DID WE LEARN ANYTHING FROM THREE WORLD WARS?

Fighting for the Soul of Islam (Jim Hoagland, 7/11/03, Washington Post)

Why do they hate them? That is the question to ask in the wake of the slaughter of 53 people by Islamic suicide attackers in a mosque in Quetta, Pakistan, on July 4.

This was no isolated local atrocity, no jihad against Zionist oppressors, no blow delivered by the underdog against American crusaders. These victims were poor Shiite Muslims. As with the bombs set off in Saudi Arabia and Morocco a few weeks ago, this assault in southwestern Pakistan involved Muslims killing Muslims in the name of religion. It was part and parcel of an expanding civil war within Islam that is being fought across an extended region vital to U.S. interests. [...]

Those who hate in this way hate much more than us. Their fury is part of a bigger picture that is succinctly and expertly treated by historian Bernard Lewis in his new book, "The Crisis in Islam." As Lewis points out, the radicals have an entire world to destroy before their apocalyptic design of restoring the Islamic caliphate can be realized.

Instead of asking with embarrassing, self-referential introspection why they hate us, American politicians and pundits should be pointing out that the first, most important line of this battle must be fought by Muslims in the battle for the soul of Islam.

The key to winning that battle lies in the mobilization of a revitalized Islamic mainstream that will reassert and protect itself from the extremists. Islam, like other great religions, has periodically had to rescue itself from movements that would hijack an entire faith. This is such a moment. [...]

The United States on its own cannot reform the Muslim world. Only Muslims can do that.

But Washington can be a catalyst to introduce change into the grim stalemate that now exists between the two main branches of Islam: the Sunni majority, which controls the governments and commerce of most Arab countries, and the Shiites, who govern Iran but are downtrodden elsewhere.

Here's an opportunity to learn from the disastrous decisions to get involved in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. Rather than got tied down in the midst of this mess, why not arm the Iraqi Shiites and withdraw, precipitating bloody reprisals against the Sunni Baathists and quite possibly a more generalized conflict within the Islamic Middle East? Let them kill each other until they're worn out, then see if they're ready to move forward. If they are, or if, in the meantime, the Shiites do decide that they are democrats, then by all means help them as willing allies. Until then, it's not clear why a Civil War within Islam is a bad thing for the West. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2003 7:51 AM