Post by maruf on Oct 1, 2004 0:07:27 GMT -5
Pay attention to the last sentence. Is this a new way to deal with the "Moderates" and "Islamists", do not trust either?
Friday, September 17, 2004
Scholarship 'politicization' may be seeping into West
U.S. is losing openness it once upheld
By Will Rasmussen
Daily Star staff
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=8458#
Hurrying through the corridors of Cairo International Airport after a 1998 research trip, Fawaz Gerges - ABC television commentator, university professor and renowned author - felt like a fugitive.
There was good reason. Contraband material was hidden in among clothes, stuffed in the bottom of his travel bag.
He knew that if Egyptian authorities discovered his copies of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman's "A Word of Truth" or jihadist theorist Abdel-Salam Faraj's "The Neglected Duty" he could end up in jail - or worse.
"They can really do a lot of damage to you before anyone gets to you," Gerges said.
Gerges worries that as Western countries wage a war on terrorism, the same politicization of scholarship, though certainly not to the degree in Egypt, may be seeping into Western society.
To Gerges and many of his colleagues, this worry crystallized when the U.S. government, citing a legal provision banning espionage agents, saboteurs and potential terrorists from the country, revoked Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan's visa to teach at Notre Dame University in Indiana. Some 100 scholars in France and the U.S., including the American Association of University Professors, drafted a letter last week, which was released internationally, claiming that "America's noble record in modern history is today threatened" if scholars like Ramadan can be denied access because of their "political convictions, their associations or their writings."
At a moment when knowledge of the goals and ideologies of Islamist movements is essential to the security of both Western and Arab governments, scholars both in the Middle East and the U.S. say their ability to gather such knowledge has been restricted, both by fear of suspicion among their countrymen and worries that they may be denied jobs or promotions because of perceived links or sympathies with terrorism.
Others in the U.S., led mainly by conservative or pro-Israel groups, cite documented collaboration between U.S. professors and jihadists - such as the recent arrest of a professor at The University of South Florida for providing material support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad - as evidence that scholars of Islam often become apologists for terror and fail to tangibly contribute to the defeat of groups that embrace violence.
The debate, which cuts to the center of the role of academics in a society at war, turns on how to distinguish between scholarship and apologetics, objectivity and sympathy, and serving one's country or aiding its enemy.
What is at stake, scholars in the Middle East and in America say, is not only whether the West can reaffirm its commitment to academic openness, but whether it can fight a war against terrorism without full understanding of its opponents.
"The West was a model we could look to for openness," said Islamic scholar and recently-named American University of Kuwait President Shafeeq Ghabra. "The best scholars in the world learned about Communism and Leninism in academic circles, and that was central to the ability of the U.S. to defeat the Soviets and win the Cold War. If the U.S. does not go with that model again, I'm afraid it will affect its war on terrorism."
Scholars of Islamic movements point to the revocation of Ramadan's visa as evidence that the U.S. is wavering in its commitment to openness towards politically unpalatable ideas. Before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security barred Ramadan from the country, allegations surfaced in the media that he had arranged meetings and lectured to Islamic jihadists - charges Ramadan denied.
Gerges said groups such as the pro-Israel Middle East Forum, which publicized Ramadan's alleged links to terror in the U.S. media, have pressured scholars to denounce all Islamic movements as terrorist.
"Any kind of neutral academic discourse is presumed to be guilty by association," he said. "There's a systematic attempt to label the entire Islamist movement as a terrorist ideology."
If all Islamic movements are labeled as "terrorist," Gerges added, they become off limits for scholarship - and that could be dangerous.
"Our ability to understand the whole spectrum of Islamic movements becomes very cloudy and foggy," said Gerges, who was criticized last year by The Middle East Forum for failing to adequately warn Americans about the threat of Islamic terrorism.
Fear of political repression in the Middle East is something scholars of Islamic movements have lived with for decades. Egyptian scholar Nasr Hamed Abuzaid, for example, has been threatened with death by clerics because of his reformist vision of Islam and his suggestions that Koranic tales about genies, angels, or devils should be viewed as metaphors and not taken literally. Abuzaid fled Egypt in 1995 for Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Defining the boundary between scholarship and advocacy or even aid for jihadist groups is an ongoing struggle, both in the Middle East and in the West.
Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum, attacked Ramadan in a major U.S. newspaper as a "cold-blooded Islamist," noted his contacts with jihadists - which Ramadan denies - and inferred that Ramadan hoped for "death to the West."
Ramadan's supporters say his scholarship on Islamism should not be confused with advocacy of violence, and add he is a moderate interested in coexistence between Islam and the West and his voice should be encouraged.
Other researchers around the world have landed in criminal trouble for their dealings with Islamic groups, which officials say transcended mere research.
Spanish authorities, for example, arrested Al-Jazeera reporter Tayssir Alouni last autumn for "taking advantage" of his position as a reporter to help Al-Qaeda with "financing and coordination."
In a letter to former Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar, Al-Jazeera claimed Alouni was doing his job as a reporter and that many other journalists had "relations with Al-Qaeda suspects" but suffered no consequences.
Alouni, awaiting trial in Spain, denies aiding Al-Qaeda.
Last week, Saudi academic Saeed bin Zair appeared before a judge in Riyahd on charges that he supported a series of suicide bombings in Riyadh between May and November 2003.
In an April 15 Al-Jazeera appearance, the former professor described "the terrorist acts committed by the deviant group as being directed at non-Muslims," a Saudi official told Agence France Presse.
The government asserts that bin Zair's comments condoned the bombings, which it says were directed at both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Whether or not these government charges have validity, scholars say, the risk of being branded a sympathizer discourages scholarship on the roots and motivations of terrorism - essential questions governments must wrestle with, according to scholars.
Full access to militants, according to Abdullah Alotaibi, a professor of political science at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, will allow for "in depth analysis" which "in the long run helps the government to fight (terrorism)."
Alotaibi spent two years in the 1990's interviewing Islamic jihadists in Egypt, including the brother of Khalid al-Islambuli, who assasinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Alotaibi said research on how young militants are recruited into terrorists organizations is essential but that scholars are currently denied access to Saudi jails to interview them.
If revoking Ramadan's visa is any indication, said John Esposito, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., America may be adopting parts of the closed mentality of many Arab governments. Because such closeness often does not allow for distinction between moderates and extremists, it "flies right in the face of America's national interest and U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy" goal of supporting Muslim reformers.
"The situation with Ramadan symbolizes a lot more and sends a signal much more broadly both in the Muslim world and the West," he said.
Copyright (c) 2004 The Daily Star
Friday, September 17, 2004
Scholarship 'politicization' may be seeping into West
U.S. is losing openness it once upheld
By Will Rasmussen
Daily Star staff
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=8458#
Hurrying through the corridors of Cairo International Airport after a 1998 research trip, Fawaz Gerges - ABC television commentator, university professor and renowned author - felt like a fugitive.
There was good reason. Contraband material was hidden in among clothes, stuffed in the bottom of his travel bag.
He knew that if Egyptian authorities discovered his copies of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman's "A Word of Truth" or jihadist theorist Abdel-Salam Faraj's "The Neglected Duty" he could end up in jail - or worse.
"They can really do a lot of damage to you before anyone gets to you," Gerges said.
Gerges worries that as Western countries wage a war on terrorism, the same politicization of scholarship, though certainly not to the degree in Egypt, may be seeping into Western society.
To Gerges and many of his colleagues, this worry crystallized when the U.S. government, citing a legal provision banning espionage agents, saboteurs and potential terrorists from the country, revoked Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan's visa to teach at Notre Dame University in Indiana. Some 100 scholars in France and the U.S., including the American Association of University Professors, drafted a letter last week, which was released internationally, claiming that "America's noble record in modern history is today threatened" if scholars like Ramadan can be denied access because of their "political convictions, their associations or their writings."
At a moment when knowledge of the goals and ideologies of Islamist movements is essential to the security of both Western and Arab governments, scholars both in the Middle East and the U.S. say their ability to gather such knowledge has been restricted, both by fear of suspicion among their countrymen and worries that they may be denied jobs or promotions because of perceived links or sympathies with terrorism.
Others in the U.S., led mainly by conservative or pro-Israel groups, cite documented collaboration between U.S. professors and jihadists - such as the recent arrest of a professor at The University of South Florida for providing material support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad - as evidence that scholars of Islam often become apologists for terror and fail to tangibly contribute to the defeat of groups that embrace violence.
The debate, which cuts to the center of the role of academics in a society at war, turns on how to distinguish between scholarship and apologetics, objectivity and sympathy, and serving one's country or aiding its enemy.
