This blog should be in Arabic because it expresses my current state of mind within the ongoing farce. As if the deteriorated political situation and the daily killings of young people are not enough for this society.
It is scary to realize how much we humans can adapt to situations. How things that were impossible yesterday become normality today.
Each time I think of an awakening to this nation … I realize I am just hallucinating with my aspirations of the desired change.
It is not coming …
When amid all the deaths … the bereaved atmosphere that overwhelms even the sky. The oppression and inequity that persist on us from all direction by the occupation … we still have time to be the greatest analysts of the new world order.
The toll of deaths that are increasing each day in society as small as this should be the only indicator that needs measurement at this time.
The society has left the occupation, the corruption, and decided it was the Egyptian novelist Yusuf Zeidan who will be responsible for any future Israeli control.
How come those norms are much stronger than our very own lives?
How come there is this thirst for blood in this part of the universe with such intensity?
How come the mind is so closed when it comes to such religious pillars of nothing but a historical mixture of myth and ideology?
How come education is not helping our society to open its mind to thinking? To accepting? To tolerance?
I felt it was a kind of obligation to defend the standpoint of Yusuf Zeidan that was used against him when he said that al-Aqsa in Jerusalem is not the Aqsa that is mentioned in the Sura in the Quran.
Of course, this very word can make a revolution in the Islamic world as a whole, and it will be the reason for occupation in the Palestinian society.
No one tried to think further than that sentence. It was strictly locked into those words, and nothing would ever move it, and the man is scarred forever with blasphemy, Zionism, and whatever may come out of this radical reaction.
Whether Zeidan is right or wrong in his claim. The debate should be in proving him wrong or right .not attacking him. A man with his knowledge and contributions cannot be just a paid pen that throws words for fame here and there.
What is worse? That you don’t need to surf and search to hear his full point of view, especially when the attack on him by Palestinians ram all his life experience and knowledge on the issue.
This state of you is either with me or against me. That common clannish enrooted way of thinking is outrageous.
Each time one thinks that there is hope.
A generation of people who with education can make a difference.
All is ruined and gone to ashes in an instant an idea on religious beliefs is aroused. As if all our being is dependent on it.
People become ready to kill and sacrifice who ever uses a word outside the norms that are decided by those men of religion. Those who claim all the knowledge.
You cannot even discuss or question. You cannot show any sign of remorse or empathy with the “other” that is declared the criminal and the new sacrifice for our ignorance.
It reminds me of a paragraph in Yasmina Khadra’s novel “ Swallows of Kabul” when the man was in the square, and he passed by a “public stoning” to a woman who has sinned:
“He stretches out an arm like a sword toward the mummy. “This woman knew exactly what she was doing. The intoxication of lust turned her away from the path of the Lord. Today, the Lord turns His back on her. She has no right to His mercy, no right to the piety of the faithful. She has lived in dishonor; so shall she die.”
He stops to clear his throat and then unfolds a sheet of paper amid the deafening silence.
“Allahu Akbar!” yells someone in the back of the crowd.
The mullah raises an imperious hand to silence the shooter. After reciting a verse from the Qur’an, he reads something that sounds like a judgment, returns the sheet of paper to an interior pocket of his vest, and at the end of a brief meditation proposes that his listeners arm themselves with stones. This is the signal. In an indescribable frenzy, the crowd rushes to the heaps of rocks placed in the square a few hours earlier for this very purpose. At once, a hail of projectiles falls upon the condemned woman, who, since she has been gagged, shivers under their impact without a cry. Mohsen picks up three stones and throws them at the target. Because of the tumult around him, the first two go astray, but on the third try, he hits the victim flush on the head. In an access of boundless joy, he sees a red stain blossom at the spot where his stone has struck her. At the end of a minute, bloody and broken, the woman collapses and lies still. Her rigidity further galvanizes her executioners; their eyes rolled back, their mouths dripping saliva, they redouble their fury, as if trying to resuscitate their victim and thus prolong her torment. In their collective hysteria, convinced that they’re exorcising their demons through those of the succubus, some of them fail to notice that the crushed body is no longer responding to their attacks and that the immolated, half-buried woman is lying lifeless on the ground, like a sack of abomination thrown to the vultures.”
