Civil Society

Democracy and Intolerance

By Hassan Elsawaf

The recent spate of violence engulfing many parts of the Muslim world is widely interpreted to reflect a deep divide between Muslims on one side and the rest of the world on the other. Many see the problem as an inexplicable growing trend of Islamic fanaticism, speaking a language no one else speaks and believing in a way of life no one else understands. Few take the trouble to analyse this dangerous phenomenon. Few attempt to envisage Muslims living like the rest of the world or coexisting peacefully with other creeds. Indeed, intolerance within the extreme Muslim communities has reached levels that make the possibility of a smooth transition to a modern mindset all but a mirage.

The cartoon furore is but the tip of the iceberg. Actually, it is long overdue and, in a way, it is healthy it came up when it did, since it allows many festering concepts to be confronted. The chasm between Muslims and the rest of the world was getting wider and was being compounded by burgeoning Muslim communities within the western world. Migration from Muslim countries to the more affluent part of the world has been on the rise for a while, spurred by poor living conditions and stifling oppression. Europe, long a bastion of secular life and its corollary of free thinking, has been forced to accept throngs of Muslim immigrants, importing the rigidity of their religious rituals. Ironically, it is the very freedom under which Europeans live that allowed incoming Muslims the right to attempt imposing their way of life which is, in essence, antithetical to the core of modern western values.

It is right for the West to defend what have become inalienable rights, free speech and free thinking. Even if the cartoons are highly offensive and in terribly poor taste, they can never reach the level of being deemed a crime over which governments must apologise and embassies are burned. However, the real issue is how superficially the West is dealing with the problem. In many ways, millions of oppressed and miserable Muslims are exploiting the cartoon issue to, perhaps subconsciously, vicariously express their simmering frustration. The furious masses are not just angry over the cartoons; they are angry over the fact that those who can create the cartoons are living far better than them. They are angry at the amorphous force that denies them a fair chance at a good life. Their oppression-generated ignorance has allowed them to be gullible to the point of believing their ruthless oppressors’ pathetic excuses of the West being behind their predicament. They are incapable of realising that it is those very rulers who are the real source of their misery. If the West is serious it must deal with the situation at the grass-roots level. The Western democracies must focus their attention on freeing the besieged nations of Islam still living under brutal tyranny and must understand that it is only by freeing them from oppression that their minds can also be freed and that the rancour can abate.Given the level of opposition in some Muslim countries living under dictatorship, if the will to help the indigenous forces demanding freedom is attained, change is not farfetched.

The obtuse West needs to realise that its own safety lies in accepting the fact that oppressed Muslims are human beings too. It is the oppression under which they live that creates the violence.

India’s Muslims, more numerous than Pakistani Muslims did not burn flags and embassies. Have you ever wondered why?