What is at stake, scholars in the Middle East and in America say, is not only whether the West can reaffirm its commitment to academic openness, but whether it can fight a war against terrorism without full understanding of its opponents.
"The West was a model we could look to for openness," said Islamic scholar and recently-named American University of Kuwait President Shafeeq Ghabra. "The best scholars in the world learned about Communism and Leninism in academic circles, and that was central to the ability of the U.S. to defeat the Soviets and win the Cold War. If the U.S. does not go with that model again, I'm afraid it will affect its war on terrorism."
Scholars of Islamic movements point to the revocation of Ramadan's visa as evidence that the U.S. is wavering in its commitment to openness towards politically unpalatable ideas. Before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security barred Ramadan from the country, allegations surfaced in the media that he had arranged meetings and lectured to Islamic jihadists - charges Ramadan denied.
Gerges said groups such as the pro-Israel Middle East Forum, which publicized Ramadan's alleged links to terror in the U.S. media, have pressured scholars to denounce all Islamic movements as terrorist.
"Any kind of neutral academic discourse is presumed to be guilty by association," he said. "There's a systematic attempt to label the entire Islamist movement as a terrorist ideology."
If all Islamic movements are labeled as "terrorist," Gerges added, they become off limits for scholarship - and that could be dangerous.
"Our ability to understand the whole spectrum of Islamic movements becomes very cloudy and foggy," said Gerges, who was criticized last year by The Middle East Forum for failing to adequately warn Americans about the threat of Islamic terrorism.
Fear of political repression in the Middle East is something scholars of Islamic movements have lived with for decades. Egyptian scholar Nasr Hamed Abuzaid, for example, has been threatened with death by clerics because of his reformist vision of Islam and his suggestions that Koranic tales about genies, angels, or devils should be viewed as metaphors and not taken literally. Abuzaid fled Egypt in 1995 for Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Defining the boundary between scholarship and advocacy or even aid for jihadist groups is an ongoing struggle, both in the Middle East and in the West.
Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum, attacked Ramadan in a major U.S. newspaper as a "cold-blooded Islamist," noted his contacts with jihadists - which Ramadan denies - and inferred that Ramadan hoped for "death to the West."
Ramadan's supporters say his scholarship on Islamism should not be confused with advocacy of violence, and add he is a moderate interested in coexistence between Islam and the West and his voice should be encouraged.
Other researchers around the world have landed in criminal trouble for their dealings with Islamic groups, which officials say transcended mere research.
Spanish authorities, for example, arrested Al-Jazeera reporter Tayssir Alouni last autumn for "taking advantage" of his position as a reporter to help Al-Qaeda with "financing and coordination."
In a letter to former Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar, Al-Jazeera claimed Alouni was doing his job as a reporter and that many other journalists had "relations with Al-Qaeda suspects" but suffered no consequences.
Alouni, awaiting trial in Spain, denies aiding Al-Qaeda.
Last week, Saudi academic Saeed bin Zair appeared before a judge in Riyahd on charges that he supported a series of suicide bombings in Riyadh between May and November 2003.
In an April 15 Al-Jazeera appearance, the former professor described "the terrorist acts committed by the deviant group as being directed at non-Muslims," a Saudi official told Agence France Presse.
The government asserts that bin Zair's comments condoned the bombings, which it says were directed at both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Whether or not these government charges have validity, scholars say, the risk of being branded a sympathizer discourages scholarship on the roots and motivations of terrorism - essential questions governments must wrestle with, according to scholars.
Full access to militants, according to Abdullah Alotaibi, a professor of political science at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, will allow for "in depth analysis" which "in the long run helps the government to fight (terrorism)."
Alotaibi spent two years in the 1990's interviewing Islamic jihadists in Egypt, including the brother of Khalid al-Islambuli, who assasinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Alotaibi said research on how young militants are recruited into terrorists organizations is essential but that scholars are currently denied access to Saudi jails to interview them.
If revoking Ramadan's visa is any indication, said John Esposito, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., America may be adopting parts of the closed mentality of many Arab governments. Because such closeness often does not allow for distinction between moderates and extremists, it "flies right in the face of America's national interest and U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy" goal of supporting Muslim reformers.
"The situation with Ramadan symbolizes a lot more and sends a signal much more broadly both in the Muslim world and the West," he said.
Copyright (c) 2004 The Daily Star