By Nikolai Haddad
There has been a marked increase in the discussion of Islamic fundamentalism and the "Islamic threat" in the recent establishment press. With suspected Iranian links to the bombing of Jewish targets in London and Argentina, the fatwas on Rushdie and Bangledeshi feminist author Taslima Nasreen, the civil war in Algeria and insurrection in Egypt, the popular media would have us believe that the West is under attack from a new threat: Islam.
The domino theory has been revived from the depths of the Cold War era: if Algeria "falls" to the "fundamentalists", Egypt and Tunisia will follow and soon it will be possible to travel from Pakistan to Morocco without encountering a single "moderate" state. The paranoia associated with this "new threat" has descended into popular culture with the release of the Hollywood blockbuster, True Lies, in which the enemy is an Arab Islamic terrorist group, "Crimson Jihad".
In effect, we are witnessing an extension of Edward Said's theory of "orientalism". In much of the scholarship on the East in the 19th and 20th centuries, Western orientalists exported false images of the orient to the Western consumer in order to make up for what was lacking in their societies. Victorian Britain, for example, was an era of repressed sexuality and many of our images, such as "the erotic East", are a direct reaction against problems within that society.
Today, Western leaders seek a new enemy after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in order to justify vast weapons spending in the context of domestic problems and widespread discontent. The West seeks an external threat, especially because internal problems are so manifest: mass unemployment, lack of health care and free education, low wages and a general decrease in the standard of living.
An external threat might divert the people from the domestic problems that actually affect them. The new orientalist, the academic and the journalist, export this external threat from the East, in this case, Islam. The orientalist manufactures this threat by blowing out of proportion a phenomenon that is not clearly understood and attaching the label "Islamic fundamentalist terror". This orientalism is no closer to the truth than the orientalism of the 19th century.
The phenomenon that is spreading through the Middle East has little to do with religious fervour. It could be more accurately described as a reaction against social problems caused by the legacy of imperialism, corrupt government, multinational economic exploitation and widespread poverty and discontent. Islam is the primary expression of this discontent, providing resources, ideology and unity to marginalised populations of the Middle East.
The social problems associated with repressive monarchies, corrupt governments, multinational corporations and western imperialism have left a void which Islam has filled. In the case of Egypt, IMF restructuring of the economy led to the abolition of government subsidies on food and medicine, bringing such necessities beyond the reach of the non-affluent members of society. Islam stepped in, providing these goods and services to the disenfranchised.
The experience of Egypt is being repeated in other countries of the Middle East, and it is therefore no surprise to find Islam experiencing a revival. However, the West, rather than understand the phenomenon, has attached labels such as "Islamic fundamentalism", which does little except perpetuate racist stereotypes. Especially galling is the Western support of repressive regimes such as the al-Sabah royal family in Kuwait and the house of Saud in Saudi Arabia. Many aspects of the ideology of the so-called "Islamic fundamentalists" are prevalent in the societies to which the West exports significant amounts of arms.
By blowing out of proportion isolated events of international terrorism and attaching the label "Islamic fundamentalism" to them, we enter a dangerous path. In perpetuating a stereotype, we deny ourselves the truth and destroy any prospect of mutual understanding. The world is in danger of slipping back into a bipolar system similar to that of the Cold War, a system of "them" and "us". If there is an Islamic threat, it is of our own making.