Intolerance breeds violence and ignorance breeds suspicion. For these reasons, the three-day conference that began yesterday in Vienna on relations between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds could not be more necessary. In Europe, Muslim minorities feel themselves under increasing threat from prejudice and distrust. In the Middle East, there is a strong sense that the interests of the Muslim world have been discounted.
Something needs to be done quickly to cut the growing knot of misunderstanding. Anti-Muslim feeling has been focused by the depravities of Al-Qaeda. Since 9/11, the bland Western assumption has often been that all Muslims are terrorists. The Madrid bombings and the London suicide attacks only added to this misapprehension. Meanwhile Washington’s ill-judged Iraqi intervention, its uncompromising stance toward Iran over nuclear power and its unremittingly slavish support for Israeli suppression of Palestinian aspirations, continue to engender deep suspicion of the West and its policies toward — and in — the Muslim world.
Vienna this week offers a chance for everyone to stand back and re-examine their positions. Muslims need to redouble their efforts to make clear that terrorism is no part of their religion or their lives. It needs to be spelled out that those who use the name of Islam to justify murderous crimes abuse religion and are beneath contempt. However non-Muslims also have to work harder to understand the sense of injustice and despair that is a fact of life among so many Muslims.
The riots in France, unjustifiable though they are, manifest the alienation that many young people feel in a society which seems to offer them neither equal opportunities nor respect for their religious and cultural background. The West also has to understand that however worthy it believes the aims behind its Middle East policies, Muslims in the region judge by deeds not words. The destruction of Saddam’s Iraq may in itself have been welcome but the subsequent chaos into which the country has been plunged is injuring not only Iraqis but the entire region. Could this perhaps have been what Washington really wanted?
Decent Muslims have made clear their revulsion at crimes perpetrated falsely in the name of Islam. It is important that such declarations are accepted. Muslims will reinforce this acceptance by themselves pinpointing the extremists in their community who are seducing young people with the pernicious doctrines of terror. Important steps have been taken in this regard but much more needs to be done.
Meanwhile, for the non-Muslim world, a dose of humility would not be amiss. The seeds of bigotry have been watered by ignorance and blindness in the West which chose for too long to ignore or take lightly Muslim feelings. The Vienna conference offers the chance to undo past mistakes and re-establish a dialogue based on genuine attempts to understand what has gone wrong in the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims. And dialogue means listening to everybody, not simply your own argument.
