#1 I disagree in that I see the turmoil in the Muslim world as being reactionary as opposed to progressive. The whole idea of individual freedoms and rights undermines almost every power relationship in the Islamic world. The relationships of Amir to governed, Sheikh to tribe member and mullah to mosque go-er are upset by the concepts of natural law and rights originating from the people not from the Koran and Sunnah. Likewise, relationships between husband and wife and parent and child are challenged by Western concepts of freedom to choose you own career and mate. Every power holder in Islamic societies must fight westernization if he hopes to hold on to his power. OBL represents that fight. That's why his popularity is so immense in the Arab world.
I'd agree with the writer's thesis if an intellectual ferment similar to that of the rennaissance was ongoing in the Muslim world. It just isn't. The growth of Islam is due to Western medicine, Western agricultural techniques (and agricultural subsidies), and Saudi oil money. You remove any one of the three elements and the growth stops and in fact reverses. |