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Reality versus Perceptions - Muslim
victimhood
Muslims must do their part in preventing any clash of civilizations
I watched a program on CNN
a few days ago where anchors interviewed US politicians and campaign
strategists from both the Democratic and Republican parties. The topic of
the program was US foreign policy, something Americans are going to vote
on in the upcoming election. The topic of Israeli-Palestinian conflict
brought out some painful truths.
As a spokesperson from the Arab-American community pointed out,
representatives of the two parties were engaged in battling out who was a
better friend of Israel and regurgitating the standard monologue about
Israel’s right to defend itself. Neither group however expressed any
knowledge or understanding of the conflict from the other perspective,
i.e. from the Palestinian point of view. The idea of being even handed or
neutral in this conflict evades most Americans and their country pays a
price for it unbeknownst to them. The resentment omnipresent in the Muslim
world towards American administrations needs no introduction.
This highlights a major disconnect between American perceptions and
reality as the Arab-American spokesperson rightfully pointed out. It would
be convenient to blame Americans for their perceptions or ignorance.
Indeed their country’s media and the influence of the Jewish American
population are to blame for the monopoly of agenda when it comes to
America’s approach to this age old conflict. However, that does not
absolve the Muslim population around the world of its own contribution in
permeating this disconnect. In fact the Muslim world suffers from its own
disconnect with reality and have allowed it foster through its own actions
and politics. It is time to face up to this dismal reality.
While it should be a matter of delight that Islam is certainly not
monolithic all throughout, i.e. the religion has spread across vast
cultures and have contributed to local cultures as well as derived
immensely from them, there are presently a few traits that are prevalent
in most if not all Muslim communities and countries. The most painful one
is a sense of victim hood. Loss of the Ottoman Empire, becoming colonial
subjects of European imperialists, creation of Israel, American support
for most Israeli policies regarding its conflict with and treatment of
Palestinians, and the dictatorial and monarchic regimes across most of the
Arab world can be attributed to the sense of victim hood. Muslims in
general fashionably hide behind these facts and Americans in general are
oblivious to them.
This sense has become
cancerous. Muslims have failed to rise above being victims and have shown
unwillingness to learn different perspectives. Politicians and Imams have
done a great job of allowing this stagnation of ideas to foster. American
support for Israel needs qualification and understanding. American
administrations have always supported negotiation between Israelis and
Palestinians. Current administration does and hopefully the next one will
support a negotiated two state solution. This means that while America is
fully behind the existence and security of Israel, it also supports the
same of a future Palestinian state.
Muslims have failed to learn about America’s rational behind its support
for Israel’s existence and security. This is because they have equally
failed to learn about the Jewish Holocaust prior to World War 2 when
nearly half of the Jewish population of Europe was ethnically cleansed by
the Nazis. Anyone with a conscience visiting graveyards of massacred Jews
and Nazi concentration camps in Europe will come back with more than just
a sense of revulsion. This remains one of the ugliest blots in human
history. Yet Muslims in general seem oblivious to this. Knowledge and
understanding of this historical nightmare will shed some light on public
opinion in America.
Christians in America have taken it upon themselves to express collective
guilt by supporting the existence of a homeland where Jews can be safe for
the future. This is the undercurrent of American foreign policy towards
Israel.
The trouble with the creation of such a homeland was of course its
location and the resultant displacement of Palestinians that were already
there. Muslims are quick to ascertain that Palestinian lands were taken
away by the creation of Israel. Have Muslims ever paused to remember that
Jews have been on this earth for a considerably longer period than them
and were thus present in the Holy Land before them as well? If ownership
of that land is to be based on occupancy then the claim of Jews to that
land is more robust.
Of course, Arabs too had established themselves in that area later and
both Jews and Arabs once shared that land. In that spirit of sharing, both
Jews and Muslims must reconcile themselves to the two state solution of
this conflict.
In order to achieve this, the Muslim world must first and foremost cease
to view the world through the prism of this conflict. There is much
muttering around about how Jews and Christians have conspired to undermine
Muslim aspirations and too many people point to the plight of the
Palestinians as a prime example. Muslims must stop using this conflict to
propagate their sense of siege and suffering. In order to achieve this,
Muslims must realize that while Israel’s policies towards Palestinians can
be justifiably condemned, Palestinians are to be equally blamed for their
part.
It has always been in the latter’s interest to be freed from Israel’s grip
and in live in their own country. Yet militants among them have done
everything within their power to derail that achievement. Relentless
suicide bombings against Israeli civilians have not only banished any
attempt at negotiation, but has enjoyed widespread support amongst
majority of Palestinians and the wider Muslim world.
This is where Muslims have failed. Deliberate targeting of civilians
cannot be justified in the name of any faith or cause. It is morally
repugnant. While Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories
have been perceived as an equal threat to future negotiation, it was
incumbent upon Palestinians to take the Gandhian approach of non-violence
to achieve their goal. Indeed there would have been a Palestinian State
long time ago had Muslims not considered such suicide bombings as
legitimate forms of resistance and had Yassir Arafat showed true
statesmanship.
While the Islamic world seethes in anger over the Palestinian plight,
there is hardly any acknowledgement that Muslims have done their part in
fostering this situation through their moral and financial support of an
immoral an unethical tactic.
It is due to the inability of the Muslim world to concede to this
accusation that Americans find it difficult to meet the Islamic world half
way in understanding the latter’s point of view when it comes to this
conflict. Every suicide bombing against an Israeli civilian reinforces
American perceptions that Israel has a right to defend itself. Every
suicide bombing stalls further discussion and understanding.
