Obama's Double Standards and the Muslim World

By Khalid Amayreh Journalist — Occupied Palestine

"I know that 99.99 percent of Muslims, like myself, would never ever support the act of blowing up passenger airplanes in mid air or hurting innocent people in whatever ways imaginable".(Reuters Photo) I do not know for sure if the young Nigerian engineering student Umar Abdul Farouk Abdul Mutallab really wanted to blow up Northwest Airline Flight 253. We have learned, especially since the 9/11 events, to doubt the veracity of anything coming from Washington pertaining to Muslims. Indeed, the details of the attempted-bombing story as reported by the various media outlets have left numerous questions as to whether the young man had been duped to do what he was trying to do by CIA agents or other allied security agencies. For example, it is very difficult to imagine that it was a mere coincidence that Abdul Mutallab was able to evade all the ultra-modern explosives-detecting devices in Amsterdam. Similarly, it is really mindboggling to even imagine an engineering student in the prime of his life and the son of a wealthy man (his father is a famous banker) embarking on a suicidal, nihilistic, and manifestly criminal act, just because he happens to "hate our freedoms". In short, the story that we have been fed cannot be swallowed and digested because much seems to be missing. Nonetheless, if indeed the man tried to do what the CIA says he did, then we Muslims ought to condemn this evil act in the strongest terms. The Vicious Cycle In brief, we must never betray our Islamic principles no matter what the terrorist barbarians do. After all, what did these would-be victims, the passengers of Northwest Airline Flight 253, have to do with the criminal American policies in places such as Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan? Yes, it is true, the United States has been murdering Muslims en mass, killing or causing the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. The United States has just destroyed two Muslim countries, and is trying to destroy a third and possibly a fourth under the false rubric of fighting terror. This is the same United States that hypocritically declares that no grievances, no matter how genuine and just, justify harming innocent civilians. However, Muslims must never ever behave in a barbarian way in order to defeat or repulse the barbarianism and savagery of non-Muslims. In addition, if we did, we would be on equal moral footing with them, which would make us betray and act against the principles of the very faith we are defending. It would also besmirch, endanger, and self-defeat our just causes. There are those who might be tempted to dismiss my words as "quixotic" and "detached from reality", given the virtually genocidal crusade the United States and its mostly diabolical allies are waging against Muslims. To those I say that Islam must always pass the test, even under the harsh realities, and there is no doubt that we are undergoing some of the harshest realities in Islam's 1430-history. In brief, we must never betray our Islamic principles no matter what the terrorist barbarians do, because if we did, we would enable the enemies of Islam to score the greatest victory against us. Having said that, we must never be oblivious of the fact that the United States is nearly fully responsible for pushing young Muslims to fall into the abyss of violent radicalism. Supporting Israeli Nazism The United States wanted Palestinians and their children to be decimated and annihilated as quietly as possible. Take, as an example, last year's genocidal Israeli onslaught against the people of Gaza. That was a Nazi act par excellence, as Israel, a regional nuclear superpower armed to the teeth, ganged up on a mainly defenseless people for three uninterrupted weeks, raining death on innocent civilians, and destroying their homes, schools and mosques, using the latest American technology of death. The US government not only was, probably gleefully, watching the firestorms rage over Gaza, but also utilized all America's diplomatic and political means to shield Israel from international condemnation. Even the mediocre Goldstone Report, which really stopped short of equating the acts of premeditated murder and rape with the victims' defensive reflexes, was rejected by the American government and prevented from being acted upon by the UN Security Council and international courts. In short, the United States wanted Palestinians and their children to be decimated and annihilated as quietly as possible. This is the same government that shamelessly continues to support the hermetic Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip, the Ghetto Warsaw of our time, for the purpose of strangulating and decapitating 1.6 million tormented human beings for the "horrendous crime" of having dared to elect a political party that the United States and its allies did not like. It is true that the United States did not participate directly in that genocide. Nevertheless, Muslims and the whole world know that Israel would not have done what it did without, at least, a tacit American approval. The US government could have saved the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians, including more than 330 children, with a mere wink. However, the United States was apparently too satisfied watching Israeli cannibalism played out in full view of the entire world. To be sure the crimes of the United States government against Muslims (and non-Muslims) are too numerous, too colossal, and too nefarious to be atoned, whitewashed or forgotten. Systematic Attacks Against Muslims America cannot embrace Israeli Nazism in Gaza, for example, and then expect things to be all right. In the last decade alone, American killed or the cause the death of nearly one million Iraqis under the rubric of ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction that Iraq never really possessed. In Afghanistan, the United States is carrying out another murderous crusade against one of the most impoverished nations in the world, using the most advanced technology of death in the world. In addition, in Pakistan, the United States is, nearly on a daily basis, murdering innocent and abjectly poor Pakistanis under the pretext of fighting Taliban. The same criminal approach is being pursued in some other Muslim countries, such as Yemen where the United States is contemplating the deployment of more troops to help the nepotistic and largely corrupt Yemini leadership suppress legitimate grievances of citizens seeking food and justice. And, then, at the top of all this stands the enduring American embrace of the criminal Arab tyrannies from Morocco to Bahrain, which deny its own citizens the most basic human rights and civil liberties. In addition, whenever the United States is reminded that this shameful behavior is incompatible with the declared American policy, people are affronted with the mendacity that the United States is still concerned about human rights and democratic values in the Arab world. The administration is doing all it can to promote democratic governance in the Arab world. However, these words are just obscene lying ones coming from an obscenely lying government. In light of the brutal ugliness of the American approach to the Muslim world, one really wonders how the United States thinks Muslims, especially the young generations, would react, seeing their fellow Muslims brutally massacred by American-backed Judeo-Nazis in Palestine and American-led Western forces in Afghanistan. Should Muslims pretend that what they are watching is an unfortunate daytime nightmare? Should they just neutralize their brains and convince themselves that America really does not mean it, and that all those killed and maimed were mere "mistakes" or incidents of "collateral damage"? I know that 99.99 percent of Muslims, like myself, would never ever support the act of blowing up passenger airplanes in mid air or hurting innocent people in whatever ways imaginable. This is because doing so is dichotomous to Islam, which forbids harming innocent civilians. However, it is also true that the murderous American policies throughout the Muslim world are making many Muslims lose the mental equanimity that would make them behave rightly and wisely in such circumstances, like being in conformity with Islam. In the final analysis, America cannot embrace Israeli Nazism in Gaza, for example, and then expect things to be all right. After all, everyone knows that those to whom evil is done, often do evil in return. Yes, the evil of the victims cannot be justified, especially from the moral viewpoint. However, I think it can be understood in that sense that its occurrence becomes inevitable.

Khalid Amayreh is a journalist living in Palestine. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983. Since the 1990s, Mr. Amayreh has been working and writing for several news outlets among which is Aljazeera.net, Al-Ahram Weekly, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), and Middle East International. He can be reached through politics.indepth@iolteam.com.