States Without Citizens: Understanding the Islamic Crisis

Terrorist attacks on America and its allies and persistent violence in the Islamic world point to a crisis in Islamic society, which States without Citizens attributes to an unfulfilled quest for an Islamic renaissance. The Islamic states, whose borders were arbitrarily imposed by Western states, are beset by pervasive socioeconomic problems--authoritarian rule, economic inequities, educational shortcomings, development project failures, sexual frustration--that are being exploited by radical Islamists. Native attempts to modernize Islamic society by adopting Western ways have repeatedly foundered because they have sought to replicate the trappings of state power while neglecting their foundation in civic ethics. To mitigate the violence engendered by the Islamic crisis, the author recommends that culturally authentic institutions must be created that will instill a civic ethics of common cause and public service.

The ideals of civic activism and public service that inspired the Western Renaissance are absent in the Islamic world. Islamic religio-moral ethics aim at salvation; Islamic social ethics aim at clan dominance. Western-inspired solutions to the Islamic crisis are inappropriate to Islamic states, in as much as they are states without citizens. To mitigate the violence engendered by the Islamic crisis, culturally authentic institutions must be created that will instill a civic ethics of common cause and public service. The author recommends this approach for policy makers and development managers and deplores the dangerous vacuity of such drumbeat cliches as the clash of civilizations that have gained currency in the war on terrorism.