7/04/2007

Not in Our Name

This is the title of an artile by Asim Siddiqui in the Today paper. He challenges the Muslim intellectuals to take on the extremists who have hijacked Islam for their terrorist acts. He is against the Muslim extremists for using the western foreign policy of aggression against the Muslims as an excuse to wage a war of terrorism against the West. I fully agree with him that acts of terrorism, or as the West legitimised it by calling them acts of war, are unacceptable, immoral, and a primitive way of settling conflicts and disagreements. The Muslims should find a better way to tackle the West so that they will be treated better and as an equal to other human beings with a right to determine their way of life. But short of having the biggest gun and the biggest bomb, a language that the West understand, there is really nothing else they can do unless the West voluntarily gives up war as another way of bullying the rest of the world. But I find it hyprocritical in Asim's defence of England as a target of Muslim terrorism. He said that compared to the US, the UK has very few troops in Iraq. And the level of British troops in Iraq will get lesser and eventually no British troops will be there. So Britain should not be attacked. This kind of logic is the logic of the bully, where might is right. The British can go to Iraq and burn down the place. That is acceptable. And once they vacated Iraq, all must be forgotten. The British soldiers are no longer there. So leave Britain alone. What rubbish! If this kind of logic is what the world should live by, all the criminals should be spared. They have left the scene of their crimes. The British and the West must realised that if they start a fire, they must be prepared to be burnt. There is no escape.

9 comments:

  1. Perhaps the West must look at who created this mess...

    The British artificially created the countries in the middle east in the early 20th century...

    The West allowed the artificial creation of Israel to fulfill the prophecy in 1948....

    The west installed the Shah of Iran in 1956...

    The West supported Saddam on the 8 year war with Iran 1980-88...

    The West supported all the rich ruling family in the middle east with no regards to human rights to their subjects.... so that they can have continuous flow of the black gold

    The West do not treat the muslim people as human beings, they are either enemy or when killed, its collateral damage.... just look at Iraq & Afghanistan

    Bet that more highly qualified muslim will turn to terrorism to get the WEST to address the root of the problem, which is the WESTern advance countries and the torn in middle east(Israel)

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  2. the grandeur of power, the madness of power, always never fails to blind the powerful. might is right.

    they rule with a sword...and die by the sword.

    the average joe in america is against the iraqi war not because of any sense of justice. they could not bare the embarrassment of losing that war and getting their boys and girls killed. remember the joyance celebration of the cakewalk? every american stood up to clap and cheer. it was Victory!

    today they are crying at the graveyards whenever the body of a boy or girl is returned home.

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  3. The west supported all the rich ruling families in the middle east with no regards to human rights to their subjects...

    And yet what action have the West taken against those countries compared to what they did to China. It's all just for their own selfish interests. China must be prevented from becoming a superpower at all cost. So they must control the world's oil, the oil markets and thus the world economy through oil.

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  4. Why take China bashing as the issues are:

    1. Why muslim extremist?
    2. Why is it directed at UK & US & the west, and potentially bananaland (no success yet)?
    3. Why is it that those who did it are usually highly qualified people, like 911 & the latest in Glasgow?
    4. Why the west refuse to address the ROOT cause?

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  5. in the early 20th century when japan was beating up china, they told the chinese that they deserved to be beaten because they were weak. yes, they told the chinese to accept their pathetic fate for being weak. no apologies.

    when a country is weak, there is really nothing they can do about. but history, or nature, has a way of turning the situation around over time. china's weaknesses became its strength for economic growth. its cheap labour and land became very attractive for foreign investments. but they have to play the game right. it is building into strength.

    in the case of international terrorism being carried out by the muslims/arabs, nature or history has made it possible by bringing down the guards of western powers. they cannot imagine that the stupid arabs/muslims (in their eyes) could become a threat to their security. and they encourage migration quite freely. many western countries now have a seizable muslim/arab population.

    now the stage is set for a war from within. europe and american will burn if they do not arrest the problems of the muslim/arab states fairly.

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  6. For centuries Americans were under the impression that no one will dare to attack them at home until 911 woke them up to reality. If you create too much trouble all over the world, trouble will follow you home. Now America and the West are facing terrorism on their own soil.

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  7. things are changing. what was right or effective could go the other way.

    the americans came out of the second world war as the saviours of the world from the nazis and the cruel japanese. then power got into their heads and they went on to fight wars after but could not win any.

    now the hunters are going to be the hunted. during the 911, bush and his gangs were running for cover and don't know what was going to hit them, right in the USA.

    now it is the british's turn. what an irony.

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  8. The problem with Islam is that it never went thru a Reformation like Christianity did. Although far from perfect, The Christian Reformation set the idea that the interpretation of Christian doctrine was not solely the domain of theocrats and scholars, but EVERYONE — including and especially lay people. ALso there's a seperation of Church and State in Western countries

    Islam OTOH is politicised—many Islamic state are FUNDAMENTAL. Islam's purveying doctrine alwyas comes from Mullahs, clerics and the like — not the lay person.

    People like Assim Siddiqui should be encouraged and supported, and if more Muslims came out to condemn the terrorist acts of their "brethren", that would benefit the peaceful peoples of the world.

    It is one-sided to blame the west for the mess in the middle east. Before western civilization entered the area, it was harldy peaceful. Egypt was a conquerer, as was Persia, Syria etc. For thousands of years states in the area were engaged in wars— Muslims were battling Jews and Christians, Romans warring with everyone else, Alexander walloping whoever...

    The 20th century simply added 2 new "ideas" to be incorporated into this potent mix of hatred and untrustworthyness:

    1 American Foreign Policy

    2 A discovery that that "black stuff" we know as "oil" could actually be valuable—so valuable that it has powers to define politics, socities, technological development and economic progress.

    So... you add: territorial disputes (LAND) + ideological differences (POLITICS) + spiritual schisms in the Abrahamic faiths (RELIGION) + oil (ECONOMIC RESOURCES)... and soon to come WATER...

    ... then you have CONSTANT WARFARE.

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  9. the declaration of war has just been announced.

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