the interest in many of the young in Western popular culture, much to the
chagrin of their elders). There have been progressive movements, but American
and/or British intervention into domestic politics thwarted these movements
or processes, often through coups, assassinations, and/or the installation of
compliant intermediary authoritarians. The intervention and/meddling into
local politics is typically resented. Further, there is resentment over the influx
of decadent Western ideas from gender equality to democracy to human
rights to pornography, though at the same time, there is a large market for
Western film and videotapes, especially those considered erotic, if not porno-
graphic. It should be noted that the Islamic societies are sources of raw mate-
rials (oil), markets for Western goods and popular tourist destinations. These
are not closed societies like N. Korea or Burma. There have been large Dias-
poras of Turks in Germany, Pakistanis in England, Algerians in France and
Indonesians in Holland. And a few of everyone comes to the US. As many
second generation immigrants have access to the Internet and maintain ties
with home, they often act as culture brokers spreading Western media like
metallic rock, porn etc. This does erode some barriers.
Women: Finally, in no Muslim society do Muslim women have equal rights
or status with men. To be sure, there is a great deal of difference between
Saudi Arabia, where women cannot drive, and Pakistan or Indonesia, that
have had a woman prime minister, while nevertheless most women languish.
In Lebanon or Turkey there are fairly large numbers of educated women
working in diverse fields. Prewar Iraq had a number of women as govern-
ment ministers. While patriarchal traditionalism is indeed changing, it does
serve as both a barrier to the influx of Westerners and an inducement for
some of the more talented women to leave their native countries for the West.
The attitudes and practices regarding women from legal right to FGM are
often matters of contention and focal points of resistance to change. The posi-
tion of women is, and will remain a barrier to the embrace of a genuine
modernity that includes gender equality. As Inglehardt and Norris (2003)
argue:
However, when it comes to attitudes toward gender equality and sexual
liberalization, the cultural gap between Islam and the West widens into a
chasm. On the matter of equal rights and opportunities for women – mea-
sured by such questions as whether men make better political leaders than
women or whether university education is more important for boys than
for girls – Western and Muslim countries score 82 percent and 55 percent,314 • Lauren Langman