They Rejoice at Killing Arabs

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

It is not Westerners who rejoice at the killing of Arabs, or of Zionists — it is Arabs themselves who rejoice at killing their own. There are those in the world who hate Arabs and are hostile to them, the Zionists for instance, and they may well feel a sense of ease watching Arabs being killed and their blood spilled. But there are, without a doubt, Arabs who express joy and delight when they see the sons of Arabs drenched in their own blood, in the valleys, on mountainsides, over desert sands, and under the rubble.

I see joy rising on the anchor’s face as he delivers to us the news of the killing of Arab soldiers he himself stands against, and I see anticipation on the faces of those who deliberately tune in to listen to this anchor, because his position matches theirs. The television channel cannot wait to deliver the news it considers joyful — it rushes to broadcast it, delivering it to us immediately, so we can share the joy quickly.

Television channels standing against the Syrian regime are wrapped in glee as they tell us twenty Syrian soldiers have been killed. Another channel, supporting the Syrian regime, quickly works to delight us by reporting the killing of thirty terrorists. What is notable is that these channels never tell us the dead are Arabs — only regime soldiers or terrorists. Arabs, to these channels, are not the ones being targeted — only the “scum and degenerates” on the other side, working to sabotage the Arab arena out of greed for power and money.

All these dead, whose killing the channels hold celebrations of joy and delight over, are Arabs, and mostly poor, destitute Arabs whom the holders of interests drag into the furnace of war, to fashion them into false heroes who die for the sake of others whose interests require igniting wars. The crushed sons of the Arabs are the fuel of wars, and the mothers of these crushed sons are the ones who lose their sons and husbands, unable to sleep through long nights, in grief, pain, weeping, and wailing.

The wars of history have never been free of falsehood, lies, and interests — indeed, most of them witnessed the poor as fuel and the holders of interests as masters untouched by harm. And so it is in the Arab arena, where the lies of regimes bearing patriotic and nationalist touches, and the mockeries of their opponents, especially the religious among them who claim to hold the keys to heaven and hell and the authority to distribute maidens of paradise to the deluded who imagine angels will receive them and escort them to beautiful maidens, toy with the Arab citizen.

This distribution serves only the private interests of those leading and funding it, igniting the fires of strife and grudges. The interest of the Arab nation is absent, even though every party trades on it. The political regime wants a long life, and is prepared to kill people, destroy their homes, and wreck their factories and businesses for the sake of its own seat, while its opponents go to great lengths killing people, in God’s name and in defense of His teachings, and I do not think God needs them to fight for Him, or to establish His word on earth through them. And yet, the sons of the poor and destitute compete unwittingly for their filthy share in these crimes committed against Arabs. Those funding these opponents are no less wicked than the regime, or the opponents’ own leadership, because they fund strife and pour oil on the fire, so it remains ablaze, and grows ever more ablaze.

It is well known that God Almighty has not granted success to Arab rulers, despite Friday preachers’ prayers calling for their success. All the preachers’ prayers, for more than sixty years, have ended in disastrous failure, and the Lord of the Worlds has answered none of them, perhaps because the preachers themselves are hypocrites and liars, or because Arab rulers do not deserve success and do not truly seek it.

The male and female anchor become tools of the regimes and of those waging the infighting. You, anchor — what strikes your cheek that makes you a herald of evil, repugnant, a tool in the hands of the swine who ignite war and kill the sons of the Arabs? You are an employee with a salary, and perhaps have no other source of income, and you are, in the end, forced to perform the poor role you play. But it is necessary to balance your private interest, represented by the salary, against the nation’s interest. And if you believe in God, and are a righteous Muslim, you must know that walking the path of wickedness is not forgiven by private interests.

And you, female anchor, what drives you to work that corrupts relations between people, when you have no stake whatsoever in this bloody conflict raging in the Arab arena? Your family toiled for you so you could learn and improve your financial, social, and career prospects in this life — was the goal of education hypocrisy, deceit, and lying? And if you believe in this nation, its elevation, and its glory, know that this will not be achieved except through clarity, candor, defending the truth, and standing against injustice. And if you are a believer, know that your share in the hereafter will be proportional to your work in this world.

Anchor, male and female: we need you and your work. But if it is not honest with people, it backfires, causing great harm to everyone. It is understood that the ugly regimes and their enemies, who have preferred ugliness to purity, want you to play a role other than the one you desire. They cast you into the arena of lying and hypocrisy, so that your own faces bear the ugliness, not theirs. They remain there, in their fortresses and palaces, never appearing, telling people what they want through you, and much of what you say on their behalf is lying, charlatanism, and manipulation, straying far from truth and honesty, uniting instead with falsehood, in order to inflame hearts further, so the blood keeps flowing.

People were optimistic about the Arab movement, since it began in Tunisia, and their hope was that something would be achieved against the Arab regimes, leading to the rise of freedom in the Arab homeland. Hopes did not match the results, and Arab regimes intervened against other regimes out of spite, and out of hatred and a desire to secure support in the Arab arena. Where is democracy now?

“Arab-ocracy” (democracy the Arab way) has triumphed over democracy, and so we can say the Arab tradition has defeated the Western tradition. Democracy was never established — instead, celebrations of killing and torture arose, along with the tearing apart of the social fabric and moral collapse. This is why we return to the question Arab television channels must answer: why do you drag yourselves into conflicts whose price you, and the Arab citizen generally, end up paying?

The great problem is that ordinary people usually fall prey to the inflaming of emotions, driven to act according to the interest of whoever inflamed their feelings. Beneficiaries usually use national and religious interests to stir emotions, pumping many analyses into people to push them toward participation. Ordinary people move according to their national and religious sentiments, truly believing they are defending a cause worth sacrificing for. This is why national and religious rhetoric abounds in times of crisis, and many intellectuals and thinkers are mobilized to carry the banner of strife and the culture of killing and bloodshed. The result is always the loss of the poor and destitute, and the further rise of the instigators of strife. This is why we must remain vigilant.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “إنهم يبتهجون بقتل العرب” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.