The Problem of Christopher Hitchens and Islam

I will give Hitchens some credit. He's intelligent, his work on Henry Kissinger is scathing, and it's entertaining to read his contrarian articles. Hitchens' behavior led to a recent ass whooping in Lebanon when he chose to deface a political poster. What is more endearing than a fleshy, arrogant white man acting on a condescending impulse in Middle Eastern politics? He's up to his old antics in a recent comment on the slaughter of pigs and Egypt and how it stems from Islam and anti-semitism.

When the swine flu started appearing on the world's radar, the Egyptian government foolishly decided to slaughter Cairo's pigs last May. As Michael Slackman pointed out in the NYT recently, the decision eliminated Caireans' primary source of trash collection and decimated the livelihood of some Christian Copts known as the zabaleen. The aftermath? Trash piled up and the fetid mounds of garbage generated a public health crisis. Garbage men from one of the Western multinationals striked, which only contributed to the mess.

So what was all of this? A silly policy decision on the part of bureaucrats? Not according to Hitchens. Although Slackman's article never mentions religion as a catalyst for the pig massacre, Hitchens uses his critical eye and continuing hatred for religion to find a story that isn't apparent, or real. He links unrelated comments on swine, Jews, and Islamic loathing of pigs to weave a story of how Islam was responsible. Forget any question if scorn for pigs originates from a pre-Islamic or other cultural legacy, as that's counter productive to his agenda of attributing blame to religion. Even though Hitchens doesn't speak Arabic nor does he produce any evidence from clerics, imams, or anyone at Al Azhar that advocated killing pigs and directed policy, he cannot locate any other culprit than Islam. He warns at the end "Leave it to people of faith. Leave it to them if you dare …"

Hitchens' shallow base of knowledge on Islam permits him to scream hysterically about non-existent threats and specters of religion. His ignorance contributes to erroneous opinions on Islam that ignores the reality of life, political economy, and culture in the Middle East. In favor of a nuanced grasp, he fancies generalized opinions that sustain the foolish myth of backward, monolithic Islam that pervades society at every level. Leave policy and cultural understanding to people like Hitchens. Leave it to them if you dare.