Make Love, Not War

All the reviews I’ve read so far of Gilles Kepel’s new book The War for Muslim Minds have been making me want to read it, and this CSM piece is no exception.

Crucial, irreversible steps such as George W. Bush’s early decision not to pursue the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and the neoconservatives’ justification for the Iraq war, take on new meaning when seen in context of the enormous geopolitical scope of Islam today.

In short, while the US administration believes that Western values will appeal to the hearts and minds of the Muslim world, the Muslim world is consumed with its own internal debates that dwarf those of the West. In this sense, 9/11 was only incidentally about “us.”

I tell you, though, it’s not that much fun to have so many people fighting for your mind. Next, they’ll be wanting to fight for your soul. Oh, wait. That was last century’s white man’s burden. Look how that turned out.