|
And They Ask, “Why Do They Hate Us?”
 |
|
We’ve
seen this only too many times. |
As
an Arab Muslim, watching and hearing news on what went on in Palestine
and Iraq had gotten to a nauseating point with me. There had been too much
repetition, too much unintelligent jargon, and too much vulgarity
for even devout Middle East
addicts to take. My and many others’ intelligence gets insulted
everyday with not much done about it. God forbid I should forget
that those who insult are the “mighty” ones with the black suits
and the fancy ties, the ones with their sophisticated toys, ready to
knock the hell out of anyone who misbehaves.
It’s
been a pattern, and an intentional one at that. They strike, kill,
enrage, and walk out clean. Our faces turn red; we scream; they turn
blue. We walk down the streets holding signs and throwing tomatoes.
We let it all out. Our faces grow back their yellow, and they stay
that way. Colorful, isn’t it?
Alarmingly,
each crime committed against my people is beginning to act like a
vaccine booster, as if we were slowly adapting to humiliation. Proud
men getting their faces rubbed in sand is the order of the day. At
some point it was a Palestinian child’s bloody face into the
pavement under an Israeli boot, so rubbing an adult face in sand
with an American boot is not that bad after all!
As if we were slowly adapting to humiliation.
|
|
We’re
looking at a policy that aims at producing non-reaction. Acquired
helplessness. And they see it as the first step to a loving
friendship. They’re torturing, raping and bombing their way to our
hearts. And since we’re dogs, we’d continue to drool to them for
attention, for love. This is their utopian vision of us. This is how
they’ve chosen to run things with the people of a
thousands-of-years-old civilization.
But
as humiliated and helpless as many of us have come to feel, silent
rage is spreading among us like a dangerous plague. No, they
haven’t won any “dog’s” heart. They’ve only kept the
hearts and minds of Arab rulers who gladly prostitute their
countries for cash and prestige.
As
this outrageous set of atrocities piles up with time, it awakens the
proud human in any decent Muslim. They empower the will to act more
assertively, to speak louder, and to make a change. And we’re more
than a billion. We come from different parts of the world, and we
live under differing conditions. Our education ranges from a PhD to
nothing. But if a few of us get hurt, we all ache. And our reactions
then vary, and range from speaking and writing to suicide bombing.
I
believe this pile just got heaviest with me. When I saw pictures of
my brothers in Iraq
stripped naked I literally felt my blood
boiling in a way it hasn’t for a very long time. I found myself
writing for the first time in four years.
There
isn’t much I can write that hasn’t already been written by many
others or spoken by many more. But since there appears to be a
massive state of ignorance on the policy making level, allow me to
use some basic teaching techniques usually applied on Alzheimer
patients: repetition.
Invade
a country and treat its people like sheep and you’ll be loathed
for generations. The Israelis still suffer from that mistake; the
infamous “a land without people to people without land” dogma,
which is translated in each Israeli policy, continues to cost many
Israeli lives 56 years on. And they haven’t learned.
The Israelis still suffer from that mistake… And they haven’t learned.
|
|
And
Iraqis are not Red Indians. In the 21st century everyone
can see what you think you’re doing in the dark. There are many
around the world who feel the plight of the Iraqis as
you rip at their culture, not hundreds of years later.
Finally,
add more oppression to the oppressed, take away the little they have
left and they will turn violent. This is a basic equation. Politics
101.
“Objectivity”
tells me that those pictures I saw reflected the acts of a deranged
few, and that those few will receive their well-deserved punishment
at the hands of their commanders. But much to the displeasure of the
American administration, I am a rational being, and I come from the
Middle East. Some of the old commanders and
politicians who took charge throughout the turbulent history of this
part of the world had pasts not dissimilar to the present of the
sick minds they recruit today. And that lady posing next to the
prisoners is part of the package. We’ve seen this only too many
times. Ask any Arab ex-prisoner who fought a war with Israel.
And
now, with a smiling face, I’m expected to give reassuring answers
to angry patriotic Americans echoing the blond heads that popped on
television right after 9/11: “Why do they hate us?” A question
the media has managed to scare every American with. And many have
internalized and believed it.
One
thing: Get your honorable liberators out of our land. As each day
passes you convince more and more people to really hate you this
time, and fight to the very last drop of their boiling blood.
Do
you have an opinion to share on this issue? Join
our ongoing discussion.
Arwa Mahmoud is editor and recently staff writer
for IslamOnline. A Political Science graduate of the
American
University
in
Cairo
, she holds an International
Relations diploma with special focus on foreign policy analysis. You
can reach her at arwasm1@yahoo.com
|