Whether in Kabul, Cairo, Baghdad, Riyadh or Jerusalem … the mentality is the same mentality. A collective hysteria that moves the masses and blinds them into what the “mullah,” “mufti” whatever has dictated. And everyone holds a stone or in the Facebook world of today, throws a word and makes a sentence to confirm the execution of a man … a woman … anyone who stands for a right or a word of truth… confessing that he\she does not hold the access to the truth. Just someone who believes in the greatness of this existence and tries to make it a free space for the metal unconscious mind.
The sorrow of the narrow-mindedness … the intolerance… the ignorance makes me sorry for Zeidan and all the free “Arab” souls in these lands
Nadia,
Well said, sister.
I am reminded of three ideas brought forth by one of the more radical thinkers in the Science Fiction genre, Robert Heinlein, who, in his books, had his character, Lazarus Long, make the following assertions, all of which I hold to be absolute truth, and, verification of all you have related today…
“A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld. ”
“Of all the strange “crimes” that human beings have legislated out of nothing, “blasphemy” is the most amazing — with “obscenity” and “indecent exposure” fighting it out for second and third place. ”
“Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful — just stupid.)”
As I’ve related, I hold ALL religious philosophy to be a waste of human effort and imagination; to imagine a supernatural creator demeans us, as well as the universe in which we find ourselves…
But, those who do follow such philosophies all too frequently interpret the words of the founders, most of whom were reformers and radicals, for their OWN purposes, thus eliminating completely ANY benefit that might be found in the ideas promoted by the original philosopher’s words…. becoming, instead, a means of manipulating the ignorant, and those inclined to faith rather than reason, into acting according to what amounts to a error magnified by deliberate further error, thus making the end result advantageous to ONLY the manipulator….
Most of the world lives their lives based on an illusion, created and promoted by the evil minded for their own purposes, and foisted upon those who cannot handle reality without resorting to faith-based information, which is seldom close to actual Reality….
I again salute you for choosing reason…. Even if one has faith, at least it should be subject to the demands of reason, for how else can it be considered at all moral, or ethical? Legality, whether secular, or religious. has no actual basis in Reality; it is a man-made concept. The universe itself cares not at all if we live. or die…..
And, THAT is why most people prefer faith, because they lack the courage to face that simple fact without giving in to their fear of the unknown….
gigoid, the dubious
I have been caught in the middle of all this in Azazeel . Yusef Zeedan’s novel . I strongly advice to read. it discusses as well debates all what u mentioned. whatever it i s .. morality should be on top of all the aspect of what drives jus . it doesn’t matter what we call what we feel or how we interpret our own believes. I do believe that FAITH is a strong motivator in life. how we tackle this motivation is important . and this is where REASON is a major contributor … something most of us leave to those who WE or THEY designated themselves as the carriers of GOD’s message on earth
Agreed… most do NOT use their reason, as they never learned how to do so…. which is encouraged by most faiths; the less the people think, the better the clergy like it….
“In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty.”
— Thomas Jefferson
He also said, “Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) — Notes on Virginia, Query xviii, Manners
I will try to find a copy of a translation of YZ’s book; any suggestions for a good translation?
gigoid, the dubious
i was in discussion with a scholar today , who ,when mentioning what could be more dangerous , th ethreat of the state or the threat of religious people. he said : they are one coin having two faces ..
Those are wise words…. all too true. Both sides of the coin have worked hand in hand to oppress their constituencies for far too long…. Time, I think, for humanity to grow up, and give up the illusions of a child… Money, gods, and the necessity for governments, are all such illusions, for all are merely ideas, and have no basis in Reality…
The scholar sounds like a wise person….
gigoid, the dubious
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