Bryant C. Mitchell, Arab News

After the disaster of Sept. 11, the common man in the Western world awoke from his spiritual slumber and was told that they needed to find the answer to what they were told was a fundamentally important rhetorical question: Why do they hate us? As a result, a frantic search began to find out any and all information they could about Islam and the Muslims.

The underlying premise in the framing of this question is that “they” — Muslims — possess some innate abhorrence for things Western and thereby modern. The Western religious scholars long ignored by their slumbering populace rushed to the forefront to provide an array of answers. They included, but were not limited to the following:

• Islam is an inherently anti-modern religion;

• Islam is a demonic religion as was its founder;

• Islam is an inherently violent religion based on the conquest and subjugation of non-Muslims.

Let’s examine the facts. Here is what some prominent American opinion-makers and leaders have said about Islam:

“We should invade (Muslim) countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”

— Columnist Ann Coulter, National Review Online, Sept. 13, 2001.

“Just turn (the sheriff) loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line.”

— Rep. C. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security and Senate candidate, to Georgia law officers, November 2001.

“Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith where God sent his Son to die for you.”

— Attorney General John Ashcroft, interview on Cal Thomas radio, November 2001.

“(Islam) is a very evil and wicked religion; wicked, violent and not of the same God (as Christianity).”

— Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, November 2001.

“Islam is Evil, Christ is King.”

— Allegedly written in marker by law enforcement agents on a Muslim prayer calendar in the home of a Muslim being investigated by police in Dearborn, Michigan, July 2002.

“Who put our oil under their sand?”

— A banner of the Orange County Peace Coalition (OCPC), a broad-based group of diverse individuals and organizations. OCPC is a multiethnic, multireligious, multipolitical organization composed of over 20 volunteer groups united for peace. They indicate they have come together because national leaders are propelling the United States into a war that will destabilize the world and threaten our civil liberties.

“We are going to correct a mistake that God made?”

— Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a senior intelligence chief who made church speeches casting the fight against terrorism in religious terms. The three-star general is deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence.

What the above passages clearly demonstrate is that a more pertinent question to ask is why do we hate them. What’s going on here? What’s going on isn’t rocket science. Simply put, Muslims do not inherently hate the so-called “West or modernity”. What they dislike, so more adamantly than others, isn’t the quest, but the quest’s baggage. Now I will briefly examine two important articles of this baggage to get a sense of the source of the difference in perspective. They are:

Western economic philosophy is based on the basic that the ends justify the means. As a result, the pursuit of economic gain should not be constrained by moral or religious ideology. Islam, on the other hand, prohibits businesses that promote the sale of intoxicants, pork products, art that depict human images, gambling, interest, pornography, and prostitution, all of which are legal in one form or another in Western societies.

Western democracy is based on the premise that all laws are subject to change and reinterpretation. For example, the US Constitution is viewed as a living document that is subject to change by expression of two-thirds of the Will of the People. In contrast, an Islamic constitution is based on the Qur’anic law that can’t be changed given its origin. As result, the Western political system is reactive in nature.

Laws instituted first and questioned regarding their constitutionality after the fact. In Islamic tradition, every effort is made to ensure that laws passed through the Qur’anic screen before they are put into effect. Finally, many of the purported freedoms that the West so zealously wants imparted to Muslims are not freedoms at all, they are forms of enslavement. Fortunately for the Muslims this basic knowledge has been infused deep within the moral genetic code. Unfortunately for the West, its most recent invasion into the Muslim market-space is reactivating that code with some very predictable consequences given the force and viciousness of the incursion.

— Bryant C. Mitchell who converted to Islam at the age of 35 teaches management and entrepreneurship courses at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.