In His Book in the Name of Identity, Amin Maalouf Explores How, in Their

Nikki Boudreau

Ask anyone to define their identity and determined once and for all at birth, never to they will immediately rattle off a list of change thereafter” (2). This, Maalouf affiliations: race, gender, nationality, religion. explains, is “a recipe for massacres” (5). A Upon closer inspection, however, the subject Christian who grew up in Lebanon and later of identity is much more complicated and moved to France, Maalouf has personally felt conflicted. While an individual considers that the conflict that can exist between different their own identity is what makes them unique, elements of a person’s identity. Quite simply, their natural response is to define it by a he writes that people “often see themselves in characteristic that associates them with a terms of whichever one of their allegiances is larger group. An “us” versus “them” most under attack” (26). Recalling the nights mentality results because whenever a person he spent with his pregnant wife and young finds belonging with one group, it son in an air-raid shelter, Maalouf knows that simultaneously separates from all other “fear might make anyone take to crime” (27). groups. Unfortunately, the tragedy in this His focus on the conflict between the need to belong is that it ultimately makes it Middle East and the West gives relevant impossible to identify with the largest of insight to contemporary world events. affiliations—the human race. Furthermore, However, he also emphasizes that the this situation is becoming increasingly examples he puts forth are not special cases. exacerbated as advancing communication Every individual is a unique combination of technology encourages world cultures to grow allegiances which have the potential to come more similar. This gives individuals even into conflict with one another—whether they more reason to feel threatened because they are ties to a profession, an institution, a feel that the qualities that are specific to their village, a language, or a country. And culture are coming under attack by this whereas “each of these elements may be homogenization of world culture. This fear, found separately in many individuals, the this desperate need to belong, causes many same combination of them is never people to commit fanatical and murderous encountered in different people, and it’s this crimes in the name of their identity. that gives every individual richness and value In his book In the Name of Identity,1 and makes each human being unique and Amin Maalouf explores how violence can irreplaceable” (11). Early on in Identity, erupt between different groups of people Maalouf argues against the skeptics who when they limit the definition of their identity claim this tendency towards violence to be an to only one facet of their being. This belief innate characteristic of the human race. He that an individual is defined essentially by explains that “many ideas that have been their nationality, race, language, or religion commonly accepted for centuries are no “presupposes that ‘deep down inside’ longer admissible today, among them the everyone there is just one affiliation that ‘natural’ ascendancy of men over women, the really matters, a kind of ‘fundamental truth’ hierarchy between races, and even, closer to about each individual, an ‘essence’ home, apartheid and the various other kinds of segregation” (34). Despite the fact that his

1 suggestions are admirable and inspiring, their Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity: Violence and plausibility is sometimes doubtful. the Need to Belong, trans. Barbara Bray (New York: Penguin Books, 2000)

29 Maalouf also notes differences in the knowledge is even faster, thus leading all development of the West and the Middle East societies to become increasingly alike. In this and how this has led to conflict between the era of “harmonization and dissonance,” two. First, Maalouf defies the notion that humankind has never “had so many things in Christianity is inherently good and Islam common—knowledge, points of reference, innately evil. By showing that Christianity’s images, words, instruments and tools of all contemporary tolerance has arisen from kinds. But this only increases their desire to centuries of violence, whereas Islam’s current assert their differences” (93). To help tendency towards violence has erupted from a alleviate the danger of future conflict, long period of remarkable tolerance, Maalouf Maalouf proposes a few ideas. Firstly, he notes that while the text of a religion does not explains that identity must be seen as “the change, people’s interpretations of it clearly sum of all our allegiances, and, within it, do. In order to remain relevant and preserve allegiance to the human community itself its place in society, western religion relaxed would become increasingly important, until and updated its doctrine. Conversely, Islam one day it would become the chief allegiance, never modernized. Also, the West came to though without destroying our many power when, for the first time, the technical individual affiliations” (100). Secondly, he means for world dominance were available. makes the somewhat obvious point that only Nor can the influence of economics be in “the context of democracy [can] the ignored, as the Middle East is “poor, question of choice arises” (148) but adds downtrodden and derided, while the West is depths to this observation by noting that the rich and powerful” (64). “law of the majority” is sometimes Citing how the past efforts of Egypt to synonymous with “tyranny, slavery and modernize were stomped out by Great Britain, discrimination” (152). As a remedy, he Maalouf shows that the West desires only emphasizes the need for safeguards, such as obedience and not imitation. As a result, the United Kingdom’s special electoral much of the rest of world fears that system that does not depend solely on modernization is simply Americanization and majority rule because of the problem of the that they must “admit that their ways were out Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. of date, that everything they produced was Maalouf also dreams of the day in which a worthless compared with what was produced presidential candidate will be judged for his by the West, that their attachment to “human qualities” rather than his religious traditional medicine was superstitious, their and ethnic affiliations. Thirdly, he explains military glory just a memory, the great men that religion will never become obsolete they had been brought up to revere—the because human beings will always have poets, scholars, soldiers, saints and spiritual needs—however, religion does not travelers—disregarded by the rest of the have to be associated with the need to belong world, their religion suspected of barbarism, to a group, and spiritual needs can be fulfilled their language now studied only by a handful without religion. of specialists, while they had to learn other In addition, he points out that language people’s languages if they wanted to survive cannot be separated from identity any more and work and remain in contact with the rest than can our nationality or religion. His of mankind” (74-75). intriguing proposal is that every individual The world, Maalouf notes, is entering a should speak three languages: the language of unique phase in which knowledge advances at ones origin, English, and a third language of a rapid speed, but the dissemination of ones choice. Knowing English is crucial, but

30 alone it is not enough. Knowing two In the final analysis, Maalouf’s hopeful languages in addition to the language of one’s projections for the future might appear overly origin would instantly connect every person optimistic, especially in the context of the to a much vaster population of the world, and discouraging struggle between the United to a greater array of resources in art and States and Iraq, ongoing contestation in the literature. However, it is doubtful whether the Middle East, and issues concerning desire or even the need exists for so many undocumented immigrants in the U.S.. After people to be multilingual. Most individuals all, dealing with identity on an individual can function in everyday life quite well level can be an immense struggle in itself — knowing only one language. Also, in indeed, we must wonder where this countries such as the United States, the restructuring begins, and just whose educational system is only rarely structured to responsibility it is to attempt it on a more require or encourage the learning of multiple massive level. The day when people can languages. learn to forsake their tribal associations and In a very effective way, Maalouf’s In the embrace the human race as a whole appears to Name of Identity provides us with a cultural be a long way off, if not simply beyond reach. and historical understanding of the current However, Maalouf’s insights do not fail to conflict between the Middle East and the inspire or cause the reader to question his or West. Maalouf explores a number of widely her own role in the global conflicts caused by discussed issues, but also adds uncommon the search for identity. insight to help derail several striking misconceptions about the Middle East and the West.