Commentary, April 11, 2002

The Daily Star

At a gathering this past weekend of nearly fifty Lebanese and other Arab scholars and academicians, discussions centered around the feasibility of coming up with a document directed to the West that would summarize “Arab values” and delineate the plethora of commonalities they share with those held in the West. The meeting’s agenda was in response to a document issued by 60 leading US scholars, ethicists, and academicians entitled “What We Are Fighting For ­ A Letter From America,” published in The Washington Post Feb. 12, 2002.

Signatories to the message were predominantly neo-rightist conservatives, along with a few liberals. Among others, it was signed by Amitai Etzioni, Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington, Senator Patrick Moynihan, Michel Walzer, et Al.

The US scholars’ document sought to defend the moral grounds for the “war on terrorism” and to differentiate between American view of Islam and its attitude toward “Islamicism” and “radical Islamicists.” The bottom line of the said document was a message to Muslims: “We wish to reach out to our brothers and sisters in Muslim societies. We say to you forthrightly; We are not enemies, but friends.  We must not be enemies. We have so much in common. We know that, for some of you, mistrust of us is high, and we know that we Americans are partly responsible for this mistrust. But we must not be enemies.”

Most participants, including this writer, were in agreement on the need to produce some sort of an annotated document signed by scholars from across the Arab world that would respond to misconceptions about our shared values and affirm our shared respect for human dignity, moral values, and divine ethics. However, any such document would necessitate, as a prerequisite, a document issued by the same scholars that would set the record clear regarding the attitude of our Christian-Muslim religions, our culture, and our social values on the killing of non-combatant civilians, irrespective of their religion, ethnic background, or race.

A document by Arab scholars is, therefore, sorely needed to correct prevailing misconceptions and to re-affirm Arab and Muslim values, which are no different in substance from Western values. For starters, scholars claim to be society’s intellectual elite destined to direct public thought without any reservations precipitated by political considerations. As such, it is their duty to make a statement, however unpopular it might be amidst the prevailing feelings of rage and humiliation caused by escalating Israeli atrocities, which condemns the targeting of civilians.

Arab political leaders, moderate and radical alike, repeatedly said the same in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Christian and Muslim religious leaders and scholars also did not hesitate to reaffirm religion’s denouncement of such attacks. These included no less than the Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar, the foremost Muslim intellectual institution, the Mufti of Saudi Arabia, the nation that houses Islam’s two holiest shrines, and Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, one of the leading Shiite religious authorities who was believed by the West to have been the spiritual leader of Hizbullah.

Islam, the predominant religion in the Arab world, takes a clear, grim and strong attitude that condemns the killing of non-combatants.

“Anyone who kills any person without another soul being involved or for causing mischief in the land, acts as if he had killed all mankind,” The Holy Koran, The Table VI:5:32.
Indeed, Islam unequivocally considers unprovoked killing of non-combatants to be a crime against humanity.

Nevertheless, Arab political leaders have evaded this ethical issue in the past two weeks, despite the serious ramifications of continued suicide attacks against civilians. Their silence is attributed by some observers to be precipitated by fear of confronting the rage in the Arab street and the prevailing mood therein. Watching horror scenes of dead infants, of beatings of civilians, and of wholesale brutality makes the public impervious to logic or calls for restraint.

The sentiments of the Arab street are so intense and people are so revolted by the atrocities exercised by the Israeli war machine against Palestinian non-combatants that it does not mind vengeance against any and all Israelis. Arabs are angry at Israel’s senseless killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, the arrests without warrants or trial, and the indiscriminate bombing of refugee camps.

Nevertheless, two wrongs do not make a right. Israel is committing crimes against humanity that are indeed deplorable and reprehensible. These crimes are unacceptable by all monotheistic religions as well as the Geneva Convention. However, we should not allow our people to descend to the immorality and brutality that Israel practices. Not only is that intolerable according to our social values, but such acts of passion and uncontrolled rage actually do our cause great damage.

It is, therefore, the duty of the Arab intelligencia to address this critical issue without delay and to exercise any influence it could muster to stop the cruel practices of some of our Palestinian brethren, which shoot our just cause in the foot. Furthermore, any contemplated document addressed to the West would be considerably less credible if its signatories do not address their own people first and take a courageous, albeit terribly unpopular, stand on the issue of targeting non-combatants.
Arab foreign ministers, who met in Cairo last Saturday, made a clear statement denouncing the practice of killing civilians.  While many politicians are hesitant to face an enraged public with calls for restraint scholars have no excuse to remain silent.

Moderate Arab governments have worked hard over the last ten years to prepare the public for peace and to set the stage for a settlement with an aggressor state that has occupied Arab land and inflicted great pain and suffering on their people. Furthermore, the Arab League unanimously extended an olive branch to Israel at the recent Beirut Summit with an unequivocal peace initiative that offers it recognition by Arab states and normal relations based on the principle of land for peace.

Instead of reciprocating Arab goodwill in kind, Israel launched a major and brutal incursion that pains and humiliates all Arabs.  Its continued occupation of occupied Arab land, its intransigence, its brutality and state-terrorism, and the siege on the elected leader of the Palestinian people would truly have to end immediately. The international community must pressure Israel into an immediate cease-fire and a return to the negotiating table without pre-conditions.

Otherwise, moderate regimes would be unable to sustain their efforts toward peace and rising public sentiments could very well have a destabilizing effect on them with major ramifications on the entire region.
US scholars should complement their earlier document with one that denounces the ongoing Israeli terror tactics, which are clearly contrary to the American values that they hold dearly, in the same way they denounced the deplorable attacks of Sept. 11.
 
Adib F. Farha wrote this commentary for The Daily Star. He can be reached by e-mail at adibfarha@yahoo.com

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