An Open Letter to President Bush

[Salafi_Online]

An Open Letter to President Bush

 

By Safar ibn Abdur-Rahmân al-Hawâlî

 

15 October, 2001

 

Mr. President:

 

I am writing this letter to you in hope that it will be taken into account without regard to the faith of its writer, or the colour of his skin, and despite your new division of the children of Adam into the civilized who support all your views, and the barbarians who do not.

 

Perhaps this letter is strange to you, as I write to you as one of the heirs of the prophets, and the prophets, as we know, used to address the tyrants of the earth in the hope that they might repent and fear the Lord of all the worlds. Thus did Moses –peace be upon him- address Pharaoh, Haman, and Karun, and thus did Jesus –peace be upon him- address the Romans and the High Priest of the Jews, and thus did Muhammad - peace and blessings be upon him- address Abu Jahl in Makkah, as well as the Roman Emperor Heraclius and the Persian Emperor Khosraw. It is not necessary for the recipient to listen to or acknowledge the messenger, but it is merely his duty to convey the message.

 

I write to you as a member of an oppressed and persecuted community in a condition like that of Jesus when he was persecuted by the Jews on one side, and Romans on the other side. It is regrettable that the United States, a nation founded by immigrants fleeing persecution, has taken for itself the position of the Roman Empire which persecuted the followers of Christ –peace be upon him- and colluded– with the enemies of faith (the unbelievers of the children of Israel) to slay the prophets and messengers, and to slay their followers in all times and places. At that time the Roman Empire claimed to be the symbol of freedom and civilized values, just as you claimed referred to America in your first statement after the incidents of September 11.It was the greatest world power of its day, the heir of Greek civilization. It had a Senate and a façade of democracy. The Roman citizen had freedom of religion and personal behavior. All this made it superior to other Empires throughout the world, and yet history does not speak well of this Empire because of the repulsive crime with which it stained its reputation: the persecution of the Christians. For this reason that Great Power lost its valuable distinctions when it oppressed a group of believers in God: Who alone possesses absolute power, absolute might, and absolute justice, Who is Mighty in His punishment which He withholds for the oppressor for awhile, but Who one day takes vengeance against him.

 

Indeed, that is what He did. The Northern Barbarians overpowered Rome and destroyed it, They burned its cultural symbols and shattered its arrogance at the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era. Two centuries later, God caused the followers of the final Prophet Muhammad –God’s blessing and peace be upon him- to inherit the Holy Land in which Christ –peace be upon him- had lived. This was a tremendous victory for Christ since the Islamic Faith which conquered and liberated most of the known world from despotism and persecution, and filled it with mercy and justice, manifested for mankind the greatness of Christ –peace be upon him- and the truth of Christ’s message, as well as the merit of his disciples and their followers as was revealed in detail in the Holy Qur’an. The Islamic community considered itself to be the final link in the long chain of followers of the prophets which began with Abraham, and included Moses and Jesus –peace be upon them- and declared to all the world that the enemies of Christ –peace be upon him- are the enemies of freedom and lofty values, especially the Jews, regardless of whether they denied Christ and incited the Romans against him, or whether they pretended to follow him so as to distort his message as did Saul who is called ‘Paul.’ The amazing thing is that the peoples who tasted the affliction of Roman tyranny and arrogance rejoiced at the destruction of Rome and wondered at the actions of the ‘Northern Barbarians†who did it, despite the fact that they did not know or like them, yet how much more so would it have been if –for example- Rome had been attacked by the oppressed Christians? Would anyone have ventured to blame the Christians if they rejoiced or sympathized with the attackers?

