Thanks to the random email forwards by friends and family, I consider myself somewhat of an expert on the looming danger of the Muslim caliphate. Consequently, I like to think that I’ve heard my share of really silly ideas when it comes to dealing with those of the Islamic faith. Just not in an official press release by the US Government.
Sure, public affairs offices (PAOs) in any military endeavor do tend to say things in ways that don’t make a lot of sense (talking points for kids, arguing with the “Taliban” on Twitter, and on occasion butchering the rules of English grammar), and sometimes there is an air of superiority about their releases, but not usually on a scale quite like this:
Afghanistan is a tribally divided multiethnic country of 29 million people who are united by the religion of Islam. It serves not just as a philosophy, but also as an all-encompassing part of their existence.
I’ve heard Islam called a few things, some more polite than others, but never a philosophy. Stop, look, and listen: now that’s a philosphy. Somehow I think it might be a little more of a challenge to remix the Quran, even for Paul Oakenfold.
In addition to being enlightened as to the fact that Islam is a philosophy, I also learned that it’s particularly palatable to the uneducated and illiterate:
Another trait shared among Afghans is a low literacy rate. According to Lt. Col. Pat Carroll (retired), the cultural and governance advisor for stability operations in Regional Command Southwest, illiteracy allows them to be easily influenced by insurgents.
“The insurgency puts out a lot of lies; a lot of exaggeration, a lot of false rhetoric that says the ISAF Coalition is a bunch of infidels – they are contrary to Islam, they want to get rid of religion…they want to destroy things,” said Carroll, a native of Springfield, Va. “They’re playing off of illiteracy and lack of education. It’s not surprising that a lot of the Afghan population is influenced by Taliban rhetoric. It’s fertile ground for it.”
I must be misreading this. I have to be. Because if I’m not, what the cultural and governance advisor for an entire regional command is saying is that the only way someone would follow the Taliban (and by extension Islam) is if they’re uneducated and illiterate. But he’s not done…in fact, I think he outdoes even that terribly ill-conceived statement:
Although Toolan, the top-ranking general in Helmand province, is a Christian, it is believed that because he is a man of faith (as opposed to an infidel) that it will send a positive message to the village elders and religious leaders.
“I have no doubt that what happened today will reach insurgents,” said Carroll. “At least the message that ISAF came down here, the ISAF commander stood up and said he was a man of faith and had respect for the religion and culture.”
I may be a little fuzzy on my Islam, but, as is true of some varieties of Christianity, Muslims tend to think that the only faith is Islam. And, since infidel basically means “without faith,” or one who doesn’t believe in the same faith held to by a particular religious group, then anyone who doesn’t believe as that group believes is…an infidel.
However, what’s portrayed in the article is the idea that if MG Toolan just explained it well enough, that the illiterate locals will see that we’re all the same, after all. Allah, God, Muhammad, Jesus, Vishnu, whatever. So long as we believe in something, then we’re all people of faith and just need to circle up and fire up the kum ba yas.
Fortunately, the Marines brought along a “Muslim chaplain,” whose upbringing in Bangladesh and his MBA from the University of New Hampshire make him uniquely suited to dealing with Afghans. He relates his previous experiencen in the area two years prior, when he was approached by a schoolteacher:
“He told me that for the last eight years, he could not go to sleep thinking that the Americans are here,” said Saifuislam. “He could not go and tell the children that they had nothing to fear. But now after meeting me, he could go back and sleep in peace and tell his students that they had nothing to fear.”
Religion is a delicate topic, even among those who share somewhat similar views on the subject. I’ve seen Baptists, Methodists, and Lutherans nearly come to blows with each other over the finer points of their various theologies (like what color carpet is actually ordained by God Himself for use in the narthex; or, whether it’s a “potluck” or a “fellowship dinner”). So to have a discussion around religion or even to hint at religion in this context is just a really dumb idea. Not quite “New Coke” dumb. Maybe Pacer dumb.
Rather than focusing on the religious aspect of the role these men play, the Marines involved in this particular sit-down would have been better off addressing these men as leaders in their community. A leader-to-leader conversation from MG Toolan resonates better, and it’s a common ground from which they can build a genuine understanding.
Granted, this is a public affairs story, and it’s possible that’s precisely the tack that Toolan took in his conversation with these elders. However, what’s genuinely disconcerting (like Snooki disconcerting, not Pennywise disconcerting) is that the regional command’s cultural and governance advisor thought it was the appropriate course of action to take.
It’s that sort of misguided guidance that virtually guarantees that this grand experiment’s only success will be to make it completely down the drain before the final days of 2014.
This post was written by...
Dan Smock – author of 15 posts on Registan.net.
Having spent time in Iraq as part of Uncle Sam's 9/11 World Tour as an infantry and civil affairs officer, Dan Smock is currently employed in Afghanistan as a civilian. His day job is way cooler than he deserves, and while he wants (desperately) to believe in the ISAF mission, he's pretty certain that all we're doing is lapping the drain. However, there are bright spots here, and he tries to find them when he can. He regularly blogs at It's Always Sunny in Kabul. You can reach him my email here.
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{ 16 comments }
I wonder what else “puts out a lot of lies; a lot of exaggeration”? Perhaps Fox News? Perhaps ISAF?
