Coming
in September
From AK Press
Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More
Today's
Stories
August
11, 2003
Uri
Avnery
Who Will Save Abu Mazen?
Recent
Stories
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
August
8, 2003
John
Chuckman
What the US Says Goes
Roberto
Barreto
Defend the Vieques 12!
Bruce Gagnon
Iraq War Emboldens Bush Space Plans
Elaine
Cassel
The Reign of John Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
Website
of the Day
Zero Boy
August
7, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?"
Toni
Solo
Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana
Republic
Adam Lebowitz
Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan
Hanan
Ashrawi
When the Bully Whines
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Conscience Takes a Holiday
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda
Mike Kimaid
What's the Score?
Elaine
Cassel
The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
August 6, 2003
Steve
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not
Easy Confronting King Coal
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Robert
Fisk
The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's War on the National Forests
Elaine
Cassel
No Fly Lists
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
Hugh Sansom
An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Darn Good Resumé
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
August
11, 2003
Civil Liberties and
Uncivil Super-Patriotism
The
Struggle Between the Two Americas
By Dr. MOHAMMAD OMAR
FAROOQ
According to a USA Today report [12/10/2002],
one of the effects of post-9/11 war on terrorism is a significant
rise in the membership of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
a controversial organization that defends civil rights in many
cases, popular and unpopular. It has been a one year surge of
22%, an unprecedented rise in the organization's 82 year history.
While terrorism has been a global reality, with which the rest
of the world more or less is all too familiar with, United States
has been quite successful as well as fortunate in keeping terrorism
off its shore. While its streets might have plenty of crime and
violence, news of terrorism was primarily heard in the context
of other continents, including major countries of Europe, such
as United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and so on. We in America have
enjoyed a prolonged period of domestic security, save for its
thugs, gangs and criminals.
9/11 was a watershed event, robbing the
country of its sacred sense of domestic security. Thus, the reaction
of those in charge of policing and security is quite understandable.
However, we all know that extremism in any such respect does
not yield any positive result.
Before delving into the issue of reactive
extremism, let us also highlight another aspect of American and
global reality. Just this month, a truckful of illegal immigrants
were found dead in Texas, who were seeking a fresh life in America,
but died probably gasping for the last breath of air. Other illegal
persons jumping ships and boats near America's coasts is an all
too familiar a scene to America and the world.
Admittedly, this country is the land
of immigrants. While many other countries in the West have seen
significant migration to their countries, no other country, like
America, has been such a melting pot of people from around the
world and continues to attract people in droves on a regular
basis. This steady attempt to come and become a part of the legendary
American dream does pose serious legal, economic, political,
demographic and security-related challenges. However, failure
to properly understand or appreciate this attraction, especially
by the American leaders, policy makers and administrators, is
bound to undermine this country's special disposition and heritage
of immigration and civil liberties.
People want to come to America for various
reasons, a primary one of which is economic prosperity. But to
define or describe this attraction in terms of wealth and prosperity
would be underestimating as well as devaluing the aspirations
that bring these people to the shores of America. America attracts
professionals and academics as it offers them opportunities to
seek to realize their full potential. It attracts refugees and
other persecuted people, who seek an overall better life away
from persecution and suffering. Working people come here to get
a share of the American pie of unprecedented wealth and prosperity.
The reality is that, whether it is acknowledged or not by the
immigrants, most of them come here for more than just economic
reasons. They like the general peace and security of life, rule
of law, civil liberties, democratic environment and institution.
Yes, in each of these categories, there can be serious criticisms
about shortcomings of America and the life in this society. But
the fact remains that despite these shortcomings, it has something
unique and precious to offer that continues to attract people
from around the world, the magnitude of the stream of which is
unique and unparalleled.
In a more reductionist terms, civil liberties,
rule of law and economic prosperity/opportunity are the pivotal
attractions of America and that's what the founding fathers of
this country dreamed of and toiled for.
9/11 poses special challenge to America,
because much of the political and military violence around the
world to which America is, directly or indirectly, a key contributor,
so far largely has been outside America. Since the World War
II, whether in the context of Korean War, Vietnam War, or Gulf
War, no bombs or missiles fell on America. Modern media and communication
technology allows the people of America to watch the horror of
wars as well as the prowess of American military, but American
people and its land are far removed from that reality. Thus,
like they watch through the windows of TV or computer screen,
the reality of horror, violence and suffering to them is, in
some sense, no more than just virtual reality, to which their
emotions and conscience are not functionally connected.