 

Mr. President, we Muslims are a nation of justice. At the same time our ethics do not allow us to rejoice over the misfortunes of the afflicted, yet we would still hope that the United States would review its stand and be more fair, so that we might once again give the benefit of the doubt to the United States for which there are precedents that encourage this hope, and which demonstrate how we used to move two steps towards them for every step of theirs, and a mile for every move of theirs. When President Wilson announced his fourteen points at the end of World War I, and especially the right of self-determination of peoples, it was greeted by the Islamic world as a just position towards European Colonialism that dominated most of its peoples. The Muslims rejoiced at a voice from among the Christian nations themselves saying that the time had come for an end to racial discrimination and crusader campaigns –such as the one led by General Allenby. Thus, the Islamic peoples hastened to place their complete trust in this neutral nation (the United States of America) and the United States profited greatly from this, since besides the moral distinctions it earned, it also achieved the greatest economic advantages in history. Their trust was not shaken even by its unjust position concerning the establishment of the Jewish state and the deprivation of the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, but the Islamic peoples clung to their hope that that policy was simply an error that might be rectified. Similarly, President Eisenhower’s position towards the three-party aggression against Egypt was one of the biggest factors that encouraged the continuation of the benefit of the doubt for America and the refusal to listen to the claims of the communists –which were not entirely false.

 

However, the trust in America and its justice was rapidly shaken and then declined to the ground because of America’s own behavior which came in the form of one proof after another which permanently refuted the benefit of the doubt.

 

Perhaps the first of these absolute proofs was the actions of President Nixon and his Secretary of State Kissinger during and after the Ramadhan (October) War of 1973, then your father, President Bush whose duplicity of standards were obvious to everybody. Iraq violated the same or fewer international agreements then those that Israel has and continues to violate. Iraq’s excuse in doing so was similar to those used by America to incorporate Texas into its territory. As for Israel’s excuse for occupying Palestine, it is worse than the British justification for keeping America as a British colony, and more repulsive than your ancestor’s excuse for the genocide of the American Indian!

 

It is this contradictory position which compelled the Islamic peoples to attend demonstrations by the millions in support of a dictator whom none of them had previously liked. Then came President Clinton and his Jewish administration. He was more concerned than either yourself or your father with finding a solution for the problem but he followed the same wrong road; describing the horrible terrorist attack on the Abraham Mosque in Hebron as no more than a “crime.†You and he both know that up until now there has never been a Palestinian attack on any Jewish place of worship, and when the terrorist attack occurred in Cana he was not ashamed to describe it as “an unintentional mistake done by the Israelis in self-defense,†Yet when Israel was faced with bombings, he gathered all the World and Arab leaders at the Sharm al-Shaykh conference so that they could all condemn “terrorism†ignoring the continuous barbaric massacres and the long chain of tragedies which the Israelis have brought upon the Palestinians and Arabs, which were not described at all. This caused the Islamic peoples to dissociate from America in view of the fact that it dictated to the attendees what Israel wanted, and from their governments in view of the fact that they yielded to the American administration. They turned with all their suffering and hopes to the groups described as terrorist without any concern about that description, since the conference taught them a good lesson in understanding the terminology of the American double standard: that when America decides that someone is a terrorist or an extremist it places them in the position of legendary heroes in the eyes of the oppressed and the wretched who need some airing after their long defeat and subservience, and as Claes (former Secretary General of NATO) officially informed them that the alliance had placed Islam as the focus of its enmity in place of the former Soviet Union. There is no need for additional practical proofs after this unique title, proofs which arrive daily from everywhere from the Philippines, Timor, Kashmir, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Sudan, and many other places –except that what occurred in Palestine after the defiling of the Aqsa Mosque by the greatest terrorist criminal of this age: Sharon, outweighed all the others.

 

It was your misfortune after your difficult election victory to be contemporaneous with that criminal, and to continue your eternal strategic alliance with him.

 

We Muslims desired to see you elected and we have proof that the votes which gave you victory were our votes, and I personally advised Muslims to vote for you. Some of them hoped that you would be fairer than the Democrats although others clearly stated that the matter was no more than choosing the lesser of two evils. We did not do that out of forgetfulness of the crimes of your party and your father throughout the Muslim World, but because we are a nation of justice and reason we held back our feelings and made the choice which we felt was best for us and for America also. We hoped that you would repay good with good, but you did the complete opposite by increasing your predecessor’s material and political support of Zionist terrorism in the form which has occurred and continues to occur. Bewildered questions were repeated on the lips of everyone in the Islamic Word: Does the American administration have a conscience? Does this biased stance which has dismayed the entire world have any justification and will it ever end? Is America Greater Israel or is Israel Lesser America?

