We've heard about the cartoons, seen the effects, probably even seen at least one of them. People are rioting from the West Bank to Pakistan. There are a lot of points to be made out of this series of events, most already tired out. People are billing this as the anticipated "clash of civilizations" or some sort of proof that such a clash is inevitable. I have to admit, I am tempted to see the situation that way. One is tempted to see the Arab street as a monolithic swath of would-be suicide bombers, throwing rocks at international peacekeepers all day. However, that is an overstatement. Essentially what you see here is an expression of the precept "the loudest are always the ones with the least to contribute." A moderate majority still exists. In fact, most muslims follow the line of contemporary Judeo-Christian teaching, and permit the portrayal of the prophet, even though in both Islam and Christianity, orthodoxy technically says this is forbidden. A similar situation exists in the West Bank, where a majority of the population would negotiate with Israel if given the opportunity. (Likewise, an overwhelming majority of Israelis would negotiate with the Palestinian government in exchange for peace. This may no longer be the case with the recently elected government, however.)

The problem is the generation being educated right now. Regime, militant, and zealot-controlled public education and media are the standard in the Arab world. An insane amount of the Palestinian population wants to grow up to become suicide bombers in part thanks to this effort, which institutionally praises self-sacrifice as the highest human calling. We are talking television media, the press, K through whatever they have there schooling, religious education, religious training, "investigative" government commissions and initiatives. All of these institutions can fairly be said to supply the people with a steady stream of unequivocal incitements. Iran just commenced an "independent government commission" to investigate the true history of the holocaust. This is despite the fact that the president has already prepossessed their conclusion.

This all ignores the fact that the Arab governments are extremely weak, including Iran (technically Persian, so kill me), Iraq Syria, Lebannon, Saudi Arabia and the PA (or whatever it's called now). That's a good thing, right, because that means the inherently good-natured people are going to rise up against their oppressive demagogue governments and establish moderate civil society that attends to the people's needs of employment, education, and civic institutions and allows them freedom to modernize or to practice Islam to whatever degree of strictness they want without lying to them. Well, it's not a coincidence that it's also one of Al Qaeda's explicit directives to topple the governments in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and probably all of Western Asia as well. Those who say it is not a clash of civilizations yet are correct. It is a war within Islam and the Muslim world, first. Through all these institutions which convey, and I know it sounds silly, little more than ideas, pan-Arab Islamist movements are attempting to unify the entire muslim world around a single goal of the revival of Islam through resistance to subversive forces like the West.

It is scary, but from the perspective of Arab muslims, the case is awfully compelling. First of all, you have no hope for the future, you might not have a job, you probably have a larger than nuclear family - to put it politely - you might be lacking basic human resources, and you're probably lacking access to meaningful civic institutions outside of your local mosque and mosque-sponsored school. Up until recently, you couldn't vote in many places, and when you do it may be a seriously qualified vote among a group of screened candidates or subject to election irregularities, or whatever. The government refuses to manage resources efficiently and manages the economy poorly. If you have any education in history, you probably know that Islam was once a great civilization and empire up until the Crusades. If you know modern history, you may know that the Middle East area has been divided and exploited for a century for strategic and economic motives, using a variety of tactics including geopolitical division, direct occupation, military and financial interference in internal politics, and reciprocal patronage with dictators who neglect their peoples. If you don't have the internet, and not many people do, the news you hear every day probably goes something like "Zionists / the West _________ (fill in the blank)" The prominent person in your area is probably a firebrand cleric who spreads even more insidious and inflammatory rhetoric. So you think, "Our governments neglect us, our states are continually played off against each other militarily to keep all of them weak, and the news (some of it truthful, but distorted) says that the West continues to attack us and plot to take our resources." Suddenly the group espousing a supra-state solution based around the shared heritage of Islam doesn't sound bad.