If you're prone to fits

If you're prone to fits of blind, violent rage, I don't recommend you read this apologia for British suicide bombers Asif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif by Muslim journalist Fuad Nahdi in (where else?) The Wanker. It's not their fault that they launched a murderous attack against innocent civilians, of course. The evil occupation of land thousands of miles away from their home made them do it. And unless the Israelis agree to let themselves be slaughtered like good little Jews, Muslims will launch more attacks - in Britain.

If we are to understand what is going on we need to scrape away the layers of rhetoric and euphemism, put to one side events of 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, and come to the running sore of Palestine. The western conscience, troubled by anti-semitism, is reluctant to look too critically at Israeli behaviour towards a colonised Muslim population. But unless the Palestinian voice, and the Muslim voice that echoes its pain, is listened to, there will be no understanding of what happened to Asif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif. Instead, we will be subjected to more banal rhetoric about "evil" Islam and the motiveless nature of fundamentalist terror.

The reality is that Muslims - including the majority of those in Britain - are enraged about Palestine. Angry about the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements on confiscated Arab land. Furious about decades of military rule on behalf of Jewish conquerors over resentful Christian and Muslim populations. Furious about the perpetuation of colonial-era racism and apartheid-style zoning laws. Furious about the plight of Palestinian refugees. Furious about the conquerer's control of the third holiest place in Islam.

Our scriptures counsel endless patience. Were it not for Islam, the anti-western rhetoric and violence would be out of control. Yet, some of us have been tipped over the edge. The message carried in the deeds of these angry young people is that, yes, Islam forbids suicide and killing civilians, but they are now so angry about Palestine that they are going to set these principles aside. The result has been a perversion of faith.

A "perversion of faith"? Then I don't think it's us you should be lecturing, lady. It's Islamic militants and their supporters, who counsel an endless gospel of murder, hate and xenophobia, whom you should be lecturing. They're the ones who are despoiling your religion, not us.

In the 36 years since the fall of Jerusalem, the Muslim voice has been deeply radicalised. You find this everywhere - from the scholarly pulpits of Al-Azhar to the mosques of Birmingham and Derby, where young people speak only of Palestine. It is the great religious transformation of our age. And if you talk to these new zealots, you will find that anger over Palestine has been the catalyst which radicalised them.

Perhaps this has been the most far-reaching consequence of Zionism: the radicalisation of the Muslim world. Like most Muslims, I can't stand it. I lament the passing of a culture focused on God more than on community. I miss the smiles, tolerance and wisdom of the older sort of Muslim. And like most Muslims, I know that the war on terrorism and the Iraq war is not part of a solution, but merely the acceleration of incomprehension and revenge.

Nahdi probably doesn't realize it (and will probably denounce me as a "Zionist" for pointing this out), but she's doing more to reinforce the stereotype of the violent, irrational, extremist Muslim than, say, Daniel Pipes ever could. Are the Palestinians living under a rough occupation? Absolutely, though they almost certainly would have earned their own state by now were it not for the endless violent, grossly anti-Semitic incitement that emerges from "official" Palestinian schoolrooms, broadcasters and mosques. But millions of people around the world are oppressed, under conditions infintely worse than what the Palestinians are going through. Much of this oppression, frankly, is at the hands of Muslims themselves - ask any Christian in the Sudan, for example.

And where are the Christian suicide bombers? Where are the armies of militant Christian fundamentalists, inciting their followers to kill Muslims? (Franklin Graham is really the worst example most Islamofascist apologists can find, and his rhetoric doesn't even come close to what passes for normal discourse in the Arab world.) Where are the Tibetan Buddhists, demanding violent retribution against the Chinese? Why are Muslims somehow the only people on earth who are unable to control their anger?

I don't believe Islam is an inherently violent faith. Frankly, for all their talk about how "Islam means peace," it seems like the Muslims have conceded its an inherently violent faith. It's time for Muslims to take some responsibility for what their bretheren are doing in the name of Islam - to say, without reservation, that murder and hatred are unacceptable and blasphemous, regardless of the circumstances - and I'm completely fucking sick of being told it's all my fault.

Posted by damian at May 2, 2003 10:25 AM