Today, every Muslim is viewed as a terrorist. Those who have until now escaped being thought so will soon find themselves on the list. Islam in the eyes of the judges who pronounce on these things is a religion of terrorists. It is a strong enough allegation for those who do not know better to join the chorus and begin attacking us.
Our children grow up under the influence of parents who control their thinking and monitor every move they make. Even if the children are allowed certain freedoms of choice, the course they follow in the end will conform to what has been defined by the parents.
The children grow up nurtured on a one-sided media that lacks freedom and that cannot decide for itself, a media controlled by one person who thinks and decides for everybody. They grow up influenced by teachers who may have got their jobs by chance or who, finding no other employment, decided to become teachers since the profession provides a dependable source of income.
They are influenced by teachers who don’t know how to conduct dialogue or open discussion, who lack the ability to convince others and who know nothing about how to apply reason and logic or understand the psychology of the children sitting in front of them.
Some teachers think the best students are the ones who see nothing and say nothing. Our children grow up influenced by a decision-making process that gives the person in charge full authority to abuse the power as he likes. In the workplace, the policy prevailing is that of “Yes, sir” and “No, sir” and “Everything is all right, sir.”
A person with a strong personality who dares to present new and innovative ideas or bold opinions that contradict those held by the superiors is considered to have committed an unforgivable sin.
Even when it comes to putting things in the correct religious perspective, this is often done in a way that pushes people to focus on secondary issues while ignoring those of substance and real importance. Hence the prevailing state of inaction where talk centers on the outward signs of religion, music, visiting cemeteries, having or not having a beard and the correct posture to assume during prayer.
Any talk concerned with the essence of life, what makes it worth living, spreading humane values, the real meaning of freedom and how to free human minds is treated with the utmost suspicion. Freedom is the solution to many of our problems. How can anyone prevent himself from becoming an extremist when he feels the whole world contains only extremists? Why should our youth not become extremists when the world continues to turn a blind eye to injustice?
In our Islamic history, when the persecutions of Muslims intensified in Makkah, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) ordered his followers to seek refuge in Abyssinia, a non-Muslim country. He told his followers that the Abyssinian ruler was a fair man who ensured all those living in his land protection from injustice.
What we need is trust, love and freedom to direct the talents and potential of our youth into something useful. Otherwise, we must expect to be bitten and burned again and again for the same reasons from the same source.
Arab News From the Local Press 20 May 2003
