THE continuing attack on Muslim communities around the world is causing increasing resentment amongst them and this is aggravated by a perception that this is a war against Muslims in more sense than one.
The latest anti-Muslim salvo in this war ostensibly against terrorism is Washington’s decision to freeze the assets of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based Islamic welfare organization which has been working for years in purely welfare and humanitarian work to alleviate the appalling suffering we have been witness to in the West Bank and Gaza.
Anyone suspected of helping them in their noble efforts immediately becomes a target for an Israeli-led smear campaign, which seems to have the backing of the United States. The charges by Washington also blame this foundation for funding the activities of Hamas, a charge vigorously denied by its management.
Two other US-based foundations have been targeted, namely the Benevolence Foundation and the Global Development Foundation. By freezing the assets of these welfare bodies, Muslims in many parts of the world are now starving. What irks and angers the Muslim world is that there is simply no adequate proof against these charities and individuals. Muslims are now wary of giving zakah to these welfare organizations. How would the Vatican or the World Council of Churches feel if their assets were frozen with no adequate proof? There would be uproar in the Christian world.
We also tend to forget the Kingdom’s record in coming to the aid of poor countries and always being amongst the first to help in disaster areas worldwide. As Muslims become more and more reluctant about helping their fellow brethren, some have even expressed fear at being "hounded" by the authorities. Instead of feeling sympathetic toward the situation in which we currently find ourselves, Muslims feel their attitudes hardening toward the United States, a growing mood of belligerence and even hostility as they see themselves beleaguered on all fronts. Muslims also feel that the Bush administration, flushed with victory against Al-Qaeda, now feels sufficiently emboldened to cast its net wider against the Muslims, on any excuse or pretension. Nor do Muslims feel that the United States is in any sense an honest broker and has abandoned its peacemaking role that it espoused shortly after World War II.
Wherever Muslims turn, they see their own communities under a state of siege; and whenever they switch on their television sets there is an endless stream of either anti-Muslim propaganda or a continuous degradation and destruction of Muslim lives and properties. Most conflicts in the Muslim world need a radical, surgical solution which is certainly not forthcoming from any quarter.
Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya, Mindanao... the list goes on. More and more Muslims are dying and the world press still emphasizes the injuries of a US Marine — while belittling the death of 16 Afghans in the same skirmish. It seems that some lives are more precious than others — something not lost on the Muslim world.
This same press has succumbed to the influence of the Washington-based pro-Israel organization that translates the Arab press into English, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Muslims feel that if Arab Muslims established a group in the United States to show the hatred published against the Arabs, they would be accused of anti-Semitism. Thus we see a concerted campaign against anything organized for the Muslims anywhere in the world and we all know who is behind this campaign.
Muslims also feel growing resentment at the encroaching US presence on their soil; the increased US presence in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the Philippines. Nobody seems to believe that the US bases for "security" will not become a permanent fixture of the global Muslim landscape.
Any journalist covering the conditions of prisoners on Guantanamo Bay in the interest of veracity on human rights might soon find himself on a hit list, or at the very least barred from further reporting. Let’s hope this writer will not have to write his next report datelined Guantanamo Bay!
The United States has been a friend and an ally for over five decades. Many of us want that to continue. But we also want to make it equally clear that we need friends, not masters.
