Exhuming the Graves of Leaders

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Jordanian media are deeply displeased with the information Mr. Mohamed Hassanein Heikal presented on Al Jazeera’s program “Ma’a Heikal,” concerning the late King Hussein’s ties to the American Central Intelligence Agency and to Israel. They are attacking Al Jazeera, and Heikal along with it, accusing them of stirring up sedition, even though the information in question is nothing new; it has been known for years, and the Hashemite regime itself has publicly acknowledged it.

The problem lies in this very talk of sedition. Who is the true agitator of sedition — the corrupter who commits abominations, perpetrates forbidden acts, and conspires with enemies, or the one who simply speaks about the person who does these things? In the Arab homeland, the “agitator” is the one who tries to expose the corrupters who plunder the wealth of their peoples, conspire with enemies, sell out their homelands, and forever chase their own appetites at the expense of the poor and the destitute. When in truth it is the Arab leaders who are the corrupt, corrupting agitators, who put the people’s money, media, and resources to work for their own personal interests, the interests of their retinue of hypocrites, and the interests of the enemies of God and the nation. It is a disgrace for any Arab to stay silent about the truth and fail to proclaim it openly and in a strong voice. It is true that the leaders’ security services are powerful and brutal, but this nation can never rise while people remain cowed before the terror and intimidation of their regimes.

Sedition, in Islam, is to stay silent in the face of injustice, because that silence encourages the oppressor to commit further injustice, leading to further deterioration in the nation’s condition. The Islamic principle is to confront injustice immediately, so that it does not spread unchecked, and to stand against the oppressor so that arrogance does not lead him further into sin. The correct ruling is that silence in the face of injustice is itself injustice, and that showing favor to the oppressor is sedition. The hypocrites among those running the media, who dress up for people the deeds of the Arab regimes and their leaders, are the true agitators of sedition, contributing to the nation’s backwardness and degradation.

The Arab rulers have never tyrannized the land and transgressed except with the help of clerics who do not truly know God, and with the help of educated people — holders of advanced degrees and long experience — who chose hypocrisy over carrying the trust. We always see these people rushing to defend defeated rulers who have turned the nation into a mount for its enemies, who have accepted Israel, and who have bowed their own backs and the nation’s neck before the Americans; and we see them on television screens and across the various media, working to beautify the ugly and justify the defeats.

King Hussein, and those who came after him, are not above suspicion; rather, they are steeped in it. This nation is not backward across its various fields due to some magical power, nor have its bones been eaten away by defeats through some external force, but through the actions of lustful, conspiring leaders whom the masses of the nation have failed to bring down.

The Arab regimes are always angered by Al Jazeera, and no Arab media outlet has drawn the wrath of the Arab regimes more than Al Jazeera has. The regimes of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Sudan, the Palestinian Authority, and others have never hidden this resentment. And if this is proof of anything, it is proof that the channel is speaking the truth about these regimes; had it not been, the regimes’ responses would have been calm and measured, free of hysteria. It is clear that the Arab rulers hate the truth, and certainly hate anyone who tries to bring it, or even a part of it, to the public.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “نبش قبور القادة” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.