Of Muslims and their feelings being hurt on a daily basis
Maverick the Monkey was back in the sort of mood that judges are in when they are about to hand down a judgment. “The situation is exceedingly exceeding,” was his verdict. I could imagine a wig on his head.
One is used to unintelligible sentences from judges, but from monkeys? It defeated me. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that things have exceeded the limit by a long way – exceedingly. The world is in flux. Irrationality reigns supreme. Systems are headed for collapse.”
“That’s how the world changes every now and then, my friend,” I said. “Usually after big wars. The process of change causes confusion, pain and conflict. They recede when a new synthesis crafts a new equilibrium, which is the new thesis. The new anti-synthesis is again begotten by Man’s unending greed and stupidity that fuel the hegemony drive. When it goes out of control the world gets destabilized again and changes painfully, chaotically. And so it goes on.
“The world map changed after both world wars,” I went on, now getting into my stride. “New countries were made. It changed after the Cold War too. All these wars were fought between developed countries and largely on their own soil or on soil colonized by them. Now it’s changing with the ‘War on Terror’ but because this is the first big war that is being fought largely on Muslim soil, so we feel the process of change more acutely. It also is the first big war that the American-British-European Combine has lost. The ‘War on Terror’ brought the warts and oozing sores of western political and economic systems to the fore and ruptured them. Those systems are in a spin and will perforce change.”
“Yes,” said Maverick, “but while the West may have lost the ‘War on Terror’ Muslims haven’t won it either. There are no victors here, only destruction and suffering and great damage to Islam. Of course the extremists will say that they have won, but which one of them? It’s an amorphous polyglot, each group different from the other, many at one another’s throats, which will cause more confusion.”
“What could be better?” I said. “Only when it collapses will the world see sense – hopefully. But there’s guarantee. They could go craft a worse world.”
“But will the Muslims see sense? Look how they fell into the trap over that ridiculous video blaspheming the Prophet of Islam (PBUH).”
“It’s not as simple as that, Maverick. This man who made the video knew exactly what he was doing. Because he’s purportedly Israeli we jump to the conclusion that Israel was behind it. I’m not saying that it was and I’m not saying it wasn’t, not until there is proof. This man might just be a nutcase out on his own personal crusade by laying a trap for Muslims to go on the rampage and show to an already biased world that they are basically violent fiends. It was calculated to provoke this reaction and it did. Matters little to him how many people’s feeling he hurts or how many innocent people get killed. He was deliberately providing fodder to the mills of the extremists and they started grinding very fast.”
“Yes, but if you can see the trap, why can’t they?”
“I told you, it’s not so simple. For one, there are religious zealot groups everywhere that pounce on just such an opportunity. Riots like this have to be organized and simple, gullible people fall for it. You have to realize that the prime collective underdevelopment of Muslims is of the mind. They have no world-class universities, schools or hospitals. They are poor. And they are frustrated, very frustrated. They have been equally misled by their elite in thrall of everything western as by their self-appointed clerics masquerading as scholars embedded in the past. They are divided into myriad sects, Sharias, movements and schools of interpretation. Many extremist groups have been formed by our own and western intelligence agencies oftentimes hand-in-glove for their own limited tactical purposes. Many have gone out of their control. Like Al-Qaeda: it was once in the control of the CIA but when America abandoned it they went out on a solo flight. Many groups have been formed by extremist clerics. They not only go around killing non-Muslims, they also kill Muslims of different sects. They don’t realize that the wars they need to actually fight are against poverty and ignorance before they can regain their lost glory.
“The man who made the video knew that Muslims would not react like this if he was simply abusive of Islam. But if he were abusive of the Prophet (PBUH) Muslims would be set afire and set fires. Blaspheming the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) is calculated to make even the most moderate and educated Muslim very angry. And that is exactly what he did.”
Maverick didn’t look totally convinced. “Yes, but why do Muslims have to go on the rampage and kill innocent people? By all accounts the US ambassador to Libya was a good man.”
“As former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright callously said about Iraqi children dying of hunger and disease due to US-imposed sanctions, ‘Collateral damage’. Your crimes against innocents come back to haunt your own innocents one day. The real criminals and perpetrators always sit pretty. The Bushes and their bedfellows are fine, father and son, but they have left behind many hundreds of thousands of dead innocents in their wake.”
“That still doesn’t explain the rampage to me,” said Maverick. “You don’t have to commit crimes just because they commit crimes against you.”
“Okay, Maverick,” I said. “Let me meet your problem head on. I said that Muslims are frustrated. What are they frustrated about most? Poverty, deprivation, degradation… No, I think they are frustrated most by two things: western double standards and the impotence of their governments. If denying the holocaust can be a crime in Europe and America, why can’t blaspheming the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) also be an offense? Double standards, what? Of course the holocaust took place, a very dark chapter in human history. Muslims didn’t do it, misled Christians of a certain kind did. But making its denial an offense while flinging ‘freedom of expression’ in the faces of others when they hurt their religious sentiments is a bit rich, don’t you think? All freedoms have limits and they have exceeded limits repeatedly – exceedingly – as Prince William and his wife Kate will also now agree. Either those who deny the holocaust should be treated as nutcases or hurting the feelings of the people of every faith should be a crime. Don’t be selective.”
“That’s because the US is scared of Israeli and Jewish power. If they displease them they lose elections.”
“That’s because Jews are the most intelligent and educated people in the world, just some 15 million of them against 1.5 billion ignorant Muslims. They have got America on the toe of their shoe. The Jewish vote in America doesn’t count because there are so few of them. There are more Muslims there. No, it’s Israeli and Jewish power in America that counts because the Jews are united and organized. They are masters of wealth and perception management. Palestine is not the only territory that they have occupied. They are also in occupation of Congress and the White House because they have occupied much of western banking and media. I’m using the word ‘occupied’ pejoratively, but as far as media and banking are concerned they have been able to do so because of their education, intelligence and unity. Muslims with all their petrodollars have no world-class bank or press. What say you now?
“So, my friend Maverick, Muslims go on the rampage because their governments fail to react to iniquity. They fail to react because they are impotent. They are impotent because all Muslim governments with the exception of Iran are stooges of America, and see how Iran is being mistreated. That is why the OIC is such a toothless body. It’s a joke, really. When their governments fail to react and stand up for Muslim’s feelings, they feel that they have no option but to go on a rampage caused by frustration caused by impotence. Get it? Remove stooges and put nationalists in your halls of power and there will be no rampage.”
“So you agree,” said Maverick making to leave as it was beginning to get dark. “The situation is exceedingly exceeding.”
“Absolutely, my friend, absolutely” I said. “You have taught me a new phrase. Come back more often. You are better in many ways than us humans.”
The writer is a political analyst. He can be contacted at humayun.gauhar786@gmail.com