Bush to Muslims : A "Declaration of Dignity"
Author: JIM GUIRARD -- TrueSpeak Institute
Source:FreeMuslims.org -- April 10, 2005
One of the great irritants within today's Muslim psyche is the factor of humiliation -- thul in Arabic and in Islam. Understandably, there is a deep "hearts-minds-and-souls" resentment toward those perceived as holding Islam and its faithful in low esteem, as inferior and undeserving of respect.
Experts say that many American Blacks suffer from humiliation, as well as anger, over the slavery once endured by their ancestors. Call it ethnic pride. Call it personal, family and tribal identity and loyalty. Call it a yearning for self-esteem, for recognition as a valued human being -- at both spiritual and societal levels.
As the Muslim World (the Umma) interfaces with other civilizations -- the West, in particular -- it correctly yearns for respect which, if denied, is not only hurtful but is subject to cynical manipulation by pseudo-Islamic al Qaeda evildoers (mufsidoon al Qaeda, to introduce a vital new term into the lexicon) into hatred, strife and even inter-civilizational warfare.
In this context, the case of 25 million recently liberated Iraqi Muslims should be assessed in terms of (a) those, like President George W. Bush, who are attempting to dignify them as free men and women and (b) those, like so many of Bush's critics, who are treating Iraqis in a humiliating way -- as insufficient people incapable of self-government, even in the wake of extremely successful elections in late January.
In contrast, President Bush should be applauded and honored by the Umma as a bold new champion of Muslim pride, dignity and worth -- and as a remarkably just and compassionate seeker of Islamic well-being (al-Khayr al-Islami, another new term) all across the planet.
Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor
Behold an American President -- and a fervent believer in the One God of Abraham -- who is risking his presidency and legacy on the proposition that Iraqi Muslims, like their 25 million brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, are both worthy of democracy and capable of it.
In both his Inaugural and State of the Union Addresses, the President issued a de facto "Declaration of Dignity" toward the Afghan and Iraqi peoples. He has offered to them a scaled-down but still very powerful version of the Pledge to Liberty made by our Founding Fathers in the American Declaration of Independence: "We pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" etc.
Under Bush's determined leadership, America is indeed risking the lives of its brave young warriors and peacekeepers, spending its fortune ($150 billion and counting!) and asserting its sacred honor on behalf of 50 million of our fellow human beings in distant Muslim lands.
But in sharp contrast, the President's unrelenting detractors -- the reactionary-left Kennedy-Kerry Democrats, the West European elites, the Hollywood radicals, the Blame America Firsters, the al Qaeda terrorists and vast brainwashed elements of "the Arab Street" -- are all busy humiliating the Iraqis, the Afghans and all liberty-seeking Muslims everywhere.
Many of these self-righteous, UN-worshiping illiberals seem to wish that Saddam Hussein's fascist-Left tyranny were still in place. These are the arrogant cynics who act as though Iraqi Muslims are camel dung and not worth the sacrifice of American or European lives or fortune or sacred honor.
And how outrageous it is that some of these self-annointed "progressives," hate-mongers and "sunshine patriots" (as George Washington called their kind) speak far more harshly of George W. Bush than they ever have of Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, the Mullah Omar or the genocidal Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
As a consequence, they should be "tagged" with the shameful names they have earned for themselves: The Humiliators of the Umma, The Death to America Haters, the Chiraqi-Iraqi Conspirators, the Oil For Food "Ali Baba" (Thieves), the Servants of Satan (Abdul Shaitan), etc.
Al Qaeda Evildoers "Lured by the Devil"
Of course, the President does not use such strident names. In fact, at the State Department's behest, he no longer even calls them "evildoers." But ironically, and in keeping with the "Abdul Shaitan" label stated above, none other than Saudi Arabia's top cleric, Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al Sheik, proclaimed recently to over 2 million Muslim pilgrims at the Hajj:
"The greatest affliction to the nation of Islam came from some of its own sons, who were lured by the Devil. ... They have called the nation 'infidel,' they have shed protected blood and they have spread vice on Earth, with explosions and destruction and killing of innocents."
Lured by the Devil! Abdul-Shaitan! No American leader or spokesperson has ever said it so clearly. The lesson here is that if the President is to succeed in winning this hearts-minds-and-souls battle for Freedom and Justice -- al-Hurria wa al-'Adl -- both he and his entire Administration must sharpen their message.
They, as well as the Western media and academia, must begin drawing a much sharper distinction between the decent, faithful and "moderate" Muslims on the one hand, and the murderous, pseudo-Islamic evildoers who so falsely name themselves "Jihadists and mujahiddin and martyrs on their way to Paradise" -- a 72-virgins sex-orgy Paradise, no less.
Such a powerful incentive to evildoing these words and images are. But if a steady dose of truth-in-language and truth-in-Islam were to be applied, imagine how difficult it will become for al Qaeda and its ilk to inspire and to sustain the suicidal zealotry of young Muslims -- or the approval of any authentic Muslims whatever -- once these young recruits begin to hear, and eventually to realize:
First, that they are being enticed by The Al Qaeda Blasphemy not into a holy-war "Jihad" but into an un-Godly "Hirabah" (unholy war, forbidden "war against society"), instead;
Second, that they will not be heroic "mujahiddin" (holy warriors) and "shahiddin" (martyrs) but sinful "mufsidoon" (evildoers), instead; and
Third, that this sinful criminality will lead them on Judgment Day not into Allah's Paradise but into Satan's "Jahannam" (Eternal Hellfire), instead.
Let us repeat that sharp new frame of reference: Hirabah (unholy war) by mufsidoon (evildoers) destined for Jahannam (Hellfire)!!! Such a powerful disincentive to evildoing these three Islamic religious words should now become.
But only if such truthful Islamic terms are proactively used by our leaders -- and, indeed, by all of us -- can the vital ideas of anti-terrorism they convey be effectively argued and in due course be made to prevail over the false and blasphemous language of so-called "Jihadi martyrdom."
This is the mind-bending, pseudo-Islamic scam by which The al Qaeda Blasphemy is so effectively sanctifying itself, brainwashing so much of the Muslim World and demonizing George W. Bush's quest for justice, dignity, self-government and societal well-being -- America's three revolutionary-centrist words for which are "Freedom" and "Liberty" and "Democracy."
JIM GUIRARD -- TrueSpeak Institute 703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com