On Expertise

Monty, a blogger, whom We have encountered at the Ace of Spades Headquarters, is wont to disclaim that the knowledge he has is from reading, and therefore one ought to take his claims with a grain of salt. His exact words, in one instance, are:

DISCLAIMER: I am not a soldier or a diplomat (or a doctor, lawyer, or Indian Chief). I've read a bit and consider my opinion more informed than most, but that's all it is: my opinion. I don't have access to any classified materials or intelligence assets, so in a sense I'm flying blind here and may be completely misreading the situation. Proceed with caution and a healthy dose of skepticism.

We find this be curious.

What makes one authoritative in and an expert of a subject is one's knowledge. For certain subjects, this knowledge may be gained indirectly (through reading books, assimilating the observations of others, researching trends, scholarship, research) or directly (experiencing fundamental aspects of the subject first-hand) or both. Monty would rely primarily on the former, while others, such as Bassam Tibi and Oriana Fallaci and Abdelwahab Meddeb, would rely on the latter. Some, such as Bernard Lewis, rely on both.

It is understandable for people to place greater faith in those who have gained their knowledge directly - in which category Monty, We would assume, would fall into - but We would respectfully disagree with such a perspective. There are ample examples of those who, despite gaining their knowledge directly, are still oblivious to key components and trends of the subject at hand. We would go further and say that those who derive their knowledge directly are at a greater risk of being oblivious. This is because of the simple fact that in order to gain one's knowledge directly, one has to be involved, and this involvement necessarily means that one's perspective is biased to some degree or another. The three people mentioned above are good examples of this. Despite being acutely aware of threatening aspects within Islam, both Messrs. Tibi and Meddeb retain key fallacies and biases (with Mr. Tibi that a peaceful reformed Islam can exist, with Mr. Meddeb that the West is partly to blame for Islam's violent nature and its rising radical faction). This causes one to suspect their work: what else are they not seeing? what do they claim that may, in reality, not exist? With Ms. Fallaci, her personal involvement caused her observations to be expressed - pillowed, even - in a highly emotionally-charged rhetoric.

Our favorite author, so far, in this subject is David Cook. In one sense, one may say that he combines both sources of knowledge, but his major focus seems to be indirect knowledge. And this, in Our opinion, helps establish him as an expert. Why? He is not personally involved in the subject at hand, even though he has studied primary, secondary, and tertiary texts with relation to Islam. If he does gain knowledge directly, it is through what the people under observation (militant Islamists in one book, Muslim apocalyptists in another) are saying to and among each other. He reads their words in the original language, he analyzes them, he compares them to historical trends, he integrates them into the framework of Islam as it has been and as its fundamental authorities say it should be. This man is brilliant, and precisely so because he is an outside observer and, as such, can see what insiders may (and often do) miss. His research, so far that We have read, is impeccable.

From this, We have formulated in Our mind that to become an expert, one must remain, necessarily, an outsider while at the same time delving into the mind and words of those whom one is studying. We utterly reject the proposition that only an insider can understand the subject; indeed, We believe the opposite to be true: an insider cannot properly understand or comprehend the reality of the subject because of one's insider-ness. One's mind is clouded by bias or by being trained to dismiss or ignore certain aspects of the subject. In short, cognitive dissonance gets in the way.

Indeed, the useful and productive knowledge We have gained about Islam has been primarily after Our separation from Islam. Only then were We able to see trends and issues that before could not be seen. Only then were We able to critically read and integrate texts on Islam, whether by Muslims or non-Muslims, whether for devotional or academic purposes. We know of many Muslims who are supposedly well-versed in Islam yet who are oblivious to what is obvious to those outside.

We mean no spite, but it also for this reason that we reject the label of "expert" for Esposito. He is not an outsider, a detached observer but rather quite involved and biased, for his own reasons and purposes. Being detached, which David Cook accomplishes and which Bernard Lewis, to a degree, also accomplishes, is difficult but important, for otherwise crucial information would be suppressed and important trends would be ignored, if not hidden.

inna naHnu-l-a'lam.