Let’s Go Back to our Tents

Using religion for political and personal benefits is an old tactic. And unfortunately Moslem religious leaders have exhausted this tactic and we (Moslems) always take the bait. It seems like “eltekrar ye3alim el…..” does not apply to this part of the globe.
Danish episode was deliberately escalated by Islamists to provoke more hatred towards the west and everything civilized. Some Imams have even used false accusations to further exaggerate their ambitions; check this .
If this episode tells me something, it clearly shows the power of our religious leaders to manipulate our emotions and mass move the public. Most people who participated in this campaign have not actually seen the caricatures, or have seen other drawings that were specifically published to deceive the public. But unfortunately; our public is not the type that digs out the truth from the source and form their opinions, simply because they are too lazy to research, they settle for a word of mouth and like parrots repeat, succumb, or else…..
This does not surprise me at all; our whole educational system is based on REPETITION.
I see and read a lot of hatred remarks even from some Moslems that don’t know the ABC’s of their religion, death threats are all around, not only directed to those Danish artists, but also to whomever utters a word against their campaign, or even towards the ones who do not participate in the flow of boycotting Danish products. Liberals are keeping their mouths (pens) shut although they refuse such an unprecedented outburst because they are too scared. Their opponents do not deal with reason, they fight with blood. And that’s a shame.
This proves my point that religion is about politics. Most of us declare: religion is between man and God, and I will not participate in any religious politics. Yet, one incident shows how much we are in deep $#%^ when it comes to political Islam.
How degrading it is to be used and not realize it.
All I’m asking here is for the free mind thinkers to give this issue its rightful size; do not participate in something you would regret when it’s too late. If you know nothing about the issue, just keep your beautiful mouths shut.
And I urge the ones who have the knowledge and the public trust of pen to clear out the huge misunderstandings about this issue ( bujaij, you too), yes this is a call for counter campaign:
I REFUSE TO BOYCOTT DANISH PRODUCTS, and demand to deal more rationally with this issue.

18 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. Purgatory
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 12:28:00

    You just like to go aganist them don’t you?

    Reply

  2. AyyA
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 12:37:00

    Actually, I prefer to go back to my tent :p

    Reply

  3. Purgatory
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 13:33:00

    you mean teepee 😛

    Reply

  4. ولاّدة
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 13:41:00

    سمعاً وطاعة
    🙂
    نشرت موضوع كنت قد كتبته وترددت في نشره ، ولكن ما قاله بو راكان صحيح حين يتعلق الأمر بالدين أخاف _ أنا مدعية الليبرالية- إن تطيح عليّ السما أو اتحول شاذي مثلاً

    Reply

  5. burakan
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 17:52:00

    ولادة
    ما اعرف اذا كنتي جادة او هازلة بس على فكرة انا احترم هذا النوع من الخوف .فهو يرتكز على بقايا ايمان حقيقي وليس عيبا ان يكن الانسان مؤمنا او شبه مؤمن . الخوف الذي ننتقده هو الخوف من السقوط في الانتخابات او الخوف ممن النبذ الاجتماعي او الخوف من البقاء وحيدا وهذا التنوع من الخوف هو ما حدد يحدد مواقف اشباه اللبراليين مع الاسف
    آية
    انا كلمت احدهم قبل ايام على ام اس ان مسنجر وكان معتقد حسب رايه ان الموضوع تافه . لكن بعد نقاش اقتنع باهميته .. بس مثل ما انت شايفة ما صار شسء

    Reply

  6. AyyA
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 18:37:00

    Purg
    If you are proposing one, then the wool should be the Afghani product.

    Princess
    Afa 3alaich, publish it wi giteeha ibrasi, what are friends for 😉

    Burakan
    The wave is getting really scary.

    Reply

  7. Xetetic
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 18:42:00

    I apologize for my impassioned harsh words, but this has truly been devastating.
    This should go FAR beyond blogging, speak out! DRILL SENSE INTO PEOPLE. Where were the demonstrations during the beheading of Arabs and Muslims in Iraq? Where were the demonstrations when journalists were kidnapped in Gaza?
    I am frankly insulted that most newspapers around the world have called these riots ‘demonstrations’. Burning flags, destroying everything in your way and screaming like monkeys ‘demonstrates’ nothing but barbarism. Sometimes I think we are a sad dying civilization… 😦

    Now we have three paths ahead of us, we will either:

    1) Fix ourselves
    2) Have someone fix us
    3) Or bring whole world down with us

    The situation has gone beyond insane, and none of us should accept the status quo, not only for the sake of our people but for the sake of the whole world.

    Reply

  8. iDip
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 20:37:00

    Ayya,

    Regarding Tents & backwardness:
    Take Iraqis for an example. They lived in a dictatorship more than 4 decades, What did they do when it ended?
    They went back to follow Imams & tribal leaders.
    I think it goes in the blood!

    regarding fear of voicing out opinions:
    I think the main reason is the fear of rejection. Some so-called Liberals don’t want to be stamped as Zanadiqa or pro-west in these days, since it means for a lot that they are anti-Islam.

