IBN WARRAQ: THE SUPERIORITY OF WESTERN VALUES IN EIGHT MINUTES****
The Superiority of Western Values in Eight Minutes
http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/
In a public debate in London against Tariq Ramadan, Ibn Warraq was given
eight minutes to argue the superiority of Western values. Here is his
defense of the West, which forms the basis for his new book, Why the West is
Best: A Muslim Apostate’s Defense of Liberal Democracy.
The great ideas of the West-rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested
search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law,
equality before the law, freedom of conscience and expression, human rights,
liberal democracy-together constitute quite an achievement, surely, for any
civilization. This set of principles remains the best and perhaps the only
means for all people, no matter what race or creed, to live in freedom and
reach their full potential.[1]
Western values-the basis of the West’s
self-evident economic, social, political, scientific and cultural
success-are clearly superior to any other set of values devised by mankind.
When Western values have been adopted by other societies, such as Japan or
South Korea, their citizens have reaped benefits.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: this triptych succinctly
defines the attractiveness and superiority of Western civilization. In the
West we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice
our religion, to live as we choose. Liberty is codified in human rights, a
magnificent Western creation but also, I believe, a universal good. Human
Rights transcend local or ethnocentric values, conferring equal dignity and
value on all humanity, regardless of sex, ethnicity, sexual preference, or
religion. At the same time, it is in the West that human rights are most
respected.
It is the West that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious
minorities, and gays and lesbians, recognizing their rights. The notions of
freedom and human rights were present at the dawn of Western civilization,
as ideals at least, but have gradually come to fruition through supreme acts
of self-criticism. Because of its exceptional capacity for self-criticism,
the West took the initiative in abolishing slavery; the calls for abolition
did not resonate even in black Africa, where rival African tribes took black
prisoners to be sold as slaves in the West.
Today, many non-Western cultures follow customs and practices that are clear
violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). In many
countries, especially Islamic ones, you are not free to read what you want.
Under sharia, or Islamic law, women are not free to marry whom they wish,
and their rights of inheritance are circumscribed. Sharia, derived from the
Koran and the practice and sayings of Muhammad, prescribes barbaric
punishments such as stoning to death for adultery. It calls for homosexuals
and apostates to be executed. In Saudi Arabia, among other countries,
Muslims are not free to convert to Christianity, and Christians are not free
to practice their faith. The Koran is not a rights-respecting document.
Under Islam, life is a closed book. Everything has been decided for you, the
dictates of sharia and the whims of Allah set strict limits on the possible
agenda of your life. In the West, we have the choice to pursue our desires
and ambitions. We are free as individuals to set the goals and determine the
contents of our own lives, and to decide what meaning to give to our lives.
As Roger Scruton remarks, “The glory of the West is that life is an open
book.”[2]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftn2> The West has given us the liberal miracle of
individual rights and responsibility and merit. Rather than the chains of
inherited status, Western societies offer unparalleled social mobility. The
West, Alan Kors writes, “is a society of ever richer, more varied, more
productive, more self-defined, and more satisfying lives.”[3]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftn3>
Instead of the mind-numbing certainties and dictates of Islam, Western
civilization offers what Bertrand Russell called liberating doubt.[4]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftn4> Even the process of politics in the West
involves trial and error, open discussion, criticism, and
self-correction.[5]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftn5> This quest for knowledge, no matter where it
leads, a desire inherited from the Greeks, has produced an institution that
is rarely equaled outside the West: the university. And the outside world
recognizes this superiority of Western universities. Easterners come to the
West to learn not only about the sciences developed in the last five hundred
years, but also about their own cultures, about Eastern civilizations and
languages. They come to Oxford and Cambridge, to Harvard and Yale, to
Heidelberg and the Sorbonne to acquire their doctorates because these
degrees confer prestige unrivalled by similar credentials from Third World
countries.
Western universities, research institutes, and libraries are created to be
independent institutions where the pursuit of truth is conducted in a spirit
of disinterested inquiry, free from political pressures. The basic
difference between the West and the Rest might be summed up as a difference
in epistemological principles. Behind the success of modern Western
societies, with their science and technology, and their open institutions,
lies a distinct way of looking at the world, interpreting it, and rectifying
problems: by lifting them out of the religious sphere and treating them
empirically, finding solutions in rational procedures. The whole edifice of
modern science is one of Western man’s greatest gifts to the world.[6]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftn6> The West is responsible for almost every
major scientific discovery of the last 500 hundred years, from heliocentrism
and the telescope, to electricity, to computers.
