From Greed to Justice American Policy in the Middle East: Reflections from a Muslim Perspective

Abstract

I would like to seize the opportunity of the theme of this conference to
highlight some of the flaws which taint and constrain American foreign policy
in the Middle East and, more generally, in the Muslim world. I do so with the
purpose of exploring the possibilities for a change which would be to the advantage
of all parties concerned, for while I believe that America’s Middle East policy
is largely prompted by considerations of national self-interest and expediency,
and that these might be subsumed under the category of ‘‘greed,’’ there still remains
a recurrent undertone and preoccupation with a moral self-justification that seeks
grounds of justice and right for all its pursuits. Beyond greed and morality,
however, the determining factor for both dimensions is contingent upon our
perceptions, conceptions, and the ideas we have concerning the Other as well
as about what constitutes our own best interest and our particular morality. The
controls on our perceptions and self-understanding lie in a kind of treasure chest
which we inherit or, to use a current idiom of the micro-chip generation, they
lie in a floppy disk which lies in the eye of our mind. Whatever it is that we inherit,
it comes not so much with our genes as with our cultural legacy, which is
transmitted primarily through the process of our socialization. While such
perceptions may be decisive in shaping our attitudes towards the situations we
encounter, they are not necessarily permanent, for acquired attitudes which have
been learned can also be unlearned, although this is often a more complicated
process. In the realm of attitudes to the Muslim world, I feel that Americans
are encumbered with a heavy legacy which lies at the root of the many enthusiasms
and complacencies which have time and again been reflected in American foreign
policy and in American reactions to events in that region ...