For reasons that are good or bad, right
or wrong, those who dislike America, its foreign policy and it
role in the global context, they now seem to have come to the
understanding that in pursuit of their agenda, they must bring
the reality directly to America and take away the precious sense
of domestic security, from which vast majority of the world's
population are deprived.
The challenge of 9/11 is special because
America can't take domestic security as business as usual any
longer. The fringe extremists, who hate America, have already
made their message known; loud and clear. However, if the pursuit
of security itself becomes hostage of America's own extremity
in regard to its precious civil liberties, then the attackers
have scored another crucial victory.
In this regard, a self-critical approach
is a must. There are many in the Muslim world, including Muslims
in America, who seem to see and define all their problems in
terms of external factors. It is all too common human tendency
to find someone or something else to blame, rather than ourselves.
The tendency is quite typical of both the powerful and the powerless.
Since 9/11 became tied with a number
of extremist Muslims, scrutinizing the pertinent issues from
an Islamic perspective is very important. An important milestone
in the decline of the Islamic civilization was the dismemberment
of the last ceremonial/institutional chord of unity, the Ottoman
Caliphate (btw, the use of the word Caliphate/Khilafah in this
case is inappropriate). Since then the Muslim world was colonized
aggressively and brutally, and it disintegrated into 42+ nation
states, often only as nominally independent countries. The Muslim
countries aspire for a more functional and dynamic society, where
the common aspirations of people can be successfully and effectively
pursued. However, both for internal and external factors, the
Muslim world is currently dysfunctional, disoriented and also
entrapped in a very divisive struggle. The sense of helplessness
and frustration is emboldening and empowering the fringe extremism.
The existing political powers, often implanted, patronized and
even protected by the West, are at odd with the interest of their
own people.
Unless the Muslim mass organize themselves
to rejuvenate their lives in a positive manner in accordance
with their faith as well as the demands of our contemporary modern
times, the tension and conflict will only widen and worsen. One
of the real problems and obstacles for the Muslim world is that
the global corridors of power, led by the sole surviving superpower
of the world, is afraid of democracy in the Muslim countries,
as the experience has shown that the real and immediate beneficiaries
of democratic change in the Muslim world are the Islamic voices.
This has created a serious rift and disconnect
between the USA and the West on one hand and the Muslim world
on the other, because the west, the supposed champion of democracy,
is unwilling to let democracy evolve and function in the Muslim
world. Well, isn't this an example of finding someone else to
blame? Partly, that is true. While countries, such as USA, is
playing an adversarial role in this context, a conscientious
and self-critical approach warrants that Muslims recognize that
they have serious problems that are internal to themselves and
rooted within, which goes back even long before the west surfaced
as the dominant civilization. Those who want to see solutions
to their problems in the Muslim world by merely blaming the West
and targeting them for all their disappointment, frustration
and anger are simply deluding themselves in thinking that it
would bring any meaningful or fundamental change in their own
society. Therefore, while external factors responsible for the
maladies of the Muslim world must be identified, recognized and
dealt with, it is critically important that Muslims first examine
their problems in their internal context. They must remember
that whatever the external factors are, a positive and determined
pursuit for liberty, justice and prosperity can't be suppressed
or thwarted by others permanently. Americans themselves could
have heaped all the blames on the British colonial power, but
their committed pursuit of freedom and liberty did finally overpowered
the GREAT Britain. The start of the solution lies within, not
outside.
Whether there is an evolving clash or
dialog between the West and Islam at the civilizational level,
or whether we actually desire and facilitate such clash or dialog
to be realized, the future of the West and Islam have become
integrally related. The West can't simply ignore or suppress
Islam in an Islam-o-phobic fashion. Nor the Muslim world can
ignore the West in a West-o-phobic manner. Either try to establish
mutual common grounds for the sake of the humanity or the path
of confrontation would be a foregone conclusion.
In this context, the role of the American
Muslim community remains critically important. Recognizing this
role, even the US government is trying to project to the Muslim
world the presence of Muslims in this pluralistic society, especially
in an attempt to show that the Muslims in America are doing quite
well, like the rest of the society. Like many in the Muslim world,
many Muslims in America might also have a love/hate relationship
with America. They like the economic prosperity here, and they
are both beneficiaries of and contributors to that prosperity
in America. But more importantly they also like and enjoy the
freedom and civil liberties in general in this country. Yet,
it is not uncommon for Muslims in America to disagree with and
even detest the role of the United States in the global arena,
especially as it affects the Muslim world.
