Posted on 02/12/2006 4:13:37 AM PST by Hannah Senesh
The controversy regarding the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed completely misses the point. Of course, the cartoons are offensive to Muslims, but newspaper cartoons do not warrant the burning of buildings and the killing of innocent people. The cartoons did not cause the disease of hate that we are seeing in the Muslim world on our television screens at night - they are only a symptom of a far greater disease.
I was born and raised as a Muslim in Cairo, Egypt and in the Gaza Strip. In the 1950s, my father was sent by Egypt's President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, to head the Egyptian military intelligence in Gaza and the Sinai where he founded the Palestinian Fedayeen, or "armed resistance". They made cross-border attacks into Israel, killing 400 Israelis and wounding more than 900 others.
My father was killed as a result of the Fedayeen operations when I was eight years old. He was hailed by Nasser as a national hero and was considered a shaheed, or martyr. In his speech announcing the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, Nasser vowed that all of Egypt would take revenge for my father's death. My siblings and I were asked by Nasser: "Which one of you will avenge your father's death by killing Jews?" We looked at each other speechless, unable to answer.
In school in Gaza, I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was considered a sign of defeat and weakness. At school we sang songs with verses calling Jews "dogs" (in Arab culture, dogs are considered unclean).
Criticism and questioning were forbidden. When I did either of these, I was told: "Muslims cannot love the enemies of God, and those who do will get no mercy in hell." As a young woman, I visited a Christian friend in Cairo during Friday prayers, and we both heard the verbal attacks on Christians and Jews from the loudspeakers outside the mosque. They said: "May God destroy the infidels and the Jews, the enemies of God. We are not to befriend them or make treaties with them." We heard worshippers respond "Amen".
My friend looked scared; I was ashamed. That was when I first realised that something was very wrong in the way my religion was taught and practised. Sadly, the way I was raised was not unique. Hundreds of millions of other Muslims also have been raised with the same hatred of the West and Israel as a way to distract from the failings of their leaders. Things have not changed since I was a little girl in the 1950s.
Palestinian television extols terrorists, and textbooks still deny the existence of Israel. More than 300 Palestinians schools are named after shaheeds, including my father. Roads in both Egypt and Gaza still bear his name - as they do of other "martyrs". What sort of message does that send about the role of terrorists? That they are heroes. Leaders who signed peace treaties, such as President Anwar Sadat, have been assassinated. Today, the Islamo-fascist president of Iran uses nuclear dreams, Holocaust denials and threats to "wipe Israel off the map" as a way to maintain control of his divided country.
Indeed, with Denmark set to assume the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, the flames of the cartoon controversy have been fanned by Iran and Syria. This is critical since the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to refer Iran to the Security Council and demand sanctions. At the same time, Syria is under scrutiny for its actions in Lebanon. Both Iran and Syria cynically want to embarrass the Danes to achieve their dangerous goals.
But the rallies and riots come from a public ripe with rage. From my childhood in Gaza until today, blaming Israel and the West has been an industry in the Muslim world. Whenever peace seemed attainable, Palestinian leaders found groups who would do everything to sabotage it. They allowed their people to be used as the front line of Arab jihad. Dictators in countries surrounding the Palestinians were only too happy to exploit the Palestinians as a diversion from problems in their own backyards. The only voice outside of government control in these areas has been the mosques, and these places of worship have been filled with talk of jihad.
Is it any surprise that after decades of indoctrination in a culture of hate, that people actually do hate? Arab society has created a system of relying on fear of a common enemy. It's a system that has brought them much-needed unity, cohesion and compliance in a region ravaged by tribal feuds, instability, violence, and selfish corruption. So Arab leaders blame Jews and Christians rather than provide good schools, roads, hospitals, housing, jobs, or hope to their people.
For 30 years I lived inside this war zone of oppressive dictatorships and police states. Citizens competed to appease and glorify their dictators, but they looked the other way when Muslims tortured and terrorised other Muslims. I witnessed honour killings of girls, oppression of women, female genital mutilation, polygamy and its devastating effect on family relations. All of this is destroying the Muslim faith from within.
It's time for Arabs and Muslims to stand up for their families. We must stop allowing our leaders to use the West and Israel as an excuse to distract from their own failed leadership and their citizens' lack of freedoms. It's time to stop allowing Arab leaders to complain about cartoons while turning a blind eye to people who defame Islam by holding Korans in one hand while murdering innocent people with the other.
Muslims need jobs - not jihad. Apologies about cartoons will not solve the problems. What is needed is hope and not hate. Unless we recognise that the culture of hate is the true root of the riots surrounding this cartoon controversy, this violent overreaction will only be the start of a clash of civilis-ations that the world cannot bear.
• Nonie Darwish is a freelance writer and public speaker.
Hey; any society that still doesn't have flush toilets is hardly a success.
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Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
We have a Catholic friend who grew up Muslim in Nigeria. She was just blown away by the love she was shown by Christians when she moved here. I have not asked her the hard questions I want to ask, yet, but she has a very severe way of thinking, still. She said, "I used to give my employees (at the shop) NO mercy; if they called in and needed to stay home, their kids were sick, I made them come in. There are no excuses." It is a teeny glimpse into a tremendously different culture. And Nigeria is not the front lines.
