The Gap Between Westerners and Muslims Continues to Widen

It is very difficult for most Americans and other western cultures to fully comprehend the concept, much less the reality of living under a system where the basis of the government is defined as a theocracy. In other words, it is very difficult for anyone raised in any secular western country to conceive of living in a country that is ruled by the covenants of a religion. This is the situation that exists with those devout Muslim societies that are expected to rule their lives, families, tribes and their governments by the teachings from their book of religion, the Koran. According to their faith, there should be no difference between how one runs their daily lives and how their government manages every facet of life from raising a family to dealing with the issues between other countries within the world community.

It can be very difficult and confusing in trying to demonstrate how this concept can be translated and compared between western thinking and the concepts of the Muslim community. In order to present this in an understandable approach, let's revisit the recent history of Shiite Iran and how it compares to some current issues in Iraq.

The dictators Resa Shah Pahlavi of Iran and Saddam Hussein of Iraq actually had many things in common. Both leaders were Muslim dictators and both came to power, not through the rite of divine intervention, but by claiming themselves as being the leaders and then using force to manipulate the environment of those around them to gain and maintain that position. They both had developed a strong, highly loyal personal guard and police force for their personal protection, (the Shah's SAVAK secret police and Saddam's Republican Guard and his Personal Security Force ) and they both set up their family members to continue their blood lines as future leaders of their respective Muslim countries. Both of these leaders deviated away from the strict teaching of the Koran by allowing both men and women to dress in western ways, the veil was no longer required, millions of dollars were invested in developing western style universities, women were allowed to work outside the home, go to school and in some cases, vote. There was much effort made to be competitive with western countries in the areas of wealth and education for a small, select group that was chosen by the dictator's inner circles. Those that were not of the chosen, and those citizens and villagers away from the larger cities, continued to live their Muslim lives as they had in the past. They followed their religious community leaders and for the most part, believed that whatever good or bad occurred to them and their families was as stated in the Koran; "God's Will".

Both of these leaders are now gone and large areas of both Iran and Iraq have in some ways diverted back to a life style and culture that is much closer to the ways of the past 1000 years. The traditional tribes in both countries are also back to their traditional religious conflicts. In Iran, there is still a selected level of modern living for some, but the Muslim mullah's and the Supreme Imam are in total control of the country.

Due to the US preemptive invasion, Iraq is now trying to develop a variation of a democracy that is finding it difficult to survive along with the strong, historically religious Iraqi citizens. In this apparent cultural conflict, both countries sometime appear to be powder kegs that could detonate and explode at any time.

A Story of Muslim Iran and Possibly Iraq:

In order to demonstrate the differences and the difficulties of the "gap" between western ideas and the ways of the Muslims, the following is a translated story from 1979 that occurred between 2 young Iranian Muslim women. The story was written just after the Sheiite Ayatollah Khomeini had removed the Shah of Iran and returned to Iran as the leader of both the people and the government of Iran. Both women were from wealthy Iranian families. They were of the generation in Iran that had been given both the western freedoms for women in Iran and a university education while also being raised in the ways of a traditional Muslim family. The conversation shows the strength of the Muslim families and their religion, regardless of their exposure to the best of western freedom and living.

Background:

Occasional gun fire and fighting could be heard in the streets of Tehran. The two young Iranian women, Fatima and Zadi, in their mid 20's, were in their large luxury apartment in one of the best areas of the city and they were discussing the latest changes of the Shah now gone and the new Supreme Ayatollah Khomeini having just returned and taken control.

Zadi entered the room and said. 'Everything's wonderful now Fatima, we're all safe, Iran's safe - with the help of God the Imam Khomeini has conquered and Iran's safe and free.'

Fatima was still frightened and shaking. ' I wish I could believe it. I wish I could believe as you do. The villagers on the road here were so cruel and I could feel their hate. What have we done to them? Nothing at all and they hate us.'

Don't think about them.' Zadi proclaimed. 'The villagers are uneducated as you know too well, and most of them are just simpletons. Don't worry - that's past and now everything's going to be better, you'll see.'

Oh how I hope you are right. I just want it to be normal again.'

Oh, it will be.' beamed Zadi. 'The Imam does the work of God. How can it be other than good.'

Zadi frowned. 'I don't know, but never in our history have mullahs been worthy of trust - just parasites on the backs of the people.'

Ah but now it's different,' Zadi told her. Now we have a real leader. Now he's in control of Iran for the first time ever. Isn't he the most pious of men, the most learned of Islam and the law? Doesn't he do God's work? Hasn't he achieved the impossible, throwing out the Shah and his nasty corruption, stopping the generals from making a coup with the Americans? Father says we are safer now than we've ever been.'

Are we?' said Fatima. 'You are saying that you want to be ruled by Islamic laws of the Prophet's time, almost fifteen hundred years ago - enforced to wear chador in public, lose our hard won rights of voting, working and being equal?'

Zadi then declared outloud, 'I don't want to vote, or be equal - how can a woman equal a man? I just want to be a good wife to my husband, and give him many children and in Iran I prefer the chador on the streets. Father says everything will be more wonderful because we now possess ourselves, our land, our oil, and everything in our land. There'll be no more nasty foreign generals or politicians to disgrace us and the evil Shah is gone. God is with the Imam and the Imam is with us. We are very lucky.'

Fatima sighed, 'As I said before, I hope you're right.'

As I had said, this is a story from the late 1970's that could have been written today about the large differences in attitude that may never be resolved between western cultures and the millions of worshippers of the Muslim faith. One must always take this into consideration when trying to impose one culture on another. The US invasion of Iraq, and now all the noise about a possible invasion of Iran are activities that would once again require the Muslims to fight for their way of life. Something they have done for hundreds of years. The basis of the Muslim religion and way of life is to live in a ruling theocracy, not a democracy. For the western culture to "win" this war, means the Muslims must void or disregard thousands of years of Muslim history, way of life and tradition.

I would say the chances of western success in a conflict such as this are slim at best.