On Sept. 11, 2001 a pandemic of madness hit the world and has been on the march since.
America was attacked, an important symbol of America's might and economic power was destroyed and three thousand innocent souls from all faiths, all colors and all nationalities disappeared. The crime triggered a global earthquake. The epicenter was the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children have been killed to date and the toll is on the rise.
Many historians place the age of the Enlightenment between the death of Louis XIV in 1715, and the coup d'état of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9) 1799, when the future Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte took power. Many will undoubtedly place the Age of Madness between the collapse of the Twin Towers five years ago and the recent war on Lebanon, or another major man-made disaster yet to unfold.
Sept. 11, 2001 is not only the anniversary of a tragedy that hit America, shocked the world, claimed three thousand lives and changed life for each of us; it is also the anniversary of the beginning of the Age of Madness.
Since the destruction of the Twin Towers the world has witnessed chaos and misery beyond description and experienced a gushing wave of hatred, cruelty, revenge and cultural ignorance beyond belief.
Respect for life, for human rights and for all that is sacred and valuable has disappeared. Hope of global peace and security has vanished into thin air, genuine efforts to promote love and compassion in the heart of man have stalled, while attempts to conceal the values commonly shared by people of different faiths and cultures have accelerated and multiplied.
Religions have been hijacked, sacred figures lampooned and holy books desecrated. Religious sites have been destroyed and religious teachings intentionally misinterpreted, or totally ignored in favor of writings that tarnish the image of Islam and pave the way for a conflict between a great world religion and the West. Books that promote the untenable theory of a clash of civilizations and brainwash the credulous are in wide circulation, thanks to powerful, unscrupulous publicity campaigns.
Biased authors, whose writings widen the gap between Arabs and Muslims on one side and the West on the other, are hailed by trouble-makers and warmongers as intellectuals, thinkers and experts on Middle East affairs. Men and women, who spout venom, attack the Muslim faith, denigrate the Arab and Muslim culture, ridicule the Arab and the Muslim way of life are often presented to the gullible and the culturally illiterate as speakers of incontestable truth. Writers, who hate Arabs and Muslims to the bone, are sometimes placed on a pedestal and their utterances presented to a naïve audience as rare words of wisdom.
Institutions created by our predecessors to shield us from the woes of wars have grown too weak to carry the burden that madness has placed upon them.
Palestinians, Iraqis and Lebanese have borne the brunt of the consequences of the incurable madness pandemic. They have suffered the birth pangs of torture, humiliation, violence, chaos, injustice, assassinations and cruelty...natural offspring of the Age of Madness.
After 1948, the majority of Palestinians were forced to emigrate. The small minority that braced the odds and remained behind, lived on a tiny and crowded patch of land, where they have been subjected to many hardships and much injustice.
The misery, which dogged the footsteps of the Palestinian people for almost six decades, has intensified in the last five years.
Prior to Sept. 11, men and women who fought illegal occupations were called freedom fighters, their struggle was lawful and their sacrifices were described as acts of bravery. Today Palestinians who resist the illegal occupation of lands captured in 1967 are terrorists and their struggle is terrorism.
Palestinians have been shot and killed, like birds of prey and many of their homes have been destroyed. The tiny, crowded, towns Palestinians occupy are poor in food, water, sanitation, security and health care, and rich in blood, orphans, widows, widowers, bereaved parents and mourning families. Their streets are littered with dead bodies and injured people, instead of olive trees. The screams they utter and the sighs they heave reverberate in the Middle East and break Muslim and Arab hearts.
The slaughter of Palestinian men, women and children is often called "an act of self-defense". The road map, which should lead to the creation of two states living side by side in peace and harmony, is a cul-de-sac.
When Palestinians chose the path of democracy, they were deprived of monthly salaries and of the tax money collected on their behalf and were placed on a fast track to starvation, unemployment, bankruptcy and poverty.
The democratically elected Palestinian government has been labeled "a terrorist group" by a few influential decision-makers in the world. Many Palestinian ministers and members of Parliament have been arrested, beaten and imprisoned. Many Palestinian leaders have been assassinated or placed behind bars.
Iraqis have not had better luck than their brothers and sisters in Gaza and the West Bank. They tolerated, with fortitude and courage, decades of wars and tyranny under Saddam Hussein and were subjected to years of cruel sanctions for wrongs and crimes they had never committed. After the invasion of their country and the fall and the capture of the ruthless dictator, whose statue they joyfully pulled down, they wrongly believed their dream of stability, freedom and democracy would be soon realized.
Unfortunately, their joy was short-lived; their hopes were dashed to the ground and their dream of freedom and democracy quickly changed into a horrific nightmare. The comfortable life they had aspired for and the great prosperity they had been promised were but a mirage. In New Iraq, chaos prevails, sectarian violence claims scores of lives every day and the threat of a civil war looms.
The insecurity that plagues Iraq has prevented its citizens from becoming masters in their own land and managers and sole beneficiaries of the great wealth they possess.
In the troubled Middle East, disasters can fall on happy days and violence erupts when it is least expected. On Feb. 14, 2005 (Valentine Day!!!) Rafik Hariri, an important, well-respected political figure and the builder of a county destroyed by years of civil war, was assassinated. The crime shook Lebanon and the repercussions were felt in the entire Middle East. The death of former Prime Minister Hariri and his sudden disappearance from the political scene has left a vacuum hard to fill, created problems difficult to solve and gave rise to questions hard to answer with certitude.
The sad story does not end here.
Last July a vicious, open war was declared on Lebanon. The hesitation and the inexplicable reluctance of the international community to call for an immediate cease-fire resulted in the destruction of the Lebanese infrastructure and the death and injury of thousands of Lebanese citizens and hundreds of Israeli citizens. The air and sea blockade, which Israel imposed on Lebanon, subjected the Lebanese people to many hardships and hurt the Lebanese economy in no small way.
Although it has been five years since America was attacked and an endless war on terror was declared, no efforts have been made to-date to define clearly "terrorism" or to explain to a confused world in what way "terror" differs from "torture" and from "crimes against humanity".
A misunderstanding of words in common use and a lack of accurate definitions for popular terms like "extremism", "radicalism", "fanaticism" and "fascism", which are loosely employed when Islam and Muslims are the subject of criticism or discussion or Muslim countries are the target of sanctions, threats, invasions or military attacks, can only fan the flames of Islam phobia, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism and defeat efforts to promote peace and security in the world.
On Sept. 11 we shall remember the innocent victims of the attack on America and the victims of past and present natural and man-made disasters. We should also remember and pray for a world gone mad.
