The Battle of the Experts.

New crises produce new experts. A high-profile trial means that we'll see defense attorneys and prosecutors airing their differences on CNN. An election logjam means we'll hear from political consultants and campaign reporters. The events of September 11 dramatically altered the news agenda. Americans now care about Islam, and a group of scholars has emerged to explain it to them. A Princeton professor talks with Charlie Rose on PBS; a Johns Hopkins academic sits next to Dan Rather during the CBS nightly news; a Georgetown teacher entertains questions on CNN. Since the attacks of September 11, these scholars are in the spotlight, and at stake is not only whether the West can come to terms with Islam, but whether the world can prevent the destruction of suicidal extremism.

The public arena demands simplicity. One way of understanding the current conflict is to say that it is "us versus them." The expert here is the eminent Princeton historian, Bernard Lewis. Born and raised in England, Lewis, 85, has written nearly 20 books. An eloquent storyteller, he says that today's terrorism is part of a long struggle between Islam and the West. In a recent article in The New Yorker, he wrote that "Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda followers may not represent Islam... but their actions do arise from within Muslim civilization." Lewis has long been a proponent of the idea that Islam espouses a different moral system than the Judeo-Christian one. While he is careful not to say that one is superior to the other, he also is not shy about holding aloft verses of the Quran that endorse violence toward non-Muslims.

The erudite Lewis is a skilled linguist, fluent in Arabic, Turkish and several other Near Eastern languages, and he reserves some of his greatest scorn for academics who can't read and understand what Muslims say in their own languages. During the current crisis, he has embraced the role of expert. He believes that this is a war between religions, because that is what it is for bin Laden and his ilk; it is "us versus them," because that is how our

adversaries perceive it.

Like Lewis, Edward Said, a professor of comparative literature at Columbia University, is both respected and controversial. Born in what is now the occupied territories and raised in Cairo, the fiery Said has been one of the most public and prominent advocates of Palestinian rights, and he has long been known for his critiques of Western prejudices about the Middle East. Over the past few months, he has been constantly in the news. He and Lewis have been sparring for decades, especially since Said attacked Lewis in his landmark 1978 book, "Orientalism," for propagating the false notion that such simple things as "the West" and "Islam" even exist. He also accuses Lewis of rampant disdain for Arabs.

Said argues that there is no "us" and no "them." American politics and European divisions are acrimonious and have at times been intensely violent. The same is true for conflicts between Muslims. Unless governments make huge propaganda efforts, Said suggests, no one fights and dies for abstract things like "the West" and "Islam," and viewing the world this way serves only those who want to dominate and destroy. Those who say that "Islam" is brutal and bloody, says Said, give "the West" license to dominate the Muslim world. Said is equally critical of those who invoke Islam: labeling "the West" as corrupt and godless, as bin Laden does, provides a justification for the attack on the World Trade Center.

Not all academics are as polarizing as Said and Lewis. Others try to assess why the Muslim world in general and the Middle East in particular have had such a ...