Good observations, but I don’t agree with the final analysis. A big part of our problem in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere is that we ignore the very real religious differences between Islamic sects–or are blissfully unaware of them at all. (Ask the Hazaras, many of whom are Isma’ilis–Sevener Shi`is–if they think there are such things as “moderate [Sunni] Taliban.”)
As for “scorched earth’s” comment–FNC is far more accurate than MSNBC or, for that matter, the BBC. I can’t really opine on ISAF, however.
Thanks for that. I wondered about it because, while I don’t know anything of Muslims, Dan sort of implied above that Baptists are monolithic, but Baptists themselves have a hundred denominations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Baptist_denominations
Much is often made of the “Islamic sect” differentiation, and while I agree with that in theory, what’s on display in this particular incident in Garmsir is a level of tone-deafness in just dealing with Christianity vs. Islam that’s pretty remarkable.
ISAF is struggling with how to make vowel sounds, and what you’re dealing with in your comment is doctoral dissertation efforts.
I suppose you could make an argument for religion being a philosophy. Of course the problem there is that people don’t like the suggestion that there might be valid alternatives to their beliefs, even I don’t really like the idea.
I respect this man (now a salesman for Siemens) more all the time.
Oct 8 2011
Stanley McChrystal: Understanding of Afghanistan ‘frighteningly simplistic’
Stanley McChrystal, former commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, says the U.S. and its NATO allies are only “a little better than” halfway to achieving their military goals, partly due to a “frighteningly simplistic” understanding of the country.
Yes, your knowledge of Islam is extremely limited. While some of the more militant fringe groups use the term “infidel” as a label for anyone who isn’t Muslim, in fact, its more proper use is to label those who either worship idols or deny God’s existence altogether. Christians and Jews are embraced as “peoples of the book” in the Qur’an and the best Islamic tradition, affirming here that they, like Muslim, believe in the one creator God. The Qur’an, in fact, affirms that Christians are “the closest to us in piety and reverence.”
Your mistake, often made by those whose knowledge is of the headline variety, is that you have mistaken the viewpoint of one small sliver of the Muslim community as definitive of all.
See my comment re: “sects” above. And I don’t think I’m making a “mistake” here at all. Tribal/religious leaders in a rural area like Garmser are going to be that “sliver” to which you refer. This isn’t a mosque in a large urban area where higher education and therefore theological debates are likely.
The proper Islamic term for non-Muslim communities living within Muslim societies is – DHIMMIES. Under Islamic Shri’ah, they have have the same religious, social and economic rights as Muslims have – but are exempted from military services during war if they pay JAZIA, a tax less than the compulsary 2.5% tax (ZAKAT) every Muslim has to pay each year on his/her savings.
Islamic Khilafat existed less than 40 year after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). After that different dynasty ruled Muslim world as was the case in the Christian world. According to Jewish scholar, Dr. Bernard Lewis, while Christian Europe carried Jewish expulsion policy – Muslim Spain provided the Golden Age for the Jewish people.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/spain-jewish-history-without-muslims/
“the looming danger of the Muslim caliphate.”
For you and people like you it might be ‘a looming danger’ indeed. But for tens of millions, it will be liberation.
And everyday I thank Allah that the west has done in a few short years what we were unable to do ourselves in over 1500 years. A united Ummah is closer every day.
Insha’Allah brother! Even from Western discourse there is a legitimacy for that. If Europe is allowed to unite and refer to the legacy of Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire as precedents of European integration, what wouldn’t the Ummah (or at least parts thereof) be allowed to unite and refer to the legacy of the Abbasid Khilafah?
You are misreading the cultural officer’s comments.
Either that or you are simply re-spinning them to suit your own agenda.
while the cultural officer clearly says that the populace’s general illiteracy and lack of education helps the Taliban gain influence, I don’t see where he implies, in the least, even by extension, that “the only reason anyone would follow Islam” is if they’re uneducated and illiterate.
Seems like you’re in the propaganda game too….
Seconded. Pointless nitpicking, intentional misreading. Maybe it was as a poorly phrased statement, but they’re a dime a dozen.
The western governments, Jewish lobby groups and Christian Zionist organizations are investing hundreds of millions dollars each year to find and project the so-called “moderate Muslims”; fund Islamophobe intellectuals and dozens of anti-Islam think tanks (Rand, Ford Foundation, Asia Foundation, etc.), and the Jewish-controlled mass-media of course. Interestingly, to be a “moderate Muslim” too, has some limitations.
For example, Dr. Tariq Ramadan 46, found it the hard way in 2004 when he was declared as threat to “the US security” for criticizing his fellow Jewish ‘liberal intellectuals’, Dr. Bernard Lewis, Dr. Bernard-Henry Levy, Dr. Daniel Pipes, and Dr. Bernard Kouchner – for defending Israel, right or wrong. The Geneva-born Tariq is the maternal grandson of the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Imam Hasan al-Bana (martyred in 1948). The “moderate Muslim” was on his way to take-up his teaching appointment at the University of Notre Dam (Indiana), begining August 25, 2004. Tariq Ramadan used to be a darling of Jewish media for saying: “The 7th century Medina model of Islamic State is not only a dream. It is a lie.” Tariq also consider Shari’ah’s capital punishments as “inhumane”! Tariq’s other distorted views of Islam can be read in the interview he gave to Rosemary Bechler, Open Democracy, July 14, 2004…..
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/nothing-wrong-being-a-radical-muslim/
Al-Asr
Time is certainly on our side.