Pick Your Middle East Myth

I hope I'm not going to surrender my limp-wristed liberal card here, but I'm getting damned sick and tired of "It's not all or even most of the Muslims, of course. The vast majority of Muslims are peace loving." I'm also fed up with listening to Bush and Blair pretend they're in Iraq to bring democracy and that they might soon have to confer the same benefits on Iran. I've also had quite enough of hearing that Israel is the only democracy in the region.

Let's ask some harsh but pertinent questions. Do the U.S., U.K., Australia and sometimes Canada honestly believe that we're in the Middle East to bring democracy, rights for women and that sort of stuff? Did the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld bunch cast their eyes around the world, see who might be great pals to have, and decide, "What the hell, let's pick Saudi Arabia"? Is the current American interest in Iran related to a deeply held view that it could use some Anglo-American democracy and civil rights? Let's narrow the question down. Why hasn't this democratic idealism manifested itself in U.S. and U.K. policy towards, say, China, where they could sure as hell use some help? Or North Korea, now succeeding Albania as the worst dictatorship in the world? How about the second worst, Burma or Myanmar? Or could this be all about protecting supplies of a certain product?

Wash your mouth out with oil, Rafe!!!

Of course it is about oil and that's the only answer. This bit about democracy and rights is barnyard droppings right up there with "This hurts me more than it hurts you" as Dad takes you to the woodshed for a licking. Since the Royal Navy converted to oil just before World War I, the western interest in the entire region has been to safeguard its oil supplies. Britain was already in the area, of course, protecting the Suez Canal, which was essential to their control of India and Burma. One could go on at great length, but surely to God we can all agree on this: the western countries don't care a fiddler's carnal knowledge about the well-being of the good people of the Middle East who, as it turns out, aren't all that good either.

Where's the peace and love?

For on the other side of this grossly hypocritical propaganda, accepted with child-like belief by so many in the west, is the nauseating gup that follows the latest atrocities by, yes, Muslims. It rings in your ears as the mindless oh-so-liberal voices all say, "Of course it isn't the ordinary Muslim who's doing all this blah, blah, blah." And I'm as guilty as any, but my epiphany came in August 2005 when I saw an interview on BBC Hard Talk with Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammad, who openly supported Osama bin Laden, constantly praised as heroes and martyrs the 19 who did 9/11, and refused to criticize the London bombings. He said, amongst other things, that if Europe failed to heed Bin Laden's offer of a truce, namely that terrorism would end provided that all foreign troops were withdrawn from Iraq in three months, terrorism would continue and increase. Now this wasn't Bin Laden speaking, nor was it simply some spokesman for the other side of the divide. This was a senior Muslim cleric who lapsed into English just long enough to make his point, which is usually made in Arabic in front of a packed Mosque.

What is this crap about no general responsibility amongst Muslims when so many teach their children to hate Jews and Christians? In this interview we heard the same holy man describe how, in London, there's a waiting list of young Muslims pining for the right to strap on the bombs and head to the nearest Underground station or bus stop. We're talking about kids here who have their lives before them, wanting to kill and be killed.

Who's programming them?

When was the last time you heard of Anglican or Catholic kids, or Jews and United church youngsters lining up to commit suicide? And what would happen if a priest, minister or rabbi urged such conduct as the short way to heaven and 40 virgins? And what would happen to those clerics from their own flocks if they did such a thing?

We're told that Islam is a peaceful religion. Yeah, like the Old Testament is. This is small "l" liberal crap dutifully intoned by pious higher-purpose persons -- in Denny Boyd's timeless phrase -- because that's what the higher-purpose person sees, correctly, as his badge of membership in the country's oh so nice and cozy establishment.

Choose sides at your peril

In truth, the only real argument is which side is worse. Take your pick, I say. Moreover, when you narrow it down, let's throw the Israelis into this mix because they belong there. It's true that the Palestinian authority has hardly been nor is now the flower of peaceful democratic thought and action. But neither is Israel though it does better in the trappings department. Read The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide by Susan Nathan, a Jew who went from her native U.K. to live in Israel and chose a town of 25,000 where she was the only Jew. This is not about Palestinians but Israeli Palestinians -- citizens of Israel. Read that book and then render your judgment about the state of democracy in what bills itself as the only democracy in the region.

So, Rafe, what's your point?

Simple. There is no good in this multi-faceted, multi-national war which in at least one country, Iraq, is a three-cornered civil war. The U.S./U.K. and their cronies couldn't care less about democracy, civil rights and the horrible discrimination against women. They need a secure supply of oil and are prepared to do anything, including hold the safety of the entire world hostage to their policy, to achieve that goal. I might be a bit more sympathetic (after all it's my supply of oil too in the sense that it's a world-wide market) if the U.S. & Co. would confess their motives and be done with it.

Islam is not a peace-loving religion. If it were, Imams around the world would be preaching peace to their flocks and speaking out publicly against the atrocities committed in the name of Allah by Muslims.

Israel, which despite its pullout from the place, continues to bombard the Gaza daily, killing innocent women and children, continues its plan to annex disputed land, and treats its Palestinian citizens as if they were serfs to be handled as in the days of feudalism, or worse.

There are sides to be picked. It's hard not to when every day may be our last because of the situation that exists in this region. All I say is, when you pick your side, for the love of God, Allah or Jehovah don't do so because you see any virtue in your selection…for virtue can only be seen through the eyes of a hypocrite or a fool -- or both.

Rafe Mair writes a Monday column for The Tyee. His website is www.rafeonline.com.

Related stories in The Tyee: Haifa Zangana chronicled eroding women's rights in Iraq; Tom Sandborn explored what to do when preachers spew hate; and Crawford Kilian reported on a recent speech by maverick Middle East reporter Robert Fisk.