A LESSON FROM DARFUR

ShrinkWrapped
April 7, 2009 Tuesday 10:31 AM EST

My Brother and I against My Cousin; My Cousin and I against the
Stranger.

Egyptian proverb

The longer version of the proverb is even more pointed:

I against my brother. My brother and I against our cousin. My brother,
my cousin and I against the neighbors. All of us against the stranger.

The various versions of the proverb express the essence of tribal
culture. It is a meaning that is attenuated in America, which still has
more successfully than any other nation redefined what it means to be a
member of the "American" tribe. Our tribe is based on a series of ideas
which are inculcated in our young at a very early age. Every third
grader knows that in America we have free speech, for example. Prior
to America, tribes were exclusively based on shared ethnicity. In
ancient Greece and Rome, efforts were made to enlarge the tribe to
assimilate conquered peoples but for our purposes, America is unique
(notwithstanding Europe’s so far incomplete efforts to destroy their
nationalisms, ie tribalism writ large.) Without understanding the
tribal nature of the Arab and Muslim world we will be unable to find
ways to come to a peaceful resolution of our essential differences.

Yesterday President Obama spoke in Turkey and showed some political
courage. Without expressly using objectionable terminology he
confronted the Turks with their responsibility for the Armenian
genocide. At the same time he made explicit statements that the
United States is not at war with Islam. This was taken by much of
the press as an attempt to differentiate his policies form those
of his predecessor. This overlooks the fact that President Bush
made repeated remarks to the same effect, yet for much of the Arab
and Muslim world, the idea that America was attacking Islam became
ubiquitous. Ed Morrissey has more on this point, worth keeping in mind:

Obama spoke in the tradition established by Bush over the last
seven-plus years of emphasizing that America did not declare war
on Islam. Thats been obvious through our partnership with Islamic
nations, such as Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia,
just to name a few. And hes right; the last thing we would want to
do would be to declare war on a billion people just on the basis of
their religion. The more we can keep the Muslims on the sidelines,
the better off we are in fighting against the radicals.

However, the AP wants to pretend that this is some new effort by
the US to assure Muslims of our intentions. It decidedly is not,
and perhaps a mention that Bush tried making these same assurances
for almost his entire presidency would be in order here.

Unfortunately, this is unlikely to work, primarily because the Muslim
world still operates along tribal Honor-Shame dynamics. Here is
where their response to Darfur should be instructive. Just as Turkey
continues to deny any responsibility for, or even the existence of,
the Armenian genocide, vene 100 years after the events, so does the
Arab world close ranks to defend a current genocide:

Cairo – On Sunday Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir strode off his
airplane and onto a red carpet at the airport in Doha, greeted with
a kiss by the tiny kingdom’s emir as he arrived for a two-day Arab
League summit dedicated to strengthening Arab unity.

Mr. Bashir has been a busy man since his indictment for seven counts
of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal
Court (ICC) on March 4. His visit to Qatar’s capital is the fourth time
in two weeks that he has defied the standing international warrant
for his arrest, coming after visits to the neighboring countries of
Eritrea, Egypt, and Libya.

Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC,
but nonetheless has enjoyed an outpouring of support from Arab and
African leaders. Their hostile reaction to the indictment of one of
their own, say diplomats and analysts, is driven by a combination
of concern for the indictment’s consequences for Sudan’s stability,
resentment of the selective precedent it sets, and worries about
national sovereignty.

If the Arab leaders cannot even countenance a mild rebuke of genocidal
ruler, how can we ever expect them to tolerate criticism from us? It
is an unfortunate fact that al Qaeda’s popularity in the Muslim world
has only waned, if at all, because they have failed to successfully
kill any infidels lately and their primary targets have been other
Muslims. The vaunted Saudi re-education program for Jihadis works by
redirecting their venom away from Muslims back to more acceptable
enemies, especially Americans, Europeans, and Jews. The Arab world
may hate the Palestinians and repeatedly dispossess them (they have
been evicted in large numbers from Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, and most
recently Iraq, all places they have lived for generations without the
benefit of being offered citizenship) but they would never criticize
the genocidal policies or ideology of the Palestinians and overtly
support the hated Jews.

The upshot is that it only takes a tiny fraction of violent Muslims
to evoke the proverbial closing of the ranks. There is no atrocity
so great that the Arab world will rise up en masse and condemn one
of their own. This is the tragedy of the Arab tribe and a source of
their failures.??A people who cannot tolerate criticism is a people
who have a great deal of trouble learning. All the fine words from
Barack Obama will mean nothing (actually, when combined with his bow
to the Saudi Prince, his words will mean less than nothing) in the
face of this reality.

There is nothing wrong with professing our respect for, and admiration
of, Islam (though it is worth wondering what exactly they have
contributed to the betterment of mankind in the last 1000 years)
but we should be under no illusion that our words can actually make a
difference in the long run. As long as the West has any bottom line
interests, values, and principles, there will be conflict with some
elements of Islam, and if there are conflicts with any elements of
Islam, the Arab world will attempt to use such conflict to polarize
and demonize the West. I am pleased that we are not are war with Islam;
I would be more pleased if they were not at war with us.