A better understanding of Islam is needed, Brandeis experts say

Released on August 09, 2007
Contact: Charles Radin, 781-736-4210 or radin@brandeis.edu

Abdel Monem Said Aly, Joseph E.B. Lumbard and Naghmeh Sohrabi discuss how the U.S. could develop more effective policy in Iraq and the entire Middle East during "In the Vicinity of Iraq."

From top: Abdel Monem Said Aly, Joseph E.B. Lumbard, Naghmeh Sohrabi

Listen to the discussion.

BOSTON, Mass. – Although Iraq seems to be the only foreign policy issue on the minds of U.S. presidential candidates, the consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq are rocking the entire Middle East. At a recent event in Boston, Brandeis University experts offered suggestions on how the next administration might develop a better understanding of the region, and formulate more effective policy in Iraq and beyond.

Most of the failures of the Bush administration have been discussed in great detail, but missing in the debate over Iraq is discussion about the mismanagement of U.S. allies, according to Abdel Monem Said Aly, senior fellow at Brandeis’ Crown Center for Middle East Studies and director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

From the beginning, the war in Iraq failed to gain legitimacy on the level of the United Nations and the allies that fought together in World War I and II and the Cold War, according to Said Aly. Of the 34 countries that contributed a symbolic presence in Iraq, 15 have already withdrawn.

So what are the options for the United States? Options are designed to serve interests, according to Said Aly, and the debate over Iraq should not be about withdrawing or not withdrawing forces, but about whether the U.S. interests for invading Iraq in the first place -- oil, Israel, stability of the region, nuclear proliferation, integration into the world economy -- are still worthwhile. If they are, the United States will have to make a full commitment to building alliances and building up forces in Iraq.

The Bush administration or the next administration also needs to decide whether to engage or isolate Islamists, according to Said Aly, and decide if it wants to work toward assimilating the Islamic world into the world order and the world economy, or work toward quarantining it. Winning the hearts and minds of the people of the region is the main battle, according to Said Aly, “and I’m not sure that we nor you nor anybody really thought about that.”

Said Aly outlined these options during “In the Vicinity of Iraq,” the third in a series of events hosted by Brandeis University focusing on the Middle East and the challenges that regional issues present to the United States and to the country’s next president. Brandeis is bringing the Middle East expertise of its faculty and research fellows to downtown Boston this summer, followed by programs on the Brandeis campus in the fall.

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To win hearts and minds in the Middle East and win the battle of ideas, the United States must develop a more nuanced understanding of the ideologies of extremists and how they mesh with their claims to fight ‘in the name of Islam,’ according to Joseph E.B. Lumbard, assistant professor of classical Islam at Brandeis and former adviser to His Highness King Abdullah II of Jordan.

The extremists’ appeals to the Islamic tradition are what enable them to gain recruits while the United States loses allies, Lumbard said. Understanding the extremists’ appeal from within can reveal where the high ground lies in the fight to win the hearts and minds of Muslims.

Lumbard suggested that America’s greatest asset and ally in the battle of ideas and ideologies may in fact be traditional Islam itself, but in confusing traditional Islam with extremist Islam, the United States usually ends up undermining its most valuable ally.

“In Dubai, Syria, Jordan, Yemen and Morocco as well as other countries, traditional Muslim scholars challenge extremists on a daily basis, often revealing that the extremists are little more than political opportunists hiding under a cloak of piety,” Lumbard said. “Recognizing that a re-affirmation of traditional Islamic principles is the key to countering extremists’ distortions of Islam in the Muslim world, many scholars have taken a number of steps to bolster traditional Islam.”

To aid this process, Western powers should first seek to understand Islam, rather than to influence its core beliefs and doctrines. “Nothing strengthens extremism more than the perception that foreign powers are trying to manipulate Islamic teachings,” Lumbard said.

Naghmeh Sohrabi, assistant director for research at the Crown Center and a specialist on Iran, highlighted the importance of the March 2008 Parliamentary elections in Iran, which will precede the next U.S. presidential election.

“This is going to be a major shift in the Iranian system,” she said. “And it will undoubtedly affect how the United States sees Iran if they look at it carefully.”

According to Sohrabi, the infighting and the splintering of political groups that has occurred since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005 have created major cracks in the system.

If the March 2008 elections occur without interference from the executive branch, the reformists and their allies are expected to win the Parliament, Sohrabi said, and the result would be a legitimate and very public obstacle to Ahmadinejad and the executive branch’s radical foreign and domestic policies.

“If there is vote rigging, that itself would be a radical departure from the entire history of elections in the Islamic Republic,” she said. And the consequences would be enormous for the system itself.

As for what the United States should do, Sohrabi said doing nothing is the best option. Current U.S. foreign policy toward Iran -- from the $75 million put aside for the soft revolution to the $63 billion in military aid and weapons -- has only made things worse in Iran, Sohrabi said.

“U.S. support for any faction in Iran is its kiss of death,” she said. “Instead it should pressure China and the Russians to do something.”