| 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 daMore 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