As Muslims must approach these issues
in a self-critical manner in regard to themselves and their internal
problems, they must not also be West-o-phobic and the same should
apply to their attitude toward the United States. This is especially
because there isn't really one America. Rather, there are "two
Americas", as in the words of the late U.S. Senator J. William
Fulbright. In his highly acclaimed and deeply insightful book,
The Arrogance of Power, he writes: "THERE ARE TWO AMERICAS.
One is the America of Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson; the other
is the America of Teddy Roosevelt and the modern superpatriots."
[p. 245; the emphasis is by Sen. Fulbright]
While this essay's rather limited scope
can't deal with the overall issue of power and arrogance, the
thoughts and analysis of Sen. Fulbright are truly valuable for
better understanding an ongoing struggle within America herself.
If Muslims themselves don't recognize and understand the nature
of this struggle, then in a West-o-phobic manner chanting marg
bar amrika (Death to America, in Farsi) and then seeing some
misguided, fringe groups--riding on that anger in the Muslim
world--delivering death to the doorsteps of America, especially
to the innocent people, should not be unexpected. There is another
reciprocity in regard to West-o-phobia: Islam-o-phobia. One phobia
mutually feeds the other.
Sen. Fulbright's perspective on "the
two Americas" is quite illuminating. In his view, "One
is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is
self-critical, the other self-righteous; one is sensible, the
other romantic; one is good-humored, the other solemn; one is
inquiring, the other pontificating; one is moderate, the other
filled with passionate intensity; one is judicious and the other
arrogant in the use of great power." [p.245]
Just like the West can't lump Muslims
and Islam into one monolithic entity, except to its own detriment
of alienating and frustrating those vast majority of Muslims
who endear prosperity, freedom, justice and decency, Muslims
can't also treat America as a monolithic entity. If they do,
then they are also dismissing and alienating that America, which
is generous and humane, self-critical, sensible, good-humored,
inquiring, moderate and judicious. This is the America that most
people love. This is the America that has drawn and continues
to draw people, including the immigrant Muslim community here,
from around the world.
If there is any problem, it is with the
other America. The America of Super-patriotism, which in Sen.
Fulbright's view is "narrowly egotistical; ... self-righteous;
... romantic; ... solemn; ... pontificating; ... filled with
passionate intensity; arrogant in the use of great power."
There are great many Americans--the conscientious and self-critical
ones--including persons such as Sen. Fulbright, who do not like
this America. This is the America that is also repudiated and
hated around the world.
In the context of the War against terrorism
and the Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL; rumored as the originally
proposed acronym, but not adopted as the OIL connection would
have been too obvious), if the word "crusade" slipped
through the mouth of President Bush, which was quickly corrected
and never to be uttered by him again, it was no coincidence.
More than 30 years ago, Sen. Fulbright pointed out: "The
inconstancy of American foreign policy is not an accident but
an expression of two distinct sides of the American character.
Both are characterized by a kind of moralism, but one is the
morality of decent instincts tempered by the knowledge of human
imperfection and the other is the morality of absolute self-assurance
fired by the crusading spirit. ... The crusading puritan spirit
has had a great deal to do with some of the regrettable and tragic
events of American history. It led us into needless and costly
adventures and victories that crumbled in our hands." [p.245/p.251]
More importantly, "America, in the
words of John Quincy Adams, should be 'the well-wisher to the
freedom and independence of all'", Sen. Fulbright, continues
[p.258]. But the reality is that not only that America, the super-patriot
one, has not been the well-wisher to the freedom and independence
of all, but also it has been systematically and actively subverting
democracy and democratic spirit in many parts of the world.
This other America of super-patriots
is a war-mongering one. In his book, Pentagon Propaganda Machine,
Sen. Fulbright writes: "It seems to me we have grown distressingly
used to war. For more than fourteen of the past twenty-eight
years we have been fighting somewhere, and we have been ready
to fight almost anywhere for the other fourteen. War and the
military have become a part of our environment, like pollution."
[p.11]
This super-patriotism also goes with
an incessant propaganda as America as a victim. The rest of the
world is jealous of its success and glory! The Barbaric other
knows and understands only one language: the force, mighty force!
