After the 2005 London bombings, Thomas Friedman wrote an op-ed criticizing Muslim religious leaders for not condemning jihadist suicide attacks. He wrote:
The Muslim village has been derelict in condemning the madness of jihadist attacks. When Salman Rushdie wrote a controversial novel involving the prophet Muhammad, he was sentenced to death by the leader of Iran. To this day – to this day – no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden.
As Juan Cole then noted, Friedman’s statement was entirely incorrect. Cole wrote:
First of all, almost all the major Shiite Grand Ayatollahs have condemned Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. You could say that is easy, since Shiites don’t generally like Wahhabis. But they are the leaders of 120 million Muslims (some ten percent of the 1.2 billion). So that is one.
Cole then listed numerous Muslim religious leaders that had condemned Osama bin Laden and/or al Qaeda, completely disproving Friedman’s assertion. However, a few days ago, Friedman made a similar assertion. According to Friedman, Barack Obama should say to the Islamic world:
“Whenever something like Fort Hood happens you say, ‘This is not Islam.’ I believe that. But you keep telling us what Islam isn’t. You need to tell us what it is and show us how its positive interpretations are being promoted in your schools and mosques. If this is not Islam, then why is it that a million Muslims will pour into the streets to protest Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but not one will take to the streets to protest Muslim suicide bombers who blow up other Muslims, real people, created in the image of God? You need to explain that to us — and to yourselves.”
In other words, Friedman thinks Obama should pretend that demonstrations in India, Jordan, Morocco, and many others never happened. This is an interesting solution to what Friendman dubs the problem of “The Narrative.” As Friedman writes, “The Narrative is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11.” Apparently, Obama should combat The Narrative with his own “cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies.”
UPDATE: Zainab Jeewanjee of the FPB Pakistan Blog presents some more critiques of Friedman’s editorial. Read the post here.
