Berlinsky’s shallow view of Islam and the West

Novelist Claire Berlinsky, author of Menace in Europe, seems intelligent and knowledgeable, and last year I praised her for a column in the Washington Post opposing the admission of Turkey into the EU, which she saw as a direct threat to European civilization. But now it turns out that she is deluded about Islam (and about the West) in a manner that is altogether typical of the modern, secular, materialist intellectual, whether liberal or neoconservative. Interviewed by Brad Miner at his blog, Berlinsky imagines that the Islamic menace in Europe will be defeated by consumerism. (Please also see the numerous readers’ comments following the Berlinksy quote below.)

Brad: … You’re living in Istanbul these days, do you see signs that what some call Islamism–that branch of radical Islam that justifies terror in pursuit of a new worldwide Caliphate–will burn out the way communism did? [LA note: The most important exponent of the use of terror in pursuit of a worldwide Caliphate, Sayyid Qutb, did not call his ideas “Islamism”; he was, and considered himself to be, an exponent of Islam.]

Claire: Yes, I do. It’s not just a PC myth: Most Muslims want nothing to do with Islamism. Why would they? It’s a disgusting ideology that immiserates everything it touches; it requires no special political sophistication to see this. This is absolutely evident from my perspective in Istanbul, where everyone around me is a Muslim and no one an Islamist. For every young Muslim male sitting alone in his mother’s state-subsidized apartment in France, hiding out from the police and muttering darkly over his copy of the Koran, there are ten more who just want what every other young European wants—money, cars, a new cellphone, a pretty girlfriend. Indeed, many want much more than this, and what they want is fully admirable. This is a point I make in my book; in fact, since I can’t say it better than I do there, permit me to quote: “In the war against Islamic radicalism, Europe’s chief weapon will be its enormous seductiveness. While Europe has been home to history’s most extraordinary forms of religious fanaticism, European civilization has also had a corrosive effect on the religious life, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. [LA note: For Berlinsky, the totality of Christendom and Christian culture are reduced to “religious fanaticism” that has thankfully been replaced by seductive consumerism.] There is no reason to expect the Muslim experience to be different. The temptations of Western civilization, as the characters in British novels repeatedly discover, are corrosive … That which disgusts the Islamists—alcohol, promiscuity, faithlessness, decadence—will for many be their undoing. These are what Europe has to sell, and they are commodities that have repeatedly proved more appealing than abstract salvific ideologies—at least, in the long run. The Berlin Wall did not fall simply because the Soviet Union was militarily and economically bankrupt, nor even because the citizens of the East longed to be free. It fell because those citizens said screw this to communism’s utopian message. They wanted video recorders, not the dictatorship of the proletariat. They wanted Michael Jackson albums. They wanted motorcycles. They wanted Penthouse magazine, combination washer-dryers, twenty-four-hour convenience stores, rave music, and a lot of Ecstasy to go with it. Communism provided none of that. The West, by comparison, demands no adherence to grim, self-sacrificing ideologies, even as it offers infinite possibilities for pleasure in the temporal realm. Of course it is that very seductiveness—accompanied by the complete absence of a redemptive message, the disdain for redemptive messages—that introduces into the West its anomie and hopelessness, but surely it is far better to have newly faithless immigrants moping around the cafés, fretting about the toxins in their diet and complaining that none of it makes any sense, than to have them planning to blow up buildings. Unfortunately, it is that very anomie and hopelessness that prevents the West from defending itself aggressively until this happens.”

With her comment, “They wanted Michael Jackson albums. They wanted motorcycles. They wanted Penthouse magazine …”, Berlinsky echoes Time magazine’s superficial treatment of assimilation that I discussed in my 1990 booklet, The Path to National Suicide: An Essay on Immigration and Multiculturalism:

As suggested earlier, pro-immigration liberals and conservatives deal with the looming threat to cultural assimilation by imagining that it doesn’t exist. America, they believe, has an infinite capacity for the assimilation of diverse peoples. This astounding conceit can be made credible only at a great cost—by flattening our idea of American society to the most superficial image of consumerism and pop culture. American culture is thus made equally accessible to all—and equally meaningless. “The process of assimilation is inexorable,” writes Time. “As these students become Americanized, they want to eat hot dogs and hamburgers and pizza…. They want designer jeans and bicycles and calculators and digital watches.” [Notice the exact match between Time’s clichés and Berlinsky’s.] By reducing American culture to the idea of its material accoutrements, Time makes the acquisition of that culture seem as quick and easy as an over-the-counter purchase. [Cont.]

Also see the readers’ comments following Miner’s interview with Berlinksy. Thankfully, I’m not the only one who sees through her.

A VFR reader writes:

I have listened to Ms. Berlinsky interviewed at Dennis Prager’s radio show. She impressed me as a shallow, throrougly conventional PC naif bordering on foolishness. Prager, not the sharpest knife himself, never pressed her on anything. It doesn’t appear that she knows much about Islam, special history of Turkey versus other Muslim countries, something I think Turkey will lose in about 10-20 years. No discussion of counter-examples of jihadis from rich families/rich countries. Root causes explain all to Ms. Berlinsky. If she is intellectual, I’m a ballerina.

