Hillary the "Pious"

Hillary Clinton, U.S. secretary of state, demonstrated total insincerity and hypocrisy as she declared herself “delighted” to wish Muslims a “peaceful” and “joyous” Eid al-Fitr, the feast day that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, observed by millions of believers throughout the Islamic world.

In her sugarcoated message, the secretary of state — who hosts a celebratory supper in Washington every year on this date — in a pious tone and without so much as a hint of a blush, noted that “in times of change and uncertainty, the celebration of these common values brings us together.” She also emphasized the importance of “greater cooperation and cross-cultural understanding.”

What values could peoples of Islamic faith have in common with the foreign policy employed by the United States government against them — a policy characterized by acts of subversion and wars of occupation, destruction and pillage, the antithesis of the values enshrined in the precepts of Islam, one of the pillars of which is the holy month of Ramadan?

How is it possible, then, that the warmongering Hillary invokes principles established in the Quran — the Muslims’ holy book — to wish them “Eid Mubarak” (Happy Holidays), when NATO and the Pentagon’s weapons and bombardments have annihilated millions of innocent followers of the prophet Muhammad’s teachings?

While Clinton amused herself with her pronouncements, in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi, Afghan, Palestinian, Libyan, Pakistani and Syrian homes, grief, pain and desolation prevented them from enjoying the peace, brotherhood and festivities characteristic of Eid al-Fitr, while many of their children went without the traditional sweets and gifts, and thousands of graves went without flowers.

Her address was an offense against mothers who lost their children, against children who lost their parents, against those burnt to a crisp or mutilated by depleted uranium bombs, against those tortured at Abu Ghraib, against those who were summarily executed, against prisoners held at the naval base of Guantanamo, against those assassinated in Libya and Syria by terrorist groups shielded and equipped by the United States.

Ignorant of her own ancestral cultures, beliefs, customs and traditions, Mrs. Clinton, representative of the world’s greatest imperialist power, is unable to appreciate all the human dimensions of Ramadan and what it means to Muslims.

The practice of fasting, prayer, abstinence, charity and the visit to Mecca must seem like mere rituals to her, which is why she exalts the festive celebration over the other elements.

What else could be expected of a woman currently on a whistle-stop tour of the Middle East and major European, Asian and African capitals, drumming up international support for an attempt to implement the same formula that has devastated Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya in Syria and Iran, in order to impose on them a regime of Western “freedom and democracy” — drenched in blood and steeped in extreme violence?