    But when the voice of reasond is muted, ignorance will flourish.
    =====
    BuRakan,

    There is a good argument started recently.
    You, Salah Al-Sayer, Waleed Al-Jasem & Nabeel Al-Fathel brought it up today (friday), which is -simply- if a bunch of people made actions regarded as offending to muslims in any given country, will we boycott the whole coutry.
    Now after the cartoons appeared in Germany, Italy, France & Jordan. Fundementalist are calling to boycott them all.

    And I think it’s a matter of time and they will discover that we’re living in a world shaped by the west and isolation will bring no one no good.
    =========

    Guys Think about it,
    what if I published the cartoons in my blog?
    Will they boycott Kuwaiti products?! or American ones, since blogger/google is Amaercian?!

    WAKE UP!!

    Reply

  9. AyyA
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 21:12:00

    Xetetic
    🙂

    IDip
    I would really appreciate it if you post a link to those articles you mentioned here, thanks

    Reply

  10. A3sab
    Feb 04, 2006 @ 21:23:00

    wana ba3ad wiyyakum

    Reply

  11. iDip
    Feb 05, 2006 @ 01:56:00

    Ayya, my pleasure!
    Here they are:

    عبداللطيف الدعيج: هل حقا لدينا القدرة على العيش على تمر ولبن؟
    Link

    وليد الجاسم: ماذا لو أن؟
    Link

    نبيل الفضل: احاديث في يوم اجازة
    Link

    and you’ll find a copy of Salah Al-Sayer’s column in your inbox, because Al-Anbaa doesn’t have a website.

    PS: (correction) the articles were published on Saturday 4-Feb-2006, not on friday as I mentioned earlier.

    Reply

  12. AyyA
    Feb 05, 2006 @ 11:19:00

    A3sab
    There is something wrong with your comment link; it does not open.

    IDip
    Thank you I got the mail

    Reply

  13. AyyA
    Feb 05, 2006 @ 12:53:00

    Another link worth of checking click this

    Reply

  14. Mushmushi
    Feb 05, 2006 @ 13:12:00

    Dear Ayya,

    The power of religious leaders and all political Islamist parties at manipulation is impressive in that they will seek any opportunity to spread their venom in Kuwaiti society. However, the situation with the Danish racist cartoons against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is not one such opportunity. This is a time when how you view the issue is not about being Sunni, Shia, practicing, non-practicing; it is just about being Muslim. The cartoons are directed against Prophet Muhammad , not some random Muslim man with that name. The cartoons are racist , they make no political statement other than to mock him. Almost everyone with an email address and/or access to the internet has seen these cartoons.

    Now that we have established that these cartoons are directed against the Prophet and are racist and just about every Kuwaiti has seen them, we need to answer two questions: First, why did the Danish newspaper print these cartoons? Second, what can those Muslims, who are offended, do about it?

    The answer to the first question is simple. The Danish newspaper printed the cartoons because it is easy to hate Muslims. Violent Islamists have given us such a bad reputation that the world simply sees us as women-hating, journalist-kidnapping, 9/11- bombing murderers. No one has the image of Mohammad Al-Baradei (Nobel peace prize laureate 2005) or Ahmad Zuweil (Nobel chemistry prize laureate 1999) or the late filmmaker Mustafa Akkad or Feminist Fatema Mernissi when they think of Muslims. Instead, they visualize Bin Laden and Zarkawi and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. As for their image of Muslim women, they simply remember the rape victim in Pakistan whose brother raped another young woman and as punishment, she herself had to be gang raped by the latter victim’s male relatives. It seems that we liberal Muslims have to spend the remainder of our lives apologizing for the crimes of violent Islamists, even though we did not commit or condone them.

    The answer to the second question is not so simple. As a liberal Muslim, I think the chaos going in many Muslim capitals is just ridiculous. Burning the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and threatening Danish expatriates is unacceptable behavior and all it does is feed into the Western view that we are violent maniacs. I do, however, wholeheartedly support the boycott of Danish products. I wholeheartedly support the signing of petitions to be sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark and to the editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that printed the cartoons. I wholeheartedly support any peaceful, civil form of protest against the cartoons that shows we Muslims are not “children of a lesser god.” To say that we shouldn’t boycott Danish products because we need to be more rational is in itself irrational. What more do we need to hear in order for us liberals to stop being “Uncle Toms” and start showing pride in our faith?

    I believe boycotting is a healthy form of showing indignation and I believe that it has yielded some success, as the newspaper eventually apologized for printing these racist cartoons. Click here:
    http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/31/denmark.cartoon.ap/index.html

    Apologies for the critique, but I just wanted to show the flip side of the liberal coin.

