Will Tariq Ramadan destroy liberalism?
In Foreign Affairs, Mark Lynch criticizes Paul Berman’s new book, The Flight of the Intellectuals, which calls for vigorous opposition to people like Tariq Ramadan, the non-violent, relatively moderate Islamists living in the West and elsewhere, out of a concern for safeguarding liberalism.
Lynch agrees that Ramadan and Co. are not good Western liberals, but he deems Berman’s analysis overly broad, such that it lumps together genuinely distinct Islamist perspectives, and unfairly connects the worst of radical Islamists to moderate Islamists. He concludes that non-violent, moderate Islamists present a legitimate and viable vision for how very religious minorities can live in and contribute to democracy.
There’s a quasi-empirical disagreement at the core of the debate here. Lynch’s argument for engagement with non-violent Islamists assumes that they cannot actually threaten liberalism in the West and elsewhere, while Berman seems to worry that liberalism is acctually in danger.
There’s are more theoretical disagreement, too. One is how much respect a liberal owes a non-liberal or a quasi-liberal (very little on Berman’s view, at least in terms of respecting their beliefs and political participation). And another is how much pragmatic considerations should affect our commitment to liberal values; should we be dogmatically liberal? On the latter, Lynch seems to be of the mind that a little a less liberalism for substantially more stability is a good trade-off. Whether he’s right that Ramadan and Co. really do offer more long-term stability is a separate question.
-Jake
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3 Responses to “Will Tariq Ramadan destroy liberalism?”
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I think the deal with moderate Islamists like Ramadan and Co. is that, while nonviolent or seemingly “moderate,” they have values that are fundamentally at odds with the values that are necessary in a tolerant and pluralistic society. Ramadan in particular is someone who has failed to unequivocally reject the punishment of homosexuals or the stoning of adulterers.
The argument that liberalism is in “danger” from such people is probably most pertinent to Europe, where there is a high rate of Muslim immigration as well as a pervasive failure on the part of the European countries to integrate these immigrants into mainstream society. Stories abound of “honor killings,” female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and all kinds of other “cultural” activities in these immigrant communities that in a modern society would (and should) be deemed unacceptable. In some cases, these communities have created Sharia law courts capable of making more-or-less binding decisions. Although cultural differences in the context of immigration are easy to exaggerate and become fearful over (just look at the Arizona immigration laws), this does present a legitimate concern for people who care at all about the practice of modern Western values in their own countries.
[...] a recent post, Jake brought our attention to an intriguing article on the politics of Islam, penned by Marc Lynch [...]
[...] I discussed similar issues here. [...]