West and Islam compared

From: www.islamdaily.net

By: David Frownfelder
Dated: 02/06/2005

-- Former Reagan aide Dinesh D'Souza said the West and Islam tend to misinterpret each other.
ADRIAN -- Misinterpretation of each other's cultures is the fundamental problem between Islam and the West, according to Dinesh D'Souza, a senior domestic policy analyst in the Reagan White House.
D'Souza delineated the distinctions between the two cultures during his lecture Tuesday as part of the Chiodini/Fontana Lecture Series on Ethics at Siena Heights University.
"In America, the overriding principle is freedom. In Islam, the overriding principle is virtue," D'Souza explained. "Some of the intellectual leaders in the Islamic world look at America and say, 'In Islam we apply the word of God. Virtue is nobler than freedom and liberty.' "
D'Souza said virtue is also an important principle in the West. He noted that in a democratic society, freedom is used as a path to get to virtue.
"In a free society, when you choose to do what is right, that leads to virtue. Coerced virtue is no virtue at all," D'Souza said.
Speaking on the topic "Islam vs. The West: A Clash of Civilizations," D'Souza touched on the history of Islam, pointing out that during the Middle Ages in Europe, Islam was the largest and strongest empire in the world. As Europeans began reaching out in other directions for knowledge, the West became stronger and soon surpassed Islam in prominence.
For its part, western civilization does not understand Islam, he said. Many of the terms we use with respect to Muslims and Islam are misleading.
For instance, D'Souza said that the war on terrorism is misleading because terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The West also does not understand the motives of so-called suicide bombers.
"They are not suicidal," he said. "These people don't want to die. They want to live, but they are willing to die for a higher purpose."
D'Souza explained that the Islamic world is divided in two. There are the traditional Muslims, who tend to be more tolerant of differing views, and the radical Muslims, who have a program of political activism to restore traditional Islam to the modern world.
As the West misinterprets the views and goals of Islam, Muslims also do the same with the West. Islam, like Judaism, is based on laws and tenets, D'Souza explained. Christianity was once the same, but has since changed into a more secular culture.
"In the Muslim critique of America, they look at it as 'It's all democracy, it's all lies. Your foreign policy is based on self interest. The U.S. is backing tyrants,' " he said. "For all its flaws, American policy is governed by the principle of the lesser of two evils. We have backed tyrants. But it is often the choice of choosing between the bad guy and the really bad guy. You have to apply the principle of the lesser of two evils."
He said the Shah of Iran was a tyrant, and when the U.S. pulled its support out from under him because of his human rights violations, Iran was swept up by fundamentalists.
"Without Khomeini, you would never have had bin Laden," D'Souza said.
He said the West will need to beware of pushing Democracy in the Middle East, which has never had it, because the prevailing majorities would oppose the West. It isn't the Western economy that Muslims oppose, it is the Western culture, he explained.
D'Souza has authored six books on topics ranging from multiculturalism to patriotism. His latest, titled "What's So Great About America?," was published in 2002. He is currently the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
In his introduction of the speaker, Dan McVeigh, professor of English at Siena Heights, noted that the free exchange of ideas is part of the educational process.
"This is what a college education should be," he said.
The Chiodini/Fontana Endowed Lecture Series was established to give students and the community the opportunity to hear speakers on a variety of social and ethical concerns. Previous speakers included noted civil rights attorney Morris Dees, "everyday ethics" columnist Randy Cohen and human rights activist Kerry Kennedy Cuomo.
Published February 24, 2005, Lenawee Connection
http://www.lenconnect.com/articles/2005/02/24/news/news05.txt