Demosophia

Real vs. Ersatz Anti-Semitism

Paul Krugman has written a new piece in the NYT about the delicate balancing act played by Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister of Malaysia. Well, I know that Maylaysia is a tough place to govern, but Muslim leaders have been playing this bait and switch game, deflecting attention from their own flaws, for about long enough. In the same paper that publishes Krugman's diatribes Tom Friedman has been calling for a renovation of institutions in places like Malaysia ever since the Asian Economic Collapse, so isn't it about time that Krugman starts to support some genuine healing in the region, rather than this perpetual bandaid act that does nothing but "build wrath against the Day of Wrath?" And to excuse such antics he has to go pretty far afield:

And that's what he was doing last week. Not long ago Washington was talking about Malaysia as an important partner in the war on terror. Now Mr. Mahathir thinks that to cover his domestic flank, he must insert hateful words into a speech mainly about Muslim reform. That tells you, more accurately than any poll, just how strong the rising tide of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism among Muslims in Southeast Asia has become. Thanks to its war in Iraq and its unconditional support for Ariel Sharon, Washington has squandered post-9/11 sympathy and brought relations with the Muslim world to a new low.

And bear in mind that Mr. Mahathir's remarks were written before the world learned about the views of Lt. Gen. William "My God Is Bigger Than Yours" Boykin. By making it clear that he sees nothing wrong with giving an important post in the war on terror to someone who believes, and says openly, that Allah is a false idol — General Boykin denies that's what he meant, but his denial was implausible even by current standards — Donald Rumsfeld has gone a long way toward confirming the Muslim world's worst fears.

Somewhere in Pakistan Osama bin Laden must be enjoying this. The war on terror didn't have to be perceived as a war on Islam, but we seem to be doing our best to make it look that way.

He's enjoying Paul Krugman's essays. I don't imagine anything George W. Bush is doing gives him much enjoyment. Certainly not this, from an article by Karl Zinsmeister, in the CS Monitor:

US soldiers and administrators are turning a tide of history and culture in the Middle East. If Americans show some patience, they'll gaze upon many heartening transformations in Iraq a few months and years from now.

Krugman's comments demonstrate the folly of encouraging an economist to editorialize on political conditions that are the result of culture and values. The set of conditions that allow this balancing act on the part of Muslim leaders is not based on attitudes but values. Attitudes may be influenced by short term political or social events, such as sympathy for a nation under attack by mass terrorists or the remarks of an obscure military official, but the values that Mahathir is mining aren't altered by passing fads or fancies. They've had a few generations of "soak time," in the precepts and lexicon of anti-Semitism and cultural prejudice, to build up an explosive potential, and the time when we could "realistically" countenance the striking of matches around such an incendiary source has passed us by. To excuse what Mahathir says is no longer political realism, but political fantasy. If the ersatz "anti-Semitism" of a statement like that of Gregg Easterbrook deserves condemnation and sanction then it hardly seems balanced to blame the appeal to real anti-Semitism on causes external to the Mahathir regime itself. If he has to play such a balancing act it's entirely due to the fact he hasn't instituted the political reforms that the economic and social conditions of his nation require. And the fact that he even has such an attention-deflecting option is not only not healthy, it's downright morbid.

Posted by Demosophist at October 21, 2003 05:17 PM | TrackBack