My Gripes of Wrath

I'll start off the new year with a link to a very interesting article by Abraham Rabinovich. What is fascinating about this article is that there is such a thing as reforming voices in the Middle East. In other words, outspoken Muslims who are not fundamentalist jihadists.

"Why do the Arabs boast of their courage when in fact we are the most cowardly people on earth?" Iraqi researcher Mohammed al-Khodari said last month on al-Jazeera TV, the leading news channel in the Middle East. "Of all peoples, Arabs are most likely to resign themselves to injustice, oppression and persecution."

From MEMRI, comes this gem of an interview, captured from Al Jazeera TV.
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/2716.htm

I admire Mohammed al-Khodari for his opinions. I wonder how long he has to live?

From Lebanese journalist Ziyad Noujeim

"Our entire culture is based on two things and two things alone: lies and denial. We blame everything on Israel. If one day Israel is eliminated, what would we do?"

 Dihyaa al-Musawi, in an interview posted on YouTube.

 "We have a gallows culture in which we try to hang a thinker, a poet, every day. We are against creativity and civilisation. We have not developed to the point of admitting defeat, cultural defeat. In the past we had a civilisation but we are regressing. We export violence. We terrorise whole countries. Our pulpits have become booby traps for the public by generating hatred towards 'the other'."

 

What is interesting is that if I or any other westerner voice such opinions, we are in liable to be labeled racist and accused of hate crimes, and convicted of such under existing legislation.