The Peninsula Qatar
Wednesday, 04 April 2012 02:21
We had rejoiced about the changes that took place in Arab countries in the form of what is called “Arab Spring” where the negative stereotype that characterized Arabs and Muslims in many western media was converted into a different image linked to freedom and democracy. This negative stereotype of Arabs and Muslims came back again with the radical speeches of religious hardliners which came to power in the Arab countries after the departure of the tyrannical regimes, and called to target innocent people and commit terrorist crimes in Western countries on behalf of Islam.
Being proud of a terrorist crime is even worse than committing or justifying it by linking it to other humanitarian incidents in Afghanistan, Palestine, Somalia or any area suffering from unrest and political conflicts. Being proud of terrorist acts was one of the deadly weapons used by Al Qaeda to promote its ideas and was welcomed in west by some young Muslims who suffer personal disorders and unstable religious identity.
The assassination of seven French people including two Muslim soldiers, three children and a professor at the Jewish school in the cities of Toulouse and Montauban in south west of France by a French youth of Algerian origin is a terrible crime that brought Islamophobia back again to the international media and renewed fears of Arabs and Muslims. The brother of the killer shocked the world when he declared being proud of the acts of his younger brother who turned into a Mujahid who visited Afghanistan and Pakistan and claimed to be an agent of Al Qaeda!
The head of anti-Islamophobia coalition in France did not rule out that the elements of the French right group could commit anti-Muslim acts targeting people and landmarks such as mosques and cemeteries. He said that accusing a Muslim man of committing Toulouse attacks had worsened the situation, pointing out that his organization had monitored 298 anti-Muslim actions in France during 2011, compared to 188 in 2010. Most of those acts were physical and verbal attacks as well as discriminatory practices against Muslims. The Imam of the Grand Mosque of Paris, concerned over what lies ahead, called not to link French Muslims to terrorism due to the incidents of Toulouse saying the author of these incidents belongs to Al Qaeda and the radical Islam.
He added that the victims of Toulouse attacks were Muslims, Christians and Jews, asserting that Muslims were being targeted like others as there were three soldiers, two Muslims and one Christian killed in Montauban incidents. He confirmed: “Islam is a religion of peace and dialogue stressing that 99.9 percent of Muslims in France respect and abide by the laws, and the killing of soldiers, children and the Jewish man is an act of extremism.
This statement is very important because it was issued from the Grand Mosque in France established by the French government in 1926 to commemorate Muslim soldiers who were killed in the First World War among the French army and to promote the relationship between the France and the Arab immigrants who lived in France.
Will the democratic transition process, produced by the youth revolutions in the Arab world, relapse? The religious ultra and radical discourse in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and even in the Gulf; especially in Bahrain is the loudest and more influential and impressive. It seems difficult to engage in open confrontation with this hard -line trend and any tentative to keep peace with it would make it more extreme and violent. The Tunisian observers see that Tunisia is heading towards a religious dictatorship and the process of democratic transition steps towards unknown direction in the lack of clear political and development programs. Any clash between religious and non-religious movements in Tunisia and efforts to classify them as with infidels and Muslims will like greater jihad. The conflicts have led recently to a clash between the security services and a Salafi Jihadi group which broke into the University; half-masting the national flag of Tunisia and raising the black flag instead of it. The Jendouba province witnessed a Salafi radical violence and an attempt to kill a young man of twenty years old and the killing of the preacher of Lutfi Kallal. The Tunisian Interior Minister pointed out that Tunisia is threatened by the extremist terrorism and the recent events have confirmed the presence of an armed Salafi group seeking to form an Islamic emirate, supported by groups in Algeria and Libya and linked to al-Qaeda.
All these interrelated events promote the extremist acts and the possibility of referring aggression and violence. They may resemble what take place in Western countries where specific people are targeted and liquidated as the young Frenchman of Algerian origin did in Toulouse.
Conflict between liberals and Islamists in Libya focuses on Libyan vast wealth and staggering deposits in Western banks estimated at (160 billion dollars). The conflict is also going on between the religious movements, such as Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Group for Change and the Islamic Alliance. A large number of Islamic rebels are still insisting to retain their weapons though the war was over and are determined not to hand over the weapon only after the end of the transitional phase and the start of a democratic political process .
In Egypt, a recorded tape attributed to one of the well-known Egyptian preachers (traveling between the Gulf States), spread carrying comments on the death of Pope Shenouda III, Patriarch of the See of St. Mark in Alexandria and called him a “head of infidelity, immoral, the cursed offender and the enemy of Islam”.
(3) The stereotype associated with the conditions of women in Arab countries, is back again though peoples had hoped that woman can have a better future, especially she had participated and been active in launching the Arab revolutions. She stood in the front line of demonstrations, rallies, and protests and challenged the soldiers of the regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and she is still facing the Baath thugs in Syria, while the Yemeni activist Tawakel Karman bagged the Nobel Peace Prize .
According to the report of the International Federation for Human Rights “women are facing a growing risk that the revolution which they had been a part of, it will be confiscated.” The report added that Arab women are facing today attempts to exclude them from the political life by some parties involved in the transition process, in addition to be discriminated and attacked by extremist groups.
In Tunisia the female teachers have been intimidated for not wearing the veil. In Egypt, the representation of women in parliament has been reduced from 12 percent to 2 percent and the quota allocated for women (64 seats) by the previous regime, has been canceled. The Egyptian female activists also had undergone “virginity detections” by the military staff. It was a practice aimed to “insult women”. In Tunisia, there are calls to restore women maids system and slave market, deny non-veiled women to admit to university and to mingle with men in work places addition to ban art, music and fashion shows. Even women in Kuwait, the most open GCC country in term of political life, women have not gain any seat in recent elections or even one ministerial portfolio in the new government denying her right to participate in the present and future decision - making.
4- Hopes for positive change still prevail in Arab world and abroad despite terrorism, bloody clashes, escalating conflicts, persistent tension and unknown future. All we need is to change ourselves so as to change our conditions and let the world changes his view about us.
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