Good Muslim, Bad Muslim? Gov. Paterson Inserts Foot -- Again

New York Gov. David Paterson has sought to be a peacemaker in the viral dispute over building an Islamic center near ground zero, suggesting the mosque be moved a few blocks farther away and even offering state land for a new site.
But the hapless Paterson can never seem to escape his penchant for self-inflicted wounds -- a habit on display in this week's report that he may be investigated for perjury in connection with a probe over World Series tickets, and a habit that was reinforced with news of his unfortunate efforts to characterize different types of Muslims.
Paterson's Muslim fumble came in an interview with the CBS affiliate in New York on Thursday when he tried to distinguish the Muslims behind Park51, the so-called "ground zero mosque," from the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center two blocks away on 9/11.
"This group who has put this mosque together, they are known as the Sufi Muslims. This is not like the Shiites," Paterson said. "They're almost like a hybrid, almost Westernized. They are not really what I would classify in the sort of mainland [sic] Muslim practice."
Oops. Like a hybrid? Almost Westernized? Anything that helps Americans learn more about the differences within Islam is a good thing. But on the other hand, too little knowledge -- as well as a seemingly condescending attitude -- can strike some the wrong way. And did . . .
"Governor Paterson's comments are grossly misinformed and will be used to support the false notion that mainstream Muslims are somehow incapable of being productive citizens," said Faiza N. Ali, an official of the New York branch of the advocacy group CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Responsible leaders should refrain from mainstreaming misinformation about Islam and instead reach out to the Muslim community and its leaders. Of particular concern is the governor's derogatory description of Shia (Shiite) Muslims."
Experts on Islam were equally dismayed.
"I think Gov. Paterson is firmly in the percentage of the American population that admits it knows nothing about Islam," Hussein Rashid, a professor of religion at Hofstra University on Long Island, told CBS.
A recent Pew survey showed that 55 percent of respondents say they do not know very much or know nothing at all about Islam and its practices, 35 percent say they know some about the religion, and just 9 percent say they know a great deal. (And who knows how many in that last category ascribe to the popular bumper sticker wisdom, "All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11"?)
Truth be told, Americans, despite their religious fervor, tend to be far too uninformed and even misinformed about other religions and even their own faith. And that goes for journalists as well as politicians.
And Islam, even more so than Mormonism, is relatively new in the American scene, and is as complex in its various manifestations as Christianity or Judaism. So Paterson's effort may have been well-meaning but it was probably destined to go awry.
For the record, here's the thumbnail version of the different streams of Islam:
There are three main branches of Islam ? Sunni, Shiite and Sufi. Sunnis make up almost 85 percent of the Muslim population globally, while Shiites account for perhaps 13 percent. (Sunnis are estimated to account for about 90 percent of U.S. Muslims.) Sunnis and Shiites split in the 7th century over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad.
Sufism is a far smaller, mystical branch of Islam, more a type of Islamic practice than a stand-alone denomination. Besides Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the Lower Manhattan Islamic center, the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi was probably the best-known exemplar of Sufism to most Americans (followed by Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, who became a Sufi Muslim).
Sufism is much smaller than the other two branches, and to make matters more complicated, its adherents can identify as either Sunni or Shiite. And Sufis are often the object of prejudice and persecution from other Muslims, as William Dalrymple explained in a recent New York Times op-ed.
Wahhabism, usually called Salafism by Muslims, is the polar opposite of Sufism: It is a fundamentalist form of Islam popular in Saudi Arabia and it espouses the kind of strict, literal view of the Koran associated with Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 terrorists.
Still, even if Paterson or any politician was well-versed in these distinctions, to be seen as classifying types of Muslims into categories of "good" and "bad" is likely to be a losing proposition.
And to be categorizing the "good" ones as those who are most "Western," or like "us," is also not going to be appreciated -- or clarifying.
Which Westerners, for example, are Muslims to emulate? Pundits periodically opine that what Islam really needs is a Protestant Reformation or a Catholic pope or an Enlightenment -- as if any of those movements and structures has been without its terrible and dark chapters.

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