Mark D. writes:

I saw Berlinsky shilling her book on C-Span this week. As I understood her, she has never lived in the United States for any extended period of time, she currently lives in Europe and/or Instanbul, and she was educated at Oxford.

As you note, her understanding of the world and of human nature is remarkably thin, even ignorant [she has a Ph.D., I believe]. She impressed me as having the depth of a typical journalist.

As for her comments that you posted:

“Yes, I do. It’s not just a PC myth: Most Muslims want nothing to do with Islamism. Why would they? It’s a disgusting ideology that immiserates everything it touches; it requires no special political sophistication to see this. This is absolutely evident from my perspective in Istanbul, where everyone around me is a Muslim and no one an Islamist.”

[But no one in Instanbul is about to return Constantinople to the Christian Greeks, are they? And what precisely has Turkey been doing in Cyprus with respect to non-Muslims and religious minorities? Did Turkey permit the US 4th Infantry division to traverse Turkish territory to enter Iraq through Kurdistan? And speaking of the Kurds, what precisely were the Turks doing while the Kurds were living in the mountains, chased by Baathists, after the 1991 Gulf War, while the humanitarian disaster was broadcast to the world? Of course, no one is an “Islamist.” They’re all cool dudes, looking for some Calvin Kleins and a girlfriend. The facts betray you, Ms. Berlinsky.]

“For every young Muslim male sitting alone in his mother’s state-subsidized apartment in France, hiding out from the police and muttering darkly over his copy of the Koran, there are ten more who just want what every other young European wants—money, cars, a new cellphone, a pretty girlfriend. Indeed, many want much more than this, and what they want is fully admirable.”

[So, every young Muslim male in Europe wants to be a middle-class bourgeois? What exactly happened to Mohammed Atta? Exactly why did he take flight training, when he was comfortably ensconced in Hamburg with an apartment and university admission? What happened? Did Atta’s girlfriend dump him, and he took it out on New York City?]

“In the war against Islamic radicalism, Europe’s chief weapon will be its enormous seductiveness. While Europe has been home to history’s most extraordinary forms of religious fanaticism, European civilization has also had a corrosive effect on the religious life, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish.”

[European civilization saved Christian and democratic Europe from the greatest atheism of all time—Soviet Communism. This escapes Berlinsky’s notice. If there has been any extraordinary “fanaticism” in Europe over the past 2,000 years, it was National Socialism and Communism, both adversaries of Christian Europe. The Catholic Inquisition, extending over 400 years, produced 30,000 executions. National Socialism and Communism, within the space of 40 years, murdered tens of millions. These secular fanaticisms go unremarked in Berlinsky’s Europe.]

“The temptations of Western civilization, as the characters in British novels repeatedly discover, are corrosive … That which disgusts the Islamists—alcohol, promiscuity, faithlessness, decadence—will for many be their undoing. These are what Europe has to sell, and they are commodities that have repeatedly proved more appealing than abstract salvific ideologies—at least, in the long run.”

[The Germans didn’t fall for it, did they? It seems the Germans and the Italians much preferred a “salvific ideology” to the irresistible lures of modern civilization, as did millions of European Communists. The most popular philosophers and philosophies within Europe, for well over a 100 years, have been decidedly anti-modern and contemptuous of bourgeois Europe. Berlinsky, at this point, puts her faith in petty sin and man’s faithlessness to some non-existent Puritan ethic, and that rejection of these straw men will in the end save Western civilization from the Muslim menace. In Berlinsky’s mind, Western civilization will be saved by adultery and a good beer. These comments are particularly misguided when directed at Muslims; Islamic history has revealed no evidence that their culture is especially susceptible to deterioration by sloth, gluttony, or sensual indulgence. Quite the contrary.]

“The Berlin Wall did not fall simply because the Soviet Union was militarily and economically bankrupt, nor even because the citizens of the East longed to be free. It fell because those citizens said screw this to communism’s utopian message. They wanted video recorders, not the dictatorship of the proletariat. They wanted Michael Jackson albums. They wanted motorcycles. They wanted Penthouse magazine, combination washer-dryers, twenty-four-hour convenience stores, rave music, and a lot of Ecstasy to go with it. Communism provided none of that.”

[This is all nonsense, and deeply misunderstands both human nature and the internal evils of Communism within Eastern Europe. It makes no mention of Christianity, the suppression and persecution of Christianity within Eastern Europe and the reaction that this provoked, the influence of Pope John Paul II, the continuing power of Christian faith within Eastern Europe (particularly in Poland), the revolt of the labor unionists, the political corruption and ossification of the Communist Party bureaucrats in Eastern Europe, and finally Gorbachev’s unwillingness to guarantee continued Soviet support for the Eastern European regimes. Neither Gorbachev, nor any Eastern European Communist government, gave the slightest consideration to whether the local population lusted for Penthouse or a cell phone or a motorcycle.]

