417 “It is in the battle for Islam’s soul that the United States and liberal Islam share a common strategic goal: the systematic dismantlement and delegitimization of the rogue Islamist discourse that portrays America as an anti-Islam crusader and Islam as an ideology of hate and violence.” Radical Islam, Liberal Islam M. A. MUQTEDAR KHAN A merican foreign policy faces a critical threat from the Muslim world in the form of a deeply embedded and rapidly growing anti- Americanism. This anti-Americanism already has resulted in the catastrophic attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, that led to thousands of deaths, two wars, hundreds of billions of dollars of economic losses, and a significant erosion of American democracy in the form of the Patriot Act, which undermines many of the civil protections enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Muslim anti-Americanism stems from two prin- cipal causes: the manifestly unjust consequences of current and past US policies toward the Muslim world, and the use of America as the “designated other” in Islamist discourse that seeks to recon- struct an Islamic identity and create a global Islamic political power. The policies that fuel anti-Ameri- canism include US support for Israel, for authori- tarian regimes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and for opposition to Islamic regimes in Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, and Algeria. They also include past sanctions against Iraq and the recent “preemptive war” against and occupation of Iraq. These actions are seen as proof that the United States is deter- mined to destroy Islam and Muslims. Islamist discourse has made anti-Americanism its centerpiece by constructing the idea of an Islamic civilization that is in direct opposition to a carica- turized West. Islamists first define the contemporary West as imperial, morally decadent, and un-Godly. They posit Western power and values as the cause of all Muslim problems. Then they envision a revived Islamic civilization as just, moral, and God- centered—the antithesis of their imagined West. The revival of Islam depends, in their view, on the defeat of the West and the rejection of Western values. Political, military, economic, and intellectual independence from the West has always been mod- ern political Islam’s overriding goal. In the hearts of those Islamists who believe that Islam should be the sole source of values, laws, and governance in Mus- lim society, the failure to achieve their goal for nearly a century, in combination with real and per- ceived injustices committed by the United States and its allies against Muslims, has engendered an extremely vitriolic hatred of America and given birth to radical Islam. These radicals—truly, rogue Islamists—are willing to do anything to destroy America. They and their discourses are globalizing anti-Americanism and spreading an ideology of hatred and killing. In the process they are under- mining the moral fabric of the Muslim world by corrupting Islam’s message of justice, mercy, sub- mission, compassion, and enlightenment. Rogue Islamists constitute a threat both to Amer- ica and to Islam. An effective response to this threat requires a complex strategy that counters the Islamists’ worldview and delegitimizes their dis- courses. This strategy should expose the fallacies of their radicalism and underscore the devastating consequences it could bring to Muslims and the world by triggering a long and bloody global con- flict between America and the Muslim world. An essential element in this strategy is the promotion of liberal Islam. Liberal Islam challenges the radical Islamist worldview. While also using Islam as its foundational idiom, it provides an alternate inter- pretation of Muslim reality and a more positive vision in which all Muslims can find hope. T HE LIBERAL HOUR? Islam itself is essentially a set of revealed values designed to guide humanity on the path to enlight- enment and virtue. Liberal Islam interprets Islam to M. A. MUQTEDAR KHAN is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of international studies at Adrian Col- lege. His most recent book is American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (2002). Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article-pdf/102/668/417/390951/curh_102_668_417.pdf by guest on 25 May 2020