This is an article I ran across today that offers an interesting idea
of what's really up with all the Islamic protests.
Headline: Behind the cartoon protests
Byline: The Monitor's View
Date: 02/10/2006
The clash over the Muhammad cartoons isn't just between "the West" and
Islam. It's more between Muslims. Protests over the derogatory cartoons
were purposely fanned by Arab leaders who need to look like mightier
defenders of Islam than the jihadists who want to overthrow them and
unite all Muslims.
Many actions by the West serve as merely a foil in a long intra-Muslim
struggle over whether to return the Middle East to some bygone Islamic
unity of centuries past. The cartoons published in a Danish newspaper
were used as an excuse to score points in a bigger game.
This Muslim struggle over whether to create an Islamic empire
reappeared in modern times with the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.
Now, after more than two decades of trying to export their revolution
through terrorist groups and oil money, Iran's Shiite mullahs are
losing the battle. They were drained by a long war with Iraq during the
1980s but, most of all, by the misrule of their own, now disenchanted
people.
Besieged at home by youthful dissent, Iran's clerics have reverted to
Persian nationalism, Israel baiting, and a quest for the ultimate tool
against those who oppose its claim to Islamic leadership, nuclear
weapons.
That latter move has only widened the split between Islam's rival
camps, the Shiites and the Sunnis, who are divided over who should have
led the faith after the prophet Muhammad's passing. Arab leaders have
sought the West's help in thwarting Iran's nuclear ambition.
Competing with Iran for Islamic leadership since the 1990s has been
Sunni-dominated Al Qaeda.
Its leaders, now on the run, may still believe terrorist attacks on the
West, such as 9/11, can rally the faithful under its flag or bring a
flood of followers into Afghanistan and Iraq. But the group's violent
tactics, especially beheadings or killings of Muslim bystanders in
bombings, have turned off the "umma," or the wider community of
Muslims.
Al Qaeda's internal memos have admitted its tactical mistakes. "We are
in a race for the hearts and minds of our umma," wrote the group's
ideologue, Ayman Zawahiri, last year. And in a recently released audio
tape, the fugitive Osama bin Laden tried to restore his slipping
legitimacy with Muslims.
Strangely, the jihadists on the ascendency are those using a Western
import, democracy. The Palestinian group Hamas and the Egyptian Muslim
Brotherhood have won impressive gains in recent elections. Reflecting
the views of their voters, they're now mainly occupied with how to
govern well. Both appear to be moderating their rhetoric.
The mistake of many jihadists is to think that Islamic unity through
the sword can bring the dignity and respect sought by Arabs and
Iranians from their governments and the West. But religion can't be
imposed.
And to always create an enemy out of Western actions is no way to
uplift Islam's image. While the West can do more not to antagonize
Muslims, it is really up to Muslims to resolve their internal conflict.
So far, the radicals appear on the run, with some at least running
toward the ballot box rather than the ammunition box.
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