On Murder in Amsterdam

This really is a fascinating little book. Although a number of reviewers talk about Buruma’s contribution in terms of illuminating the politics of Islam, immigration, etc., I think his real contribution is reframing the debate: rather than Western liberal universalism facing off against a localist, traditional Islam, there are instead two modern, universalist ideologies fighting for dominance. Buruma also correctly identifies that there is a difference between self-proclaimed conservative defenders of the Enlightenment fighting a relatively small religious minority and eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinkers facing off against the colossus of traditional Christian piety.

Now, this is not to say that Buruma is a defender of multiculturalism—he is actually incredibly nuanced and is capable of walking a very thin line while being respectful to everybody. He is clearly critical of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but also has a great deal of respect for her—after all, her own political faction has, at times, turned against her simply for being Muslim. The discourse on the right moved from nuanced and responsible criticism of Islamic revolutionaries (who absolutely need to be criticized) to outright Islamophobia. Buruma’s biggest criticism of Ali is that she views all Muslims as potential revolutionaries, which clearly is not the case. Buruma also does an excellent job placing Islamic fundamentalism in the tradition of other radical (or revolutionary) movements: Communism, anarchism, and fascism. Yet he is careful to acknowledge that nowhere near all Muslims are revolutionary.

Although he does not offer much in the way of solutions, I think that Tunisia, of all countries, may be a model. It is quite a religious, Islamic country, but religious extremism is nowhere near that of Saudia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, or Morocco. Instead, religion is an intimate, personal choice that does not look to change the political order. Even Ennahda has shifted its politics considerably—as an Islamist movement it simply could not gain political support and had to moderate itself to the point where it no longer could characterize itself as Islamist or Islamic democracy, but as a party of democratic Muslims. The ultimate question is: which policies need to be followed to achieve this outcome? I don’t know, but I think it’s worth attempting.