Combating bigotry in Europe
I have
noted in the past how religious extremism is on the rise around the globe,
which is making the lives of most minorities difficult. It needs to be
defeated. So, does fascism.
It is worth recalling that fascism happens when a culture
fracturing along social lines is encouraged to unite against a perceived
external threat. Today’s Myanmar
embodies this sickness where Buddhists are encouraged to eliminate ‘external
threats’ – posed by Rohingya and other religious minorities - so as to defend
the ‘Buddhist way of life’.
Europe
wants to be a purely Christian continent, turning its clock back to the 15th
century when Muslims and Jews were exterminated from the Iberian
Peninsula . Her leaders are against diluting of the Christian
population in a continent that has been a home to many races, castes and creeds
since at least her colonization of the other continents.
In spite of the slow but steady changes in the ground with demography, especially after the collapse of the 'old' order and dawning of the 'new' order with the emergence of newly curved out nation states in the second half of the 20th century,Europe has been trying to maintain
her so-called uniqueness - Christian character. It was no accident, therefore,
that she had tried to overlook the genocidal crimes of her co-religionists in
former Yugoslavia
in the 1990s against the Bosnians and the Kosovars, who are Muslims. Some five
decades before that human tragedy in the Balkans, she tried to ignore the
plight of the Jews and other minorities in the Nazi-fascist-infested Axis of
Evil, led then by Hitler's Germany .
Millions had to die before the European 'conscience' woke up to say enough was enough and to come to the aid of the suffering masses and stop the holocaust of the Jews insideEurope . But then rather than
solving the problem justly, which would have required creating a Jewish state
inside Germany or Western
Europe, punishing the offending state of Germany
and her criminal partners in the Axis, Europe chose to outsource her problem to
the Middle East .
Soon after the Second World War, the new state ofIsrael was created in May of 1948,
uprooting some 700,000 innocent Palestinians who were indigenous people of the
soil that had nothing to do with the crimes of the European Christians against
the European Jews. It did not matter that the Jewish ownership of land inside Palestine before the
Partition Plan was only 2.5 percent, the remainder 97.5% being held by the
Palestinian Arabs - Muslims and Christians. In the new plan, approved by the
Christian West, the Palestinians were allotted only 44% of the pie and the
remainder 56% was allotted to the Jews - mostly European Zionist migrants who
had settled in the land in recent years.
The rest is history. True to the wishes of her Zionist founder Theodor Herzl,Israel had become a rampart of the West in the
East, especially the Middle East . With her
better equipped soldiers and volunteers, soon after the declaration of her
independence, or rather unholy or illegitimate birth, Israel terrorized
Palestinians by killing hundreds and soon expanded her territory to 78%
relegating the Palestinians to 22% of the original territory, leading to the
forced migration of so many. In 1967, thanks again to the western material and
technical assistance, the Zionist state was able to annex all the remaining
territories, transforming itself to an apartheid state with millions of
indigenous Palestinians who must be governed by its laws and regulations.
In spite of the slow but steady changes in the ground with demography, especially after the collapse of the 'old' order and dawning of the 'new' order with the emergence of newly curved out nation states in the second half of the 20th century,
Millions had to die before the European 'conscience' woke up to say enough was enough and to come to the aid of the suffering masses and stop the holocaust of the Jews inside
Soon after the Second World War, the new state of
The rest is history. True to the wishes of her Zionist founder Theodor Herzl,
The once
tormented and persecuted people have become today’s tormentors and persecutors!
And sadly, they like their newly found strength and want to keep it that way.
It won't
be an exaggeration to state that most of the wars ravaging the region today owe
it one way or another to Israel .
And yet, her Zionist leaders remain committed to expanding the war zones. They
want to open a new frontier in Iran .
With wars
becoming more like the norms these days rather than exceptions, the beneficiaries
- mostly the European and American manufacturers and merchants - have been all
those involved with weapons that kill. The losers have been ordinary civilians
who must now find a new home to start over their life.
In spite
of the huge monetary benefits drawn from the war zones and the enormous
contribution of the immigrant communities – new and old - many parts of Europe remain locked in the past and are opposed to
multi-culture brought in by tens of millions of non-Europeans. They like the
Indian masala and Bangladeshi curry, but not the people that liven up their God-awful cuisine with some actual
flavor. They like to sell weapons that kill and turn territories uninhabitable
but are averse to refugees from war-torn countries crossing over. They can’t have
it both ways!
