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What impulse prompted some newspapers to attribute the murder of 77 Norwegians to Islamic extremists, until it became evident that a right-wing Norwegian terrorist was the perpetrator? Why did Switzerland, a country of four minarets, vote to ban those structures? How did a proposed Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan ignite a fevered political debate across the United States? In The New Religious Intolerance, Martha C. Nussbaum surveys such developments and identifies the fear behind these reactions. Drawing inspiration from philosophy, history, and literature, she suggests a route past this limiting response and toward a more equitable, imaginative, and free society.
Fear, Nussbaum writes, is "more narcissistic than other emotions." Legitimate anxieties become distorted and displaced, driving laws and policies biased against those different from us. Overcoming intolerance requires consistent application of universal principles of respect for conscience. Just as important, it requires greater understanding. Nussbaum challenges us to embrace freedom of religious observance for all, extending to others what we demand for ourselves. She encourages us to expand our capacity for empathetic imagination by cultivating our curiosity, seeking friendship across religious lines, and establishing a consistent ethic of decency and civility. With this greater understanding and respect, Nussbaum argues, we can rise above the politics of fear and toward a more open and inclusive future.
Reviews (4)
Booklist Review
Law and ethics scholar Nussbaum's title refers to anti-Muslim feeling in the West since 9/11, not to intolerance based in religion. Fueling that hostility is fear, which Nussbaum asks us to consider a narcissistic emotion. The tactics she advises for quelling this fear include cultivating egalitarian principles about religious liberty; observing non-narcissistic consistency in applying the law to religious believers, institutions, and practices; and sympathizing with others' perspectives. She draws on philosophy (Socratic and Kantian) to discuss principles, on American jurisprudence to exemplify non-narcissistic consistency, and on literature (Lessing's Nathan der Weise, George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, and Marguerite de Angeli's Thee, Hannah! and Bright April) to illustrate sympathy. Lastly, she shows how the tactics she advocates have been working out in the case of Park51 or, as it's lamentably (and falsely) known, the ground-zero mosque in lower Manhattan. The proudly archliberal Nussbaum writes very lucidly and can't help enlightening concerned readers, including those expecting explanations of harsh so-called Muslim beliefs that the title seems to promise.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
MITT ROMNEY'S stump speech during the Republican primaries was filled with appeals to his party's conservative base, but none consistently inspired more heartfelt cheers than his promise to "stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for America abroad." The statement speaks to the widely held suspicion on the right that liberals in general, and Barack Obama in particular, prefer other forms of democracy (especially those that prevail in Europe) to the American way of life. Martha C. Nussbaum's new book could serve as Exhibit A in liberalism's defense against this charge. The author of 17 previous books on a wide range of topics -from classical Greek philosophy and tragic drama to modern law, literature and ethics - Nussbaum is one of America's leading liberal thinkers. In "The New Religious Intolerance," she turns her attention to the rise of antireligious - and specifically anti-Muslim - zealotry since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Though she writes in her opening chapter that intolerance disfigures "all Western societies," it quickly becomes clear that there have been far fewer incidents of bigotry in the United States than in Europe - because of America's vastly superior approach to guaranteeing the rights of religious minorities. When it comes to freedom to worship, at least, Nussbaum is an unabashed proponent of American exceptionalism. Not that she would want to put it that way. Convinced that evenhandedness is both a moral and an intellectual virtue, Nussbaum begins by citing anti-Muslim incidents on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, there have been efforts to proscribe the use of Sharia law in wills, marriages and other civil contracts, as well as the dozens of examples of mosques facing vandalism or public protest. In Europe, meanwhile, France and Belgium passed laws prohibiting Muslim women from wearing the burqa in public at the same time that 57 percent of voters in a Swiss referendum supported a ban on building minarets outside mosques. Then there is the Norwegian fanatic Anders Behring Breivik, who said he was motivated to kill 77 people in two attacks in July 2011 out of a desire to fight the supposed Islamization of Europe. As Nussbaum notes, the American and European developments differ in important ways. Above all, she writes, nothing in the United States "even remotely approaches the nationwide and regional bans on Islamic dress in Europe, or the nationwide Swiss minaret referendum" - let alone an anti-Islamic massacre. In Nussbaum's view, the difference in severity stems from divergent views of national identity. Whereas European nations tend to "conceive of nationhood and national belonging in ethno-religious and cultural-linguistic terms," the United States associates citizenship with the affirmation of an ideal of freedom that explicitly precludes the persecution of religious minorities. She suggests that Europe migrate to "a more inclusive and political definition of national belonging, in which land, ethnicity and religion would be less important than shared political ideals." In other words, Europe should become more like America. THE core of the book explores three preconditions of securing religious liberty for minorities - and in all of them the United States does a much better job than Europe. First, a nation must commit itself to protecting the greatest possible freedom of conscience that is compatible with public order and safety - a principle that the United States codifies in the First Amendment's disestablishment of religion and guarantee of religious free exercise. Although there is disagreement on the current Supreme Court about which religious practices should be shielded from political regulation, these differences are minor compared with the gulf that separates American attitudes from prevailing opinions in Europe, where every nation has (or once had) a Christian establishment and so feels justified in placing greater limits on the religious freedom of minorities. The