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The Islamist Bogeyman

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The Islamist Bogeyman In EssEncE ly known through the izations, they ignore the Mughals ham-handed trans- and the Britons who celebrat- lation by Sir Rich- ed the Hindu erotic arts, while ard Francis Burton downplaying India’s own history (and various others of “Hindu antieroticism.” who generally aren’t What India has picked up credited) published from the West is the bad habit of in 1883. In any case, censorship. The erotic and the as- Burton and other cetic have a long history of coexis- Britons who celebrat- tence in India that is endangered ed India’s erotic tra- today, but the ancient “erot- ditions were outnum- ic path” won’t be easily eradicat- bered by Protestant ed, Doniger suggests, in a country British colonizers where two-thirds of young adults and missionaries who say they would have casual sex be- were put off by Hin- fore an arranged marriage. duism’s “amatory ex- cesses,” exemplified by gods such as Krish- Other naTions na—“all those arms, all those heads, all The Islamist those wives.” Bogeyman The buttoned-up Brits who colonized India minimized the Many elite Hin- amatory side of Hindu gods such as Krishna (left). dus admired the Brit- THE SOURCE: “Missing the Third Wave: ish colonizers and ad- Islam, Institutions, and Democracy in the Tantras, which appeared in sub- opted their views of Hinduism. Middle East” by Ellen Lust, in Studies in sequent centuries, refer to ritu- “The fraction of Hinduism that ap- Comparative International Develop- ment, June 2011. al sex. But sexual acts coexisted pealed to Protestant, evangelical with the path of meditation and tastes at all was firmly grounded Argentina, Portugal, the So- asceticism—some interpreted the in . the philosophical, renunciant viet Union: All turned democrat- acts as intended to occur only on path,” Doniger writes. Rammohan ic during what the political scien- a symbolic level—and so a kind of Roy (1772–1833), one of several re- tist Samuel Huntington famously religious doublethink arose that ligious leaders who toned down called the “Third Wave” of democ- fostered tolerance. Hinduism’s sexy side, developed ratization, a phenomenon of the The more secular Kamasu- a strain of religion that combined 1970s, ’80s, and early ’90s. The au- tra, a book that today is referred monistic Hindu beliefs with ele- thoritarian regimes of the Middle to much more often than it is read, ments of Islam, Unitarianism, and East and North Africa, however, orbis appeared in the third century AD. even the ideas of the Freemasons. were curiously resistant, and schol- rt/C a of of Some of the views that the author, Nineteenth- and 20th-century ars have long tried to figure out why. M Vatsyayana, expressed about wom- liberal Indian intellectuals tended One group blames the region’s en and homosexuality are liber- to explain the shift from appreci- oil riches, noting the negative cor- Museu hia P el al even by today’s standards in In- ation of to embarrassment about relation between resource wealth D dia. Yet “the Kamasutra plays Hinduism’s erotic past by blam- and democracy. Another says h by Phila h by almost no role at all in the sexual ing marauding Mughals and Brit- that the absence of civic life and P consciousness of contemporary In- ish Victorians. While there are the strength of tribal and family- dians,” in part because it is large- elements of truth in these general- based networks make the region Photogra 74 Wilson Quarterly n Autumn 2011 In EssEncE more disposed toward authori- 1935 to 1999. “Secularists in such ed regimes—from the tsars, to tarianism. For still others, the cul- regimes were more likely to be- the communists, to today’s hy- prit is Islam, with its mixing of re- lieve that they had little to lose if brid mix of democracy and au- ligion and governance. Islamists came to power,” Lust ex- thoritarianism.” The life expec- Ellen Lust, a political scientist plains, “and thus, they were more tancy of a Russian male born this at Yale, is not completely persuad- likely to demand reform.” year is just 60 years, nearly 20 ed by any of these explanations. The Arab Spring erupted in years less than that of his Italian An important factor is being over- part, she believes, because dissat- and French counterparts, and his looked, she insists: the ability of isfaction with the status quo grew death may well come from alco- incumbent regimes to exploit the so great that it trumped the long- hol poisoning or a drink-related presence of Islamist movements. standing fear of Islamist power. accident, suicide, or heart attack. By portraying Islamists as a great- But it was also aided by the grad- Overall, alcohol contributes to er threat to society than the status ual accommodation of Islamist 500,000 Russian deaths a year. quo, authoritarian regimes damp- movements since the 1980s. Fetal alcohol syndrome, which ened the ambitions of democrat- (The Muslim Brotherhood causes marked physical and neu- ically oriented opposition groups cooperated with pro-democracy rological impairments, is epi- across the region, particularly in groups to overthrow Egyptian demic; a 2006 Tufts University the 1980s. president Hosni Mubarak, for in- study found that more than half Take Tunisia. The secularist stance.) Whether Islamist and of the children in one Russian regime of President Zine el Abi- pro-democracy secularist groups city’s orphanages suffered from dine Ben Ali, who took power in can continue to find common the disorder. a bloodless coup in 1987, exclud- ground will be a big factor in de- The government’s response has ed Islamists from the political termining if the Third Wave can been weak—raising the tax on li- sphere. The fear of Islamism was finally make it ashore in North quor and restricting advertising— high, particularly because of the Africa and the Middle East. for a reason, Brown argues. Tra- 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. ditionally, the Russian state has This anxiety was compounded in nursed its own booze addiction. In the early 1990s by a civil war in Other naTions tsarist times, levies on spirits ac- Algeria that was sparked when the counted for nearly half of the gov- state canceled parliamentary elec- In Need of a ernment’s tax revenues, and dur- tions to head off a likely Islamist ing the Soviet era, 30 percent. victory. Rather than risk having Vodka Tonic Vodka, a liquor distilled from Islamists come to power during a rye, wheat, or other plant pulp THE SOURCE: “Drinking Games: Can high in starch or sugar, has been push for reform in its own coun- Russia Admit It Has a Problem?” by Heidi try, the Tunisian opposition swal- Brown, in World Policy Journal, winter-chilled Russians’ nip of lowed its ambitions and accepted Summer 2011. choice for the past thousand years; orbis the state’s repressive policies. unlike beer or wine, it won’t freeze. rt/C Ironically, countries where Is- Few cultures are strangers If it has raked in state revenue, a of of M lamist voices were incorporat- to the perils of the bottle. How- it has also been a handy tool for ed into government experienced ever, “there is a specific eeri- bringing the populace to heel. In hia Museu hia more liberalization than other ness about the problem in Rus- the 18th century, Peter the Great P el D states in the region. A prime ex- sia,” writes Heidi Brown, who encouraged drinking, then allowed ample is Jordan, where King Hus- formerly reported on the coun- indebted boozers to avoid prison h by Phila h by P sein allowed the Muslim Broth- try for Forbes. There, alcohol- by serving in the military—for en- erhood to be a part of the political ism is “widespread, it is socially listments of 25 years. Landowners Photogra fold for most of his reign from accepted, and it has transcend- paid their serfs in the clear spirit, Autumn 2011 n Wilson Quarterly 75.
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