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accordance with the Quran and the Prophet’s example, is if you behave the way people did in the
seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries.
And of these models, the most prominent and politically useful are the models of ancient heroism
and bravery in the face of unimaginable odds. You and your generation run the risk of being deprived
of any understanding of the pride of perseverance in work, responsibility, learning, and family. You
and your generation are tempted with power and adrenaline—and a paper-thin life on the margins of a
marginal part of the world, with the promise of the afterlife.
Yet what I have told you only concerns the easy parts of being different—the stuff that concerns
your DNA, your bloodline, your lineage, and your ethnicity. Things get even more interesting when
we begin to think about the world of ideas.
Being part of the group entails also having a set of ideas that can identify you as a group. Within
the Muslim communities of the Arab world, there seems to be a tendency to coalesce around certain
clear ideas. These ideas concern not only Islamic doctrine—that once decided cannot be thought
about or challenged—but also behavioral aspects that identify the sect to which you belong. The set
of ideas can go further into what seems superficial but can have profound effects, such as not mixing
with non-Muslims, or trying to import Western technologies but not Western culture or ideas.
This is the attempt to maintain Islamic purity as defined by the elite of the particular group. But is
it possible to maintain this type of purity in the modern world of social media and the globalized
economy? I want you to think about this question not just from the perspective of a young Arab and
Muslim, but also from the perspective of all those who would presume that they are different and
superior in other societies.