Incitement To Hatred

Sunday, October 19, 2003
By: Tashbih Sayyed

The greatest gift of God to human beings is their ability to die peacefully in their own beds. People who do not have this ability are always in danger of losing their self respect and dignity. But to be able to exercise this ability, one has to have a home of his own. That's why, in my view, the first act of a barbaric mind is to deny a people of their right to have a home of their own. The history of human civilization is a witness that the people without a home have always had to endure a life without dignity.
The state of mind that does not believe in allowing "others" to live like human beings, also despises pluralism. It is an absolutist state of mind. It hates open societies. Adolph Hitler, Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein represent this anti-god ideology. Democracy, on the other hand, does not divide this world into "us" and "them." It is not an exclusivist sociology - it is all inclusive.

It respects the rights of human beings to their homes and acknowledges the vitality of dissension for the evolution of human mind. Faith in human is the force that drives open societies. And the spirit of tolerance sustains this faith. Tolerance is the foundation of civilization. Millenniums of human sufferings and indignation has brought the humanity to conclude that only an open society can guarantee the human beings an ability to die peacefully in their own beds. Our forefathers who established our great nation of the United States of America were the best example of this civic faith.

An open society is defined as an entity that allows the development of a lively and democratic polity and information media. It supports an independent judiciary, encourages pluralism and promotes tolerance. In short an open society is a democratic society. An open society believes in moving forward with history. A democratic society refuses to be bogged down by accidents, incidents and events. It never allows itself to be frozen in time.

Totalitarian ideologies are the product of a state of mind that does not believe in accepting responsibility for its actions. Such a mind set is created by a tradition that divides the world into two camps-"us' and "them." It suffers from a superiority complex that is itself a product of a negative ethnocentrism. Everything that is attributed to "us" is incapable of making any mistakes and as a corollary of this ethnocentrism, anything that is of others is wrong, has to be rejected and looked down upon.

Malaysian Prime Minister. Mahathir Mohammad's remarks, "The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy," reflect this barbaric anti-civilization state of mind. Failure of the Muslim rulers to condemn such a repulsive outburst reconfirmed the hold of radical Islam on Muslim societies. Muslim rulers, who lack the legitimacy in their own countries failed to realize that their silence is a proof that they are not truly against terrorism.

They failed to see that Mahathir Mohammad's comments hinder all the efforts to further inter-ethnic and religious harmony. Suffering from centuries of indoctrination, leaders like General Musharraf, Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah of Jordan, Karzai of Afghanistan could not acknowledge that such anti-Semitic statements have no place in a decent world. They even failed to recognize that such false and anti-Semitic remarks are as offensive to Muslims as they are to others. The fact remains that such comments about Jews undermine efforts to bring different religions closer.

The degree of ignorance that the Muslim leaders are suffering from was evident from their reaction to this offensive statement. According to BBC, the anti-Semitic speech got a standing ovation from the kings, presidents, sheiks and emirs - including key US allies - gathered at Malaysia's sparkling new capital, Putrajaya. Arab leaders said Mahathir was simply telling it like it is. "I don't think they are anti-Semitic at all. I think he was stating the facts," Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi said. "There are people wanting to create trouble, invent problems that do not exist," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. "I would advise them to read the whole speech."

What happened in Malaysia, is a window into the Islamist controlled Muslim minds. They are mesmerized into believing that they are perfect. There is nothing wrong with them. All their failings are because of a big Judeo-Christian conspiracy. This negative ethnocentrism, has rendered Muslims unable to reform themselves. To feel the need for reform, there has to be a realization that there is something wrong. The Islamist controlled Muslim does not find any fault with their sociology.

That's why, in my opinion, they are so easily recruited to be an Al-Qaeda holy warriors and homicide bombers. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar confirmed the nature of this affliction. He said the world's Muslims were in a "quagmire" and feeling "sidelined or marginalized," reflecting a widespread perception in the Islamic world as the war on terrorism has evolved into US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israeli has increased repression of the Palestinians. "Please forget about anti-Semitism," Syed Hamid told reporters. "People may not be very happy but this is the reality: the Jews are very powerful."

BBC reported that the assembled leaders included Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines were special guests because of their large Muslim minorities. In their reactions to the speech, most focused on the aspects that Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher called "a good road map" toward Muslim empowerment but missed completely that such offensive and inflammatory speeches can not in any way serve as toward Muslim empowerment or a good road map." Such sentiments should be viewed "with the contempt and derision they deserve." Asked by The AP whether he thought the speech was anti-Semitic, Karzai responded: "No, I do not think so."

Mr. Karzai of all the people ought to know that by endorsing anti-Semitism he cannot sincerely hope to defeat either Talibaan or Al-Qaeda. Muslim world in general and Afghanistan in particular, needs to establish tolerance as a popular state of mind. Anti-West ethos will never take them anywhere. Muslim countries like Afghanistan have suffered because of lack of dialogue and understanding between their ethnically and linguistically divided peoples. Unless Mr. Karzai adopts a bold policy of establishing the institution of dialogue there will never be peace that is critical for achieving understanding in his ethnically fragmented nation. He can not hope to introduce stability in his war torn country without condemning the offensive and anti-Semitic expressions. He can begin by deploring Mahathir's sentiments that are offensive and inflammatory.

As a result of this anti-US indoctrination, Muslim street is convinced that U.S. war against terror is in fact, a war to empower Jews. And so-called moderate-pro-US Muslim rulers, by their silence, have strengthened this perception. Mahathir was clearly referring to our war against terrorism when he said that Jews get others to fight and die for them. And the silence of those Muslim rulers who are never tired of claiming that they are our coalition partners, was evidence enough that they share in Mahathir's anti-Semitism. Such partners can never be trusted. I am sure, at the bottom of our failure to find Osama bin Laden, Mulla Umer, Al-Zawaheri, Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction, lies this insincerity. It is time that the U.S. should stop depending on the enemies of our values.

Muslim rulers will have to realize that their silence is "incitement to hatred." Malaysian Prime Minister, instead of working for peace and unity between peoples, is propagating hatred. And "the civilized world has seen the results of such violent rhetoric in the past."