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Bekijk Volledige Versie : We Are Lower Than Mice



Wizdom
01-03-03, 21:59
We Are Lower Than Mice’
Noura Abdul Aziz Al-Khereiji



The Arab position in these critical times is enough to bring joy to our enemies and embarrassment to our friends. The words of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) have come true — that a time will come when the nations will proliferate, and while there are many of us, we are like scum in our love of life and abhorrence of death. Here we have the European nations gathering to discuss the Iraqi situation in depth while Arabs cannot even agreed to hold an emergency summit.

Let the Arab summit be held, let it discuss ordinary issues, and let the Iraq war be a secondary item on the agenda. Let leaders send apologies for their absence and delegations withdraw, and let others state their reservations to the concluding statement, which will advise Iraq to comply with international law and back a war sanctioned by the United Nations, the loyal custodian of US interests.

The war will be launched from Arab territories. Most of the Gulf countries have turned into operation centers for American and British forces, whose numbers sometimes exceed the population of cities. Arabs will not mind if their own armies participate in this unjust war in order to implement American decisions.

Will the American administration fail to achieve a new resolution against Iraq? The US is sending delegates to the four corners of the earth to gain or buy support from other countries for its inflexible stand.

I was expecting Arabs and Muslims to use US insistence on getting rid of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and the obligation to comply with the UN resolutions as an opportunity to forcefully demand the same of Israel — to ask Israel to pull out of the territories occupied after the 1976 war or destroy its stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

Time rewards Israel with the transfer of the embassies of pro-Israeli nations from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem, in recognition of Israel’s claim that Jerusalem is its eternal capital. And the UN remains silent through all of Israel’s massacres of Arabs. When Israel finally left the territories it had occupied for so many years, it was not thanks to the UN but to the determination of the unflagging resistance of the Lebanese people.

I had expected the religious scholars in the Islamic world in general and in the Arab and Gulf states in particular to issue a statement condemning the use of Arab territories as bases for attacks against another Arab state.

I had expected the human shields going to Iraq in an attempt to protect its citizens and buildings from war to be from Arab and Islamic countries as well as the West.

I had expected the Arab people to shoulder their responsibilities in these critical times and to be the first to protest and say no to a war with Iraq — defying security forces and the police if need be — so that the disgraceful actions of their leaders be laid bare to the world via satellite television.

But how could these people awaken to protest in the morning when the aisles of concerts are full until dawn — people sway to the music and do not hear the sound of the American and British forces training for battle on their land and in neighboring countries.

Has our love of life and loathing of death brought us to such a pass?

The British journalist Robert Fisk, a great friend of the Arabs, was forced to compare us to rats and mice.

He is right: We are lower than mice in the face of our enemy. Yet amongst ourselves we are fierce as tigers, biting and eating each other.

Would that we applied instead the verse from the Qur’an: “Muhammad is the Apostle of God; and those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, (but) compassionate amongst each other.”

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Arab News Opinion 1 March 2003