During the enforced rest that followed the events now known as "9/11," while no planes flew across the Atlantic and all the big corporations that were my clients cancelled their international projects, I - like many across the world - decided to try to understand what had happened.
So I put my skills as a professional listener, reader and analyst to use. As a tsunami of shock and outrage washed us towards armed conflict in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, I listened very carefully to every interview I could with Taliban officials; I talked to Muslims in the UK and in Paris, where I was living; read widely; wrote letters urging everyone I could think of to exercise forbearance.
And for the first time, I read the Qur'an.
All of us who live in the West will soon be dealing with a changed Middle East - so it's timely to review what I learned a decade ago.
After 9/11 and before the Afghan conflict erupted in blood, the Afghani Foreign Minister gave an interview, I believe for the BBC. The interviewer asked the Minister if a compromise might be found, a way to avoid the conflict - perhaps, for the Afghanis to allow the Americans to pursue their objectives within his country.
This highly educated, articulate gentleman made one startling comment during the interview. "There is no tradition of compromise within Islam," he said, choosing his words carefully.
How should we understand this?
The interviewer did not ask - so we don't really know; and only Mohammad speaks for all Islamic people. Yet this comment could be key to understanding something very important - an issue that has not advanced in a decade.
Many ordinary people in the West fear the rise of Islam. We have learned to associate it with fanaticism and extremism, which we often think are the opposite of "compromise." But compromise is not reason. Compromise is a negotiating tactic, and not necessarily a very satisfying one. Compromise is rarely a meeting of equals; it often requires one or both parties to swallow something unpalatable.
What the Minister meant is of great importance to us, again, now, as we wait to see the outcome of the changes sweeping the region and beyond. The Islamic world is making a Renaissance. It's conceivable that the era of weak national governments across the Middle East may be coming to an end - structures that have never suited the peoples who live under them - and what will replace them has not yet formed. If the West is to deal satisfactorily with what emerges from these upheavals, understanding what Islam does have room for, if compromise is not an option, needs to be a priority.
Unlike the Bible, the Qur'an is a handbook for daily living as well as a history and a source of divine instruction. It's very clear about right and wrong; and the manner in which what's right is structured and absorbed by Believers means that each individual is obligated to stand up for what is right. Given this obligation, it is clearly NOT a useful thing to ask a Muslim to accept or do that which he believes to be wrong in order to further a negotiation.
Islam has seen great diversity since its founding; has stood for affluence, religious tolerance, scientific and cultural advance; has known many great leaders and extremely sophisticated systems of management and governance. These have required ingenuity, creativity, and huge will towards prosperity and peace. So, while there may be no place for compromise in Islam, there are traditions supporting change.
Just as we should have done after 9/11, we need to ask: as equals, what might we create together, beyond compromise, that might bring peace and prosperity to us all? And then - even over the apparently insoluble issues that relate to Israel - we need to use all our will and creativity together, as equals in the negotiating process... to change our world.
© 2011 Alexandra Brunel, all rights reserved.
Alex Brunel is an American writer/researcher based in Stratford upon Avon, England. With over ten years' experience as a Gestalt therapist and counsellor in a multi-cultural practice, she's also an expert in perception and the psychology of the Web.
More information about her international research work can be viewed at: