View Point                                                                         Abid Ullah Jan

Twisted Democracy Reaching Critical Mass

The confluence of the forces of tyranny in the Western world, fueled by neo-cons of Christianity on the one hand and the neo-mods of Islam on the other, threaten to extinguish the left over light of freedom and hasten the demise of democracy in much of the Western world.

Neo-moderates or neo-mods are the Muslims who in their zeal to make themselves acceptable to the West cross all limits of sanity and stages of "liberalism" from liberal to moderate, ultra-moderate, enlightened moderate and neo-moderates. Persons such as this scribe are on the run from Western sponsored tyrants ruling masses in the Muslims world under the cover of "enlightened moderation."[1] However, witnessing the worsening situation in the West at the hands of co-religionists of such tyrants, one wonders if he is really protected or he is out of the frying pan of a minor tyranny into the fire of twisted democracies inching towards a perfect tyranny.

One of the latest examples is an article, Stamps of Approval?, in the Globe and Mail (September 30, 2003) by of a proud-to-be-moderate Muslim. In this article president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, Mohammed Elmasry, recounts how Muslim population in Canada "still lives under siege." Many Muslims are languishing in custody under the notorious "Security Certificate," deprived of the due process of law and even access to evidence against them.[2] However, Elmasry goes on to suggest how "liberal democratic" Canada could turn the emerging sings of its tyrannical tendencies into a perfect tyranny.

No one knows how much Hitler would have appreciated the idea of categorizing all adult Jews and putting tags of "good" and "bad" on them. This way he would have a much better justification for exterminating Jews in batches, with intervals and with cooperation of the rest of the Jews for saving their skin. Hitler could not avail this opportunity. Nevertheless, Elmasry presents a similar idea to the Canadian government. He proposes to "form an independent panel of experts" for issuing "special 'moderate' cards for all Muslims in this country, whether citizen or not."

Interestingly, he proposes the panel to have "one Canadian, two Americans, two Israelis and two representatives from the Muslim applicant's country" on it. Paling the Taliban's idea of asking Hindus to wear yellow badges by comparison, Elmasry suggests that "each adult Muslim in Canada would have to prove to this panel that he or she is a 'moderate.'" The cards would "only be valid for one year" and Muslims would have to reappear before the predominantly Israeli American panel for renewal.

The author feels that the idea might sound "outrageous or at least far fetched" to many Muslims and that's why he qualifies it by putting quotation marks around the word moderate. However, he makes the point and even if the idea is not applied in Toto today, it is the inevitable destiny of Muslims living in the West in one or another form of racial profiling, classification and segregation.

Although the author does not mention about the fate of those who would be rejected by such a panel, but everyone can see their fate to be worse than what Hitler did to Jews. It is already happening, in the most modern ways. It is another matter if we do not feel it like Germans in the Hitler's age.

Let us be clear that being moderate or otherwise are patterns of human behavior. Faith has nothing to do with it, except someone's extracting justification from religious principles according to the situation. One cannot remain aggressive or passive all his life, under all kinds of circumstances, just because of his/her "misinterpretation" of religious principles. We must not associate these patterns of behavior with one's faith or the sources of faith, because they do not teach one to be unnecessarily aggressive or to remain passive irrespective of the circumstances.

Even the Christian principle of "turning the other cheek" of the born-again Christian (Mr. Bush) could not sustain in the face of a single "attack" - 9/11. It is naïve to expect human beings to remain in a single state of mind in the face of obvious tyranny as well as true liberty.

Muslims living in Canada and Palestine, for example, cannot have the same kind of behavior, nor are they bound to follow the same principles of their religion. Muslims resisting Israeli and American occupations and aggression in Palestine and Iraq, or Muslims living in Canada are supposed to be equally moderate for their being Muslims, but they have to follow different principles of Islam for interaction with their respective oppressors and benefactors. And this must not be a ground for their classification.

The same is true with regard to expressing one's views. A Muslim who condemns oppression and injustice against Muslims does not become an extremist by default because it will undermine credibility of many impartial western analysts such as Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky and John Pilger. By this standard, all anti-war protestors would also become extremists.

The Majority of Muslims is in the middle of the "Mulla" and "Moderate" extremes. In the West, they are totally silent because they have wrongly assumed if they speak, they will be targeted. However, the problem is that their silence is going to cost them dearly. The outspoken and opportunist of them have cleverly surrendered to the reigning power and ideology of the time as "moderates." For the rest, the option is clear to either follow the suite, or raise their voice without any fear of getting labeled as extremists and inform the Western public as to why Manjis, Musharrafs and other similar opportunists are not moderate at all.

The "moderates" are not selling ideas. Otherwise who can tell the idea of appointing Israelis and American as judges of the faith and fate of 579,000 Muslims' is worth publishing on the op-ed page of the leading daily in Canada. They sell themselves and publication of such inanity confirms they are sold in the hot market for any commodity of their kind.

The fear expressed is that Muslims cannot "embark on career," can no longer "apply for" good jobs and cannot do business as usual. However, how can one think of giving up faith and submitting oneself to Israelis and Americans just because he cannot do business as usual due to injustice and creeping tyranny. There is a difference between being moderate as a Muslim - a requirement of faith - and being "moderate" for doing business as usual in the West.

Uncritical submission to the US-Israeli double standards at all levels does not make one moderate in Islam as well; nor is a Muslim's resistance to submitting before the worldly gods a sign of extremism. The former is opportunism and the later is much lighter refusenik-ism than the one in which "moderate" Manji is engaged.

Elmasry in a way agrees with the invisible persecution of Muslims and proves that the problem lies with Muslims alone. The government policy in Canada also shows, for example, that the unjust Security Certificate has so far not been issued against any non-Muslim.

Instead of asking for exposing the real culprits behind events such as 9/11, the neo-cons of Christianity and the neo-mods of Islam are coming up with more creative ways to consolidating tyranny in the Western world. With this we can safely conclude that the days of democracy are numbered if the trend continues like this.

Notes
[1] See Dawn October 12, 2002. While talking to Islamabad-based journalists from Muslim countries on October 09, Pakistani dictator General Musharraf told them that in the OIC meeting in Malaysia he would "float" the idea of "enlightened moderation." When simple moderation outlives its utility, "moderates" have to come up with new products which could help them sell themselves effectively.
[2] "Detained man suspected of al-Qaeda links says his cell in Toronto jail is too cold," Jeff Gray,GlobeandMail October 15, 2003 PageA6 www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews The news arrives when the scribe was in the Middle of this article. Accordingly, "a Syrian-born man suspected of terrorist links and held in a Toronto jail for two years without charge was on the 16th day of a hunger strike yesterday, accusing officials of keeping his cell too cold. Hassan Almrei, 29, was detained on Oct. 19, 2001, and accused of having links to al-Qaeda based on secret evidence from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. His lawyer successfully challenged an attempt to deport him to Syria, but he remains in solitary confinement at the Toronto West Detention Centre."