Clashing Cultures
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says, "when it is over, if it is over, this war will have terrible consequences; instead of having one bin Laden we will have 100 bin Ladens." Is this an over-exaggeration?
Already, some groups, including the Islamic Jihad which claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack in Netanya, say they are sending Palestinian suicide bombers to Iraq. Add to this the hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis who demonstrated in Peshawar, hearing the call for jihad against the US and a demand for Muslims to go to Iraq to fight 'coalition' forces. Add also the Islamic clergy in Damascus and the Algerian opposition parties who called for the same. And consider Naji Sabri's, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, statement in a press briefing this morning that already 5000 suicide bombers from all Arab countries have entered the country to help.
To many Americans this willingness to kill one's self while killing others is difficult to understand. But, understand it, somehow, we must. Dr. Eyad Sarraj, a psychiatrist and founder of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights, says:
"What propels people into such action is a long history of humiliation and a desire for revenge that every Arab harbors. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the resultant uprooting of Palestinians, a deep-seated feeling of shame has taken root in the Arab psyche. Shame is the most painful emotion in the Arab culture, producing the feeling that one is unworthy to live. The honorable Arab is the one who refuses to suffer shame and dies in dignity."
What feelings of shame are engendered when one's country is invaded - even if you can't stand the one who runs the country? What feelings of shame are created when soldiers, wary of civilians who may be military or suicide bombers, ask the people to lift their shirts to show they have no bombs? What feelings of shame are instilled when Jordanian youth protest, chanting "shame on all indifferent Arabs?" What feelings of shame begin when you see your country attacked by outsiders?
Dr. Abdul Razak, the president of Peace & Friendship Society makes a comparison many of us can understand:
"I respect your privilege as a patriotic American to hate those doing harm to the American interests in the U.S. If you don't do that you are not a good American... Me as an Iraqi love Iraq and defend Iraq..."
According to the Qur'an, "God has allowed for force to be used to check nations, who exceed their limits, and engage in disturbing the peace and freedom of other nations on earth." This is jihad. And although the Prophetic traditions (hadith) prohibit suicide, eventually Shii and Sunni began to equate suicide-bombing with martyrdom and the belief that suicide bombers were sacrificing themselves rather than committing suicide. And the Quran, according to law professor Ali Khan, "does seem to allow 'terrorism' [suicide bombings] to combat, for example, the state of zulm, that is, exceptional circumstances of oppression, misery and helplessness."
What could be simpler to understand? Especially, when put in context with the accurate meaning of jihad, which is the 'struggle within' and the struggle for self-improvement.
permalink 7:03:28 AM
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