We Muslims make the mistake of thinking Europeans really care about
us, especially the Palestinians. We are wrong. Europeans simply hate the Jews more than they hate
and fear us. The bitter truth is
that Europeans usually intervene in a crisis only if it gives them an
opportunity for Jew-bashing. It does not even mention Syria, or the
rapes of women and children, and the beheadings, to say nothing of exploitation,
discrimination, slavery, and other crimes against humanity.
No matter how hard or how often we Muslims try, we are never able
finally to end the connection our lives seem to have with the lives of the Jews.
Watching Arab and Islamic television, especially during the holy month of
Ramadan, brings the viewer to the inescapable conclusion that we have no real
lives of our own, no unity and no value: our only motivation is having the Jews
as a common enemy, with our lives dependent on them. We treat the Jews the
way the rabid Christian anti-Semites treated them in the Middle Ages, blaming
them for every illness, tragedy and misfortune. We blame them for the failures
of Islam while only we are at fault for the catastrophes that befall
us.
Almost no Ramadan evening goes by without tedious "historical" dramas
on Al-Jazeera and the other Arab TV channels, whose objective is to brainwash
viewers with anti-Semitic propaganda. They deal with the Jews' denial of the
Prophet Muhammad's message, Jewish attempts to poison him and their betrayal of
him at the Battle of the Trench in Al-Medina. Almost all the series' end on the
same note: the message is always that the fate of the Jews in the Palestine they
stole from the Arabs will be the same as that Muhammad wreaked on them at
Khybar, they will be slaughtered and their women and children will be sold into
slavery.
That kind of incitement lends the Jews a Satanic power, it makes us
think they can manipulate events around the world and are historically
responsible for planning and carrying out every evil that exists. In
reality, however, all it does is glorify their capabilities and achievements to
the extent of turning them into a self-important legend. Thus we
ourselves construct the myth of the genius of the Jews, their intellectual might
and creative talents, while personally I am not entirely sure they deserve the
reputation: they are mere mortals like everyone else, and often
less.
In my opinion, the situation has reached such proportions within the
nation of Islam that it is now a national mental illness, a collective obsession
for which I see no cure. We accuse the Jews of wanting to rule the world, but
one of the causes of our illness is that we expect Islam to take over the
world.
Regression and the lack of social and governmental flexibility, along
with poverty and ignorance, perpetuate the impotence of the nation of Islam and
make it impossible for us to change, develop and progress -- a frustrating, ugly
situation. While we have dreams of ruling the world, we wallow in disease and
poverty, and we are behind the times in all the modern fields of endeavor. Our
various regimes enjoy religious and tribal backing, that is why they are
anti-democratic and cannot be saved. We find comfort only in recklessly bringing
untold masses of children into a world with nothing to offer them.
The countries of western Europe were all lucky enough, or wise
enough, to cast off the political rule of fanaticism in the Middle Ages and to
separate church and state. Today Christianity is a normative social value, a
matter of personal conscience, and it dictates and practices enlightenment
rather than violence and oppression. The separation of church and state made it
possible for Europeans – and Americans – to progress, and it gave them a
tremendous advantage over the rest of the world. We, on the other hand, are
still living in the Dark Ages.
The Christians' enlightened, moderate attitude toward the Islamic
communities in European cities, which is partially a function of fear, causes
our extremist Muslim brothers to escalate their violence toward the communities
hosting them, mistakenly assuming that Christian moderation is the result of the
weakness of Western society. The result is that as time passes Islamophobia
grows greater.
Despite the new Enlightenment, many Europeans, among them the
leaders of the European Union, are still fundamentally and militantly
anti-Semitic. Instead of attacking the Jews head on the way their ancestors did
-- by simply passing discriminatory laws, forcing them to live in ghettoes and
killing them -- they now politically attack Israel, pretending that Israelis are
not Jews. Beneath their political correctness their ancient, inbred
anti-Semitism still smolders. For some
Christians, as for the Muslims, hatred of the Jews is built on an ancient
religious foundation, a legacy from the Middle Ages, and it is so basic and so
well rooted that they are willing to support the Muslims in almost anything, as
long as it harms the Jews in some way.
The result is that we Muslims make the mistake of thinking Europeans
really care about us, especially the Palestinians. We are wrong: Europeans
simply hate the Jews more than they hate and fear us. The bitter truth is that
the Europeans usually intervene in a crisis only if it gives them the
opportunity for Jew-bashing. When hundreds of thousands, even millions, of
Muslims are slaughtered – by other Muslims, such as the massacre in Syria and
the recent upsurge of violence in Darfur – the apathetic European leadership
does not lift a finger. At the same time, the European Union is obsessed with
its need to condemn, sanction and boycott the Jewish settlements in the occupied
West Bank. It does not even mention Syria, with its hundred thousand civilians
murdered by the government and its millions of refugees, or the atrocities being
committed in the Arab-Muslim world, the rapes of women and children, the
beheadings and the wanton cruelty and murder, to say nothing of exploitation,
discrimination, slavery and other crimes against humanity.
The holy month of Ramadan is the time to examine our consciences. To
my great sorrow, everywhere in the world
where there are Muslims there is murder, mass bloodshed and terrorist attacks.
We should leave the Jews alone, they are not responsible for our tragedies and
hating them will not cure the Nation of Islam or bring it successfully into the
21st century.
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