“The West, by comparison, demands no adherence to grim, self-sacrificing ideologies, even as it offers infinite possibilities for pleasure in the temporal realm. Of course it is that very seductiveness—accompanied by the complete absence of a redemptive message, the disdain for redemptive messages—that introduces into the West its anomie and hopelessness, but surely it is far better to have newly faithless immigrants moping around the cafés, fretting about the toxins in their diet and complaining that none of it makes any sense, than to have them planning to blow up buildings. Unfortunately, it is that very anomie and hopelessness that prevents the West from defending itself aggressively until this happens.”

[At this point, Berlinsky’s brain is in knots, and she begins to contradict herself. First, she has already indicated the West is a monolithic, seductive ideology irresistible to Muslims, yet claims that the West does not impose upon its inhabitants “grim, self-sacrificing ideologies.” Berlinksy herself is Exhibit A that the West does just that. The corrosive liberalism of the West demands that otherwise intelligent people like Berlinsky sacrifice their ability to think, and worse, to place their faith in the demonology of “hopelessness.” Secondly, Berlinsky paints herself into the corner of the “anomie and hopelessness” of the West, which she paints as a seductive tonic to turn “faithless” new immigrants from Muslim territories. Wasn’t it the Marxists who claimed that this same “anomie and hopelessness” was grounds for global revolution? Now, in Berlinsky’s mind, it is salvific and redemptive, a prophylactic against any ideological demons amongst us. Hear, hear, for anomie and hopelessness, the salvation of the West! Berlinsky concedes that this same anomie and hopelessness will prevent the West from defending itself, “until this happens.” And what is “this”? It’s the mysterious conversion of Muslims, en masse, into the same anomie and hopelessness of the West. It doesn’t occur to Berlinsky that, if her diagnosis of Europe is correct, Muslims may seek to take advantage of that hopelessness for their own purposes, and in particular for the purpose of asserting their supremacy over minds like Berlinsky’s.

[In the end, Berlinsky has endless and inexplicable faith in one thing: Western corruption, and its capacity to corrupt Muslims. This corruption is both salvific and redemptive for Berlinsky: It liberates her, and all other Western liberals, from doing anything, anytime, for any thing. She may take a holiday from history, confident in her compatriots’ corruption and their power to corrupt others. Berlinsky reflects a comprehensive spiritual sloth, typical of liberals, and which she then projects onto others, and particularly onto Muslims. She believes that because she and her friends succumbed to liberalism, Muslims will be eager to follow her lead. In other words, like all liberals, Berlinsky believes that all people are either as spiritually shallow as she and her fellow Europeans, or are anxious and eager to become so. Neither European history, nor Islamic history, gives any indication that this is true, nor that it is likely to be true in the future.]

An Indian living in the West writes:

With her comment, “They wanted Michael Jackson albums. They wanted motorcycles. They wanted Penthouse magazine …,” Berlinsky echoes Time magazine’s superficial treatment of assimilation …

That actually increases the hatred not decrease it. Muslims have shown in every Western nation where they are immigrants that they are by and large incapable of succeeding economically unlike other immigrants (Indians and Chinese, for example). So when they encounter failure everywhere, failure breeds resentment which in turns fuels failure which fuels even more resentment. This is basically what has happened in France and Britain.

I have met lots of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in Britain who rationalise their failure to move up by blaming it on the native British because they are supposedly “racist.” And of course, the multicultural curriculum in schools only increases that resentment among their children by teaching them that Western society is fundamentally evil and racist. So the kids start out with the Racism bogeyman in their heads and then rationalise every failure in life with it. In addition, Islamic culture scoffs at Western learning with its teachings about the supposed superiority (and indeed infallibility) of the Koran. So a believing Muslim (and most Western Muslims are believing Muslims), will hold that the Koran is superior to anything that Western science may have accomplished because the Koran is the world of Allah, the Enlightenment is not.

If this weren’t the case, why would so many Muslims who have been born in Britain and raised here (and now 4th generation immigrants) turn to Islamic terrorists groups? To say that consumerism would neutralise the Islamic threat is moronic to say the least.

People should not be mislead by a veneer of Muslim society that seems completely debauched. This has always been so.

The fact that the Saudi Princes love spending money on alcohol and prostitutes does not mean that the average Saudi is taken over by “consumerism.” A debauched elite and Islam have always lived in close proximity to each other. I grew up with Muslims who were a lot like that—they had no trouble even eating pork. But what percentage of Indian Muslims are like that? 0.5 percent??

To be fair, I must point out that Muslims in the U.S. have done reasonably well economically. At least we do not seem to have the state-subsidized festering enclaves of Islamic hate in America such as exist in European countries.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 23, 2006 10:33 AM | Send