Israel, instead of living peacefully and ensuring the Palestinians had their own peaceful homeland, has done exactly the opposite over the past decades. It has waged constant war and turned into probably one of the worst aggressors of the world by pretending to be the victim. And in the process, the Palestinians are being butchered mercilessly, while the world watches. It has taken the United Nations two weeks to put forth a resolution.
There is violence everywhere. In Iraq, where a rich civilisation has been annihilated, in Syria where sovereignty has been reduced to rubble at the hands of armed rebels, in Libya that has been turned into a hellhole for its people; similar are instances in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And not so long ago, there was a pogrom of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In India, hate and injustice seems to be holding sway, with anger replacing the compassion and the values articulated by Mahatma Gandhi when the nation was founded.
The first response of a government to dissent from its people is to arrest, maim and kill. Nationalism has become jingoistic, linked entirely with military macho-ism. If you talk of peace, you are anti-national, if you talk war, of death and destruction, you are a true patriot. If you talk of religious harmony, of camaraderie, of reaching out and embracing — you are a coward and a traitor to your caste or religion. If you abuse, you are a hero; if you keep your counsel and your dignity, you are a coward.
Intolerance has become the hallmark of this new civilisation that has emerged after 9/11 and is still taking shape. Terrorism is used to justify state terror. ‘Enemies’ are created to continue a war against other nations and against the people. The ‘other’ has become the stereotype used by crafty governments to wage wars that never end, and to kill and murder with impunity. The lie is repeated so often through the media machinery that supports the state and its financial backers that it eventually becomes the truth. Consent is manufactured and an atmosphere created when violence is then supported and even embraced by a people who do not realisse that in doing so, they are justifying exactly what they claim to be opposing.
The Iraq war is a case in point, although it is repeated in different forms and different ways by other governments. The lie was first created — weapons of mass destruction (WMD) — and then given a spin that sent it rolling through the global skies to be picked up by supporting nations one by one. A proud civilisation was destroyed, with the embedded media reporting the lie faithfully as the truth. There were no stories about the tragedy of war, only reports about the heroism of soldiers fighting a virtually unarmed enemy. When the truth became clear, as it always does at some point, that there were no WMDs, it was immediately replaced by another lie whereby the US was now out to bring justice to the Iraqis by getting rid of its ‘tyrant’ — Saddam Hussein. This then became the justification for continuing the war and destroying Iraq completely.
The ‘other’ changes through history. Today, the ‘other’ is the Muslim who is attacked even as he or she speaks. The attack in parts of the world is venomous, but one would have thought this would, at least, bring the persecuted together and for peace. Instead, it has further divided the Muslim world, and Arab nations watch silently as Israel carries on a genocide in Gaza. There is always that government or state which embraces the perpetrators of violence instead of standing with the persecuted. There is a great deal of truth in the adage that those who keep silent in the face of atrocities are as guilty as those committing them.
In all this, peace is the casualty, as is humanity — perhaps irrevocably so.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 26th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
COMMENTS (17)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1714024018-0/ModiLara-(1)1714024018-0-270x192.webp)
Do you want to know what's wrong with the world, Ms Mustafa? It's Islamic intolerance, extremist violence and hypocrisy. What kind of a religion allows you to kill innocent men, women and children (as in the case of Ahmedis) or the kidnapping, forcible conversion and "marriage" of Hindu minor girls (as young as 10 or 11 years) or the desecration and destruction of Hindu temples and places of worship by so-called "infidels" in Pakistan, "God's paradise"? You easily criticize Hindus and Indians while always playing the "victim" in India, but you have never raised your voice against the serious crimes committed in the name of the "peaceful religion" in Pakistan and elsewhere. I wonder if you have the legitimate credentials to call yourself a journalist. We in India know what your journalistic genes are made of!.
Muslims attacked India for over 800 years and killed millions of Hindus who refused to convert to Islam..... Pakistan army killed 3 million people in East Pakistan.... If Israel was not a strong country Muslims would have destroyed it in few days.
What is wrong with human race? In two words madam - Radical Islam.
Mark my words- the earth is overcrowded and overpopulated . This is an outcome of mum earth's fury and frustration .
ET should start paying for the comments. They are much better than the main articles.
The principal cause of the Muslims becoming the “Other” are the actions of Muslim’s themselves. The World has become fed-up of Islamic separatism which has spawned death and destruction over a wide swath of the world starting from the Balkans where Muslims of Kosovo were unable to co-exist with Orthodox Christians, Cyprus where Muslims were unable to co-exist with Greek Orthodox Christians, Chechnya where Muslims seem unable to co-exist with Russian Orthodox Christians, Jammu & Kashmir where Muslims seem unable to co-exist with Hindu Indian’s, Xinjiang where Muslims seem unable to co-exist with Communist / Confucian / Taoist Chinese, Rakhine where Muslims seem unable to co-exist with Myanmarese Buddhists, Southern Thailand where Muslims seem unable to co-exist with Thai Buddhists and Mindanao where Muslims seem unable to co-exist with Christian Catholic Filipinos. The world has become fed-up of Islamic Terrorism which has spawned death and destruction over a wide swath of the world starting from the US (9/11), UK (7/7), India (26/11) and a whole lot of points in between such as Argentina, Canada, Spain, France, Norway, Russia, Nigeria, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Australia. Muslim intellectuals, being rather scares, owe it to their co-religionists to devote all their time to educating Muslims on how to coexist with Non-Muslims when a minority and educate Muslims to give up Islamic Terrorism by outright condemnation without resort to sly subterfuge of injecting theme of Muslim victimisation by Non Muslims. The depth of the malaise is so deep among Muslims that not even one nano second can be devoted by Muslim intellectuals to the subject of imagined persecution of Muslims by Jews in Israel or imagined persecution of Muslims by Hindu’s in Jammu & Kashmir or persecution of Non Muslims by other Non Muslims in Sri Lanka.
"..the values that are essential to drive the wedge between a man and a beast.."
I seriously don't understand how people always compare real human behavior with animal behavior. Animals have never killed for pleasure, greed, egotistic satisfaction or for all the reason humanity since the dawn of time.
" In India hate and prejudice........." What's the matter woman, can't say a good word about the country, ever?
The author is as confused as a sailor without a 'street map'.
It is ironic that somehow you relate Saddam Husien with civilizaton of Mesopotamia. Most of the Arab country today are not realy representative of the earlier civilization as their history starts from 1400 back only. They have wiped out all linkes with previous civilizations.
Good question! Absolutely nothing. Only with Islamic faith everything is wrong, be it Xinjiang, Israel, Thailand, Myanmar, Chechnya, Philippines, whole of Mideast and India.
Interesting to see Seema's history starts in 2003 with the WMD story. As if nothing ever happened in Iraq prior to that.
Adding some more-----by the way, Human race has always been like this. World's two largest religions did not spray by sweet words from Mouth. Swords have played much larger role in it.
the human race is alive and well in the EU, it provides the most aid to poor countries, it accepts the most refugees from poor countries. it is a model for peaceful co-existence with neighbours.