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12th Century Thinking Barry Farber In olden times the right kind of lightning could offer warriors a brief but revealing glimpse of the nighttime battlefield. By World War I they had flares. In our personal lives we have occasional "flares" that illuminate the personal terrain we confront. The smart people look carefully and act accordingly. Once a woman I liked, but hardly knew, accepted my invitation to dinner. It turned out she was what I'll call a "light-switch alcoholic." Her personality didn't change gradually drink by drink. From one swallow to the next – like the flipping of a light switch – she transmogrified from an intelligent, attractive, happy, witty and thoroughly enthralling date into a vicious and vulgar anti-Semite. "You Jews don't like to tip much, do you?" she snarled even before I got the check! And overtipping is one of my few faults. The stupidest thing I could have done would have been to attribute that behavior to one swig too many and hope for better luck next time.
The world was offered a valuable glimpse of contemporary Islam in early February 2006. A newspaper in Denmark had run a series of satirical cartoons, one of which depicted the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist with a bomb as a headdress. Another one of the cartoons showed Mohammed yelling at suicide bombers of today: "Stop. Stop. We've run out of virgins!" Well, all Islam exploded.
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In Western Europe, Islamic mobs brandished signs that said "To Hell With Freedom" and "Europe! Your 9/11 is coming soon." In the Islamic world from one end to the other, the reaction was much more specific. In Gaza a Palestinian cleric in a mosque said, "We can settle for no less than severing the heads of those who drew and printed and reprinted those cartoons!" That from a cleric in a mosque.
He must have considered his colleague across town a wimp who merely demanded the removal of the drawing hand of the cartoonist. Newspapers in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Jordan, and ONE newspaper in America, the Philadelphia Inquirer, reran those cartoons to show solidarity with the Danish newspaper as exemplars of freedom of speech. The French and Jordanian editors were fired! In Damascus angry Muslim mobs burned down the Danish and Norwegian embassies. (A Norwegian newspaper had also reprinted the cartoons.) The Syrian government expressed regret and condemned the action only after the mobs had had all the time they needed to vent and burn. The next day mobs in Lebanon, probably the most Western, modern and moderate of the Islamic nations, burned down the Danish Embassy in Beirut. In Khartoum, Sudan, a mob of 50,000 begged: "Osama, please strike Denmark! Strike Denmark, Osama. Please!" Danish flags were burned all over the Islamic world. (Where did they get Danish flags?) A Danish dairy company, Arla, had spent two decades building a good business in the Middle East. Give angry Moslems credit for this: When they boycott, they really boycott! Unlike, for example, the American Baptist boycotts of Disney for having "Gay Day" in Orlando, Moslem boycotts do not start out weak and gradually taper off. Arla was out of business in the Middle East within four days as Danish cheese burned along with Danish flags. On 9/11 New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told his forces, "We're in uncharted territory," meaning "We've never been anywhere like this before and we've got to ad-lib our way through it." The entire Western world has suddenly been thrown into uncharted territory in a way more consequential than even 9/11. The tragedy of 9/11 was considered the work of "Islamofascists." We're talking now about Islam overall!
We thought we had this business of "living together" pretty well worked out. In fact, on the very day those major Islamic riots rocked the world – Feb. 4, 2006 – Coretta Scott King lay in state in the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, the first African-American and the first woman ever so honored. Even her husband, Martin Luther King Jr., was denied that distinction and denied any other honor or mention as a national hero by the governor of Georgia when he was assassinated in 1968. So we in the civilized West felt pretty good about "living together." We had proven white and black could live together. We had proven Jew and Gentile could live together, British and Irish could live together, French and German could live together. Italian and Yugoslav could live together. Northerner and Southerner could live together. (Don't laugh! That was a big issue down south during the "Yankee-hating" days prior to World War II!") The historical speed of our progress in "living together" doesn't allow for seat-belt unfastening. The guest of honor at the Congress of Racial Equality's annual Martin Luther King banquet for 2006 was – trumpets, please – the governor of Mississippi! We've stomp-down proven that different races, religions and nationalities can pull it off. But now there's a new question we never thought of before: Can the 21st century live with the 12th century? I do not hurl insults like "12th century" as a quick pro-Danish reaction to the burning of Danish flags, cheese, embassies and consulates. I had always assumed the differences between Islamic and Western populations were merely "personality differences." The French flirt more fluently than the Finns. Germans like march music; Poles prefer polkas. Spaniards nap; the Dutch don't. Swedes sing at Christmas only; Italians sing in the shower every day. Russians brood. Brazilians rejoice. Personality differences, that's all. When the shah of Iran was overthrown in the 1970s, one of his top associates who escaped to America introduced me to the concept of the Islamic world being not just "different in personality" but rather being lodged and locked into the 12th century. You may say, "Why do you heed the words of the servant of the corrupt, repressive shah?" The shah, contrary to media spin and popular prejudice, was not overthrown because he was too repressive. He was overthrown because he was too liberal! He tried to move Iran too far, too fast out of the 12th century, and lost control. One of his top diplomats, Feredun Hoveida, who, unlike his equally influential and executed brother, was safe in America, patiently explained that the Islamic masses are stuck in the 12th century, and until we understand that, we understand nothing. I can't imagine exactly what might make me as angry as the Moslem mobs, but I can certainly imagine being that angry. Let's suppose some newspaper ran a cartoon blaspheming my religion, trashing my family, calling my country the new Nazi bully, or attacking me personally. (Once Screw Magazine ran a cartoon showing my head poking up out of a toilet bowl. They didn't like a comment I'd made on the radio about pornography.) I might look at the offensive sketch and say to myself, "Now, that's uncalled for." Or, again to myself, "Mercy, what a jerk!" I might, if a request popped up in my e-mail, add my name to a protesters' petition. If importuned by someone I knew and respected, I possibly might go so far as to contribute a few bucks (very few!) toward the purchase of a newspaper ad protesting. And if the cartoon were halfway amusing, I might smile. That's 21st century. But taking to the streets! Chanting death threats! Calling for the severing of heads or even hands! Burning embassies! Sorry. Count me out. That's 12th century. We've long been accustomed to questions about "fighting for your country." Now there's a new question: Will you fight for your century? The 12th-century enthusiasts did not need time to think. Yes. They will!
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