Relations between the Islamic world and the West remain tenuous a year after Sept. 11, Georgetown University professor John Esposito said last night. A capacity crowd packed St. Mike’s Brennan Hall to hear Dr. Esposito, the founding director of Georgetown’s Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding, give the second annual Frederick Charles Furlong Memorial Lecture on the topic of “Where Do We Go From Here?: The Muslim World and the West after September 11.”
Esposito noted that earlier in his career he considered himself the “Maytag repairman of academia,” as the West had little interest in or knowledge of Islam. But as the religion became less of a foreign curiosity and more of a Western reality, he found himself much in demand as one of the leading North American experts on Islam.
The professor’s lecture centred around the West’s perception of Islam and the socio-political events that gave rise to terrorism in the Islamic world. “The same questions are being asked over and over again” in the North American media and public, he said. “Either they are not being answered adequately, or they are still out there.”
Esposito also focused on the need for reform in the Islamic world, beginning with the undemocractic politics of many Muslim countries, pointing out that extremists are homegrown, bred from the failures of their own respective governments that then turn their anger to the outside powers that prop up these regimes.
As a critic of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, Esposito explained in his lecture that often the U.S. is seen as practising a double standard in its dealings in the region. But he feels that American suspicion of Islam and Muslim resentment of the West can be overcome with dialogue and political will.
Esposito explained several key developments that led to the way the West views Islam, including the Afghan war against the Soviets in the 80s—the first “global jihad.” This “global jihad ideology” became mainstream in the last few decades, said Esposito, with North Americans taking “jihad” to mean “holy war” rather than the everyday religious struggle most Muslims understand it to be.
“Muslim regimes have to start thinking about the future,” Esposito said, noting that Islamic countries will have to figure out for themselves how to move towards a more open, democractic society. Meanwhile, the U.S. has an “awesome task” ahead as it is poised to play a significant role in the Middle East, something North Americans need to explore through open discussion. “Those of us in universities, we have an enormous role to play,” Esposito said, suggesting that large forums like last night’s lecture were good for educating the public, but that smaller, focused seminars are better to discuss controversial issues.
Esposito is one of the professors currently being monitored by the controversial web site Campus Watch. Founded by pro-Israeli commentator Daniel Pipes, the site monitors university professors and departments across North America for perceived anti-Israel, anti-American bias. Since it went online in September, the Web site has been the subject of heated debate, and has since been forced to take down the dossiers it was compiling on individual professors. Instead, it is currently focusing on various universities—Concordia and U of T are the only Canadian institutions on the list.
“I think it is very regrettable, because I think that it goes against what democracy is about and what America is about,” Esposito said following his lecture. “To call names, to want to use labels, to say that people are un-American, is in fact to take the same approach that was taken during the McCarthy era.
“What’s heartening is the extent to which so many people have reacted to it. So many academics have asked to be put on the list, even those who aren’t even in Middle Eastern studies. I think in the end [Pipes] won’t prevail, but I think in the short term, he and his kind are very dangerous to democracy.”
Photograph by Andrew Murillo
