Bush Administration Misuses the Word 'Caliphate'

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

A number of US politicians and generals have quoted a letter purportedly written by Osama bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to al-Qaeda's main operative in Iraq. The letter says one of al-Qaeda's main goals after US troops leave Iraq is the establishment of a caliphate in the Middle East. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others have invoked the word `caliphate' as a warning to the West about terrorist designs. As part of our ongoing series of commentaries on the war in Iraq, historian James Reston Jr. takes exception.

JAMES RESTON Jr.:

Perhaps the only good thing that came out of the events of 9/11 was the higher consciousness that the American people developed about the history of the Arab world and the religion of Islam. But our leaders still have a way to go. The most recent example of denseness comes from Secretary Rumsfeld's frequent misuse of the word `caliphate.' It is the latest dirty word in the Iraq debate. The secretary is putting this word out as a warning, saying that Americans must beware of a terrorist scheme to establish a totalitarian caliphate stretching all the way from Indonesia across the Middle East to Spain.

This is nonsense. To be sure, the concept sounds menacing as it evokes scary images of bloodthirsty Oriental despots in black turbans and silk caftans. To the Islamic world, however, this will be seen as yet another slur on Arab history. The caliphates of Medina, Baghdad, Cairo, Istanbul and Grenada, Spain, represent the height of Arab and Islamic achievement. The first four caliphs, as the leaders of the caliphate were called, were the successors of Muhammad. As political leaders, they had the support of a vast majority of their subjects. But their religious role, as the defender of the faith, was of equal and supreme importance. It should not be forgotten that the defense of the faith is at the heart of the resistance to the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. To slur the word `caliphate' is to insult the chief function of the caliph, to defend the lands of Islam against foreign invaders.

As we try strenuously to deny that the United States is involved in a clash of civilizations with the Arab world, it is not helpful to insult the glories of Arab history and link them to terrorist pipe dreams of worldwide Islamic domination. It is a palpable absurdity to imagine the killers of al-Qaeda ruling a true caliphate from Indonesia to Spain. To say so only dignifies and gives weight to terrorist claptrap, and makes it harder for the leaders of mainstream Islam to take control of popular sentiment in the Middle East. Like invoking `crusade,' or claiming a direct line to a Christian God as justification for the invasion, or engaging in medieval torture or desecrating the holy book of Islam, slurring the caliphates of Arab history is a gift to the terrorists.

MONTAGNE: Commentator James Reston Jr. is author of "Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors."

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