Fort Hood: The Existential Problem of Scorpions in a Bottle

by Dr. Robert D. Crane

Tom Friedman is quite right in his New York Times op ed piece of November 29th where he exclaims to Muslims: “Whenever something like Fort Hood happens you say, ‘This is not Islam.’ I believe that. But you keep telling us what Islam isn’t. You need to tell us what it is and show us how its positive interpretations are being promoted in your schools and mosques. If this is not Islam, then why is it that a million Muslims will pour into the streets to protest Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but not one will take to the streets to protest Muslim suicide bombers who blow up other Muslims, real people, created in the image of God? You need to explain that to us — and to yourselves.”

The reason why Muslims instinctively attack those who attack Islam but hesitate to attack Muslims who by their actions are un-Islamic is a sickness that I would call a monist identity crisis. This is a denial of multiple identities, whereby a person can have several identities based on a core common to all of them.

In my view, the major weaknesses of any person, community, or civilization in the world today is modern tribalism, which I define as an identity crisis derived from arrogance and from an underlying fear of the other, which leads to blind support of one's own group. This clearly explains Neo-Conservatism and its failure to promote an environment favorable to its own goals of peace, prosperity, and freedom in the world. This same existential fear motivates many Muslims, who are too insecure to conceive of any expanded identity beyond one's tribe, whether it be Pakistani or merely Muslim.

When some Muslim commits a horrendous crime, the instinctive reaction of most other Muslims is a lame attempt to justify the motivation behind the crime or merely a lame excuse by saying "Don't blame me." The reaction should be to condemn the crime and the criminal as a threat to all of humanity, including themselves as Muslims. This, however, violates the tribal instinct to defend one's own regardless of right or wrong.

My approach of waging a Fourth World War against extremists, including Muslims, is highly unpopular among Muslims, because I thereby appear to be joining the Islamophobes who invented the term "Fourth World War." In fact, I am inviting them to join me in fighting those Muslim extremists whose actions are understandable but un-Islamic and therefore are a threat to everyone, including themselves.

The low road of condemnation does not get us very far and is inferior to the high road, which is to emphasize the positive in Islam and every world religion as the best way to counter extremism. The Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam, as I remember, once shocked his listeners by saying, in true Sufi style, that one should support the wrongdoers. When his listeners were shocked, he explained that one should support the wrong doers by showing them what is right. This is what the fourth world war should be all about. Our challenge is to recruit Muslims and others to join us in an Islamic Fourth World War against the extremists of every tribe who are now caught in a bottle like scorpions with no alternative but to destroy each other.