 

In the midst of this continuous confusion and frustration, the events of the 11th of September occurred. I will not conceal from you that a tremendous wave of joy accompanied the shock that was felt by the Muslim in the street and whoever tells you otherwise is avoiding the truth. It is my opinion that America which believes in freedom and democracy -as you repeat in your speeches- should not become upset by this one-time joy, and should not seize upon the Muslim’s spontaneous outpouring of feeling. This nation, which worships God and believes in justice more than any nation on earth, did not do that out of racist enmity or evil intent, but they were joined in this by the entire world: the world that kicked you out of the Organization for Human Rights. 3000 popular organizations mobilized against you at the Durban conference. More than forty nations suffer from your oppressive boycotts and economic penalties, let alone from your military incursions. Even the environment has identified you before the world as its greatest enemy.

 

People’s shock at your first speech was greater than their shock at the event itself. It totally equated America with freedom, justice and noble values, and it contained a harsh threat of vengeance rather than a promise of fair cooperation. We tried to excuse you because of the shock of the events and the need to absorb popular anger, but all of your statements as well as your actions have been of the same mode and have severed any other possibility.

 

Reckless accusations and hasty revenge are the real tragedy for America, and the true test of its values and civilization. Your security apparatus –which had boasted that it could catch a fly passing over the Pentagon and that it would no about a riot among the Eskimos before it occurred- rushed to the nearest flight school and the nearest hotel and took down the name of every Arab or Muslim student or resident and announced that they are the terrorists!

 

Imagine Mr.President, if you were sitting among your family or tribe thousands of miles away and heard or saw the news that you had been part of a suicide operation on a plane? or that it was done by your brother who had died a year ago? Wouldn’t you thank God that you were not a citizen of that civilized country or a believer in their so-called values and justice? Especially when your very civilized people answered these calls of yours, your cabinet members, and your security apparatus and started to attack the barbarian invaders in every free and civilized part of your country. I and the people of my country have discovered how barbaric were are when a gang of Westerners –I will not call them terrorists since they have white skin and blue eyes- performed a series of explosions in our cities, we watched as they gave their serious confessions, and yet we made not the smallest move to attack any Western person in any place in our country, we did not kill them, or strip search them in our airports, nor did we place them in solitary confinement, let alone incite the whole world to form an alliance against them. No, we did nothing of that which your civilized people have done to our children and Muslim brothers in general.

 

What caused us to behave in this manner is our religion and ethics, for which gift we thank God. At this point I would like to ask you Mr. President, if the world chose you to give a prize for the people with the most advanced morals and values, and the best treatment of others, which of the two peoples would you give the prize? To your people or to ours?

 

Does this mean that we bear ill will toward the American people for that we are racist in our treatment of them? No. Never. We believe that the American people in general have such good attributes that they are the closest of all Western peoples to us, and the most deserving of all of them of our desire for them to achieve good in this life and in the hereafter. They are a people the majority of whom believe in the existence of God, and who donate to charitable work more than any other people in the world (and by that we do not mean the evangelization of the Muslims).

 

The truest proof of the goodness of the American people is that they have embraced Islam more quickly and in greater numbers than other peoples of the world, and have tried to understand it better even after you held the Muslims responsible for the disaster without evidence.

 

We desire all good and honor for a people like this from the bottom of our hearts, and good and honor are only achieved by any people by one of two things:

 

1- Embracing God’s Faith which is alone acceptable to Him, the Faith of all the prophets: Islam. By doing this Allah grants them both the good of this world and that of the next world.

 

2- Making peace with the Muslims, loving them, and treating them kindly. By doing this Allah rewards them security and good in this world.

 

This Islamic nation, the followers of Abraham and Muhammad –God’s blessing and peace be upon him- is dearest to God of all nations. Whoever honors them is honored by God, and whoever despises them is despised by God, though He may grant them respite for a time. History is a witness to this.

 

You may say, or others may have said on your behalf, “I have apologized for using the term ‘crusade’, I have visited the Islamic Center, and I have advice the people to control themselves,†but we say, “We are used to America to inflict deep wounds and then putting a small bandage on them, but your present attack on Afghanistan has violently removed those bandages and opened a wound in the heart of every Muslim.