The West has given the world the symphony and the novel. A culture that
engendered the spiritual creations of Mozart and Beethoven, Wagner and
Schubert, of Raphael and Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Rembrandt does
not need lessons in spirituality from societies whose vision of heaven
resembles a cosmic brothel stocked with virgins for men’s pleasure.
The West gave us the Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International and many other manifestations of the humanitarian
impulse. It is the West that provides the bulk of the aid to beleaguered
Darfur, while Islamic countries are conspicuous by their absence.
The West does not need lectures on the superior virtue of societies where
women are kept in subjection, endure genital mutilation, are married off
against their will at the age of nine, have acid thrown on their faces or
are stoned to death for alleged adultery, or where human rights are denied
to those regarded as belonging to lower castes.[7]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftn7> The West does not need sanctimonious homilies
from societies that cannot provide clean drinking water or sewage systems
for their populations, that cannot educate their citizens, but leave 40-50
percent of them illiterate, that make no provisions for the handicapped,
that have no sense of the common good or civic responsibility, that are
riddled with corruption.
No Western politician would be able to get away with the kind of racist
remarks that are tolerated in the Third World, such as the anti-Semitic
diatribes of the Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad. Instead, there would be
calls for resignation, both from Third World leaders and from Western media
and intellectuals. Double standards? Yes, but also a tacit acknowledgement
that we expect higher ethical standards from the West.
The Ayatollah Khomeini once famously said there are no jokes in Islam. The
West is able to look at its own foibles and laugh, even make fun of its own
fundamental principles. There is no Islamic equivalent to Monty Python’s
Life of Brian. Can we look forward to seeing The Life of Mo anytime in the
future?
The rest of the world recognizes the virtues of the West in concrete ways.
As Arthur Schlesinger remarked, “When Chinese students cried and died for
democracy in Tiananmen Square, they brought with them not representations of
Confucius or Buddha but a model of the Statue of Liberty.”[8]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftn8> Millions of people risk their lives trying to
get to the West-not to Saudi Arabia or Iran or Pakistan. They flee from
theocratic or other totalitarian regimes to find tolerance and freedom in
the West, where life is an open book.
[1]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftnref1> Bruce Thornton. “Golden Threads: Former
Muslim Ibn Warraq Stands Up for the West,” City Journal, August 17, 2007.
[2]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftnref2> Roger Scruton. “The Glory of the West
is that Life is an Open Book,” Sunday Times, May 27, 2007.
[3]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftnref3> Alan Charles Kors, Can There be an
‘After Socialism’? in Social
<http://europa.sim.ucm.es/compludoc/GetSumario?r=/W/10308/02650525_1.htm&zfr
=0> Philosophy and Policy, 2003; 20 (1) pp.1-17 .
[4]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftnref4> Bertrand Russell, The Problems of
Philosophy, London: Williams & Norgate, [Ist edn.1912] Chapter XV.
[5]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftnref5> Roger Scruton, “The Defense of the
West,” A Lecture given at the Columbia Political Union, New York, Thursday,
April 14th, 2005.
[6]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftnref6> Caroline Cox & John Marks, The ‘West’,
Islam and Islamism: Is Ideological Islam Compatible with Liberal Democracy?
(London: Civitas, 2003) pp.12-13.
[7]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftnref7> A.M.Schlesinger, Jr. The Disuniting of
America. Reflections on a Multicultural Society ( New York: Norton, 1992)
p.128.
[8]
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/articles/the-superiority-of-western-va
lues-in-eight-minutes/#_ftnref8> Ibid., p.129.
<http://www.westminster-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/WhytheWesti
sBest.jpg>
Buy Ibn Warraq’s book,
<http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Best-Apostates-Democracy/dp/1594035768/ref=s
r_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333043954&sr=8-1> Why the West is Best: A Muslim
Apostate’s Defense of Liberal Democracy at Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Best-Apostates-Democracy/dp/1594035768/ref=s
r_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333043954&sr=8-1>
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