The serious problem of many Muslims
Regional, Analysis, 3/31/2008

The Arab leaders who had met for a summit in Syria this past weekend apparently have found strong unity on one subject. The Summit itself was supposedly a complete failure on important issues, from the political crisis in Lebanon, to the usual run of the mill issues such as Palestine - Israel issue, Iraq, or any internal reform of the Arab League organization itself.

On Iraq, the LA times reported that "Iraq refused to endorse the final declaration of the Arab summit Sunday because it did not condemn terrorism in the country."

Qatar's Peninsuly daily reported "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said yesterday that an Arab summit which wrapped up in Damascus earlier in the day had been as fruitless as its predecessors."

But among the vast disunity, the Arab leaders seem to muster great unity against a Dutch film that supposedly is blasphemous to Islam and its prophet.

In Islam, religion and government are supposedly inseparable, and as such, it worthwhile to take a moment to examine this stand taken by not only the Arab leaders, but by the many other Muslim governments and their 57 member organization (Organization Of Islamic Countries, OIC) that shares their opinion.

I have not seen the film nor care to. What is interesting to me is how the Arab leaders seem to always manage to fail at finding unity on important political issues relevant to their own citizens daily lives, while they manage to find unity on irrelevant issues such as this subject that can be used to distract the Arab public from the other important issues, and to distract from the failure of most of their leaders to find solution to the problems they face, be it political, economic, social, or education problems.

But it is not enough for such leaders to distract their public from important issues, many of these Arab leaders, want to make their form of government that they run as the standard for the rest of the world. So they also call for adopting an international law which "prohibits insult to divine religions". This should match well with their internal laws, that prohibit insults to many things, including such interesting subjects as "insult to the state, or the government" which are typically punishable by jail term, and are often used to shut political speech down.

These citizens, frequently are stuck living under dictatorial or freedom lacking governments. are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side, they have lousy governments that suffocate them to prevent them from speaking freely on politics or other issues, while these citizens look at Europe, and especially the United States, and see in these western governments as supporters of those who are oppressing them. So the West become an enemy as well. Except, it easy much easier for these citizens, sadly, to only vent their anger at far away enemies rather than those close at hand.

So these Muslim leaders use such issues as venting mechanism for their citizens.

Even more sadly, is that many of these Arab citizens, Muslims for the most, themselves have developed lack of tolerance for free speech. All these years, and they have yet to learn its values. They may either want it for only themselves, or they can be too anxious to prevent others from speaking if they disagree with them. They act as their current rulers do. They say "we want Islamic states" and every one should live under our religious law, while these individuals have not learned the value of free speech, not only for them, but for others as well. So many of these individuals may do no better than the current rulers if they get in power, and may actually do worse. And worth noting that some Arab leaders in power would like to open up the systems more, but fear fundamentalist backlash. So here we find that the enemies of Muslims, are are other Muslims who do not want them to be free to speak or disagree with them. And on top of this, the Arab leaders can be their own oppressors. And on top of this, the West helps in this oppression as well.

So here we can see the true problem facing Islam in its current political incarnation and practice in Muslim countries. Islam is being used and abused by Muslim so-called extremists, by rules, and by outsiders. I am not interested in any theological debate about Islam and the merit of its values. What is clear to me is that anyone who discourages free speech, as a principal, is causing injury to himself, knowingly or most likely unknowingly.

I had written previously, for example, that instead of Muslims preventing Christians from proselytizing, they should encourage debate, and rather than shut people up, maybe they can learn from them and debate them, and try to convince them to become Muslims if they are so strongly convinced that their religion is better. Similarly for other religions. As such, the answer to someone making a film insulting Islam and its prophet, can be the creation of many well made films showing what Islam is, and how great its prophet was. It is a matter of education, and if Muslims are so passionate about these subjects, and do not know how to educate smartly the general public about an issue that is this important to them, then the failure is with Muslims and not others. I have asserted that the answer to speech, bad or hateful or otherwise, is not less of it, but more speech that answers it.

So Muslims need to learn to articulate well their arguments, and present them smartly. We live in an age were all issues can be looked at as a public relations issue, and by using this perspective, they can learn a lot about how to deal with such problems of presenting their point of view. But if the problem is more fundamental than that, and has to do with the religion itself, then it will take a lot of public relations, because the proof will be in the pudding, so to speak. You shall know a tree by its fruits, in a manner of speaking. And if the West, and especially the US, allows Muslims to speak and live and worship as they wish, and Muslim countries, do not, then the problem becomes more clear, that it has to do with more with their own governments, and Muslims themselves can be to blame for such values. You cannot forever, blame foreign governments and your own governments, even if they are at completely or partially at fault. If you have self respect and care about your religion and freedom, then it seems that you should be compelled to make change. Arab citizens have managed to kick out foreign governments of the past, but are unable to do the same for their own. And here is the important question for you to answer: if you and your group get in power, will you give others the freedom to live, think and speak as they wish, which is what you want for yourself now, or will you oppress others into our own beliefs?

So I feel great sympathy for Arab citizens who are being trapped by bad governments, bad education that does not encourage liberal thinking, and by liberal, I mean thinking without fear of discussing any subject matter. And they are trapped by outside enemies who have interest in keeping these governments the way they are, weak, or keeping them under their control. It is a bad situation for such citizens, and this can be a heavy load to carry and to change. But it can be done, and easily if they know how to.

The very first step to the solution is to educate yourself. And towards this end, you may do yourself some good reading my book on the type of government citizens through out the world should consider, a new kind of government that I call "Rational Government." My other book talks about free speech world wide, and how many in Europe and the USA just like most undeveloped countries are or were working to limit free speech worldwide to enforce a new world order. The second book in its title has the words "A New World government." It may be worth reading if you care for your freedom, and the freedom of others.

I was pleased when one of the orders of the first edition of my first book that is published in the USA came from the country of Bahrain. This country is an example of a government attempting to improve itself and the many challenges of such change. A government in that region that is moving ahead is the United Arab Emirates. Morocco has had such path, and Egypt tries. But some of these countries have too many failing as well, while others are nearly terrible. Lebanon, who had more democracy and freedoms in the past in some respects than the United States, is a country that is going in reverse at great speed. The overall picture does not seem very good. But we are in an age where change can be extremely rapid and sudden. So stay tuned.

Muslims and Christians can be equally cruel and unjust in characterizing the other side. The word Islam and Muslim has take a very negative connotation in many parts of the West. That can be very injurious to many. On the face of it, it seems to be out of ignorance. But the answer to such so-called hate speech is not oppression of free speech, but more free speech. You just have to tune out and not listen to bad or offensive speech, and tune your ears to intelligent speech. Freedom is when you can choose.

By,
Jamil Kazoun


Author of the book: A Second American Revolution: Creating Rational Government
and the book: A Third American Revolution: A New World Government . A Plan for Liberty, Justice and Peace"

Previous Stories:
  Prejudice of Lebanese Christians, and choosing a president   (1/22/2008)
  Transparency and liberty   (11/14/2007)
  New nominee for president of Lebanon   (10/30/2007)
  The Attack on Free Speech Worldwide   (8/15/2007)

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