The Muslim debate – like a typical Donald Trump personality – is extreme in essence. The man in the White House is getting more and more virulent against Muslims thereby making us revisit our story. As the world stands sharply divided about our nature and character, we still think. Who is responsible for the pain we are in?
Let’s not wait till questions are asked, let’s raise our questions ourselves. Have we become a nuisance for the world? Do others want to get rid of us or we want to get rid of them? Is our crisis self-invited or thrust upon? Do we give pain to the world or the pain is inflicted on us? Are we portrayed as terrorists or we are terrorists? Would the world be a better, a safer place without us or we still are the upholders of a life-giving, life nourishing civilisation. Are we victims or criminals?
Here also viewpoints are divergent to the extent of being irreconcilable. On one side we have chronic apologists who blame the victim and absolve the criminal. They trace all roots of all terror inside the Muslim world. To them all forms of domination – political, territorial, ideological, economic or social – are rooted in religion. Faith – they profess – is the epicentre of all disasters. They bash themselves, condemn their own being, to appease the other. They are the neo-Nepoleans who believe in civilizing the nations by bombing them out of existence. To them Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya or Pakistan – all need America as a saviour, no matter it means exterminating the people. To them Trump has done right in shifting the capital.
The other standpoint is equally extreme. To them Muslims are born victims and thereby compulsive crusaders to clear their way through the impediments planted by others. They are incurable conspiracy-theorists who overlook the monster in the room and search for worms outside. To them the hub of the whole tragedy lies with the West. They defend the most brutal, naked acts of terror as a God-ordained task Muslims have been assigned by the Almighty himself to disseminate His message. They have all stock responses, ready made excuses and justifications. Whatever done in the name of Islam sounds suddenly `Islamic’ to them. They are the supporters of a mission to Islamize the planet earth. The chasers of a mirage which will continue to be a mirage.
That’s it. From the best to the worst, we stand somewhere in the middle of the line. Seeing the Trump-generated hate against Muslim, the subject once again strikes with a renewed vigour. Why the rest of the world sees Muslims as a problem? Where lies the rub? With those who see us with a jaundiced eye or with these who deserve to be seen like that? For a while emotions can wait, what we need is a calm thinking.