CHARADE

Islamists have become good at their own kind of PR. Every once in a while they find something to raise hell over and threaten the world. The charade over Cartoons of Mohammad is still lingering on in the Media, now they have started another bizarre show of offended feelings and indignant masses over a teddy bear called Mohammad in a Sudan’s class room of 7-8 year old kids.  The timing of this teddy bear show puzzles me greatly. Is the concurrent teddy bear saga and Annapolis conference merely a coincidence or does the timing tell us something?

It is irrelevant whether the English teacher has done this deliberately or it is just “an innocent mistake.” Whatever the reason, the action of the Sudanese government must be categorically condemned. This is a deliberate political action with a political aim. I do not believe that the Sudanese government is alone on this. In my opinion this is a well planned and well coordinated action by the Islamist movement. This is an Islamist style PR action.

Every once in a while we are witnessing a show of so-called fanatic Muslim frenzy. These serials of soap opera like reality shows are creating a real dilemma for the international world. Questions are raised in perplexed moods. In the West people are divided. Some, out of fear or frustration, feel Islam should be left alone and free from any criticism and satire. Others get vengeful over the so-called “Muslim communities” and vent their anger in a racist manner on them. These reactions are wrong and will not solve the problem.

We must get to the root causes. Two basic questions must be asked: Is this really a spontaneous demonstration of people’s indignation and hurt feelings, or is it an orchestrated political demonstration to intimidate and terrorize the world? Is compromise and compassion with the angry mob the solution?

In my opinion this is a political demonstration orchestrated and organised by political Islam. The civilized and humane world must stand against it. We must condemn all such actions and expose them as they really are: a political stage managed demonstration by the Islamist bullies. However, this is only one part of the solution.

The Islamists have been helped by the actions of USA-Britain and their allies. Iraq war, Afghanistan, war on Lebanon, and the fate of the Palestinians and the injustices they suffer play in the hands of Islamists. People in the Middle East and North Africa are increasingly becoming indignant, angry and frustrated by these wars and injustices. This is no soap opera. It is real. It is justified.

To stand against this side of the coin, the US led aggression against the world, is another part of the solution. Islamists are exploiting this real anger; they are manipulating people’s frustration. They pose as their spokesperson. Islamists are not representative of the people. They are merely cashing in on real sufferings, real anger and real frustration felt by millions of people. We must stand against both poles. We must not fall into the trap of “Easterners” and “Westerners”, Muslims, non-Muslims. This is not clash of civilization. This is not a cultural war. This is a real political war with deep roots. And we must address the roots.

As long as we explain the complicated issues with oversimplified dichotomies, such as moderates vs fundamentalists, Muslims vs non- Muslims, West vs East we will not be able to tackle the real problem. The real problem is over political power, political supremacy between USA and the Islamists. Religion, culture, race and colour happen to be convenient tools for distorting the real war, for falsifying the real interests. This is a political war as well as an ideological war. We need to fight it in both battlegrounds. A world free from aggression, injustices and religious frenzy depends on this.