Barbarians in the Citadel
The Academic Counter-Invasion of the Western Mind
by Robert Tracinski
Intellectual Activist
I have referred in several TIA Daily articles to the idea that the means by
which the West will ultimately win the battle against Islamic fanaticism is
mental and ideological: the penetration of Western ideas and values into the
minds of the best men in the Arab and Muslim worlds. This is, as one dismayed
Islamist put it, the "real invasion" of the Middle East.
A June 22 dispatch from the Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memri.org)
translates an op-ed by a man in whose mind the West has established a firm
beachhead. Kuwaiti author Ahmad al-Baghdadi criticizes the hostile Arab attitude
toward Western "Orientalists"--a now-pejorative term for those who study Islamic
civilization from a secular, pro-Western perspective. Instead, al-Baghdadi
describes, in the words of his title, "The Favor Western Orientalists Did
Muslims." (To see this MEMRI dispatch, go to tinyurl.com
That favor turns out to be the _rational_ discussion and analysis of Islamic
history.
Describing his own graduate study at the University of Edinburgh, al-Baghdadi
writes:
"What is important to note is that studying in the West...gives the student a
unique opportunity, on both the scholarly and the personal level.... On the
scholarly level, it enables him to present what he has learned by his reading to
outstanding professors who are highly qualified to criticize academic texts. I
mean to say that unlike the people of the East, Westerners have an [academic]
tradition; they do not agree [to rely] on any text unless it has been
methodologically dissected and rationally analyzed so they can get to the very
substance of the text.
"At the time [of their studying in the West], the students--that is, the
students from Muslim countries--are divided into two groups. The unfortunate
ones, who return to their countries intending to apply what they have learned,
are shocked by the great extent of the natural and deliberate ignorance in their
countries. Their hopes shatter on the rocks of reality and evaporate into the
aridity of ignorance. The fortunate ones, those guided by Allah to remain in the
West, continue developing intellectually; their methodological capabilities
mature, and they become productive in their specialized scholarly fields. "
The result, he concludes is that Arabs and Muslims can learn much more about
their history from the West than from Arab and Muslim sources.
"Regarding the area of my own research, I found that the book 'The Rules of
Government' ('Al-Ahkam Al-Sultaniyyah') by Al-Mawardi was discovered by a German
Orientalist, and that libraries in the Western world contain unique Arabic and
Islamic manuscripts, well-catalogued so that the researcher can easily locate
the information. [These libraries also contain] many books of our heritage,
which, were it not for the West and the efforts of the Orientalists, the Muslims
would never know exist. Thanks to this intellectual heritage, the West was able
to master the East, as it still does.
"[H]ad it not been for the efforts of a group of Orientalists in religious,
literary, and historical studies, we would never have known much of the heritage
in which we take pride--and without making any effort to discover it. Nay, it
has come to us readymade, on a silver platter, thanks to the efforts of those
Orientalists."
What is the cause of the self-imposed ignorance of the Muslims? Here,
al-Baghdadi provides a very clear answer.
"If Arab scholarly institutions had an inkling of sense, there would be serious
contacts and efforts to translate [into Arabic] many of the impressive volumes
in the field of Islamic and [Arabic] literature studies. Unfortunately, however,
this is prevented by the religious oppression on the part of the Ministries of
Awqaf [i.e., religious endowments] and religious associations and institutions
that prevent the translation of many impressive scholarly studies.
But in an incidental note, al-Baghdadi indicates that the decline into ignorance
is also happening _in_the_West_:
"Unfortunately, the decline of Orientalist scholarship, which was due to reasons
related to circumstances in the West, was accompanied by a decline in interest
in this [Orientalist] scholarship, most notably in the contemporary American
Orientalism but also in the [once-]impressive German Orientalism."
In other words, it is contemporary Islamic scholars in the West who have
_unilaterally_ abandoned the standards that al-Baghdadi admires. It is not
merely that they preach "respect" for Arab and Islamic traditions--but that they
seek to break down the specific achievement of Western thought: its employment
of rational analysis. Critical questioning of Islamic history has been abandoned
in the West, not in the name of outright religious dogmatism, but in service to
the Western dogmas of multiculturalism and "political correctness."
As Elan Journo wrote in his review of Martin Kramer's book "Ivory Towers on
Sand"--a scholar's critique of contemporary Middle East studies--"Muslims reject
the West for religious reasons; Middle East scholars do so in the name of a
secular dogma." (The Intellectual Activist, November 2002)
If this is a war of ideas, a war in which the West is "colonizing" the Arab and
Muslim worlds, one mind at a time, then Western academics have decided to join
the enemy cause. They have set themselves up as a self-nominated, volunteer
"colony" of barbarians within the academic citadels of Western society.
Anyone who has seen today's universities, and understands the importance of the
intellectual battle that is being wages there, is aware of this trend. But it is
interesting to see it observed, from the outside, by one of our sympathizers in
the Arab world. |