Fascism
is resurrecting
while many Europeans are seemingly unaware of its deadly penetration in
their society. They are behaving like a frog put
in a pan of cold water that is slowly heated. Unaware of what’s happening, the
frog will sit there quite calmly until it boils to death. Creeping cultural
change is like that; it is hard to spot when you are living inside it.
Sitting
in the slowly boiling pool of cultural bigotry, so mesmerized are the Europeans
today that they don’t find any fault with many of the newer laws - sometimes
packaged to protect ‘European way of life’ or ‘standard of living’ - passed by
their fascist leaders.
In recent
years, repeated attempts have been made to impose restrictions on circumcisions
(religiously mandated for Jewish and Muslim males) and ritual animal slaughter
(when the name of God is invoked by Jews and Christians) in the EU countries.
Many Jews and Christians find such restrictions a serious challenge to the
practice of their religions, and have now found a common ground to unite.
Jewish
and Muslim leaders in Europe have announced the establishment of the
Muslim-Jewish Leadership Council (MJLC), the first joint council of its kind to
fight for religious freedom on the continent, with its founding conference
taking place this week in Vienna .
Participating in the MJLC are the Conference of European Rabbis, the World
Islamic Relief Organization, the Islamic Council of the Republic of Germany
and the King Abdullah International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural
Dialogue (KAICIID).
The
initiators of the council said that it was an initial platform from which
leaders of the two religions would work together to confront EU institutions
and governments in order to promote understanding and respect, and enable the
exchange of information essential to local and national religious communities'
needs, concerns, and challenges.
It is a
good initiative, which deserves praise. What is also encouraging is that in its
first press release, MJLC addressed the most urgent issue on the continent, and
said: "The European refugees are denied shelter, medical assistance,
transit and transport. This crisis contradicts the values of human dignity upon
which a united Europe is based. Due to
inaction, refugees have become the victims of hardened criminals, who are
responsible for a number of shocking deaths."
"We
call upon policymakers in Europe to take
action in order to handle these refugees decently and humanely while they wait
for a safe haven. At the same time, we commend the private efforts of many
individuals and religious communities to support the refugees. We call on the
interior ministers of the European Union to meet on September 14 to take the
practical and urgent steps needed to end this crisis."
As
reported in the YNews, Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of
European Rabbis, and co-founder of MJLC, said that it will serve, among other
things, as a resource for authoritative and trusted information with a legal
basis upon which rabbis and imams – the religious clerics - can act:
"Together we will be able to develop an innovative and creative approach
when dealing with EU institutions and governments in Europe, that will ensure
the continued observance of our religion."
"The
Council will work to gain the confidence of young people through appropriate
public relations that will bring prosperity in Europe
- in tandem with a life of faith and meaning," said Goldschmidt.
The
founders also said that it will promote building bridges between communities in
the future, engage in education and initiate joint publications on issues of
religion and current affairs in Europe and the
world.
Ibrahim
al Ziit, former director general of the World Islamic Relief Organization, said
that "the Jewish and Muslim communities have a common heritage and a
shared history. The Muslim-Jewish Leadership Council is a necessity since we
have witnessed repeated attempts to limit the freedom of religion."
"As believers, we must fight for the right of religious minorities to
religious freedom. If we stand united, we will be better able to protect our
rights. But if we are detached, we will lose our right to fully observe the
commandments of our religion."
Fahed
Abu-Nasser, Director General of KAICIID, who hosted the founding convention,
called it "a great honor" and said that his organization was proud to
take part in establishing the authority of both Muslims and Jews to fight over
the religious rights of minorities, and to promote interfaith dialogue in Europe .
It is a
good start for Europe which once sowed the
seed of division – exploiting one son of Abraham to fight against the other.
She needs to understand that her ‘way of life’ is not threatened by migration
or multi-culture, as decades of research have shown that the latter actually
enriches a society. Where would our modern society be without Apple’s
co-founder Steve Jobs, the son of a Syrian Muslim immigrant Dr. Abdul Fattah Jandali, from Homs , now ravaged by war?
Comments
Post a Comment