I still vividly recall hearing of the Taliban's destruction of the monumental Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001. While this cultural crime pales in comparison with the myriad of gross human rights violations committed by Mullah Omar's regime, and of Islamic jihadism as a whole, it is nonetheless indicative of an ideology which seeks to destroy every vestige of cultural pluralism and syncretism, in this case embodied by Classicized sculptures of a religious figure born in India and revered throughout Asia and indeed the world. The fanatical movement that is jihadism endangers pluralistic societies, and the concept of pluralism itself, wherever it spreads, be it the Middle East, Central Asia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Caucasus, or the West. It is time to recognize that Muslim extremism, when it results in the slaughter of Buddhist schoolteachers in Thailand, film-makers in the Netherlands, a Shia in Baghdad, and thousands upon thousands of men and women in New York, London, Madrid, Istanbul, Casablanca, Tel Aviv, and so on, is nothing but a monstrous ideology bent on a foolhardy and illiberal venture (that is, the recreation of the Caliphate and the artificial imposition of Sharia law). There can be no compromise with a "philosophy" that offers little beyond the breaking of bodies, and one is shocked that there would be cheerleading from leftists and isolationists who, disturbingly, seem to want to adopt these fanatics as their own. There is no doubt that, ultimately, free and pluralistic societies will prevail against such hatred and myopia, but in order to do so, we must honestly confront that with which we are confronted. Organizations like Unite Against Terror make it clear that jihadism, the enormities committed in its name, and the nature of the threat it poses to civil society, is being increasingly understood.
Matthew Omolesky
John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations
USA |
