The West and the Enrichment of Hatred

Orientalist thinkers have played a major role in warping the image of Arabs and Muslims in the Western collective conscious. They shape a negative stereotype in the Western imagination about their religion and behavior. More seriously, they portray them as envious of Western civilization and bent on destroying it.

Yet to the peoples of our region, the image of the West is one of a colonial power — the root of the underdevelopment, ignorance and fragmentation that afflicts Arab and Islamic nations, especially over the last two centuries. Per this stereotype, the colonial power seeks to derail any plans for societal renaissance, whether nationalist or religious. Support of the Zionist entity has only added to this negative image. Yet despite the historical alliance between the autocracy and the corrupt regime, they were unable to provide their people with the minimum requirements of true democratic citizenship. This is in addition to the disease of poverty, ignorance and underdevelopment. More precisely, there were no significant differences in political or social terms between colonialism and the regime that they themselves had created.

The West has invested in this complex and contradictory scene through a process of cultural injection. This has led to a deliberate instigation against the West, which has become the hanger on which all of the people's misfortunes, disunity, poverty and injustice, etc. are suspended. Within those inflammatory environments in which religious zeal and fanaticism were encouraged, the Salafist organization was born. They present themselves as defending Islam and Muslims against all the tyranny, injustice and aggression to which they were subjected. They are now found internationally, incubating in both the Muslim world and Western nations.

After the events of Sept. 11, some of the imperialist and Zionist powers found their chance to declare war on so-called Islamic terrorism in the interest of strategy. In essence, it’s related to the forces of capitalism, which represents the U.S. military-industrial alliance with the oil and gas companies. In addition to this, they partner with Christian Zionism, which is rooted in the religious, cultural, intellectual and media circles that control most of the strategic studies centers in the U.S. America is considered to be the manufacturer of politicians and party leaders for Uncle Sam's empire.

Long before the Western media, which manufactures public opinion in America and the West, proceeded with its campaign against Islam, disrespectful cartoons were published in Scandinavian nations several years ago attacking Islamic peoples. In addition to this, the West has invested in some extremist organization operations in more than one place in Europe, America and other countries of the world to create a climate of hatred in Western nations toward Islam and Muslims.

Their beliefs and faith pour fuel on the fire and incite hatred in hundreds of millions of believers globally against Western powers. They are capitalizing on the reactions, both peaceful and violent, and thereby increasing the gap between children of different backgrounds and cultures and sowing the seeds of hostility among them. Here the interests of the aforementioned powers are achieved: They create a climate of hostility between adherents of monotheistic religions. They provide reasons and climates for conflicts and endless wars, of which the capitalist powers, the sole beneficiaries, profit from globalizing the savage.

What is happening today has provoked various reactions from Muslims. This puts what American theorist Samuel Huntington proposed in his book, "The Clash of Civilizations," back on the table for intellectual debate (not to fully endorse his statements). This is a task for all of us, especially in the West. Do political and intellectual elites realize the degree of risk that the West assumes with regards to its interests and strategic security if such acts continue? The right to freedom of expression does not serve as a basis to justify this, since the freedom of the individual and the group ends where the freedom of others begins and vice versa. If an individual's freedom of expression offended hundreds of millions of people, damaged the interests of nations and threatened their people's safety, how do individual interests take precedence over collective interests?

Here we mention the Americans and other Western nations that, in the name of preserving U.S. national security, suspended many laws relating to personal freedoms, from house raids and wiretapping to the use of electronic surveillance devices in both public and private places. That’s not to mention the laws prohibiting Holocaust denial; all that might be construed as anti-Semitic. Invoking freedom of expression with the aim of offending Muslims and their Prophet is no longer acceptable, whether one is Muslim or Christian. It sets a precedent that anyone, whether an individual, organization or state, can be exploited by discrediting others. It’s also possible to capitalize on religious convictions to fuel conflicts and pointless wars. The only winners here are warmongers and investors in international conflicts.