By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

November 28 , 2014

Easy Scapegoats
 

The hunt for scapegoats is often easy. November’s mid-term elections in the US provide the most recent evidence. Republicans found it easy to scapegoat Obama for the myriad of American ills. In past US history, the Klu Klux Klan was at the forefront of scapegoating blacks. In Nazi Germany, European Jewry was scapegoated for what befell Germany in World War I and after.

100 years ago, in 1914, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan warned the House of Commons in London of the repercussions of scapegoating those Muslims who were not “servile flatterers” and who were not “adept in the art of betraying their community”.

20 years ago, in Rwanda, the Hutu tribe nearly annihilated the Tutsi tribe killing nearly one million in 90 days.

Scapegoating diverts attention and lets too many others escape scrutiny. It also nullifies the search for a solution-oriented approach. There is specific targeting to direct and vent anger and frustration. Sometimes the target is fabricated. Mostly frustrations are taken out on those who are soft targets with the least capacity to resist and retaliate. Xenophobia is one of the consequences.

Scapegoating mobilizes hatred to target groups and minorities. With 24-hour TV, the whole family can now enjoy the spectacle. It is a malicious and destructive process with pressing socio-economic problems remaining as is, unaddressed, and at a standstill. Sometimes even the most educated people are most prone to ignorance, especially so, when it comes to condemning entire communities. It is easy to shift blame on tempting targets.

Counterfeit leaders, charlatans and demagogues revel in it. Politicians are often blamed. A senior general once told me that he has a two-part criterion for assessing politicians: (a) he should be a patriot and (b) he should not be a dacoit. But this picture might be incomplete. It begs the question of who placed the looters in a position to loot? Did they parachute from the heavens? From a similar setup will emerge similar people with similar mindset, with similar priorities, and with similar results.

The political history of Pakistan is notable for scapegoating. Ayub was scapegoated in 1969, Yahya Khan in 1971, Bhutto in 1979, Zia in 1988, Musharraf in 2007, and Nawaz Sharif in 2014. Scapegoating government on deliverance and governance is now a habitual norm, while issues of common human decency, fairness of opportunity, and due process of law are squashed. It is much easier to deflect attention from the source of distress than to attack with application and determination the ills that infest state and society.

With all the chatter of social media and overflow of information, the cold fact is that people, in effect, have stopped thinking.

According to Rod Serling, who conceived the 1960’s hit TV series, TheTwilight Zone: “prejudices can kill and suspicions can destroy.” It is a warning to the Republican politicians of America who are in the forefront of scapegoating Muslims.

The great Muslim leaders of the subcontinent eschewed scapegoating. In fact, their great feat was to kindle the spark of self-awakening. It is a self-improvement lesson that Western Muslims need to heed to avoid becoming easy scapegoats.

 

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PREVIOUSLY


Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

Avoiding Why

Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

Greed and Cricket

Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

Rewarding Failure

Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness

Republican Race

Actors or Directors

Speaking out

Professional Sycophants

More Provinces?

Too Much Information

Soft Separation

Soft Poison

Unemployment & Over-Population

Seize the Day

The Arab Awakening

Ben Bella

At University of Gujrat

Good People Behaving Badly

Playing Over-Smart

Do Less

Resisting the Resistible

Performance, Not PR

Home-grown Havoc

Salutation to the 65 th Year

Plague of Provincialism

USA Elections 2012

Rage

Fight or Flight

Rift and Drift

Obama II

Me and We

Small Role or Small Actors?

On Losing

Who Will Guard the Guards?

Loyal to Their Loot

Prevail or Fail

Perceptions and Reality

Toll of Occupation

Re-think, Re-examine, and Self-correct 

The Washington Tribe

Voice and Vision

Moral Slump

Wall of Illusion

Under One Banner

Bitter Harvest

Gallows and the Throne

Scent of Power

At a Standstill

Leaders and Leadership

The Deadline

Fighting Darkness

Distant Connections

Governance: The Long View

Discussion in DC

Darkness in the Mind

Killing Kennedy and Liaquat Ali

Yahya Khan Speaks on 1971

Quaid & Xmas in Washington

150 Years of FC College

Tyranny of Money

50 Years of Ali

A Dose of Truth

Little Guy, Big Impact

A Reassessment in Washington

Crimea & Kashmir

Democracy or Oligarchy?

Afghan Elites: Blaming Pakistan

Pitfalls of Intervention

Arabs in America

Never Give up

German Journey

Tyranny of Today

Manipulating Language

March & Match

Destroyers

Out of Darkness

Modi in America

Awareness or Fairness?

Mideast Maze


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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