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February 28, 2007
D'Souza - The Enemy At Home
Dinesh D'Souza The Enemy At Home The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11 copyright 2007 Doubleday 333 pages
In the 2004 presidential election I was looking for an alternative to George Bush. The Iraq war was clearly a mistake, with its costs - most of which were a surprise to the Bush administration - far exceeding any hoped for benefit. Bush and the Republicans in Congress had also been irresponsible on fiscal matters. If the Democratic candidate could offer a tolerable fiscal policy and show real understanding of the Iraq mess, he / she would get my vote. It should have been possible; Clinton's fiscal policy had been good and the Dems have swarms of smart policy experts. Unfortunately John Kerry failed on both counts.
Oceans of ink have been spilled on Iraq and Islamic fundamentalism, but I have been waiting and waiting for some real insight, until this book. D'Souza doesn't solve every problem or answer every question, but he provides the beginning of insight. He helps Americans understand our miscon-ceptions, and he enables us to see what the Muslims are really fighting about and why a mass murderer like bin Laden has such appeal.
The first thing that is very hard for westerners to understand is Muslims are believers, committed, zealous believers. We might accept that a few fanatics believe strongly enough in their religion to die or kill for it, but almost all Muslims have faith that strong. The vast majority have no desire to go out and kill, or become suicide bombers, but they are almost all "fundamentalists" that is to say they are very firm in their belief in God. They believe God should rule over their lives. In addition there has never been a separation of church and state in Islam, nor a separation between church and secular society. So they believe God should rule over the nation, the people, the culture and the society.
Muslims' general outlook on the world is much like I imagine Christendom was before the Reformation, only more so. Anything and everything in life is affected by, and should be ruled by, Islam. A threat to the culture is a threat to the belief system, and thus a threat to truth and to God's rightful place in the order of things. In the west we have believers but even the most zealous are touched by ideas of tolerance, acceptance of different viewpoints, freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, diversity of viewpoints, etc. In the Muslim world it is not so. Most all believe as Al Qaeda members believe. Fortunately the majority at this point do not endorse its methods, but because of shared belief, they are very hesitant to condemn the radicals.
D'Souza's Introduction is 27 pages and pretty well summarizes the book. The chapters flesh out his assertions and make them highly credible.
The cultural left is "the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world." But for the cultural left, 9/11 would have never happened.
The cultural left includes the left wing of the Democratic Party and far left activists as well as leftist cultural organizations. Examples would be Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, George Soros, Michael Moore, Bill Moyers and Noam Chomsky, also the ACLU, the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood, and moveon.org. Hollywood is full of cultural leftists, as are the nonprofit sector and university faculties.
The cultural left has triggered this volcano of anger by fostering a decadent American culture which traditional societies find repulsive, then waging an aggressive campaign to export the culture, to undermine the patriarchal family, promote secular values, and generally destroy traditional values in developing countries around the world.
We Americans recognize our society has some problems, but generally we feel we have a good way of life. From the perspective of people in traditional cultures, our society is sick. Our culture is an example of getting the important things all wrong. Divorce is rampant. There are massive numbers of illegitimate births. Single parent families are everywhere. A high proportion of children will spend at least part of their childhood without one of their birth parents.
In the US, sex is pervasive. Pornography is available instantly on the internet, at magazine stands, at "adult" stores and the like. Scantily clad women are the most frequently used tool in advertising directed at young men. Gay parades with outrageous behavior are attended by leading politicians. Gay marriage and gay rights are major political issues, and one church has elected an openly gay bishop. I know I sound like a prude but devout Muslims are prudes. They look on all this with shock and repulsion.
Most profoundly, they regard western culture as atheist. Even we can see Europe is atheist. In the US we have plenty of people going to church, but that does not appear to affect their behavior. Does Bill Clinton conduct his life with God's will as his highest priority?
If this cesspool were contained, that would be one thing. But it is not. We are exporting our "values" aggressively throughout the world. Part of the exporting is accomplished without specific intent simply through commerce and global communications. It's easy to access a porn site with western "actors" wherever the internet is available. You can also learn about the American family by watching Jerry Springer in Cairo or Calcutta. American movies are available most everywhere. Whether the plot involves gratuitous sex and violence or gives a positive portrayal of homosexual relationships, they offer a view of our culture. Your daughters can buy Barbie dolls with scandalous outfits... The lifesyles of Hollywood stars, with brief serial marriages punctuated by infidelity, are examples to our children of how to conduct their lives.
Much of the exporting is quite deliberate. Americans don't pay a lot of attention to foreign policy, unless the issue is very high profile like the war in Iraq. But the US government along with not for profit organizations and the UN are very active. Perhaps the big issue they work on is "gender inequality" in the developing world. One feminist is quoted, "Cultural change is a necessary condition for gender equality" and a strategy is needed to combat "authoritarian patriachal religion, culture and morality... all over the world, including the Islamic world." All manner of groups get in the act; Planned Parenthood International, Association for Women's Rights in Development, Interpride (a homosexual group), the ACLU to defend people who violate local cultural laws... Planned Parenthood gets a third of its funding from the US government and operates abortion clinics around the world, even providing abortions to teenagers without the knowledge of their parents.
In numerous ways these international organizations penetrate national sovereignty with their programs which all target, one way or another, the traditional family. Their program objectives are: easy access to contraception for all including unmarried women and teenage girls, legalized prostitution (one of Hillary Clinton's favorite causes), no-fault divorce, abortion on demand, elimination of the concept of the husband as head of the household, prohibition of corporal punishment for children, complete acceptance of homosexuality as a lifestyle choice, and granting all the rights of married couples to cohabiting couples and homosexual couples.
In the developing world family is not a lifestyle choice you shape as you choose. It is the basic unit of survival and the foundation of the society. This massive effort by the left in the US and the west to destroy the traditional family is perceived - accurately - as a massive attack on their culture and way of life.
People like bin Laden who are making war on America are not acting out of ignorance. They know the west. They've traveled here, they've studied here, and many have lived here. They are educated professionals who accurately evaluate the power of our culture and materialistic lifestyle. They see that atheism, materialism, and amorality are ascendant in western society and have great power to seduce people in developing cultures as well. To them, waging war against the west is a matter of survival for their civilization.
Furthermore they perceive the west as being on the attack to purposely destroy their traditional culture. The American invasion of Iraq did not appear to be grounded in America's national interest, so it is assumed to be an expression of a desire to dominate and subjugate a part of the Muslim world. US support of Israel also is not based on America's national interest. The only explanation Muslims can imagine is US antipathy toward Islam.
Gratuitous insults of Islam abound. A minor thing might be the New York Times criticizing the democratically elected politicians in Iraq for not doing enough to achieve gender equality. More serious is the knighthood for Salman Rushdie, an author who compared the prophet Muhammed to the devil. More serious still were the cartoons lampooning Muhammed. In the west we claimed it was an issue of free speech, and many newspapers reprinted the cartoons in solidarity. But to Muslims it was an insult showing contempt to something they held sacred. In the west the truly sacred no longer matters and anybody can insult Jesus Christ, but we do have our "sacred" things. Can you imagine newspapers reprinting cartoons showing Martin Luther King as a dope selling gangster, or making fun of the holocaust?
D'Souza discusses a lot more than just what the Muslims are angry about. I covered the point with a bit of detail because it is something I was not familiar with before reading the book. D'Souza also discusses misconceptions held by the left and the right, errors in western policy that have enabled radical Islam to grow stronger, and strategy for the future.
Posted by rob at February 28, 2007 01:03 PM
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Posted by: Anonymous at February 28, 2007 01:03 PM