Are We Islamophobes?” asks Time Magazine. No, though much of the press seems to like thinking so.
Is Time crazy? Perhaps, judging from its next cover, suggesting Israelis are too fat and happy to worry about things like terrorists over the border, not to mention Iranian lunatics having The Bomb.
Should we be happy with a 15-story mosque looming over Ground Zero, or American cranks setting Qurans on fire? No, these are provocative acts that hurt innocent people, and are designed to make trouble.
Is there a way to thread the needle of being decent to Muslims who are responsible people, while being ruthlessly hard on Islamist fanatics? Yes, and the answer comes out of a battle. We just have to look to Iraq.
The war in Iraq is important, and not just because it disposed of a menacing tyrant, but because it turned Iraq into the place where large numbers of Muslims of their own volition turned their backs upon terror and threw in their lot with the West.
Having joined al Qaeda in 2003 in an insurrection to repel the invaders, the Sunnis were repelled instead by the violence, and when the surge gave them cover, began to cross over, often at risk to their lives. Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, founder of the Anbar Awakening, was killed by a car bomb outside his home in Ramadi in 2007.
“Such an attack was expected, but it will not deter us,” said one of his followers. “We are determined to strike back and continue our work.”
They did, and Gabriel Ledeen, a Marine captain who served two tours in Anbar, described in the Huffington Post what happened next: “We partnered with Iraqi army units to develop them … [and] involved tribal sheiks in decisions. … Our military training teams lived with the Iraqi army, developed close personal ties and fought side by side with them as the lessons gradually took hold.”
If coalition forces had defeated al Qaeda and the Sunnis in 2003-2004, it would have been quicker and neater, but it would have been a victory over an unwilling people, who would have resented it. As it was, it became a rejection of terror by the Iraqis, who made common cause with the West.
It made democracy something they chose, not a regime foisted on them. It made the war one of Islamist terror versus the rest of society; not of the West against Islam. And it made it a war that we won together, instead of a war that they lost.
We do not need lectures from President Obama or from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg or pundits from MSNBC about our intolerance. We need to go back to Iraq, and the lessons it taught.
It gave us two ways of looking at Muslims: as the head-hackers of Anbar who committed atrocities, and the Sunnis, who at last turned against them; as the people who bombed mosques and markets, and who fought and died next to American soldiers; of the slimy Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, who drops hints of “unrest” if his plans are not followed, and sensible Muslims, who think that the mosque should be moved.
It gave us a way to fight terror and Islamophobia by honoring Muslims who help us fight terror. Instead of a mosque at Ground Zero, a tribute to Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha might be in order. And to all of the Jews, Christians and Muslims who worked together to rescue Iraq.
Examiner Columnist Noemie Emery is contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and author of “Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families.”
