Rhetoric does not help

As one bids a cold farewell to this year noted for its catastrophic events in the Middle East, Europe and the United States, one applauds the warm welcome that the Canadians have extended to their Muslim refugees and congratulations to the Saudi women who participated for the first time in municipal elections.

One also wishes to extend sympathy to some of the Muslims who faced objectionable treatment by their new neighbours, particularly in the US and Europe, and to all the students in Los Angeles who were reportedly threatened by Islamist extremists.

Needless to say, the causes of all these events are well-known and could be avoided if people were better educated during their formative years about a neighbour’s religion, which would help build understanding and appreciation in one’s society.

High schools should include studying all religions in their curricula.

In a recent editorial, The New York Times wrote: “… Americans must guard against overreaction, and subdue the panicked reflex of distrust and hatred towards Americans among us who are Muslims. This has been a problem at least since September 11 and will remain one as long as ignorance about Islam remains deep and widespread.

“Today, the ignorance is being inflamed by know nothings in the political sphere — by Republican presidential candidates calling for American Muslims to be registered and monitored, and for mosques to be spied on or shut down.”

The recent mass shootings in San Bernardino, California, were immediately condemned by Muslim groups in the US as inhuman and un-Islamic.

The New York Times reported that “Muslim leaders stood flanked by American flags alongside clergy of other faiths and law enforcement officials”.

Regrettably, an anti-Muslim backlash emerged, with some, even in the US military, reportedly saying that they felt they were under an attack that underlines a revolting spread of Islamophobia.

A Republican front-runner in the upcoming primary presidential election, Donald J. Trump, has meanwhile called for monitoring mosques and even barring Muslims from entering the United States. He has been the sole beneficiary from this depressive atmosphere in the country.

Likewise, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to The Washington Post, “has stepped up his rhetorical campaign to convince the world that the surge in Palestinian violence [in Israel] is not born of frustration against Israel’s decades-long occupation but instead is the work of radical Islam”.

William Booth, the Post’s Jerusalem correspondent, added: “Netanyahu is pressing his case that Israel, Europe and the United States face a common enemy — and in doing so he is trying to blur the lines between Palestinians wielding knives and Islamic state militants carrying assault rifles.”

In a videotaped address at the Brookings Institution last month in Washington, Booth explained that the Israeli prime minister ”argued that the source of popular Palestinian violence has little or nothing to do with the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank or the 48-year Israeli occupation”.

A lengthy report written by David Remnick on the US Middle East policy, which is to appear (December 21) in an upcoming edition in The New Yorker, is notable for focusing on the different views of President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry.

Remnick said that it was Kerry’s “persistence and self-assurance” that has led to his “nine months of fruitless, chaotic and arguably, corrosive negotiations that broke down last year between the Israelis and Palestinians — negotiations that almost no one, not even the President [Barack Obama], believed would lead to a breakthrough”.

“Kerry argued that the hell bound trajectory of events was leading towards calamity, and he had to try; his critics said that the conditions were not ripe, and that the effort amounted to a diplomatic vanity project.”

After noting that most of the ministers in Netanyahu’s Cabinet are opposed to a two-state solution, he continued: “American officials speak of Netanyahu as myopic, entitled, untrustworthy, routinely disrespectful towards the President [Obama], and focused solely on short-term political tactics to keep his high right-wing constituency in line.”

He added that the Israeli prime minister “seems not to care if he insults the [Obama] administration”.

Kerry’s stance is clear, according to Remnick. He said that “only if Israel and the Palestinians come knocking will he get involved in a negotiation”.

He quotes Kerry’s special envoy, Frank Lowenstein, as saying: “The window for a two-state solution is closing, though none of us who’ve work on it will regret that we tried to save it.”

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.