 

Mr. President, if only when you did what you did, you had avoided the racist terminology of your speeches about hostile action. It would have been enough for you to simply claim the right -with no need for justification- treat the world any way you want, and to punish whomever you want, whenever you want. But then you had to go on and leave the desire for revenge open without any end in sight when you said “ Today we will concentrate on Afghanistan, but the battle is wider than that.†Is it not enough for you to destroy a whole nation because of an unproven accusation against a single person or organization forced to live in that country? Is this hostility which exceeds all values and morals, and shakes every living conscience in the world only a drop in the sea of your vengeance?

 

Did Christ –peace be upon him- grant you that power? Far be it for him to do that. Even Machiavelli himself does not grant you that degree of power. Your precedent in this is Samson. Won’t you fear God –you who have made your slogan to be “God bless America?†How can God bless and protect her when Christ His Messenger taught exactly the opposite of what you do: “Whoever strikes you on your right cheek, then turn to him your left cheek. Whoever takes from you your garment, then give him also your cloak. And whoever mocks you for a mile, go with him for two miles.â€

 

Do you not understand that when you make the desire for endless vengeance to be the attribute of the civilized nation, you make Christ –peace be upon him- to be an uncivilized barbarian? Far be it for him, but you have rejected God and Christ, and followed the behavior of the Popes of the Middle Ages who used to grant indulgences and excommunication according to their whims. You have granted an everlasting pardon to yourselves and to the Zionist State, and to every hostile tyrant, and you have issued an excommunication for anyone who hesitates to join your endless hostility by describing them as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.

 

You search with microscopes for so-called terrorist groups in Somalia which has been destroyed by poverty, or in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon whose humble dwellings are threatened by Zionist terrorism every day. But you forget that horrible terrorism tangibly dwells among you. It is you, and nothing but you. If you do not believe this then tell me by God, if your best friend comes to congratulate you in ten years on the victory you hope to achieve over the mysterious enemy you have fabricated, what will he be able to congratulate you about? Supposing that he says, “Mr. President, we have killed one million Afghanis, one million Iraqis, one million of this and that,†until the end of your cursed list, will that be a victory for civilization, lofty values, freedom and democracy? Certainly among your victims will be starving, naked widows and children. Will that satisfy your desire for vengeance? Shamelessly, you will use the fact that they are alive as evidence that you limited yourselves to the destruction of their mud houses and wooden huts as strategic targets of the smart bombs of your clean war that do not kill people.

 

At this point the world that you have made depressed and sad for as long as God wills, will finally laugh. Yes, they will be forced to laugh by the civilized joke of the miraculous intelligence of your missiles: When you hit Iraq, Iran screamed. When you aimed at Afghanistan during your first attack on that country, you hit Pakistan, and one of your smart missiles infuriated the Yellow Giant by destroying its embassy in Belgrade. I admit –in all fairness- the intelligence of at least one of your missiles: the Patriot missile which saw one of the ****** Scuds which had lost its way, so it knocked it to the right direction and invited it to dinner with the American intelligence officers in Khobar.

 

As for being clean, the whole world bears witness that you fought the cleanest war but with one simple observation: that although you cleaned out Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you unintentionally left a little pollution in its place. Perhaps you will realize your mistake in Afghanistan and its citizens, and be more generous and paint the sites with a little cheap American paint.

 

However, for the sake of the truth we should also say that there is little doubt about the cleanness of your war in Iraq since the witnesses against you are children, and the law does not accept the witness of children even if they number in the millions, but the witnesses for your side are adults of the level of dictators and their generals.

 

Mr. President, do you think that your list in which you announce the names of terrorist organizations and the countries that support terrorism will serve your interests, or will it be further proof that the world is against you? Who is the advisor who suggested publishing this list at the same time that people discovered your own house is glass and is still broken? Why do you make enemies of those who throw stones at you from Japan in the East, to Peru in the West? During the present dangerous security situation in your country wouldn’t it have been enough for you to choose one country and one organization? Or do you want to incite all of them, so that if any one of them performs a terrorist operation you can hold the Muslims alone responsible so that your Crusade against them can continue forever?

