I love the English. Let me make that clear. I fantasize about moving to London someday, kneel at every ironic and haughty utterance that comes from their humor and film, and think women with English accents (well i guess any accent really) exponentially increase their sexiness quotient. But what’s up with all the hating going on?
Hate crimes are up 600% in England from this time a year ago due mostly to the fallout from the July bombings there. Tony Blair and co have passed legislation to deport Arabs. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has published a list of activities, that like our own Patriot Act, has been crticized by civil and human rights groups, and leaves alot of leeway for abuse. These rules will encompass articles and websites that preexisted the bombings and target their authors. Arabs like Mohammed al-Massari with websites carrying images of attacks on British troops in Iraq will likely face deportation under the new guidelines. Said Clarke, “Individuals who seek to create fear, distrust and division in order to stir up terrorist activity will not be tolerated by the government or by our communities.” Hell, War Of The Worlds kind of does that doesn’t it? Under that provision I guess Bush wont be visiting England again anytime soon huh? Kind of exactly what he did to the red states to get them to hate Iraq and Democrats.
Clarke added that, “preachers of intolerance and hatred,” will not be tolerated. Imagine that here? There goes Christian fundamentalism. Pack your bags Falwell. Want Chavez assasinated Pat Robertson? How about we deport you to Venezeula and you two can work out your difficulties together? Imagine how many local churces would be looking for help. Without intolerance and hatred they pretty much don’t have a function until they get to gloat on Rapture day.
When does someone take a look at history and find out what really foments their hatred of all us “infidels?” Could the decades of the U.S. making Israel thier largest source of foreign aid which helped subsidize the extermination and occupation of Palestinians possibly be a factor? Might not out current soiree in Iraq have similar effects? Sayyid Qutb is regarded amongs many as one of the fathers of radical Islam. Where did his awakening occur and when? While going to school in the U.S. where he arrived in 48 when Israel was created. He attributed much of his thinking to seeing American racism at work and watching the world turn a blind eye to what was being done to the Palestinians at that point. Later he was tortured in Egypt for his beliefs and associations and came to see the torturers as subhumans who were expendable. These mutated later into the infidels, of which most of us now fit, according to him and his descendents.
I don’t defend this guy. He was as much of a nut as Robertson and the growing lunatic fringe making up the hate groups that hide behind different religious denominations and those unwatchable cable channels where ugly people with bad makeup and big hair do alot of praising while they make more money. But what makes the nuts? Sure their own religion is as faulty and poisoned as ours, maybe more so, but it has always been Western interference, oppression, and aiding of Israel that has been a prime recruitment tool for terrorist groups. With England’s reactionary response as well as our own continued oblivious disregard for reality and facts on the ground, more and more people realize we’re not even getting safer in the short term, much less the long. Al Qaeda now uses footage of our work in the area including Abu-Ghraib to lure more people into the fold of player hating. While our own military’s numbers go down, Bin Ladens troops prospered not only in Afghanastan where their fearless leader was most probably on the ropes until we pulled forces out and ran to Iraq, but worldwide.
The London non profit and non partisan think tank IISS, a leading authority on global conflict and military matters, wrote last year and printed at Salon’s site, that Al Qaeda, has more than 18,000 militants in its ranks from 60 countries and that ranks have grown since Iraq. Here’s a quote from the report:
“Overall, risks of terrorism to Westerns and Western assets in Arab countries appeared to increase after the Iraq war began in March 2003. With the miilitary invasion and occupation of Iraq, the United States sought to change the political status quo in the Arab world to advance the American strategic and political interests. Al Qaeda seeks, among other things, to purge the Arab and larger Muslim world of U.S. influence. Accordingly, the Iraq intervention was always likely in the short term, to enhance jihadist recruitment and intensify al Qaeda’s motivation to encourage and assist terrorist operations.”
Now long term who knows for certain how this will all go? But if things go accordant with history there are many young Muslim kids watching their families die and suffer brutally as they go without basic amenities, seeing the worlds racial and religious intolerance of them grow, heard about or seen images of our troops desecrating their holy places and gunning down innocents, incarcerating and torturing their people, and generally interfering in other people’s homes. The unspoken neo-con justification is most probably that by the time these kids get older they’ll be under Western control, bathing in our amenities and the glories of globalization. That or they’ll just be under contol. I agree that people will generally forgive alot and sell out for profit and comfort. Beliefs are as strong as the deprivation that breeds them, for the most part, but I’m not so certain our efforts will produce such joys. Have they here? How much hate permeate the hearts and minds of militia members, religious fundamentalists, racists, gang members, skin heads and many more in America? Doesn’t matter where propaganda and brainwashing end up directing it, it’s there, and in the Arab world those inevitable pockets of hate and deprivation will not breed those who rail out about terrorists, blacks , Hispanics, godless liberals, or their wives, but will instead be directed at us. And only us.
For more on Qutb and his revelence to this issue see another great Naomi Klein column from The Nation.
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