Posted on 07/03/2003 9:24:15 PM PDT by geros
We Are Committing a Crime Nabeel F. Al-Mojil • mojilnf@hotmail.com
There is a crime being committed against our children. The other day I heard a 12-year-old boy shouting and abusing an Asian restaurant worker. When I told the boy that it was wrong to use such bad language, I was surprised to hear him say confidently: “It doesn’t matter. He’s only an infidel.” I was shocked into silence and left the restaurant feeling dizzy.I encountered another upsetting example in the 8th Grade religion curriculum. There was a question about whether it was right or wrong to hate infidels. The answer was “We must.” Again, I felt dizzy.We have a problem here. According to my humble understanding, Muslims are urged to avoid the infidel’s infidelity but not necessarily the infidels themselves. There is a huge difference between the two that we have unfortunately neglected to make clear to our children. I’m not going to discuss further whether it is right or wrong to dislike infidels. But I do have the following question: “Do we really want to teach our children hatred? If so, and I totally disagree with it, what is the right age?”Let’s assume for the sake of argument that it might make sense to some people to teach our children to dislike the West since our region has suffered so much over the past 50 years from Western governments’ policies. Then why do we apply this ugly hatred to non-Western groups?In the story of the boy mentioned above, the worker is from a poor country in Asia who has come here to support his family. He deserves respect for the contributions he is making to his family and to our economy. But what do we give him in return? Contempt and disrespect. Why? Simply because he is not like us, not a Muslim.Seventy years ago, before our country was rich, our people went to those infidel countries to work; our own people earned money there to support their families here. These people opened their countries to us and never treated us badly because of our religious or cultural background.What has happened in our society that we have reached this miserable stage? Who taught a 12-year boy to say those ugly words? Who is responsible for including unnecessary phrases full of hate in our school curricula? Why do we view non-Muslims with disrespect? Shouldn’t there be better criteria for judging all people, including Muslims?Who is responsible?No one dares answer.Why?Because we are first-class artists when it comes to putting blame on others. I’ve noticed that many fingers were — and still are — pointing at our schools for the misery we are now experiencing. This seems wrong to me. Yes, schools do share some of the blame, as we’ve seen, but definitely not all. Most of the blame should be put on the fathers and mothers of this generation — in other words, my generation. I know this might sound surprising to my generation but the time has come to be honest with ourselves and admit that we have not been close enough to our children. The majority of us have focused on enjoying the good times and never bothered to check what our children were learning.I’m sure someone will say that I’m just repeating the oft-cited American media’s accusations against our school curricula and mosque teachings. This is partially true; I really thank God for making it easier for us now to express ourselves publicly. Imagine the reaction had this article been published only five years ago. What would have been the position of some, and perhaps all, conservative people?I will leave the answer to you. There is no doubt the bloody violence being perpetrated today by some of our youth has its roots in the disrespect for others learned during their flawed upbringing. Let’s act, and quickly, before we lose our children for good. We have lost enough already.* * *(Nabeel Al-Mojil is an IT consultant working for Saudi Aramco. He is based in Dammam.)
Glimmer of hope bump.
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