second precondition of religious liberty is an impartial and consistent civic culture. On this measure, Europe fares especially badly, as Nussbaum demonstrates by methodically exposing the double standards and bias at play in the arguments for banning the burqa. Finally, there is the need for "sympathetic imagination" on the part of citizens. Here the United States has long taken the lead, cultivating respect for religious differences since the 17th century, when Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, the "first colony (anywhere in the world, it seems) in which genuine religious liberty obtained for all." Nussbaum is particularly impressed with Williams's respectful treatment of the Narragansett Indians, whose language and culture he struggled to understand at a time when most of the colonists thought of them as beasts or devils. Nussbaum doesn't claim America always lives up to its principles. One chapter sorts through the contention surrounding the proposal to build a Muslim cultural center (including a mosque) a few blocks from ground zero in Lower Manhattan. The right-wing blogger Pamela Geller started a campaign opposing the center on the ground that "its existence would be a triumphalist statement by Muslims," as Nussbaum puts it. Meanwhile, many others expressed old-fashioned American tolerance. In Nussbaum's telling, Mayor Michael Bloomberg distinguished himself during the debate, as did a stripper working in the neighborhood under the name Cassandra, whose opinion about the center serves as one of two epigraphs for the book: "I don't know what the big deal is. It's freedom of religion, you know?" It's a nice line, but it raises a question about precisely why - and for whom - Nussbaum has written her book. At times she seems to hold that democratic decency depends on politics being conducted like a graduate seminar, with citizens poring over texts by Immanuel Kant, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and George Eliot. But then most Americans - even Cassandra the stripper - appear to end up very close to Nussbaum's position with very little thinking at all. Apparently the only Americans who really need to read, ponder and be persuaded by Nussbaum's book are those (like Pamela Geller) who are exceedingly unlikely ever to open it. In Europe, there is obviously a much greater need for her message of tolerance. Yet one also wonders whether Nussbaum could have used a bit more sympathetic imagination in analyzing European anxieties about Muslim minorities. Yes, Anders Behring Breivik deserves to be condemned in the strongest terms. But so does Muhammad Bouyeri, the Muslim extremist who shot and stabbed the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh to death in 2004. And the Muslim terrorists who killed nearly 250 and injured 10 times as many in the Madrid and London bombings of 2004 and 2005. And Mohammed Merah, who just this past March executed a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France. Here we see an additional way in which America is exceptional: Its Muslim minority is considerably smaller and less radicalized by Islamic ideology than those living in many European countries, making tolerance considerably easier to practice. (Roger Williams's peaceful interactions with the Narragansett were possible only because his open-minded curiosity was reciprocated.) Nussbaum is right to insist that Europe's democratic governments owe Muslim minorities tolerance and respect - and to hold up the United States as a model of how to fulfill this obligation. But her book could have used a more clearly presented, and strongly worded, statement of what, in return, these minorities owe to democracy. Damon Linker is the commentary editor of Newsweek/The Daily Beast and the author, most recently, of "The Religious Test: Why We Must Question the Beliefs of Our Leaders."
Choice Review
Nussbaum (Univ. of Chicago) guides readers toward an ethical response to the fears that have fed attacks on Muslims and others, and bred toxic religious persecution. Nussbaum asserts a moral calling to provide principles for democratic practice. Her analysis includes science, classic philosophy, constitutional law, and reflection upon the lessons of ancient Athens, Socrates, and Aristotle. Nussbaum proves that the role of political philosophy is essential and practical, "offering insight" to society so that people can think more carefully. Fear is central to religious intolerance, and although natural and necessary to survival, fear is the most base and thoughtless of human emotions. The dynamics of fear lead to hypocrisy and persecution of religious minorities. In times of fear and anxiety, people make rules that are self-serving, ill-informed, and arrogant, applying to others but not oneself. Nussbaum's survey of legal and philosophical developments confronting equal respect for conscience and impartiality seeks the ultimate goal of living an "examined life." Nussbaum erects principles that are essential to a good life: inclusiveness, respect for diversity, seeing through the eyes of others, and developing the creative imagination. Timely, powerful, and articulate, this is a book that everyone should read. Summing Up: Essential. General readers; upper-division undergraduate students and above. A. R. Brunello Eckerd College
Library Journal Review
Nussbaum (Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law & Ethics, Univ. of Chicago; The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future), among our most original social thinkers today, enters the debate on anti-Muslim discrimination with a voice of established authority. She invites us to examine disputes about women's use of the burka and the construction of an Islamic-initiated "multifaith community center" near New York's Ground Zero. The author's argument for tolerant accommodation falls within the "Socratic and Christian/Kantian" commitment to live an examined life in relations with religious minorities. In pursuit of this goal, Nussbaum considers the psychology of "narcissistic" fear, the jurisprudence of religious freedom, and the power of imaginative empathy in fiction. She supports her argument through a demand for consistency, progress, and precedent, using examples that move comfortably from the life of Rhode Island's founder, Roger Williams, through novelist George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, as well as relevant Supreme Court arguments. The parallels she draws between past anti-Semitic and present anti-Islamic sentiment are convincing. The "new" religious tolerance is less new than we might imagine. VERDICT This powerful and profound book is useful to anyone seriously concerned with religious pluralism and civil liberty.-Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ.-Erie (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.