Segregationism
Islam’s tolerant and reverential attitude towards other religions, as shown by the reverence granted by Islam to the holy places and sites of Judaism and Christianity, should be regarded as a proof of tolerance and universalism. Islam is truly universalist and tolerant in its basic commandments. Its policy is to live and let live. It never advocated segregationism, conformity, compulsory conversion, colonialism, oppression of religious or ethnic minorities, or racialism. In contrast, it advocated egalitarianism, peaceful coexistence and justice, especially social justice. It never condoned injustice, aggression, despotism, dictatorship, tyranny or terrorism in its various forms, visible and invisible. The recent accusation of terrorism, levelled against Islam, is not fair. It is an act of flying in the face of truth, and an act of prejudice on the part of an interested party.
The tolerant and reverential attitude referred to above should have been requited by a symmetrical and equitable attitude. This has not been the case. Islam has consistently been under attack for the past two centuries. Islam is more sinned against than sinning. It is not a strange feature for Islam but to be peaceful for it has always been so. If it occasionally shows signs of revolt here and there, it is because something unfair is being done against it. Islam’s acts are purely defensive, and not aggressive. Aggression is unjust and strongly condemned by Islam. Therefore, Islam may be justly adjudged as pacifist and ecumenistic. But what can one say about the onslaught on Islam in the Balkans, in Cyprus, in Palestine, in Kashmir, in the Phillipines and elsewhere, where Muslims are denied the right to self-determination and accused on top of that of being terrorists?
Segregationism, whether religious or ethnic, is anathema in Islam, but has been practiced by Judaism in the past and at present, both in religion and in worldly matters. The Jews, especially, are segregationists, and the whole world is now suffering from this attitude. It has therefore become aggressive and dangerous. It has given birth to prejudice, schizophrenia, hypocrisy, double talk, double standards, double think, created a split between “us” and “them”, and resulted in dividing mankind into poor and rich, weak and strong, and into master and slave.
The latest manifestation of this spirit is to select certain countries and call them at will “axes of evil”, as George Bush, president of the United States, has called Iraq, Iran and North Korea. President Reagan before him had called the Soviet Union the “focus of evil”. But where was the “focus of good”, and where is now the “axis of good”? Is evil here only whimsical or is it factual? This is divisiveness.
But one would like to ask in this connection where does this division of the world’s peoples into Evil and Good come from? The first source that comes to one’s mind is the Jewish doctrine that divides humanity into those who are Chosen and those who are Gentiles.
This doctrine seems to have imprisoned the world in its grip. The Gentiles now are the Muslims in Afghanistan, in India, in Iran, in Iraq, in Libya, in the Sudan and, above all, in Palestine. The world, especially in the West, seems to be insensitive to the cruelties perpetrated against the Muslims in Afghanistan where they are forced in millions to leave their homes and live in ramshackle tents, dying of starvation and exposure, in Iraq where Muslims are bombarded and have been under siege for more than ten years, with as consequence a high rate of infantile mortality and in Palestine where Muslims are being killed, as Gentiles, like sheep, by organized military campaigns with all sorts of deadly weapons. The unarmed Muslims there are the terrorists. Muslims in Iran are on the list for the same unjust punishment. Perhaps North Korea will be spared, because, I suppose, it is not Muslim. This is how matters stand in the modern world: no justice and no morality.
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The situation in Palestine, against Arabs in general and Muslims in particular, is an epitome of the situation in the world, where segregationism, subjugation, spoliation, expulsion, assassination are openly practiced, while the world watches, unable or unwilling to do anything.
So, in a piece entitled 'How Holy is Palestine' we have the above - the main topic is Islam, Palestine and Israel.. and in this context the above is hardly anti-semitic, or blames Jews for all the troubles in the world.. (in fact the section on discrimination doesn't mention Jews)
(Thanks for pointing out another interesting article though FD)
Cheers,
Shafique
