2011. It feels medieval and futuristic at the same time.

Back in the USA, the Puritans in Congress are doing everything they can (once again and apparently ever more) to make abortion essentially illegal once again and trying to slash funds for family planning and sex education. Meanwhile, three men from Indiana have created an iphone app for Catholic confession (“Forgive me, Father, for I have linked,” quipped Maureen Dowd in today’s New York Times); a grandmother and her boyfriend in New York were discovered to have been keeping their granddaughter locked in a bathroom for the last four years; a nurse in Minnesota took a pre-op patient’s pain pills away (she’s addicted to them), then told him to “man up” when he squirmed and moaned during surgery; a school bus matron beat up an autistic kid; a hooker who had become a NYC school teacher is preparing her memoirs; a married Congressman has resigned over sending a beefcake photo to some love-seeking woman on Craig’s list; baseball’s spring training is about to begin (isn’t it February??); and many, many folks are getting ready for a romantic Valentine’s Day.

Watching the news has become like reading The National Enquirer when I was a kid, when its front page news was once about someone boiling a baby. Like I said, medieval and futuristic at the same time. I feel frightened and useless and sad. I’m worried and anxious all the time. Food prices are going up, and every time I go the market I feel like I’m making a major investment. We aren’t quite midway through the month, and I’m not sure I can afford to go shopping again before March. My hands and feet are cold. Sometimes my vision blurs. My skin is dry and the sky is falling. I miss the `70s, though I clearly remember not liking them while they were happening. But at least I could smoke a cigarette on a park bench, which I can no longer do in NYC (in case you’re wondering, I make my own, which is very cheap; I can’t afford ready-made cigarettes and soup). If there is life on Mars, I’d like to check it out.

________________________________

LIFE ON MARS

(music, lyrics and vocal by David Bowie)

– click here to see/hear video –

It’s a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause she's lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

It's on Amerika's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

Contemplating the Egyptian Revolution

Forget for a moment that [as I write this early Wednesday evening] an awesome volcano has rocked Japan, a massive cyclone is threatening Queensland, Australia, a killer winter storm has engulfed half of the U.S., and the largely Republican Senate is about to take its symbolic vote to repeal the health care bill passed last year – and let’s consider what’s happening in Egypt.

Since anti-Mubarak protests began on January 27^th – on the heels of the revolution in Tunisia as well as word going out about the Egyptian president grooming one of his sons for the presidency – I’ve been diligently following events in Egypt with great interest, and, somewhat to my surprise, with a huge sense of solidarity with the Egyptian people. With each passing day, the crowds grew in size and diversity, and what I saw was a true revolution by a united people who have been oppressed for the past 30 years. I saw courage and solidarity and a clear message: we won’t take it anymore. The lapsed hippie/activist in me has been thrilled.

As a Jew and an ardent supporter of Israel, I also saw the potential for danger, for further trouble for the continued (and universally accepted) existence of the Jewish State and the ongoing peace efforts with the Palestinians. As a result, I’ve been watching news coverage on a combination of networks: CNN and MSNBC, as well as FOX and PBS (primarily the NewsHour and Charlie Rose).

Not surprisingly, CNN and, to a greater extent, MSNBC, were also enthralled by the dynamism and legitimacy of the Egyptian revolt; they had very little to say about its impact on Israel or the USA. FOX, in turn, saw little more than turmoil and a radical Islamist threat to Israel and the world (more on that later). Only beleaguered little PBS provided truly balanced coverage, examining the event from all perspectives and with input from an assortment of news services and Middle-East experts. All the networks combined provided lots to think about and many ways to think about it.

As I considered President Obama’s untenable position, I was reminded of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in the 1930s, “He may be a sonofabitch, but he’s our sonofabitch.” The U.S. has (and continues to) supported many a despot over the years, because we felt it served our national interest and/or that of our allies. Some people would call that realistic, practical politics. I’m not sure what to call it, but it seems to me we’ve often done this to our peril and inadvertent peril to our friends. I’m no expert, but that’s sure how it seems.

And it seemed all the more so today, after yesterday’s events. Yesterday, approximately two million people gathered peacefully on the streets of Egypt’s major cities and continued to call for the immediate departure of their president. (Indeed, things had been peaceful since Day 2, after the infamous “protective” police squads had been chased off the streets.) The Egyptian Army said it would not fire against peaceful protesters. President Mubarak made the clueless announcement that he wouldn’t run again and would supervise free and fair elections in September. President Obama said reforms must begin immediately, not saying (publicly at least) that our sonofabitch should step down now.

Then today, there was a major game change. Seemingly out of nowhere came a mass of Pro-Mubarak protesters, armed to the teeth, doing battle with the Opposition and attacking the international media. Mubarak denies that his regime instigated this. Again, as I write this, they seem to have taken control of Tahrir Square and other areas. What seemed inspiring has turned ugly, thanks to this turn of events. The U.S. is making impotent calls for an end to the violence. The Egyptian Army, still not taking sides, is trying to keep relative peace and protect the country’s historic treasures. Further unrest is bubbling up throughout the Mid-East and Northern Africa. No one knows what the hell will happen next.

Now, I want to return to the issue of American news coverage of this phenomenon, particularly by FOX, the only network so far to deeply focus on Israel’s position in the midst of all this. It was an education. Last night, I spent a stupefying hour with Glenn Beck, who explained the checkered past of The Muslim Brotherhood (a militant group long based in Egypt) and his belief that it is their intention to take control of Egypt and, along with other Muslim fundamentalist extremists, take over the entire Middle-East and destroy Israel. He explained that this would constitute a caliphate, which is unity among Arab and other Muslim countries. This has happened before, he said, most recently the Ottoman Empire of the 1920s. This seemed entirely plausible to me, and gave me pause about the goodness of the Egyptian revolution.

However, he then went on to describe what he felt would be the logical extension of this power, which would be a Muslim extremist take-over of Asia, Africa, Europe and, eventually, the U.S. This would be The Coming Insurrection, he said, and it would be possible because of the close ties between The Muslim Brotherhood and the well organized American Left (I had no idea there was a well organized American Left, but be that as it may…). Beck described the code words we should be wary of: social justice and change in particular. He warned about community activists. He called out the infamous Bill Ayers, nee the Weather Underground of the 60s, who he says is in a revolutionary bed with The Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, he spent a great deal of time explaining how this uprising would enormously effect the supply and price of oil in the U.S. and elsewhere. I began to feel like I was listening to a Scientologist.

In the end, I, like most of us, I think, don’t know what to make of all this anymore or what to think about it. All I know is that our government can’t talk about democracy and freedom from one side of its mouth and pillow-talk with despotic sonsofbitches from the other. I believe in the legitimacy of Israel and care about (and fear for) its survival. But I also know that millions of people throughout the Middle-East can’t continue to live under oppression – whether by Islamic Fundamentalists or secular rulers. Last but not least, it appears that, contrary to a popular song of the 70s, the revolution will be televised, and how Americans – and other citizens of the world – will respond to it remains to be seen.