Challenging the paradigm

WE have been conditioned by our governments to perceive all Middle Eastern peoples, all Muslim people, as one homogenous, barbarous mass. George Bush found out just how well conditioned when he promoted the US ports sale the Mid-East financiers.

Politicians understand the first rule of their art; don’t confuse the punters with detail, keep it simple.

For the most part a compliant media compound the ignorance, rather than divert readers with the complexities of truth.

The public are, to a great extent, equally compliant. While blaming ‘life’s pressures’ for robbing them of time and energy to engage with issues, they will happily turn to escapist media to fill an actual void.

All cats are gray, in the dark. The question is; is there any compelling reason to switch on the light and determine the real colour of the cat?

It would seem, for most anyway, until a political or social crisis becomes unavoidable there is no compelling reason to know the truth.

Keeping it as simple as possible, just dealing with one point in this complex argument: The Middle East is not one cozy, homogenous, tight knit culture. First of all, let’s take Israel out of the discussion; we sort of understand that anomaly, even if we don’t trouble to make the make the distinction.

The Middle East, and even Islam, are as riddled with splits and divisions as are Western Societies. For one thing, the Middle East is dominantly Islamic, but not universally. Some of the oldest surviving forms of Christianity, not to mention pre-Christian/Judaic religions, make up significant pockets of populations.

Islam, in and of itself, is no more prone to violence than Christianity is. Let’s remember that Bush himself referred to his ‘Christian God’ while arguing for the need for his failed ‘crusade’ against the Moslems.

Terrorism is not the preserve of Moslem adherents. In fact the US has a long history of home grown terrorism, from the fight for independence to the likes of the Oklahoma bomber.

Does bin Laden care about Palestinian liberation?
One recent commentary by Australia’s Richard King, argues that he doesn’t:

“When it comes to discussion of Islamic politics, all roads lead to Palestine. But to say that Islamic fundamentalism can be traced to US support for Israel, or that al-Qa'ida would disappear if only the Palestinians were free, is to play directly into bin Laden's hands. Bin Laden does not want a free Palestine but a Palestine under sharia law.”

He goes on to argue that: “There is a war within the Muslim world. As yesterday's terror attacks on the Sinai peninsula remind us, the principal enemy of fundamentalist Islam is moderate Islam, not the West.”

The truth is that we, the people, have every right to bury ourselves in the mushroom compost, heaped on us by our political masters. But in doing so we must abandon the right to self righteous indignation when the truth is forced on us.

When we refuse to scratch the surface and look for the truth we become accomplices to those who set the social and political agenda. If we know that many politicians will abuse their position of trust, but fail to monitor and question their words and actions, we must share their guilt.

The guilt, in this instance, is one of accepting blanket labels which serve to dehumanize many fine people, simply because we are too weary to make the effort to find out who they really are.