Malaysia: The Goldilocks vacation spot for Muslims

Dateline: over the garage, Portsmouth RI, 23 April

Reference: "Malaysia Draws New Tourists: Middle Easterners Wary of the U.S. Find Appealing Alternative," by John Krich, Wall Street Journal, 23 April, p. A13.

Malaysia is just right for Muslims from the Middle East who just want to relax overseas, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It is the Goldilocks middle-ground "between the too-open freedom of the West and the too-closed conservatism of the Middle East," according to an Iraqi immigrant living there since 1975.

Good for Malaysia's tourism industry, but reflective of the firewalls we've put up between America and the outside world since 9/11. In the three years since, tourism from the Middle East to America has dropped by more than one-third.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that Malaysia is playing this role for the Middle East. It's doing Allah's work on this one, and anything that increases connectivity of the human sort is good for globalization as a whole. But it's sad to think America has become such a scary place for Muslims from the Middle East. I saw a woman walking on the base here in Newport yesterday as I drove homeóshe was head to toe in a black chador, probably on her way to the PX. Imagine the opposite scene in the Middle East, and your storyline could easily end in a riot. But here, in this strangely egalitarian society called the U.S. military, there is not a second glance from anyone.

We lose something important if we lose the connectivity of tourism. Visiting America is like visiting the future for the rest of the world. It saysófor good or illóthis is the direction you go when you globalize. There is an old Russian saying about seeing something once with your own eyes being worth more than hearing about it from others a hundred times. Malaysia, as good as it gets, is but a way-station to the future. I hate to see this candleóthis global future worth creatingóbe hidden under a basket.