It is this kind of attitude and perspective--reminiscent of McCarthyism--where
the zeal to fight authoritarianism or communism manifests itself
as a ghost of its opponent, to suppress dissent for the sake
of national security--the holy cow. This other America doesn't
quite seek a solution to problems; rather, in the guise and name
of trying to solve a problem, it attempts to extract further
mileage for its agenda and mission of superpatriotism.
Sen. Fulbright wrote in the context of
the Vietnam war, more than three decades ago. What he dubbed
as super-patriotism has reached super-pitch, as demonstrated
in the unilateral, preemptive war to remove America's former
bedfellow Saddam Hussein and his monstrous regime. The world
was given the excuse that Saddam regime was a threat to the United
States, as it has weapons of mass destruction, which might be
made available to those terrorists that might target America
and/or Americans. That no weapons of mass destruction were found
in the post-war Iraq should not come as a surprise.
During the months before the war against
Iraq, as David Albright, the director of ISIS and a scientist
with first-hand experience of Iraq's nuclear weapons program
as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspection
team, disclosed that there was a debate within the US scientific
community about the government's claims but added that the Bush
administration had clamped down on such discussion.
Terrorism, especially that indiscriminately
targets innocents to advance its agenda, is an affront to the
humanity and there should be a global compact against such acts
and agendas. However, there is also a misplaced emphasis on the
part of the United States. As much resources and energy as are
being allocated against the acts of fringe extremists, there
is disproportionate negligence to building bridges with the vast
majority of Muslims, who themselves should be and are needed
to be at the forefront of containing the fringe elements. As
Graham Fuller, a former senior political scientist with Rand
and a former Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council
at the CIA, and co-author Ian Lesser point out in A Sense
of Siege: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West that there
is a sense of siege on the part of the Muslim world, which is
important for the West in general and the United States in particular
to recognize and understand. It is a fact that "Many more
Muslims have died at Western hands over the past century than
westerners have ever died at Muslim hands." [p. 43;
emphasis added] This is even truer in the case of the United
States. Consequently, as Muslims should be called upon to be
objective and engaging in their attitude toward the West and
USA, the same goes for the West toward the Muslim world as well.
As "Most Muslims are convinced that Western policies are
consciously dedicated to weakening Muslim power wherever it arises"
[p. 43], the West too needs to do better to convince the Muslim
world otherwise, not through clever rhetoric and powerful media
manipulations, but through actions. If "The West is seen
to be comfortable only with a supine Muslim world," [p.43]
the Muslim world can't be expected to settle for such expectation
and desire of the West.
The overreaching profiling of Muslims
and Arabs, the indiscriminate closure of Muslim charities, the
Patriot Act that immensely broadens the power of the law enforcement
agencies to get the nation Ashcrofted are all indicative of the
super-patriotism that is militaristic on its foreign front and
overly-protective in the domestic front. Sen. Fulbright warned
several decades ago: "This militarism that has crept up
on us is bringing about profound changes in the character of
our society and government-changes that are slowly undermining
democratic procedure and values." [p.11]
In 1947, Einstein expressed his deep
concern about this military mentality, particularly of the United
States, in The American Scholar. According to him, America had
a transformation of its mentality in the aftermath of the World
War II. "The characteristic feature of the mentality is
that people place the importance of what Bertrand Russell so
tellingly terms 'naked power' far above all other factors which
affect the relation between peoples. ... I must frankly confess
that the foreign policy of the United States since the termination
of hostilities has reminded me, sometimes irresistibly, of the
attitude of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II, and I know that,
independent of me, this analogy has most painfully occurred to
others as well. ... In our time the military mentality is still
more dangerous than formerly because the offensive weapons have
become much more powerful than the defensive ones."
Well, these thoughts of Einstein are
more than half-a-century old, but they are only ever more relevant
to our challenging times. This Patriot Act, a clear manifestation
of super-patriotism of the other America, is being called by
many "Constitution Shredding Act" or "Ashcroft
out of control Act", because without meaningfully adding
to the ability of law enforcement or intelligence to bring terrorists
to justice, its provisions do much to undermine the Constitution
and violate the rights and civil liberties of both immigrants
and American citizens alike. Karen Schneider, a columnist of
American Libraries, described The Patriot Act as "the last
refuge of a scoundrel". As a librarian, she is concerned
about the pernicious scope of this Act that also covers the libraries
and their usage.
