Almost immediately after Robert Satloff finished his presentation, a hand shot into the air, and a composed but somewhat agitated audience member, asked the first question.

After thanking Satloff for giving the lecture, an audience member asked, ‘How come you use Islam and Islamist, when you say Islamism is as far from Islam as fascism is from Christianity? Yet you do not mention in parallel to Islamism, the extremism of other groups and other religions including Judiasm and Christianity.’

Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, spoke to nearly 100 students, faculty and visiting high-school students Tuesday night at Hendricks Chapel.

Satloff is also the creator and host of al-Hurra’s weekly satellite program, Dakhil Washington (Inside Washington).

Satloff quickly responded, starting the 40 minute question-and-answer session.

‘It is absolutely true, that there are extremists and extremist groups that populate fringes of all religious traditions,’ Satloff said. ‘Whether it’s Judaism or Islam or Christianity or Shinto or Buddhist or whatever. There is a very real difference in what is being faced by millions of Muslims in Muslim society, that is a pursuit of state power and state control by these groups.’

Although the topics Satloff addressed were diverse, the lecture followed a general theme, focusing on American views of the Middle East.

One of the problems with the way many look at the region is that it is viewed as a monolith, Satloff said.

The Middle East is a ‘kaleidoscope,’ and should be viewed through at least four ‘prisms,’ said Satloff, who moved to Morocco seven months after Sept. 11.

First, it should be viewed as composed of individual states, and Satloff noted that some countries are 75 years old.

‘While ideologies have come and gone and leaders have come and gone, people in the Middle East have a sense of national identity, and that is fairly new and we need to recognize this,’ Satloff said.

The sub-regions of the Middle East, the Levant, the Gulf and North Africa, should be noted as well as their politics, he said.

Multiple identities at the local level, including tribal, religious and political need to be taken into account, he said.

‘There are some of these important choices that Arabs and Muslims are making that are at the heart of the Middle East conflict,’ said Satloff in an interview before the event. ‘The real conflict in the Middle East today is not between Arabs and Israeli’s, but it’s between mainstream Muslims and extremist Muslims. The United States has a vital interest in identifying, nurturing and supporting allies among mainstream Muslims in the fight that they’re waging.’

Satloff ended with what he called ‘oddest’ Middle East, the idea of the Middle East as a reflection of the West.

‘So we have many Middle Easterners who play a role in the West, whether it’s when the King of Saudi Arabia comes to visit President Bush in Crawford and takes the president’s hand and walks, and that’s the way he thinks the American president believes the Saudi king will act, or in reverse, the import of American institutions of higher education,’ Satloff said.

The Iraqi War and questions about Iran’s nuclear program were recurring subjects during the question-and-answer period.

‘You said that the conflict is between the Muslims, but obviously the U.S. is going to play a role in the peace process, and I think that the (American) government portrays to the people that it’s our problem in the Middle East,’ said Alex Mitchell-Hardt, a senior marketing major.

‘Well, you know, it’s a very small world, and their problems are our problems,’ Satloff replied.

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Published on March 18, 2008 at 12:00 pm