Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

altmuslim

Home
Muslim
Osama bin Laden: Pepsi, pot, porn… and politics

Osama bin Laden: Pepsi, pot, porn… and politics

Last updated on: June 22, 2011 at 4:00 am by Guest Contributor

Osama bin Laden: Pepsi, pot, porn… and politics 2011-06-22T04:00:58-04:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Bin Laden and his reality show

News sources have recently reported on an interesting assortment of materials at Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound. Not only was bin Laden living far from any cave on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, his house apparently had a large supply of Pepsi and Coke (inexplicably, Pakola wasn’t good enough), a significant stash of pornography, and marijuana plants on the property.

On the one hand, these findings appear to be almost too good to be true. Considering his supposed ascetic lifestyle and extreme interpretation of Islam, bin Laden’s possession of hese items seemingly contradict his supposed ascetic lifestyle and extreme interpretation of Islam, damaging his image in the eyes of current and would-be militants. Their supposed hero, in other words, was apparently a fraud. Some have argued the discoveries are pure Western fabrications, or the United States planted the materials in a propaganda campaign aimed at destroying what was left of bin Laden’s image after the Arab Spring showed a different way to combat Western-backed dictators.

But we should instead look in a different direction. The fact that bin Laden apparently embraced some aspects of Western culture isn’t necessarily a contradiction at all — he was only relevant because of politics, not culture. Similarly, some of the 9/11 hijackers visited strip clubs, drank alcohol, and gambled. This should serve as a dagger into the heart of the “clash of civilizations” argument that al-Qaeda was at war with Western values. This notion was always ignorant at best. Although culture may have played a role as an organizing mechanism, it was not the main causal explanation for al-Qaeda’s founder. If there is a cultural aspect at all, it is much more nuanced and complicated.

Culture as explanation

Cultural claims are often used in attempts to explain political phenomena. This is done to blame behavior on being a certain type of person — for instance, Muslims, Arabs, Jews, African Americans, and so on. Because a high percentage of Muslim countries are authoritarian, we are told “those people” cannot have democracy because it is not in their culture to live in an open and free society. The popular media widely uses this reductionist approach.

But cultural explanations usually fall apart when scholars actually test them. It is almost always the case that the correlation goes away once social scientists control for other important variables, such as poverty, education, or occupation. These other variables usually explain the connection, not culture. Examining issues through the lens of culture is thus insufficient. If poverty is actually the cause of a problem it should be addressed, rather than chasing the bogeyman of “culture.” The use of cultural arguments often leads to improper policy solutions, including continued support of Middle Eastern dictators, neglecting widening income gaps in strategically important countries, focusing on military aid over civilian aid, and preferring public relations to actual negotiations over key political issues.

This is not to say that culture plays no role — it almost certainly does. But culture is very difficult to define, thus making it very difficult to test. Is there a Muslim culture, for instance? Possibly, but it’s impossible to define what constitutes said culture — and good luck trying to figure it out.

More often, culture is misidentified. A unique culture channeled by extremist groups has indeed riled up average Pakistanis in response to bin Laden’s death, but it’s not a Muslim culture. It’s a culture based on poor education and poor civic institutions, combined with extreme or flat-out incorrect interpretations of religious texts. There may be a high correlation between that culture and Muslims, but that does not make it a Muslim culture. Many American right-wingers are arguably in the same boat, with the main difference being that they can pressure their government to implement a hawkish foreign policy, whereas similarly extremist Pakistanis turn to al-Qaeda or the Pakistani Taliban. We need to be wary of proposing macro-cultures when micro-cultures are far more accurate. It is not surprising that when we try to examine a wider, overarching culture, like religion or ideology, we find numerous cases of hypocrisy, such as bin Laden’s stash, Ted Haggard’s male prostitute and crystal methamphetamine habit, or rich factory-owning Marxists.

Clash of cultures?

In terms of bin Laden and al-Qaeda, we were frequently told their issue with the United States was cultural as the Bush administration’s assertion that “they” hate “our” values and lifestyles. This argument flies in the face of a litany of evidence and statements that clearly emphasize political grievances, including the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and U.S. support for corrupt and brutal dictators throughout the Muslim world. Yes, culture is used as an organizing mechanism and is an effective recruiting tool for new members. But there is a big difference between organizing mechanisms and organizational goals. If al-Qaeda’s beef was over culture, why did it choose to attack political and economic symbols rather than cultural symbols like the Playboy mansion or McDonald’s restaurants? And how is it possible that American Idol is not constantly under siege by al-Qaeda operatives?

The items found in bin Laden’s compound are more important than as mere comedic material. They should force us to reconsider cultural arguments about the “war on terror” and al-Qaeda. Should we really be shocked that bin Laden had an interest in some of these things? If we listened to cultural arguments thrown around for the last decade, then the answer to the previous question is yes. But that is part of the problem: the cultural argument should have been widely discredited by now, had the press done an adequate job in pointing out its flaws. More importantly, the current focus on using porn, pot, and Pepsi to discredit bin Laden is problematic because culture was never really his modus operandi. Because the clash has been over politics, and not culture, we need to reevaluate our foreign policy and not our public relations. The United States needs its leaders to think about aid policy and support for dictators instead of resorting to Islamophobia in political campaigns.

The Arab Spring has shown the world that Muslims are clearly supportive of democracy and are willing to use non-violent means in attempts to overthrow their authoritarian rulers. This alone should demonstrate that there are serious problems with the view that there is a fundamental clash of civilizations between Muslims and the West. The discovery of bin Laden’s bizarre stash should serve as yet another reminder that even the most extreme and violent militants care primarily about politics, not culture.

Fouad Pervez is a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus, where he writes on international politics, economics, and security. He is currently pursuing his PhD in International Relations. Fouad is a writer and policy analyst, and founded the blog and talk show There is No Spoon. He can be reached at fouad0 at gmail dot com.

Previous Post

June 19, 2011

Muslim identity: How Islamic is “Islamic”?

Next Post

June 24, 2011 Clothing and society: Encounters with the niqab

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

Follow Us!

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: 3 John commends Diotrephes for his hospitality and love for the brethren.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE

Related posts from altmuslim

Mawlid 2018: Praise Songs from Around the World

Gaslighting, Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim Rhetoric: What to Know

How One Ottoman Reconciled Islamic Teachings with Darwin's...

As #TreeofLife Shows, Trump's Mainstreaming of Hate Puts...

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Muslim

25 Years Later: How Much Has Changed for...

As we approach the 25th anniversary of September 11th, I’ve found myself...

Podcast: Third Spaces & The Rise of Yemeni...

In the latest episode of The Artistic Foodies Podcast, hosts Abbas...

HalalFest Picks: Best 60 Halal Spots for Super...

Back in 2016, I came up with a list of 29...

Unity Is America’s Strength — Division Is Its...

by Hidayatullah Ahsan When Valentina Gomez, a Republican candidate for Congress in...

Zohran Mamdani and New York’s Fight Against Islamophobia

This past June, against all odds, Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary...

What the Fourth of July Means to a...

As we mark another Fourth of July, millions of Americans will celebrate...

view all Muslim blogs

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Copyright 2008-2026, Patheos. All rights reserved.

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos