Looking back and reading my Sept. 6 and 13 columns from last year I wondered at how in the dark we all were then about the impending attacks on New York City's World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Who would have thought that the Western world's most potent symbols of strength and wealth would be attacked? Not even a Hollywood movie had the wild imagination to predict such attacks.
Now, a year later, the nasty Taleban regime in Afghanistan, which had coddled Osama Bin Laden and his supporters, has been overthrown and democracy and freedom have returned to that battle-scarred land. Yet Bin Laden is still on the run and US President George Bush III is getting ready for yet another war, this one against President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. With most of the world set against such a move, Bush has yet to make his case to key allies in Europe and the Middle East.
What is most alarming though is the looming war of civilizations between the West and Muslim countries. Many have predicted this was the way the world has been heading, and many would agree that it is where it has gone. While some moderate Muslims have had the courage to speak out against the growing amount of violence and terrorism done in the name of Islam, it hasn't been enough to drown out the hatred of those Muslims who are intent on destroying the West.
The governments of many Muslim countries are squarely to blame for this sad state of affairs. For decades now they have looked the other way or even given money to extremists within our societies, allowing them to spread their message of hate and intolerance. Don't say hello to non-Muslims, shun them and never befriend them. This has been the message of extremists for far too long. How is the Muslim world supposed to interact with the rest of the world, be they Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist, if they are told to hate them first?
We must all learn how to be citizens of the world, as comfortable in a mosque in Cairo as we are in a cathedral in Manila or a Jewish temple in New York City. I am not saying that Muslims should give up on their religion, what I am saying is that we should learn all we can about other religions and cultures. This assimilation of foreign ideas and customs is what once made the Islamic civilization so great. What would have happened if centuries ago retrogrades had rejected the study of ancient Greek thought? Would Islam and Europe never have emerged from the Dark Ages?
The challenge now for all Muslim governments, as it has been for the past several decades, is how to modernize without losing one's roots, but also without descending into a pit of intolerance, hatred and narrow-mindedness. Malaysia provides a good example of a Muslim country that has modernized yet remained faithful to its Islamic roots. (Notwithstanding its poor treatment of Filipino deportees.)
The depravities suffered by Filipinos in Malaysia
THE NEWS reports keep coming in every day, detailing the appalling conditions that Filipino deportees are being subjected to by Malaysian authorities, as they continue their crackdown against illegal immigrants.
A 13-year-old Filipino girl was allegedly sexually molested by Malaysian policemen while in detention, and 326 detained Filipinos complained they were quickly moved from cramped and smelly quarters to clean accommodations as soon as a Filipino fact-finding mission came to visit them. They also complained that the food served them looked like dog food.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week had initially refused to call Malaysian President Mahathir Mohamad, but eventually did so after the reports of abuse kept coming in from detention camps in Malaysia. This week she sent Nur Jaafar, her adviser on Muslim affairs, to visit the detention camps in Malaysia. He did so, but one couldn't help but notice the gingerly fashion in which he did so in an apparent attempt not to upset the arrogant Malaysians. As the Philippine Daily Inquirer so aptly pointed out in its editorial yesterday, President Arroyo doesn't have jobs for all the returning refugees and can only hope that Malaysia will eventually take most, if not all of them, back.
It is the sweat and tears of these Filipino Muslim deportees that Malaysia has been built on, and Mahathir and other Malaysian leaders would do well not to forget this. Malaysia desperately needs foreign labor to continue growing, and has benefited from foreign workers for decades now. I think most Islamic scholars would agree that caning overstayers is unIslamic however you look at it. Malaysia would do well to revise it laws as soon as possible.
No one is disputing Malaysia's right to deport undocumented foreigners, but it should do so in a humane and orderly fashion. Malaysia should also realize that most of these deportees are just going to return to the Philippines and once they get a new passport, return to Malaysia and live there until the next crackdown. Giving residency papers to these Filipinos who have made lives for themselves in Sabah would be the natural thing to do. After all, Sabah was once part of the Philippines. Would Malaysia like to have Sabah returned to the Philippines? I don't think so!
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