    Yours sincerely,

    Mushmushi

    Reply

  15. ولاّدة
    Feb 05, 2006 @ 16:13:00

    الصج إني أخلط الجد بالهزل

    أتجنب -أحياناً- هذه المواضيع لأجنب نفسي صياح وصراخ الجماهير…نتفونا عند زيدون ….ياكلون طروش على قولة جدتي الله يرحمها

    المهم
    نشرت الموضوع بالامس الساعة الواحدة ظهراً …وفي الصباح اختفى من المدونة ومن الارشيف…اتصلت بصديقة وسألتها هل قرأتي الموضوع قالت نعم عصر أمس واليوم اختفى

    إش هالحالة!!!
    لا طاحت السما ولا تحولت شاذي …زالموضوع اختفى …هذي مقدور عليها

    Reply

  16. AyyA
    Feb 05, 2006 @ 18:48:00

    Mushmushi
    I do agree that the caricatures were highly offensive; no argument about that. But I think the reaction had exceeded any expectations. The boycott is imposed whether we like it or not, and this is the difference between us and the civilized nations. If the public had boycotted the product at their will, all the dairy products would have gone to waste, and this is a much bigger message than imposing the boycott as it is happing now. This is dictatorship. But as you said our image in the west is already distorted, so what are we doing with the burning of embassies and barbaric demonstrations would definitely not brighten our picture. It added more gas to the already burning ember. Who is benefiting from this? And where does it stop? Did the apology you provided in the link stop it? no
    You have to understand that I do not disagree with the essence, but I definitely condemn the means. Boycotting should have been my choice and not imposed. And Islamists are the ones that are escalating this issue for personal benefits, otherwise; explain to me the double talk I provided on the link.
    All I’m saying is, people should go back to their senses and try to cool the argument before it’s too late and we all regret the consequences.

    Reply

  17. you-sif
    Feb 06, 2006 @ 01:49:00

    التحريض على المقاطعة والكلام عن النيل من أعداء الأمة ما هي إلا تعبئة عاطفية لامعقولة وغير مفيدة على المدى البعيد وإن أتت بعض الثمار وأرغمتهم على الإعتذار
    ماذا بعد .. هل نصفق على هذا الإنجاز
    حرق أعلام وتكسير للمتلكات ووضع الشعوب الغربية كلها في سلة واحدة وشتمهم وزيادة الفجوة الثقافية

    سيداتي سادتي ..

    المسلمين عاطفيين الى أقصى درجة ونحن منهم ونعلم ذلك جيدا في مسألتين
    1-الخوض في تاريخنا الإسلامي والبحث عن دقائق الأمور
    2-القدسية التي نسجت حول الشخصيات الإسلامية قديما وحاضرا
    وطبعا الأنبياء ليسوا منهم – حتى لا ندخل في لجلجة مع المتحمسين

    ولكن هذه العاطفة تؤكد على مكانة رجال الدين وان ما نسمعه من تحليل للأوضاع السياسية والدينية من أي داعية أو شيخ دين أو دكتور شريعة يعتبر من أمور السمع والطاعة التي يجب علينا إتباعها حتى وإن كان غير متخصص فيما يقول .. خصوصا عند الناس الذين ليس لهم اهتمامات بالقراءة والبحث عن مصدر هذا النص أو ذاك فالإتكال والإعتماد على التلقي هي الثقافة السائدة للأسف الشديد

    ومن الطبيعي أن يحب المسلم نبيه ودينه ولا يرضى بأن يشتم ويثور للدفاع عن معتقده وهذا هو مفتاح القلوب الذي أستعمل في التحريض على المقاطعة فالناس خرجت للشارع غاضبة فعلا على من سب رمزها وليست مرغمة على فعل ذلك … ولكنها لقنت بما هو صحيح جزئيا وليس كل الحقيقة وخلفياتها وتم تهيئة المسيرات والندوات ورفع الشعارات المنددة وطُلِب من الناس المقاطعة دون افساح المجال لهم للمناقشة في إيجاد حلول أكثر ملاءمة وأكثر فائدة تدل على عقلانية وتحضر
    وسئل الشيخ القطان عقب الخطبة مباشرة بأن هذه المقاطعة تضر بالتجار الكويتيين والتجار الدنمركيين الذين لا ناقة ولا جمل بما حصل وهذا يناقض مبدأ اسلامي بأن لاتعمم العقوبة .. فقال كلامٌ صحيح ..وإنفضوا من حوله
    لكن ما فائدة أن يسمعه الملتفين حوله فقط وقبل دقائق نادى وشتم وزبد وأرعد من على المنبر وأما دوي المستفيدين من هذه الحملة أقوى وأكبر والفائدة هي كسب ود وثقة الشارع مرة أخرى بعدأن ظلت في قطيعة بعد إرهاب منهاتن في 11/9 والتي لم يخرج للتنديد والإعتراض عليها أحد من هؤلاء الأبطال المزيفين

    ويقولون ليش الغرب يصور المسلمين على أنهم إرهابيين
    أرجو الإنتباه الى ظاهرة خمينيي الكويت الذين أهدروا دم الرسامين

    Reply

  18. AyyA
    Feb 06, 2006 @ 08:29:00

    Thank you you-sif
    I couldn’t have said it any better

    Reply

Leave a reply to burakan Cancel reply