Islamic Compassion
It's there, it exists, certainly it does among the countless millions who practise the faith. Still, knowing it is there, feeling it exists does not extinguish the feeling, right or wrong, that it is exhibited, much less felt, selectively. Well, that too is part of human nature. There was a time, back, back in history when Islam was a religion of fealty to its founder of course, but it also practised a wider recognition of those with whom Muslims shared space, when religious leaders among the three major religions of the Middle East: Muslims, Christians and Jews practised social and cultural intercourse, and there was evidenced respect for one another. This was, one supposes, when Islam was in the ascendancy, when the course upon which it set itself, to encompass the world, and open it to Islam, called also for a spirit of generosity, and a type of social inclusivity. In the hundreds of years since then, Islam has been in a downward spiral. Where once Islam embraced the arts and sciences, medicine, philosophy and the humanities in general - indeed becoming in the process a progressive, humane society - it has now turned inward upon itself, rejecting any hint of modernity, let alone the strides made in science, medicine, and higher learning in general. This shutting oneself off from the modern world owes its genesis in large part to Islam's gradual diminishment in importance in the world at large. Where it was once in the ascendance, it now generally represents backwardness, repressiveness, religious zealotry. The backlash to that latter condition is responsible for its hostile awkwardness with modern society, its resentfulness of its current position, despite its millions upon millions of adherents to the faith.Islam in general has problems in conversing philosophically, socially with those countries whose religion is other than Muslim, and it has seemed to retreat into itself in sullen anger, breeding more resentment which in turn has bred a general distrust of other countries unlike their own in religion, social orientation, academic record, science. The West has long valued the countries surrounding the birthplace of Muhammed as a source of raw energy, and this in turn has enabled despotic rulers to reign supreme over hordes of uneducated, religion-ruled populations, many of whom lead wretched lives of deprivation. From among these dissatisfied many come the ripe pickings for Islamists, sought out and cultivated by a small coterie of more educated, sophisticated religious zealots whose purpose is to depose the Islamic ruling classes whose futures depend so heavily on their economic relationships with the West. The vast underclass has been given many enemies upon whom to lavish their hatred; basically all those who practise a religion other than theirs, but most particularly the evil United States, and those who are seen to be most closely aligned against them in the Middle East, the State of Israel.
So much deliberate misinformation and manipulation of public knowledge, public information has traditionally been spent on persuading the downtrodden and the disenfranchised that their true enemies are not their direct rulers, but outsiders such as the Israelis that it seems well-neigh impossible to envision a time in the near future when all the countries in the Middle East and North Africa will ever begin to tolerate one another's presence. The truth is, if the Arab countries were to bring aboard through a slow devolution a democratic type of governance, which would accept economic interdependence, all of those countries would be far better off, giving their citizenry an opportunity for advancement in living standards.
Israel is a bare sliver of land set within a geographic community of far larger countries which surround it with hostility. From the outset of the creation of the State of Israel and its formal recognition by the United Nations, its neighbours have sought relentlessly to expunge it from the face of the earth. Admittedly, through a long and painful process which included wars and attempted invasions, the situation has been slowly ameliorated. But the Arab countries cling to the last vestiges of denial of the acceptance of the State of Israel, by permitting the Palestinian situation to fester initially, and at the present time to claim it as a stumbling block to a fully negotiated and reliable peace between those nations. When the British arbitrarily ruled a line on a map and declared the boundaries to be that of the new State of Jordan encompassing within its borders a higher percentage of Palestinians than 'Jordanians' which among the surrounding countries declared war upon Jordan?
Well, the Arab States did their job well, keeping alive, aggrieved and implacable the Palestinian population who believe they have been so hard done by. As indeed they have. For at any time in the past 60-some years the displaced Palestinian population who left the disputed territory in self-induced panic could very well have been absorbed by its neighbours. The truth remains that as many Palestinians were displaced as Jews who were thrown out of their former homes in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Morroco and who found succor in Israel. The Jews who were displaced had lived in those countries for millennia, certainly as long and longer than the Palestinians had lived in the disputed territory; an equal trade, why not? But it was not to be, as the world so obviously knows.
The Palestinian people who have truly suffered as a result of the bruised egos and hostilities of the surrounding Arab countries toward the tiny State of Israel, do certainly deserve their own country. But nothing is accomplished with continual warfare, and proxy armies of Islamic militants like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and their ilk only prolong their agony. Sending suicide bombers into Israeli territory to wreak havoc and murder innocent civilians cannot be justified under any circumstances, yet where is the condemnation of those atrocities by the Arab world? Instead, we see jubilation when such murder occurs, as though by scoring such points the dreadful situation could somehow be improved.
We have become only too aware of late of kidnappings in Iraq, of bombings, suicide attacks against civilian Muslim populations in that sadly troubled country where Sunnis and Shiites continue to practise their age-old animosities against one another and against their Kurdish population. Where is the solidarity there? Where is the compassion? Arabs simply refuse in general to believe that Muslims are wreaking such carnage upon one another, and contend that it is the work of Israeli agents. Have they no eyes, no ears, no cerebral function to realize and understand what is happening?
The kidnappings have included the taking of European citizens who have opted to live in Iraq for one reason or another, whether it be for private corporations or NGOs, and many of those kidnapped have been murdered in the most dreadful of ways. The latest kidnappings include a Briton, an American, two Canadians, a German. Of that group the two Canadians representing a charitable mission operated by those most gentle of groups representing, among others Quakers and other like-minded anti-war groups who wish to support the embattled Iraqis have garnered great interest because they are there voluntarily in the most selfless of spirits, to give aid and support to the people. Many have come forward to plead on their behalf, so their lives can be spared, so they can be set free. Their families have pleaded for their release; their government has done likewise; Canadian Imams have done so also. But, what's this? Palestinians have come forward to plead their case for release on the grounds that they have helped them also. Hamas and Hezbollah have asked for their release - on humanitarian grounds. Is this the same Hamas and Hezbollah who are dedicated to the ultimate destruction of the State of Israel? Is this not a prime example of selective compassion? These are the very same people who parade through the streets of Palestinian towns and villages in wild victory celebration when they have succeeded in destroying the lives of innocent Israeli civilians, babies, children, women, old people. What kind of humanitarian orientation can this possibly be?
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 07, 2005
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