Monday, May 16, 2011
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The changing face of anger
Last week I was criticizing the extent to which anger is spreading among the peoples of the fastest growing religion in the world, Islam. Why is it so? I decided to find out.
I long had the notion that anger and dissatisfaction is spurred by one reason alone, that is poverty and ignorance. I thought that the poor and ignorant people in the world are the ones who often get frustrated in life and are drawn towards a life of anger and hate.
But then I heard an interview from Jim Sciutto, a foreign correspondent for ABC News. In his new book he mentions very chillingly a revelation about the london July7 bombings, "Londoners proudly recalled the Second World War: We survived the blitz, we can survive this. But this time the threat came from home. Britain's own people were killing their fellow citizens. And these were good British boys, with jobs, families, favorite soccer teams, and unmistakably British accents. "
What was going on here?
Jim goes on to mention his opinions he had formed over his many of foreign assignments :
a) "I also knew that anti-Americanism is a convenient tool for governments. The United States as foreign menace is a nice distraction from poverty, corruption, and utter failure at home."
b)" Many Muslims I've met have long believed that the United States is trying to control their lives, nearly always with the worst intentions. Here, the September 11 attacks were a joint plot of the CIA and Israeli intelligence. Violence in Iraq is not failed policy, but a deliberate American plan to occupy Muslim land and steal oil."
c) After seven years of reporting on this subject, I came to an unsettling truth: The Al-Qaeda-inspired view of an evil America bent on destroying Islam has moved from the fringe to the mainstream.
There is a converging, and a major diverging conclusions I could draw from this. Converging because these seem to point that anti-Americanism is now slowly becoming a fabric of thought thats common among Arabs and Muslims. Diverging because the conclusions that peoples of the Islamic and Arab world are drawing from the information system that is available are mostly wrong.
Yes, America bombed Iraq for profits, yes American actions have lead to a lot of deaths in Iraq. But consider the fact that they can never control Iraq. They want to get out of there, they have to. Iraq sits on a 70 odd billion$ surplus, while America is spending precious money on the war.
America cannot exploit Iraq while the world watches, atleast not for too long.
I watch the news feeds from Iraq and Afghanistan and more deaths are happening from differences between Sunnis and Shiates and petty differences. Last week 14 children going to take there final exams in North Afghanistan were pulled out of their bus and shot dead because they were not following the "right religion".
Hate knows no face, it feeds on misery and suffering and all in its path are cut down, good or bad.
They(people of Iraq and afghanistan) have a chance to reconcile and curb the sectarian violence and tell the Americans that "our country is safe you can leave". Anabar province handover was a key demonstration.
When people of Anabar decided to say, "enough" peace was restored. I am an Indian, a Punjabi by birth and I read in a book by KPS Gill, the then police commissioner of Punjab about how Sikhs decided to root out rape, murder and terrorism that were ushered in by the false promises of a separatist state in 1980's by Pakistan backed separatist. The similarity in Anabar and Punjab was that the people decided to act and surely peace prevails.
We need more such examples like Anabar to show that there is a chance for peace. India may never respond to terrorist attacks and people may call us cowards but look at the bright side of restraint from India's side.
Pakistan has a trade of 2.2 Billion$ with India and many Pakistani citizens come to India for medical treatment and visiting family. Can we say the same is the relations between Palestinians and Israelis? I'd pick a 100 times better chance between India and Pakistan any day...
It just begs the question; If the needless Iraqi sectarian violence was not there or Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza Strip was not to be would we have a more peaceful Middle East? When will people see that there is no face of anger and hate and that today it is America tomorrow it will be their own people...
I long had the notion that anger and dissatisfaction is spurred by one reason alone, that is poverty and ignorance. I thought that the poor and ignorant people in the world are the ones who often get frustrated in life and are drawn towards a life of anger and hate.
But then I heard an interview from Jim Sciutto, a foreign correspondent for ABC News. In his new book he mentions very chillingly a revelation about the london July7 bombings, "Londoners proudly recalled the Second World War: We survived the blitz, we can survive this. But this time the threat came from home. Britain's own people were killing their fellow citizens. And these were good British boys, with jobs, families, favorite soccer teams, and unmistakably British accents. "
What was going on here?
Jim goes on to mention his opinions he had formed over his many of foreign assignments :
a) "I also knew that anti-Americanism is a convenient tool for governments. The United States as foreign menace is a nice distraction from poverty, corruption, and utter failure at home."
b)" Many Muslims I've met have long believed that the United States is trying to control their lives, nearly always with the worst intentions. Here, the September 11 attacks were a joint plot of the CIA and Israeli intelligence. Violence in Iraq is not failed policy, but a deliberate American plan to occupy Muslim land and steal oil."
c) After seven years of reporting on this subject, I came to an unsettling truth: The Al-Qaeda-inspired view of an evil America bent on destroying Islam has moved from the fringe to the mainstream.
There is a converging, and a major diverging conclusions I could draw from this. Converging because these seem to point that anti-Americanism is now slowly becoming a fabric of thought thats common among Arabs and Muslims. Diverging because the conclusions that peoples of the Islamic and Arab world are drawing from the information system that is available are mostly wrong.
Yes, America bombed Iraq for profits, yes American actions have lead to a lot of deaths in Iraq. But consider the fact that they can never control Iraq. They want to get out of there, they have to. Iraq sits on a 70 odd billion$ surplus, while America is spending precious money on the war.
America cannot exploit Iraq while the world watches, atleast not for too long.
I watch the news feeds from Iraq and Afghanistan and more deaths are happening from differences between Sunnis and Shiates and petty differences. Last week 14 children going to take there final exams in North Afghanistan were pulled out of their bus and shot dead because they were not following the "right religion".
Hate knows no face, it feeds on misery and suffering and all in its path are cut down, good or bad.
They(people of Iraq and afghanistan) have a chance to reconcile and curb the sectarian violence and tell the Americans that "our country is safe you can leave". Anabar province handover was a key demonstration.
When people of Anabar decided to say, "enough" peace was restored. I am an Indian, a Punjabi by birth and I read in a book by KPS Gill, the then police commissioner of Punjab about how Sikhs decided to root out rape, murder and terrorism that were ushered in by the false promises of a separatist state in 1980's by Pakistan backed separatist. The similarity in Anabar and Punjab was that the people decided to act and surely peace prevails.
We need more such examples like Anabar to show that there is a chance for peace. India may never respond to terrorist attacks and people may call us cowards but look at the bright side of restraint from India's side.
Pakistan has a trade of 2.2 Billion$ with India and many Pakistani citizens come to India for medical treatment and visiting family. Can we say the same is the relations between Palestinians and Israelis? I'd pick a 100 times better chance between India and Pakistan any day...
It just begs the question; If the needless Iraqi sectarian violence was not there or Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza Strip was not to be would we have a more peaceful Middle East? When will people see that there is no face of anger and hate and that today it is America tomorrow it will be their own people...
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