Comment is free: Bush's historian
Brian Whitaker on how Bernard Lewis, whose 90th birthday celebrations were attended by none other than Dick Cheney (full guest list here), is being talked up in the media by people who don't acknowledge how controversial Lewis's work is:
Among academics specialising in the Middle East (including many in the US), the praise is mainly for his early work. He hasn't travelled much in the Arab countries and his area of greatest expertise is Turkey - not the most typical of Muslim countries.
Although he has a track record of coming up with interesting - if debatable - ideas, in recent years his ideas have been based less and less on solid research, and directed more and more towards providing a scholarly veneer for the Bush administration's Middle East policies.
His track record in that area is pretty bad. He was one of the key figures promoting the invasion of Iraq and, presumably drawing on his knowledge of Turkey, he argued that his chum Ahmad Chalabi, the convicted fraudster, could become an Iraqi version of Ataturk.
There's lots of links - very useful read.
It was the nationalist legitimacy which Kemal Ataturk gained from his successful defence of Turkey against the Greek invasion which made it possible for him to secularize Turkey.
No man who could in any way be perceived as a Western puppet could pull off a similar feat.
I think it's a myth to suggest even Turkish society has truly been secularized. Even there, the popular sentiment is opposed to both the US and Israel - just watch "The Valley of the Wolves Iraq" movie. I think the more sensible Western scholars are increasingly becoming aware that Muslim societies can't truly be moulded to their liking as long as they have Islam. As the likes of Robert Spencer's Jihadwatch crowd will tell you, the best the West can hope for is a state that enforces a secular system over an unwilling people indefinitely - a la Turkey.
Even there, the popular sentiment is opposed to both the US and Israel - just watch "The Valley of the Wolves Iraq" movie.
The Soviet Union was anti-American and anti-Zionist for most of its existence. Are you sure that Islam is the root of Turkish anti-Americanism?
As the likes of Robert Spencer's Jihadwatch crowd will tell you, the best the West can hope for is a state that enforces a secular system over an unwilling people indefinitely - a la Turkey.
Is it a good idea to go on the attack against such people, by reminding them that forced conversion of Muslims has never ever worked?
Raashid,
Robert Spencers crowd is as stupid as he is. This guys only claim to knowledge is having read Reliance of the Travellor than projects all Muslim behavior based on that book. What a retard.
Obviously I'm not sure about the reasons for Turkish anti-Israel and anti-Americanism, I'm merely going on discussions I had on a recent visit to Istanbul.
Despite much talk of a "Clash of Civilizations", I think Huntingdon's conclsion was lost on most people. That is, irrespective of ideological adherence or sincerity, people naturally gravitate towards those more similar to themselves. Hence, a Turkey which is the most Westernized Muslim country, can have a populace that was vehemently opposed to attacking Iraq, it seems to me because it was seen as an aggression agaiast fellow Muslims, even though they'd have no problem with similar aggression against their own (or Iraq's) Kurds. "Nobody can hit my brother but me..."
Bikhair - I agree that Robert Spencer's gangs or moronic, but their point that they can't impose a system to Western liking in the Muslim world without eradicating Islam comprehensively (some call it "reforming").
can you tell me how Lewis has a more valid opinion than a Muslim cabbie in Cairo?
Umar,
I dont get the question? Your bloggies miss you brother. Go back home!