Both the bombings and support they enjoy must end once and for all. So
should the Muslim perception of the world that has been so adulterated by
the fostering of this conflict.
Once it is possible to
break out of the perpetual sense of victim hood, it will also be possible
to break out of the habit of lumping all the world’s conflicts in one
basket and coloring them in the same fashion as the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Pakistani President’s comments at the UN about Muslims finding
themselves at the wrong end of most of the world’s conflicts and thus
somehow creating terrorism was most unhelpful. Every conflict has its own
nuance and deserves to be debated with its own merits and demerits
(something that would be very difficult in one article).
Majority of the world opposed American invasion of Iraq. Americans were
bitterly divided on this issue and the fall of Saddam Hussein was
nevertheless accomplished at great cost to the Iraqis and Americans. This
article will not delve into the pros and cons of that invasion but it will
point out that while the rules of war were violated by Americans as
illustrated by prison scandals, they were violated ten folds by insurgents
in Iraq.
Most of these insurgents have come from outside of Iraq, have the support
of the wider Muslim world and have engaged in the most atrocious and
deliberate killing and maiming of civilians both Iraqi and Western.
Bangladeshi media have often referred to these actions as part of a war of
liberation (from the then US occupiers). This view, shared among the wider
Islamic world, has not only aided the killings of Iraqis and Westerners
but has instilled a sense of fear and division among Iraqis and arguably
among Muslims.
Their recent kidnappings and beheadings which they bravely broadcast on
the internet ought to make every Muslim and non-Muslim shake with
revulsion. What purpose do these tactics serve? All this in the name of
Islam and to free Muslim lands from the hands of infidel Westerners? Or
Nepalese or Indians? Or Bangladeshi cleaners? Where is the revulsion in
the Muslim world? Where is the condemnation? Thanks to the wider support
that these insurgents enjoy, the Holy month of Ramadan began this time
with the blowing up of several Churches in Iraq.
Where is the outrage against these acts of barbarism? The Muslim world may
attempt to wash its hands off by blaming US, Britain and others for
creating the lawless scenario in Iraq in the first place by invading it
and having no plans for winning the peace. But that hardly explains why
Muslims have used their relentless sense of victim hood to justify and
support the acts of these insurgents.
Listen to any Imam on a Friday prayer in a Mosque and often you will hear
the word ‘Jihad’ and how Muslim brothers and sisters all around the world
are suffering and must be aided by every believer. While this sense of
suffering can be subject to discussion and debate, one cannot understand
how that translates to bombings in Bali, siege in Chechnya, massacre of
commuters in Madrid, slaughtering of Christians by Muslims in Nigeria, and
the most heinous crime committed by fellow Muslims so far, the attacks in
America on September 11, 2001.
Al Qaeda still enjoys support among many Muslims due to the latter’s
misguided pride in the organization’s ability to stand up to Western
infidels. Some proud Muslims (such as those I have met in Bangladesh) have
either justified or pleaded understanding of the actions of Al Qaeda in
the US, based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Then there are those
that will forever remain in denial and blame Jews (or Israelis) for
masterminding 9/11 in order to undermine the position of the Muslims in
the world’s geo-political scenario.
Muslims have done a very good job of undermining this position themselves.
It is not sufficient to dismiss the actions of a few rogue elements. There
has to be loud and wide spread condemnation of these elements from the
Islamic world and a complete and unreserved rejection of them, their
tactics and their philosophy or cause.
Terrorism cannot not be condemned only to be later nuanced or explained
away in the same sentence.
These elements enjoy widespread support of various degrees among most
practicing Muslims once again due to a sense of victim hood. This sense of
victim hood is the curse of the Islamic world. It is a curse that is
further strengthened by ignorance and illiteracy that is so prevalent in
many Muslim countries. It is strengthened by the failure of Muslims to be
their own critic. It is strengthened by the failure of Muslims to see that
the beautiful aspects of Islam (such as the current month of Ramadan) are
being eclipsed by the ugly manifestation of Jihad and all the support such
a concept enjoys.
“Muslim Brotherhood” is being used as a counter model to that of the
modern nation states and there is every inclination to interpret the
religion based on a time long gone. This inclination will endeavor to undo
the fact that Islam has taken the shape and color of the cultures which it
has come into contact with. A world where the lifestyles of Bangladeshi
Muslims are identical to those of Saudi, Sudanese, Indonesian or British
Muslims would be a world void of variety and beauty. Yet that is what
reinterpreting the faith in the “wisdom” of the Taliban or Al Qaeda will
achieve.
It will not return the Muslim world to the early days when learning and
enlightenment were its paramount features. It will take it to the dark
ages resembling the Taliban days in Afghanistan and to some extent present
day Saudi Arabia.
Muslims must do their part in preventing any clash of civilizations. They
can only do this through education, democracy and enlightenment. They can
also do this by learning to look at world conflicts objectively and not
through the lens of victim hood (worst still just through the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict). Then they will have the upper hand in
demanding that the Western world meet them half way and take postures that
address any legitimate concerns of the Islamic world.
The standard monologue of Imams stating that Islam is a religion of peace
(in response to a terrorist act of a fellow Muslim) must be put to
practice. Once Muslims have shunned violence permanently and
unequivocally, will we see a change in the pattern where barely 5 percent
of Americans polled express support or sympathy for the Palestinians in
their conflict with the Israelis.
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