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Charlie

20 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by Nicolas Sawaya in Islam, Terrorism

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Freedom of Speech, Islam, Terrorism

je-suis-charlie

I stand with freedom of speech, and the right of everyone, including bigots and racists, to freely express themselves and their ideas; as such,‪#‎jesuisCharlie. I do not stand with or support the freely expressed opinions of everyone, in particular those of racists and bigots; as such,‪#‎jenesuispasCharlie.

I understand and appreciate the position of many of my Muslim friends who have chosen to publically condemn the massacres and who have tried to explain that Islamic teachings do not condone in the slightest these attacks in order to educate, but I stand with my Muslim friends who refuse, on principle, to condemn these attacks. The latter refuse to condemn not because they condone these attacks (they don’t), and not because they don’t support freedom of speech (they do), and not because they don’t consider this to be a heinous attack on innocent civilians (they do), but because they refuse to play this condemnation game whose underlying logic they recognize as essentially bigoted. I say bigoted because the implicit logic here is that unless they publically condemn this attack, they are deemed to be complicit in this attack by virtue of their silence, and solely because they share the same faith as extremists who claim to be acting in defense of that faith. As such, their refusal to condemn is a refusal to acknowledge this bigoted logic. On a deeper level, the fact that they feel it necessary to take this principled stance is a reflection of a certain Zeitgeist, especially in the West, that has permeated social discourse on these issues. Sometimes, this is explicitly vocalized by aforementioned bigots in the form of “why aren’t the moderate Muslims speaking out against these attacks!?”, but most of the time, it is more subtle and expressed in the form of suspicion and un-trust towards Muslims in different spheres of life. This creates a poisonous atmosphere where the targeted group begins to feel the walls closing in; thus defiance and the principled stand.

I do not stand with hypocritical proclamations coming from the leaders of France about their unequivocal support for freedom of speech as a universal value that ought to be protected and that serves as a fundamental pillar of French values. I say hypocritical because when freedom of speech is elevated to a universal value (as it should be), but only selectively enforced, then that claim to universality is automatically undermined. Leaving aside the historical fact that the French law advocating for freedom of speech, passed in 1881, was explicitly shaped to exclude France’s colonial subjects, including Algerian Muslims, from exercising that freedom, freedom of speech continues to be selectively enforced today across different facets of French policy. It is selectively enforced within France when that freedom of speech is not accorded to some who wish to criticize certain religions or events, and selectively enforced when it interferes with certain business interests of the French Republic. The latter is especially ironic when one examines the relationship between France and Saudi Arabia. At the same exact moment that the Charlie Hebdo attacks were occurring, a world away in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi blogger by the name of Raif Badawi was publically flogged 50 times in public for running a liberal website that criticized Saudi rulers and the ruling Wahhabi ideology. Badawi was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 1000 public lashes (50 of which were administered a few days ago) and 10 years of prison for exercising his freedom of speech. Meanwhile, France has been busy supplanting the US in becoming Saudi Arabia’s leading arms dealer; Hollande, in particular, has been leading this charge. Raif Badawi’s freedom of speech, which he used to criticize this ideology that is responsible for so much of the Islamic extremism that we see today including the Charlie Hebdo massacres, is one that is conveniently not being supported by France, by virtue of their continued business dealings with the Saudis. And to be clear, Badawi is not the only victim of this oppression: Mohammed al-Qahtani, Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammed al-Bajadi, Abd- al-Kareem al-Khodr, Omar al-Saeed and countless others have had their freedom of speech denied by the Saudi state, and yet, their freedom of speech is not deemed worthy of being defended by France (by for instance, terminating their arms deals with the Saudis).

These dynamics and other underlying issues that I’ve failed to highlight in this post are worthy of being examined and unpacked as a result of this tragedy, so hopefully, we can have a good discussion that goes beyond the usual clichés.

To moderate Muslims: Condemn!

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by Nicolas Sawaya in Islam, Terrorism

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Islam, Terrorism

hannity-muslims

Every time some atrocity is committed by some individual or group “in the name of Islam”, you inevitably hear someone say: “why aren’t the moderate Muslims condemning this atrocity?”. I’m really tired of hearing this complaint over and over again. Here’s why:

1) There are “moderate Muslims” that condemn this atrocity. There are many who do so in English, and many more that do so in Arabic. The fact that you haven’t heard anyone condemning it (by virtue of you asking the question) reflects more on you than anyone else: you should either consider befriending more Muslims and/or learn Arabic. In fact, there is quite the vigorous debate within the Arab/Islamic world about whether Islam allows for the atrocious acts to be done in its name. So that we don’t hide behind our finger (like we say in Arabic), yes, there are fundamentalist schools of Islamic thought that have been adopted by some in the Muslim world, and yes, they do have access to funds. However, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of Islamic schools of thought and their scholars (and by extension, their adherents) do not condone these atrocities.

2) There is clearly a double standard when it comes to atrocities committed by some “in the name of Islam” vs. others committed in the name of some other religion. For example, take the state of Israel, an admittedly Jewish state that purports to speak on behalf of Jews world-wide. Does anyone ask “moderate Jews” to condemn the heinous atrocities and massacres committed by the State of Israel against Palestinians and other Arabs? Or what about Christian Zionists who provide invaluable financial, political and moral support to the State of Israel in committing these atrocities by virtue of their interpretation of the Bible? Does anyone ask “moderate Christians” to condemn the support provided by Christian Zionists to the State of Israel in committing these atrocities? Or what about the group of fundamentalist Buddhists of Myanmar who have no problem massacring the Rohingya Muslims? Does anyone ask “moderate Buddhists” to condemn these massacres? The list goes on and on.

3) Most importantly, Muslims shouldn’t be asked to condemn anything at all done in the name of Islam in the first place. I don’t tend to use the racist or bigot card very often, but the statement “why aren’t the moderate Muslims condemning this atrocity?” is actually a bigoted statement, and demonstrably so. The statement implies that the lack of explicit condemnation is (tacit) approval, for otherwise, why ask the question? To be clear, the implication here is that unless there is explicit condemnation by some (moderate) Muslims, then *all* Muslims (tacitly) approve of this atrocity. This follows logically, for if you believed that there were moderate Muslims that didn’t approve but chose to be quiet for instance, then you wouldn’t be asking for explicit condemnation (since you would already know that there were “moderate” Muslims that didn’t approve of this atrocity, but chose to be quiet). As such, anytime anyone claims that *all* members of a group are “fill in the blank”, he is clearly making a bigoted statement. This applies to any and all groups, whether Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists or anyone else.

In conclusion, just stop with the complaining, and examine your own assumptions.

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