 

Mr. President, don’t suppose that I want to recount your few faults and forget our own (in your eyes) very many faults. No, I will mention to you a serious fault of us Muslims: we don’t forget our tragedies no matter how much time has passed. Imagine, Mr. President, we still weep over Andalusia and remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did there to our religion, culture and honor! We dream of regaining it. Nor will we forget the destruction of Baghdad, or the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of your Crusader ancestors. That is, we are not (in your opinion) at the level of civilization enjoyed by the Germans and Japanese who support your hostilities and forget your past treatment of them. Moreover, the African Muslims who embraced Islam after the fall of Andalusia cry along with the Arabs, just as the Indonesians do who only heard recently heard about Andalusia. It may be a problem for us, but who will pay the price after awhile?

 

Mr.President, your problem with the Afghans –and the Muslims in general- is that you are stronger than necessary and they are weaker than necessary. Every time you use excessive force, or are excessive in using it, it proves to be a weakness in strength. This is a great divine mystery which reminds us of what happened to the tyrant Pharaoh at the hands of the oppressed children of Israel. Listen to the story from God’s Holy Scripture:

 

Ta Seen Meem. These are the revelations of the manifest scripture. We recite to you some of the story of Moses and Pharaoh in truth, for a people who have faith. Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided its people into groups, oppressing one group among them: slaying their sons and sparing their women. Truly, he was one of the tyrants. We desire to bless those who are oppressed in the land, to make them rulers and to make them the heirs, and to establish them in the land. We let Pharaoh, Haman and their hosts receive from them that of which they had feared. “ (28:1-6)

 

Do not say, “Who am I compared to Pharaoh?†You have demanded of the Muslims what Pharaoh never demanded of Moses –peace be upon him- and the children of Israel: that they should not hate you in their hearts no matter what you do to them or how you oppress them, or else you will have revenge on them. This is an attribute exclusive to God, for God Almighty alone is the Able to wreak vengeance on all who do not love Him. We know of no dictatorial empire in ancient history which treated people according to what their hearts and consciences conceal, let alone a twenty-first century democracy.

 

You may say, “We intend to remove anything that will incite hate from sermons, school curricula, newspaper articles and the media.†We reply that if that is your democracy, then there is try as you like, but you should be sure that you will not succeed. We learned to hate oppression and love the truth from our religion and our Qur’an, and it is stronger than all of your means, and firmer than your mountains. If you refuse everything but the arrogance of force and the insanity of greatness, then there are no means left for you except the extermination of all the Muslims with nuclear or biological weapons, or whatever you want from hellish arsenal contains.

 

You may ask, “Why all of them when some of them love us?†Be sure, there is no Muslim on earth who loves you, even if they donate their blood to you, or set up intelligence gathering stations for you, or delegate to you setting the curriculum for the education of their people. Everyone on earth who claims to love you –and no Muslim is able to make that claim- they only love you like frightened prey loves a brutal predator.

 

You may say, “We will restore the trust of the Islamic peoples by changing their government into tolerant and democratic systems.†But we say you need only cease your evil treatment of us. You destroyed the Iraqi people as well as others by this false promise, and we do not want any freedom or democracy that comes from you and we will not accept it. The enemy of freedom cannot grant freedom.

 

Mr. President, I advise you and put the fear of God before you, to cease and desist from hostile action. Deal with the problem with fairness and patience, and you will find that we are with you reservation. Your hostility now, at the beginning of the way, is easier for you and better for the world. If not, easy beginnings are usually followed by extremely difficult ends. For that reason I ask you to think, Mr. President, if you destroy every country on your list of terrorists, will that be the end or only the beginning? Unless you want to be remembered by history for Armageddon, and in that case there will be no history anyway

 

For this reason I repeat to you: Fear God and think hard.

 

Peace upon him who follows God’s guidance,

 

Safar ibn Abdur-Rahmân al-Hawâlî

[S.O.S]

^^It was an uplifting read, showing some of the the shameless ironies in today's world. The following article of Robert Fisk offers same sentiments, but who cares?

