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Muslims Won't Play Together

(New York Times) Efraim Karsh - The Islamic Solidarity Games, the Olympics of the Muslim world, which were to be held in Iran in April, have been called off by the Arab states because Tehran inscribed "Persian Gulf" on the tournament's official logo and medals. This small but telling controversy puts the lie to the idea of the Islamic world as a bloc united by religious values that are hostile to the West. Although the Prophet Muhammad took great pains to underscore the equality of all believers regardless of ethnicity, categorically forbidding any fighting among the believers, his precepts have been constantly and blatantly violated. It took a mere 24 years after the Prophet's death for the head of the universal Islamic community, the caliph Uthman, to be murdered by political rivals. This opened the floodgates to incessant infighting within the House of Islam, which has never ceased. Likewise, there has been no overarching Islamic solidarity transcending the multitude of parochial loyalties - to one's clan, tribe, village, family or nation. Thus, for example, Arabs consider themselves superior to all other Muslims. The idea that bringing peace between Israelis and Palestinians will bring about a flowering of cooperation in the region and take away one of al-Qaeda's primary gripes against the West totally misreads history and present-day politics. Muslim states threaten Israel's existence not so much out of concern for the Palestinians, but rather as part of a holy war to prevent the loss of a part of the House of Islam. There is no way for the Obama administration to resolve the 100-year war between Arabs and Jews unless all sides are convinced that peace is in each of their best interests. Any agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is far less important than a regional agreement in which every Islamic nation can make peace with the idea of Jewish statehood in the House of Islam. The writer is head of Middle East and Mediterranean studies at King's College London.
2010-03-02 11:09:16
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