That is why democracy is the answer. Opponents to the party in power will hold their feet to the fire, preventing the diverting of blame to some outside force.
Regretfully, democracies have to fight the urge toward dictatorship too. It is human nature but it is best expressed in freedom and with opposition. We have recently seen examples of how democratically elected officials can be tyrants, too, but first they have to corrupt the system.
Next they take over the means of communication and spout the hate and lies this article exposes in the Arab world. Then they take over the rich chestnuts and promise the poor they will rule. It never happens but they keep promising and throwing a few bones to the poor while vilifiying the "rich" opposition.
Sound like anybody you know? Reminds me of our own Democrats and MSM.
And, not to be contentious, but Mohammedanism was founded on murder, torture, betrayal and fanaticism.
And without wishing to be rude or inPC, the Church of England was founded on Henry the VIII's narcisstic need for a male heir and the murder and betrayal of his "wives" and of the Church which was founded by Jesus based on love and His own death rather than that of his enemies.
Go figure.
Like me, he was 20 or 21 when the Gulf War broke out only he was conscripted into the Iraqi Army. He ended up being on of those guys we all saw on TV surrendering to tanks and helicopters after having the living shit pounded out of them by artillery strikes and B52 runs on the southern-most forces of Iraq.
When the American Army realized he was just some "average Ahmed" who could speak English, he was attached to a division and became an interpreter for 7 years. At the end of his time with the Army, he was given citizenship, taught to be a barber and given a choice where he wanted to move. He chose Seattle because it is cool and green. Apparently, he never wanted to see a desert again.
Once in a while you meet someone who's been in combat and survived the wraith of the God of War - and often, these people are easy going about most everything because they've seen the absolute limit of terror and hatred. My dad, who was a Marine F4 close air support pilot in Vietnam, and many of his friends are like that and so was my barber. That's not to say emotion is dead in them but the scope of things that will piss them off is made very narrow by the conditioning of overwhelming fear and perspective they experience in combat - once you've seen the mutilated bodies of women and children, or mowed down a line of enemies, or watched your friends get blown apart - for months at a time, day to day irritations like broken windows and scratched cars just don't set you off.
But even in the context of how easy going this guy was, his hatred of Arabic culture was unmistakable and absolute (the only care he had for his homeland was for his sister, the rest of the Middle-East could go to hell as far as he was concerned). One of the things that constantly confused him - which this author is touching on - is how a society can function when it's not based on hatred and displays of raw power. In 2000 my barber had the opportunity to vote for the first time and he literally couldn't wrap his mind around it: he'd grown up in a world where leaders were the people who "had the most guns and were willing to use them". The idea that you could openly criticize a mayor, and then vote the mayor out of office made as much sense to him as breathing on the moon without a space suit.
And this from a guy who was acclimated to Western Culture.
I have to wonder how long it's going to take to turn some of the more radical parts of the Middle-East around. Places like Egypt and "Palestine" where irrational hatred is woven directly into the foundation of the culture and is reinforced on a day to day basis. Iraq has been relatively "easy" because of how many people have been killed and murdered there in the last 30 years. It's not often mentioned but the Iran-Iraq war sucked a lot of the systemic hatred out of Iraqi culture.
It saddens me to no end but I don't think the Middle East culture of hatred problem is going to be solvable without a few million people being killed. I know for certain it's not going to be corrected in any of our lifetimes.
Great post!
This statement says it all about the "insult" the cartoons really have on ISALM
Totally true statement.
bttt
OK, this guy knows his stuff. "Death cults that feed on hatred" and the cult that is Radical Islam are the same.
Allowing young boys to be raped and women to be marginalized fuels the rage that allows this type of horror to exist.
Friday's the big day for Muslims to get filled to the brim with anti Jewish,anti Christian lies and propaganda. Thanks to Nonie Darwish for spilling the beans on Muhammad's murderous cult. Other ex-Muslims are also telling similar stories of what goes on in the Mosques. The hatred of non-Muslims that is preached by these vile Imams.
The illiterate Arabs cannot read the Koran. They rely on these preachers of hate to explain the Koran to them and the preachers add fuel to the fire.
You imply that Nonie is deceased. In fact, she is very much alive and active in a great cause, it would appear.
BTW, she has converted to Christianity while living in the USA.
The violent protests use the cartoons as an excuse to unleash hate for the Western world and Christianity and Judaism.
The violence over the "Koran being flushed down the toilet" was the same thing.
This is a serious matter. It's not about cartoons and foolish behavior. It's about a deep-seated hate for our way of life and a willingness to carry out violent actions.
The media paint the violence as caused by the cartoons. Very bad and dangerous! This allows many people to explain away the violence as a reaction to the cartoons and blame the Danish newspapers for the violence.
Wrong. The violence was there in peoples' minds ready to happen. Their leaders were waiting for an excuse, a way to blame barbaric behavior on the West.
Militant Islam is the disease. Thermonuclear weapons are the cure.
Interesting post, and thread, ping.
How long until there is a fatwa out on Nonie Darwash?
bump
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