Even Western praise of Muslim liberals obscures sharply anti-Western views

Evidence

These images of the West as arrogant, materialistic, repressive, brutal, and decadent are held not only by fundamentalist imams but also by those whom many in the West would consider their natural allies and supporters. Few books by Muslim authors published in the 1990s in the West received the praise given to Fatima Mernissi’s Islam and Democracy, generally hailed by Westerners as the courageous statement of a modern, liberal, female Muslim. The portrayal of the West in that volume, however, could hardly be less flattering. The West is “militaristic” and “imperialistic” and has “traumatized” other nations through “colonial terror” (pp. 3, 9). Individualism, the hallmark of Western culture, is “the source of all trouble” (p. 8). Western power is fearful. The West “alone decides if satellites will be used to educate Arabs or to drop bombs on them.…It crushes our potentialities and invades our lives with its imported products and televised movies that swamp the airwaves.…[It] is a power that crushes us, besieges our markets, and controls our merest resources, initiatives, and potentialities. That was how we perceived our situation, and the Gulf War turned our perception into certitude” (pp. 146-47). … These, to repeat, are not the views of a bearded, hooded ayatollah. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 575 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Even liberal Western-celebrated Muslim intellectuals portray the West harshly. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 575; Liberal pundits combined progressive values with vehement anti-Muslim views.; Muslims across political divides share a belief they are culturally distinct from the West — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 576

Broader Connections

• Even liberal Western-celebrated Muslim intellectuals portray the West harshly. #expands (0.92) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 575