Flushing the Koran

Some thoughts on the recent flap over Newsweek Magazine's recently retracted story concerning U.S. military interrogators at Guantanamo and the Koran...

Once again the American press and our Talking Head commentators are doing us a real disservice . Once again they are treating an important news story incorporating such vital issues as human rights, intercultural communication, religious beliefs, and cultural imperialism, and instead oversimplifying it and turning it into another tedious battleground in our own domestic culture war. Those on the Right manipulate Newsweek's retraction of its story to stress the supposedly criminally irresponsible nature of a putatively liberal mainstream media. The Left, meanwhile, devoted an unseemly amount of time to playing a pointless game of "gotcha" over the story vis-a-vis the pro-war crowd.

Perhaps, in an attempt to intimidate their captives, U.S. military interrogators did flush a copy of the Koran down a toilet as Newsweek initially reported. Such an action of desecration certainly would have produced some sort of effect on a devout Muslim. Then again, maybe the whole incident was merely someone's second-hand rumor, as Newsweek now contends. In the final analysis (and analysis is what has been sorely lacking in the mainsteam press and among talk radio), it may matter little whether or not the allaged incident actually took place.

What really matters is that large numbers of Muslims throughout the world BELIEVED the American military capable of such an act of desecration! In Afghanistan, the Newsweek story precipitated days of rioting that left over a dozen dead and many more injured. In Pakistan and elsewhere throughout the Muslim world, the story sparked renewed outbursts of anti-American rhetoric and revived challenges to established (and pro-U.S.) governments.

But why? That's the story we've lost sight of in our own rush to the barricades of America's current culture war.

So, without further ado, let me offer some insights that might help start a real dialog on this issue:

Reason #1: American secrecy concerning the treatment and interrogation of captives at the Guantanamo Bay base and elsewhere, as well as a period of captivity that has extended far beyond what many feel to be the period during which useful information about terrorism could have been gathered. Muslims in particular want to know how their religious brethren are being treated and why they are still under indefinite detention, and so long as America continues to bend the Geneva Convention's rules so as to keep the actions of its military under the strictest secrecy, rumors will abound and frustrations will grow within the Muslim world.

Reason #2: The sad example of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where American military guards and interrogators systematically tortured and humiliated (and in several cases under investigation killed) their Muslim prisoners. Moreover, they often did so in precise ways specifically calculated to offend the religious sensibilities of their victims. Witness, for example, the stripping of male prisoners and forced simulation of homosexual sex acts undertaken under the eyes of female American military personnel! And don't think that it hasn't escaped notice in Iraq and elsewhere within the Muslim world that the only punishment for such infamous abuse has thus far been handed down against a few low-ranking servicemen and women, while the officers go free. Where is the justice in that? Anyway, the point here is that, based on the sorry example of Abu Ghraib and America's slow and reluctant way of owning up to the abuse, outside observers are far likelier to believe the worst about Americans operating elsewhere. Secrecy breeds suspicion!

Reason #3: The general ignorance of Americans about Islam. It amazes me that we'll be commemorating the fourth anniversary of 9/11 and the War on Terror before long, and yet the American people seem barely more knowledgable of the beliefs and customs of a significant religious group, a fanatical subset of which we are supposedly at war with. Quick: name the Five Pillars of Islam! What, you can't list the main tenets of the Islamic faith? Shameful. How about the significance of the Koran to practicing Muslims? That, at least would help in understanding the reasons why Newsweek's story prompted such violent demonstrations in Afghanistan (where the people supposedly are grateful to the U.S. for liberating them from the oppressive Taliban regime, yes?).

So here's the answer, briefly. The Koran is considered by devout Muslims to be the literal word of God, as transmitted by Allah to Muhammed, his final prophet. As such, the Koran is also considered to be the final word of God. [The Bible, in contrast, while considered by Christians to be a holy text, and also held to be divinely inspired by God, contains God's teachings as "filtered" through the words of others (the Bible's multiple authors).] Because the Koran is regarded as the direct word of God, Muslims treat its physical manifestation with exceptional reverence. For example, Muslims, no matter their nationality, are strongly encouraged to learn Arabic, as any translation of the Koran from its original Arabic risks altering the very word of God. Devout Muslims might ritually clean themselves before touching the Koran, place the Koran in a special place, often above everything else, and never let the Koran simply lie on the floor. Many Muslims try and memorize the Koran in its entirety -- a text comparable in length to the New Testament. Some particularly conservative Muslims even contend that copies of the Koran should not be handled by non-believers.

As Dr. John L. Esposito of Georgetown University (and author of many good books on Islam and the Middle East, including "What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam" from Oxford University Press, 2002) noted in a recent Christian Science Monitor newspaper article: "While we've become a more religious nation in one sense, we have also become, in our sense of the sacred, less sensitive and aware ... We don't understand why someone would go through the roof about desecrating a sacred book" (CSM 5/19/05).

As always, the answer lies in becoming more informed about the world around us. So do your own homework, and don't let the Talking Heads on either the Right or the Left do your thinking for you!

Peace,
Historian