2011: Bin Laden and Arab Spring in Context

[Valin]

Townhall:

Austin Bay
12/28/11

Cultural adaptation is a perniciously slow process. It has been a decade since Bernard Lewis' classic "What Went Wrong?" appeared in the wake of al-Qaida's 9/11 massacres. That short book reflected on the failure of Muslim nations (Ottoman Turkey in the main) to compete with Western Europe's political and technological surge, which began in the 15th and 16th centuries.

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How to modernize a culturally Islamic society is a question that is at least two centuries old, but it lies at the root of much of the worst bloodletting on the planet since World War II. Al-Qaida's 9/11 terror attacks were, in part, a statement by violent Islamists about their terms for Muslim modernization. The question also frames the various Arab Spring 2011 revolts and to a degree the external and internal wars waged by Iran's Islamic republic.

Unfortunately, the revolutionaries, the ayatollahs, and the rest of us won't know the answer for another four or five decades -- if even then. The fragmented struggles within Muslim societies and their ripple effects throughout the rest of the world will continue.

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