Indeed, the super-charged Ashcrofting
of America, in keeping with the McCarthy era, might be pushing
the country toward a false and counterproductive trade-off, as
argued by David Cole, professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown
University. In "Trading Liberty for Security after September
11, he comments: "... many have argued that we may need
to sacrifice some of our liberty in order to purchase greater
security. But for the most part what we have done since September
11 is not to make the hard choice of choosing which of our liberties
we are willing to forego, but rather to sacrifice their liberties-those
of immigrants, and especially of Arab and Muslim immigrants-for
the purported security of the rest of us. This double standard
is an all too tempting way to strike the balance-it allows citizens
to enjoy a sense of security without sacrificing their own liberty,
but it is an illegitimate trade-off. It is likely to be counterproductive,
as it will alienate the very communities that we most need
to work with as we fight the war on terrorism. And in the
end, it is a false trade-off, because what we do to immigrants
today often creates a precedent for what we do to U.S. citizens
tomorrow." [Foreign Policy in Focus, September 2002; emphasis
added]
According a Boston Globe report [Nov.
24, 2002], an Iraqi professor at the University of Massachussetts
at Amherst was interrogated by FBI for not any report of any
threat posed by the professor, but a report that he held anti-American
views. Since when harboring anti-American views has become a
crime, asked 75 members of UM faculty, who vehemently protested
this incident, and characterized the involvement of the University
administration as violation of academic freedom and vowed to
vigorously pursue this matter further. Harassing people for their
views, without any evidence or even credible threat, is undermining
the very America itself, and it would add to the alienated pool
of immigrants among Muslims and Arabs in particular.
Just like Muslims have an internal struggle
to clear themselves from tendency and agenda of the extremist
fringe, the voice of which is more boisterous than the vast majority
of Muslims, the two Americas are having their own struggle. These
two struggles are not quite unrelated. All those people who have
become members of ACLU in recent years are not merely Muslims,
Arabs or immigrants. Many other Americans, who are better informed
or increasingly more concerned about the erosion of democratic
values and spirit of America and the rise of super-patriotism,
are also finding it very important to stand up for the America
that Sen. Fulbright describes as America of Lincoln and Adlai
Stevenson--the America that is supposed to be 'the well-wisher
to the freedom and independence of all'.
Writing about "Terror at the Crossroad"
on MSNBC.com [May 20, 2003] and sharing some examples of some
moderate Islamic voices, columnist Ira Rifkin posed the question:
"Will Muslim moderates finally speak out against extremists?"
But the question can also be turned around and it can be asked:
Is the U.S. media establishment doing its due share in reciprocating
the positive and constructive effort of mainstream Muslims in
USA and elsewhere to get their messages across? Such people are
often brought to the media outlets, primarily to elicit repudiation
of the extreme trends, but there is hardly any opportunity given
to them to articulate their views on a myriad of contemporary
issues, whether those are palatable to the U.S. government or
not.
The U.S. government policies, especially of the super-patriot
line, continues to neglect, undermine, stifle and alienate the
Islamic voices of conscience and enlightenment both in the United
States and elsewhere. The same is done by the U.S. media that
disproportionately highlights the extreme fringe, while ignoring
the mainstream voices that can make a positive difference. Islam
of the fringe, as Fuller and Lesser argue, " is only strengthened
when it is referred to repeatedly and publicly by top officials
as a major threat" [p. 173].
In valuing and seeking freedom and independence
of ALL and forging mutually respectful and cooperative partnership
toward that goal might be the common ground on the basis of which
all conscientious and conscious people can attempt to build bridges
for a better future. That is also the spirit behind the following
verses of the Qur'an: "..help (cooperate) one another in
matters of Birr (virtue and goodness) and Taqwa;
and do not help (cooperate) in Ithm (sin) and transgression...."
[5/al-Maida/3] "To each is a goal to which Allah
turns him; then strive together (as in a race) towards all
that is good." [2/al-Baqara/148]
The world wishes and hopes that the struggle
of the two Americas resolve in favor of the Lincolnian one. That
is a struggle of the Americans in general. American Muslim community
also has a positive role to play in this regard. Self-critical
Muslims, everywhere, should ponder and consider: instead of "Death
to ..." this or that, can we chant and adopt a message,
program and principled position of mutual help and cooperation
in all that is good?
Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq is an associate professor of economics and finance
at Upper Iowa University. Personal Homepage: http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm;
email: farooqm@globalwebpost.com.
Weekend
Edition Features for August 9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
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