Israel’s
Arrogance and Muslims’ Hezbollah Handicap
By Siddique Malik
Louisville, KY
It
is pointless to deliberate whether the latest
conflict in the Middle East was started by Hezbollah-Hamas
terrorists, or Israel; all parties in the region
are suffused with hatred. Rockets supplied by
Iran and routed through Syria suddenly hit people
in Israeli cities. Palestinian families picnicking
at a beach are suddenly blown into bits by Israeli
missiles. Lately, Israeli bombs have been incessantly
raining down on the people of Lebanon, and blocks
after blocks of residential buildings have been
leveled. How can one look at the Qana carnage
and shrug it off as collateral damage?
Terrorists have no regard for life or anything
else, except their fanatical and bull-headed perceptions
of religion. Why is Israel, a democratic country,
behaving as if it is under license from Hezbollah
to distribute death and destruction? A bigger
question is why is the American government pretending
that innocent lives can be differentiated? Or,
is no cost too big for the “cowboy”
approach to foreign policy?
One gets the feeling that Israel does not really
want democracy to break out in the Middle East
because if this happens, she will no longer be
America’s only sweetheart in the region.
Israeli leaders will actually have to do something
so as to maintain high standard of living to which
their population has become accustomed, owing
to virtually unlimited inflow of the US taxpayers’
dollars. This may be the reason that they want
the region in continuous turmoil, because democracy
cannot grow in turmoil. On October 5, 2003, when
the Operation Iraqi Freedom was in early stages,
Israeli Air Force attacked Syria without provocation.
The goal may have been to complicate America’s
Iraq operation by involving bystanders into the
conflict. Now, by responding disproportionately
to Hezbollah’s acts of terrorism, Israel
may be re-trying to achieve the same goal.
During Israel’s previous operation in Lebanon
that started in 1982, Israeli soldiers committed
massacre in the camps of Sabra and Shatila, under
the command of none other than Ariel Sharon. Israel
has again unleashed the same brutality, but this
time it is considering the entire country of Lebanon
as Sabra and Shatila.
Washington’s nonchalance towards the Lebanon
crisis is an affront to the American people and
the values they espouse. On the one hand, we are
trying to improve America’s image in the
Muslim World while on the other, our glib attitude
is at its worst as Israel, acting as the deadly
godfather of the Middle East, is undermining this
objective. America’s friendship with Israel
may be natural because Israel is an oasis of democracy
in the midst of a desert of suppression and tyranny,
but this friendship must not be at the cost of
America’s national security.
The evolution of America’s relationship
with the Muslim world will determine how much
America can relax over its security issues. Political
correctness aside, if there is another 9/11, it
will most probably be caused by a group of Muslims,
brainwashed by Hezbollah or its likes, or born
and raised right here in America but indoctrinated
with hatred and bigotry. Our conduct should not
provide ammunition to hate-mongers.
Having said all of the above, the world’s
Hezbollah handicaps are going nowhere (indiscriminate
bombings and collective punishment by Israel will
only exacerbate the problem) until and unless
the Muslim intelligentsia and its phantom silent
majority strive to eradicate latent hatred from
among their midst. On the day the British pop
singer, Yusuf Islam (a converted Muslim and formerly
known as Cat Stevens) was deported from a US airport
owing to a bureaucratic glitch, an innocent American
hostage was beheaded by his captors in Iraq. Muslims
worldwide, including Muslim organizations in America,
were furious over this deportation but hardly
a word was heard of Muslims’ condemnation
of the beheading.
Muslims need to isolate the seemingly endless
source of hatred among some of them. How and why
are followers of a great religion turning into
cultists? How do destructive phenomena like al-Qaeda,
Hamas, Hezbollah, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, etc., emerge
and sustain themselves, and at some places become
symbols of heroism? What is really at work, from
the caves of Afghanistan to the back alleys of
Gaza and Southern Lebanon, from Madrid to London
to Toronto to Atlanta to Miami? Simply saying
that this is the work of a misguided few and shrugging
the shoulder is not enough. A lot of soul-searching
and house cleaning is in order.
I have a theory: Muslims’ obsessive self-righteousness
is the culprit. This engenders a feeling of “superiority”
among some Muslims. This pugnacious feeling is
the precursor to bigotry which in turn gives rise
to hatred and fanaticism. Such sentiments get
passed on from one generation to another, knowingly
or unknowingly. This is how cults are formed,
and Muslim cultists are everywhere, from the legislature
of Pakistan’s northern province in which
official prayers were held for terrorist al-Zarqawi
to the corridors of power in Tehran. From the
villages of Southern Lebanon where the apotheosis
of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nessrallh is a factor,
to Iraq where Moqtada al-Sadr and his likes spew
hate-based terror. These cultists are exploiting
religion for their personal gains and Muslim masses
must disallow this.
Last but not the least, here is my advice to Muslim
parents worldwide: before you trust someone enough
to send your child to him/her for religious education,
do extensive background checking to ensure that
the person is completely free of the virus of
bigotry. One wouldn’t let one’s child
near a science teacher who does drugs on the side;
how is a teacher who harbors bigotry any different?
The vicious cycle of hatred needs to break, we
cannot take chances. The well-being of nothing
less than your most precious asset, your children,
is at stake.
Israeli hostilities in the Middle East must be
condemned, but in the long run Muslims should
break the suffocating grip of their satanic clerics.
Extensive adversity can induce callousness, and
the reason for Israeli callousness towards its
neighbors may, at least partially, be in Muslims’
own control. Looking a bit deeper won’t
hurt.
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