 

The problem with democracy

 

by: Robert Fisk on: 28th Jan, 06

 

Oh no, not more democracy again! Didn't we award this to those Algerians in 1990? And didn't they reward us with that nice gift of an Islamist government - and then they so benevolently cancelled the second round of elections? Thank goodness for that!

 

True, the Afghans elected a round of representatives, albeit that they included some warlords and murderers. But then the Iraqis last year elected the Dawa party to power in Baghdad, which was responsible - let us not speak this in Washington - for most of the kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut in the 1980s, the car bombing of the (late) Emir and the US and French embassies in Kuwait.

 

And now, horror of horrors, the Palestinians have elected the wrong party to power. They were supposed to have given their support to the friendly, pro-Western, corrupt, absolutely pro-American Fatah, which had promised to "control" them, rather than to Hamas, which said they would represent them. And, bingo, they have chosen the wrong party again.

 

Result: 76 out of 132 seats. That just about does it. God damn that democracy. What are we to do with people who don't vote the way they should?

 

Way back in the 1930s, the British would lock up the Egyptians who turned against the government of King Farouk. Thus they began to set the structure of anti-democratic governance that was to follow. The French imprisoned the Lebanese government which demanded the same. Then the French left Lebanon. But we have always expected the Arab governments to do what they were told.

 

So today, we are expecting the Syrians to behave, the Iranians to kowtow to our nuclear desires (though they have done nothing illegal), and the North Koreans to surrender their weapons (though they actually do have them, and therefore cannot be attacked).

 

Now let the burdens of power lie heavy on the shoulders of the party. Now let the responsibilities of people lie upon them. We British would never talk to the IRA, or to Eoka, or to the Mao Mao. But in due course, Gerry Adams, Archbishop Makarios and Jomo Kenyatta came to take tea with the Queen. The Americans would never speak to their enemies in North Vietnam. But they did. In Paris.

 

No, al-Qa'ida will not do that. But the Iraqi leaders of the insurgency in Mesopotamia will. They talked to the British in 1920, and they will talk to the Americans in 2006.

 

Back in 1983, Hamas talked to the Israelis. They spoke directly to them about the spread of mosques and religious teaching. The Israeli army boasted about this on the front page of the Jerusalem Post. At that time, it looked like the PLO was not going to abide by the Oslo resolutions. There seemed nothing wrong, therefore, with continuing talks with Hamas. So how come talks with Hamas now seem so impossible?

 

Not long after the Hamas leadership had been hurled into southern Lebanon, a leading member of its organisation heard me say that I was en route to Israel.

 

"You'd better call Shimon Peres," he told me. "Here's his home number."

 

The phone number was correct. Here was proof that members of the hierarchy of the most extremist movements among the Palestinians were talking to senior Israeli politicians.

 

The Israelis know well the Hamas leadership. And the Hamas leadership know well the Israelis. There is no point in journalists like us suggesting otherwise. Our enemies invariably turn out to be our greatest friends, and our friends turn out, sadly, to be our enemies.

 

A terrible equation - except that we must understand our fathers' history. My father, who was a soldier in the First World War, bequeathed to me a map in which the British and French ruled the Middle East. The Americans have tried, vainly, to rule that map since the Second World War. They have all failed. And it remains our curse to rule it since.

 

How terrible it is to speak with those who have killed our sons. How unspeakable it is to converse with those who have our brothers' blood on their hands. No doubt that is how Americans who believed in independence felt about the Englishmen who fired upon them.

 

It will be for the Iraqis to deal with al-Qa'ida. This is their burden. Not ours. Yet throughout history, we have ended up talking to our enemies. We talked to the representatives of the Emperor of Japan. In the end, we had to accept the surrender of the German Reich from the successor to Adolf Hitler. And today, we trade happily with the Japanese, the Germans and the Italians.

 

The Middle East was never a successor to Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy, despite the rubbish talked by Messrs Bush and Blair. How long will it be before we can throw away the burden of this most titanic of wars and see our future, not as our past, but as a reality?

 

Surely, in an age when our governments no longer contain men or women who have experienced war, we must now lead a people with the understanding of what war means. Not Hollywood. Not documentary films. Democracy means real freedom, not just for the people we choose to have voted into power.

 

And that is the problem in the Middle East.

 

source: The Independent