Munson, Intolerable Tolerance: Western Academia and Islamic Fundamentalism, Contention 5/3 (Spring 1996).
August 16, 2007 8:29 am Articles by Henry Munson Available Online, Intolerable Tolerance, Islamism beyond the ShibbolethsMunson Intolerable Tolerance, Contention 5/3, 1996
The laudable desire to eliminate popular misconceptions about Islam in Western culture has sometimes induced Western scholars to embrace notions as fanciful as those they seek to refute. One thinks, for example, of the argument that Islamic fundamentalists, or “Islamists,” are benign revivalists who have been unfairly maligned by biased Western journalists, government officials, and scholars. There is a kernel of truth to this argument, but those who make it tend to minimize the significance of those aspects of Islamic militancy that are rightly condemned not just by non-Muslims, but by many Muslims as well. The notion that every Muslim is an infidel-hating terrorist is of course ludicrous — and dangerous. But trying to eradicate this stereotype does not entail glossing over the intolerance, violence, and fanaticism associated with many of the movements that advocate strictly Islamic states.