Shaking hands: US Policies in Middle East and radical
Islam
Preface
My friends I am sorry for any grammatical mistakes, as
this is my first essay in English. Writing about something that is very
important for me in another language that is not my mother tongue is hard but
not impossible.
I also want to make it clear that I am not
generalizing and that this does not apply for everyone. I want to tell you that
this is not a scientific document, and therefore I do not have any objective to
achieve or theory to announce. These are my thoughts and personal opinions of
this particular matter. Thank you for understanding.
One day I was walking on the
street in Indianapolis and a person gave me a mini comic. I immediately opened
it and took a time to review it. Inside that comic it was a cartoon, a very
disrespectful cartoon where a Muslim family was being disrespected and the
people [Arabs] where drawn as barbarians.
Immediately I felt offended
even though I do not belong to a Muslim community and I am not a Muslim myself.
But as a human being I was insulted. This was something that insulted my
integrity and my spirit as I share the world with my fellow brothers from the religion
of the Islam.
When I heard about the movie,
or video clip that is going around the world and caused trouble in the Middle
East, I immediately connected the dots. And this is something that I have been
thinking a lot lately since I am very fond of USA and I am very connected also
to the beautiful cultures of the Middle East and all of those beautiful
countries.
I thought it was a good idea
to write down what I feel about the situation right now, because there is way
more than meets the eye and we should talk about it as well. That is why I am
sharing with all of you my thoughts on this.
First of all I want to talk
about “Freedom of speech” because it has different meanings in different countries.
It is not the same in Mexico than in the USA and it is very different from Morocco
to India or from China to Austria.
My perception of freedom of
speech is pretty simple; you say whatever you feel “without” clearly insulting
another human being. In Mexico we have a very powerful quote from our best president
Benito Juarez: “El respeto al derecho
ajeno es la paz” which translates into English like this:
“The respect towards the
other person is peace”. This is something very important that we need to
understand, true respect is peace. Now “Freedom of speech” is something that
changes from country to country and I really wanted to talk about this because
it makes everything more difficult.
In the USA from my personal
view this does not apply like president Benito Juarez said in Mexico. Here in
US it seems that because you have freedom of speech you can say “absolutely”
any single thing you want, and that is drawing a fine line for me.
I have one good example: One
time I saw on the internet a Mexican cartoon that insulted me. It was around
the time were the drug wars were at its climax. In the cartoon we had the
Mexican flag, ok no big deal, but the eagle located in the middle of the flag was
being shot and the red of the blood was mixing with the red of the flag. Anyways
long story short, this insulted me deeply and insulted a whole nation, and I talked
on the phone with the representative of the cartoonist. His response was that
this is a free country and that this is the purpose of the cartoon to make
people uncomfortable. “Yes but he is clearly insulting me” I told him, and then
he hanged up. The thing is that I am not against a person who is “expressing
himself”, I am against a person who is “insulting me clearly” and this is very
different.
No more comments about “Freedom
of speech” I will leave it like that. But we do need to understand that
insulting another person clearly as a human being is not good for the world and
the international community. We are all one, why can we not see this?
Now we go to another topic.
Arabs that are involved in extremism, in terrorism and other awful mass murdering
groups do not need an excuse to attack USA in a daily basis, but if we give
them one good excuse, they will take advantage of that. Understanding this is a
key to success in the Middle East. Please just look at the history we have in
these foreign countries, all and every single invasion in their soil, invasion
of Economy, markets, ways of living, all of these are insults in the Middle
East made by Western countries every day. This does not excuse some of them to
continue in attacking and mass murdering people, but I will talk about this
later on.
Prophet Mohammed (peace be
upon him) is everything for Muslims, he means the greatest connection to God,
insulting him is insulting God, this is the perspective of a Muslim, this is what
the Muslim think.
So why would you think that
using your “Freedom of speech” against him will be harmless in the Muslim world?
Impossible to think like this, we have to be more intelligent than this.
There is absolutely “NO”
excuse to kill someone for creating a video against something or someone, I am “NOT”
defending this atrocity and monstrosity, this is not even something that true
Muslims will tell you to do. I believe that a true Muslim [from what I’ve know
from Arab cultures] will respond to violence with peace. These people who
killed the US diplomats in Libya do not have the slightest idea of what their
own religion (of love) means. They are ignorant and I am against those horrible
acts, no excuse.
It is absolutely incorrect to
go against an entire nation such as the US in this case or do anything related
to a nation [for example attacking embassies, Mc Donald’s, US companies] just
because of a video. “I am against radicalism” and against this response of some
people in Libya, it is a clear example that some Muslims [just like any other
practitioners of other religions] are making it really hard to people in the
world not to criticize them; it is a very confusing and difficult cycle. “We”
the international community need to stop helping with this horrible cycle.
I am against the policies of
USA in Middle East and against radical Islam as well. I believe in dialogue not
in war, mass murdering and invasion. I believe in giving Arab countries their own
“freedom of speech” whatever that means to them, and I truly believe in giving
them their “democracy” not creating one for them. What applies for us in here not
necessarily applies for them in there. I believe in leaving them alone to
decide whatever is that “they” want. I believe in leaving to them the important
matter of free will. I believe this is the best for everyone and for the
relationship between countries. We have a lot to change, here and there.
I want to be very clear that
I am against radical and ignorant people who go and kill themselves because
someone created a video against something they believe in. I do not believe
this will create any good at all and this will harm even more their religion
and create more attacks towards their religion.
Doing all these acts of
violence and terrorism will only create more violence and will create more
problems between Arab countries and Western countries. I believe in love and
not in hate. I know a lot of people will say: “This sound too hippie” or “This
is pure Utopia”.
But let me tell you something,
after thousands of years of having the same problems and the same cycles. Wouldn’t
you try something new? Try love.
I ask you as a citizen of the
world: What can we do? How can we change? How can we make a difference with our
lives? Right here where we are located in the world, it does not matter where
you are from, you can change yourself and your environment.
How this does affect me in my
country? How this does affect me in my spirit? How this does affect me as a
human being and as a citizen of the world? What can I do to stop this inhumane madness
in the world?
This is the climax of US
Policies in the Middle East and radical Islam. What is next? Where do we want
to take this now? What level of intolerance is coming now? Do we want to keep
creating the same problems?
We all as human beings should
be able to change our mindset: that includes Arabs in Middle East and us the US
citizens. We all need to change a lot, and I want to make it clear “I am not in
favor of either side”; I am just saying this so we can see clearly that
mistakes that are being made by both sides.
It is time to change and stop
hating each other; Love is the only and true way to stop this madness on both
sides of the world. Thank you all for reading and let peace reign the world.
Sincerely with all my heart,
Félix Medina [Friday 9/21/12, Indianapolis IN, US]
