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| THE VIOLENCE | angston Hughes, the Arcan-Amercan rite. his 1940 autobiography, The Big Sea the ex ‘ Inesviry ayo vouesee sn ting to suppres invoking of entity in genera For one thing darth x we to draw on the ose ientity ca be ch These can, of This leads to other ways of classifying peo A Hut Lbores rom Kig only asa Hut an Hite be pressure ose himself Tiss and yet hei not om an Afcan, aborer, th the recogni 10 se the role of chee lemttes which ae important ose tat this tather disastrous su ity of respected —and inde wh They ans who take the con The Vslence of Mason employment, fod habits spots interests, taste nm commitments et, make us members fare of groups. Each of these cll belong, ses era pat to be the persons only eve that a pron really has no ive importance to attach hel ur erent af thn to determine our ent gaps toll of which we Ibert which we hive reason tora The enistence of choice doesn alvays made within the limits fw feasibites inthe case of tlemities wil depend ies and circumstances tha dete ies open 10 us. This, however. is eld ny and Indeed, nating can be more & at choices fl kind in every area ae its, Fo we da More than a Fede Increasing race on pious fies, of diferent people in 2 slobalyioterictve world. In confronting what i ealled “Islamic terrorism.” ir the muddled vocabulary of contemporary global politics, the intellectual fore of Westem poli substan at tying to dfine—or redefine Islam The Vitence ‘ot only to miss other significant concerns ad ide peopl, alo as the effect of generally magnyng religious authori The Muslim clenes, for example, are 18 the ex officio spokesmen forthe s-l : * religion of peace, "rue Muslim” must be a tolerant individual (secon nd be peaceful). The rejection ofa conf of slam i certainly appropria time, but we mi and 0 ask whet Ful or even possible ty to de what tue Muslin” must be ke ‘exclusive identity in erate responsible sh many sphetes of ie take a confrontational view thoroughly tolerant of heterndony 0 bea Muslin for that reason alone Fundamentalism and to the terrorism tout The respons ts linked wit ener ‘ours, not surprising dament overcome the tenslans and confit linked ‘ith Islamic fundamentalism also seem unable People in any fer othe pts to redefine Islam, rather than seeing the nature of diverse human beings who happen People see themseltes—and have reason tose themselves ‘nm amany diferent ways. For example, a Bangladeshi Mus only a Mos from Pakistan was not based on religion identity was shared by the bulk ofthe pop uation in the two wings of undivided Pakistan, The separa Issues related wo languoge, lary there is oem reason, lim ar an Arab identity. Despite the importance ofthis ‘rude classifications have tended to put science and mathemat ies in the basket of Western science” leaving ether people to ‘mine their pide in religous de ted Ars ist today can take pride only inthe purty of lam, rather than the manysided chness or. the ungue proriia tion frelon, sha part Arb by warts on oth side, peopl within the enclosure of singular identity Even the frantic Wester search forthe moderate Muslim «confounds moderation in pltical beliefs with modersteness religous fut. A person can have strong re Islamic

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