Question: What are some of the misperceptions Americans have about Pakistan and Islam?
David Maine:What comes to mind is the idea that the perception that they are all fundamentalists, they are all fanatics. I don’t know just we have an election yesterday in Pakistan. I don’t know how the religious parties did, but I think they did really really badly. But in even the previous election the percentage of people who voted for the conservative religious parties was, all of them combined taken together, was less than 20%, and I know that the few months ago that a UK newspaper did a poll and found that at that point the support--this is before Benazir got shot--the support for the religious parties was less than 6%. Now if you look at conservative Christian Americans and if you look at the percentage of Americans who would be willing to vote for a religious party, okay, I believe that you would find it more than 6%. I believe more than 6% of the let's say Republican Party's support comes from Mike Huckabees, frankly, who think that the earth is 5000 or 6000 years old. So saying that those people are all fanatics and we are all secular, moderate democrats is rubbish on both sides. Most people in Pakistan want democratic government. They want freedom. They do not hate me or you because we are free. No, they do not. Some people hate me and you because our government has spent billions over the last many, many years ensuring that they are not free and that they do not have a democratic government. That’s the problem. Over and over you see--and this does apply to the Muslim world in general--that the countries with the lowest regard for American policy are the countries with the least amount of freedom because of the policies of the United States and who they support. So the idea that they hate us because we are free is rubbish, and the idea that they are all fundo, bearded fundo freaks is rubbish.
Recorded on: 2/20/08
Discuss
peter pedant on October 7, 2008, 1:14 PM
What about Islamic jihad activities in Dagestan Russian province, Nigeria, Kashmir Indo/Pak region, China Xinjiang Uighur Region, Thailand Southern Thailand, Chechnya Russian province, Somalia, Sudan Darfur Region, Sudan North & South Regions, Ivory Coast, Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey/Greece, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia Island of Maluku, and Chad Eritrea? Are they all due to American policy too?
You are also mistakenly comparing fundamental Christians to fundamental Muslims. The comparison is not really legitimate. I have found that linking Bible quotations with real political events and acts of violence produced an insufficient basis for a valid comparison at all. I would welcome any further studies conducted in this area though.
You have dismissed any concern because of low percentage figures. The pew research foundation did a survey a little while ago of Muslims Worldwide and found that only about 7% agree with the application of the hard core doctrine of Islam, the Quran and Muhammads teachings. Thats around 91.000.000 people, greater than the entire population of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and we all know how much trouble they caused.
In 1917, only 3% of Russians were communists. And yet they took over that country.
In 1924 only 3% of Germans were Nazis. They took over that country too. And as a result of what they did 55 Million people died.
The lesson of history is, that if an ideology or a doctrine is ruthless enough and if the adherents are willing to act as terrorists, a 3% minority will dominate and control politically any country.
Dr. Tawfik Hamid is a rare individual. He was once a member of Egypt’s Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya and trained under al-Quaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri in ways to defeat the West. He also holds letters of reference from leaders of some of the Western world’s most prominent intelligence organizations. Dr. Hamid is now preaching a warning of what he calls Muslim imperialism. He argues that fundamental Islam is in fact, the majority view of Islam. This is not to say that the majority are terrorists but that the majority have extremest fundamentalist views, Either to do with homosexuality, Christians and Jews, Women etc and Terrorism. Further, he makes the case that sexual frustration is the underlying basis of the entire movement and points to differences in Shi’ite and Sunni belief to highlight his hypothesis.
I%u2019d also like to highlight some very disturbing polling data released April 24, 2007 from a rigorous face-to-face University of Maryland/ WorldPublicOpinion.org interview survey. Of the 4,384 Muslims interviewed between December 9, 2006 and February 15, 2007 u2013 1,000 Moroccans, 1,000 Egyptians, 1,243 Pakistanis, and 1,141 Indonesians%u201465.2, almost 2/3, hardly a u201Cfringe minority%u201D %u2013 desired this outcome: %u201CTo unify all Islamic countries into a single Islamic state or Caliphate,%u201D including 49 of u201Cmoderate%u201D Indonesian Muslims. The internal validity of these data about the present longing for a Caliphate is strongly suggested by a concordant result: 65.5 of this Muslim sample approved the proposition u201CTo require a strict [emphasis added] application of Sharia law in every Islamic country.%u201D Moreover, an earlier survey of British Muslims indicated that up to 40 of them wished to replace Britain%u2019s current liberal democratic system with the Sharia.
fariha saqib on May 8, 2009, 10:32 AM
I live in Pakistan and I can assure everyone who has any sort of doubts about Pakistanis’ being fundamentalists that they are very much mistaken. David Maine makes an excellent point. What the minority of Pakistanis are today,that is,extremists, are so because of the lack of understanding and sympathy shown by the west. Ever since 9/11, the US has supported a military dictator in Pakistan and this does not sit well with most Pakistanis and that includes a lot of liberals and moderates as well.
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