Hishmeh: Love thy neighbor as thyself
As we bid a cold farewell to this year, noted for its catastrophic events in the Middle East, Europe and the United States, we nevertheless applaud the warm welcome that the Canadians have extended to all their Muslim refugees and congratulations to the Saudi women who participated for the first time in national elections for municipal council seats. We also extend our sympathy to some of the Muslims who faced objectionable treatment by their new neighbours, particularly in the US and Europe and to all the students in Los Angeles who were reportedly threatened by extremists in Europe.
Needless to say, the causes of all these events are well-known and can be avoided if people were better educated during their formative years about a neighbour’s religion, which would help build understanding and appreciation in one’s society. High schools should include the study of all religions in their curriculum.
In a recent editorial, the New York Times wrote: “Americans must guard against overreaction and subdue the panicked reflex of distrust and hatred towards Americans among us who are Muslims. This has been a problem at least since 9/11 and will remain one as long as ignorance about Islam remains deep and widespread. Today, the ignorance is being inflamed by those in the political sphere — by Republican presidential candidates calling for American Muslims to be registered and monitored, and for mosques to be spied on or shut down.”
The recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, was immediately condemned by Muslim groups in the US as inhuman and un-Islamic and a news conference was held, the NYT reported, “in which Muslim leaders stood flanked by American flags alongside clergy of other faiths and law-enforcement officials”.
Regrettably, an anti-Muslim backlash emerged, where some even in the US military have reportedly felt they were under attack, underlining a disgusting spread of Islamophobia. A Republican frontrunner in the upcoming primary presidential election, Donald Trump, has meanwhile called for monitoring mosques and even barring Muslims from entering the US. Consequently, he has been the sole beneficiary from this depressive atmosphere in the country.
Likewise, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Washington Post, “has stepped up his rhetorical campaign to convince the world that the surge in Palestinian violence is not born of frustration against Israel’s decades-long occupation, but instead is the work of radical Islamists”.
William Booth, the Post’s Jerusalem correspondent added: “Netanyahu is pressing his case that Israel, Europe and the United States face a common enemy — and in doing so he is trying to blur the lines between Palestinians wielding knives and Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) militants carrying assault rifles.”
In a recorded address at the Brookings Institution last month in Washington, Booth said the Israeli prime minister “argued that the source of popular Palestinian violence has little or nothing to do with the growth of Jewish [colonies] in the West Bank or the 48-year Israeli occupation”.
What has been notable lately is a very lengthy report, written by David Remnick, on US Middle East policy that is to appear in an upcoming edition in the New Yorker, which focuses on the different views of President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, John Kerry.
Remnick explains that it was Kerry’s “persistence and self-assurance” that has led to his “nine months of fruitless, chaotic and, arguably, corrosive negotiations that broke down last year between the Israelis and Palestinians — negotiations that almost no one, not even Obama, believed would lead to a breakthrough. Kerry argued that the hell-bound trajectory of events was leading towards calamity and he had to try; his critics said that the conditions were not ripe, and that the effort amounted to a diplomatic vanity project”.
After noting that most of the ministers in Netanyahu’s cabinet were opposed to a two-state solution, he continues: “American officials speak of Netanyahu as myopic, entitled, untrustworthy, routinely disrespectful towards the president, and focused solely on short-term political tactics to keep his high right-wing constituency in line,” adding that the Israeli prime minster “seems not to care if he insults the [Obama] administration”.
Kerry’s stance is clear, according to Remnick that “only if Israel and the Palestinians come knocking will he get involved in a negotiation”.
And he quotes Kerry’s special envoy, Frank Lowenstein as saying: “The window for a two-state solution is closing, though none of us who’ve worked on it will regret that we tried to save it.”
The Christian line that may be helpful if observed herein is: “Love thy neighbour as thy self”.
George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com
Source: gulfnews.com