lose the hypocricy
Apparently, a Bahraini national has been stripped of his nationality for taking part in an athletic competition in 'Israel' (please see links).
Such things happen in most of the GCC countries since none of them have any diplomatic ties with 'Israel'; or so it would appear. Which is quite sad, since most of these countries secretly take on trade agreements with the Jewish state behind everyone's back, never to announce it, and when all is exposed they break it up over the outcry of their population on how Palestinians are suffering in their occupied lands and how no one is lending a helping hand to them instead.
For instance, you have the Sultanate of Oman who had a trade office in one of the local 5 star hotels a long time back until they closed it down under the excuse of the escalating situation in Palestine along with postponing Muscat Festival back then, too. Saudi Arabia, surprisingly, has one of its members going behind the scenes trying to make things move along for the sake of 'peace in the Middle East'. I don't know about the other GCC countries; but it seems that the state of Qatar is the only country that is open about supporting both the 'Israeli' and Palestine cause by talking very freely about the subject and asking other GCC countries to follow in it's stride.
What is annoying is the fact that the GCC countries bitch about not having any sort of ties with any Jewish establishment or department of state but then again they import all the businesses that have an enormous Jewish shareholding turn-out, like Pepsi, Starbucks, Coca Cola, and even the service based product that we have come to depend on in our daily lives in areas of telecommunications such as the Internet.
All I am trying to say is that I'd like to see us stay on one path and not change it from time to time because of stupid politics in the region or world over. And another thing, the citizen/national/resident shouldn't have to pay for mistakes that the country makes in it's own political matters.
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Links:
- Bahrain athlete loses citizenship
8 comments:
Interesting article
The victimhood trap
Husain Haqqani
There is still too little reflection within Muslim communities on the real reasons for their humiliation and backwardness
The world’s 1.4 billion Muslims seem overwhelmingly enraged by the war in Iraq and the suffering caused by US military intervention. But there appears to be little outrage against the sectarian bloodletting that has led to more Iraqi casualties than war directly involving American troops.
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Muslim leaders and intellectuals find it easier to criticise outsiders for the harm inflicted on fellow Muslims. When it comes to recognising the suffering caused by fellow believers, there is a tendency to fudge the issue.
The lack of democratic space in much of the Muslim world has prevented the emergence of mass non-violent protest movements, especially aimed at the conduct of other Muslims. It is common for demonstrators in Muslim countries to protest against the actions of Israel or the US. But one seldom hears of protests against the wrongs committed by Muslim regimes or, in Iraq’s case, sectarian militias. The violence perpetrated by Sudan’s regime in Darfur, for example, has gone by and large unprotested in much of the Muslim world.
Muslim thinkers and leaders have been preoccupied with the question of “how to reverse Muslim decline, especially in relation to the west.” There is still little effort to recognise the real reasons for Muslim humiliation and backwardness.
Islam’s early generations produced knowledge and wealth that enabled Muslim empires to dominate much of the world. But now almost half the world’s Muslim population is illiterate and the combined GDP of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) hovers near the GDP of France alone. More books are translated every year from other languages into Spanish than have been translated into Arabic over the last century.
In the year 2000, according to the World Bank, the average income in the advanced countries (at purchasing price parity) was $27,450, with the US income averaging $34,260. Last year, the US income went up to $37,500. Israel’s income per head stood at $19,320 in 2000 and was $19,200 last year. The average income of the Muslim world, however, stood at $3,700. The per capita income on PPP basis in 2003 of the only nuclear-armed Muslim majority country, Pakistan, was a meagre $2,060. Excluding the oil exporting countries, none of the Muslim countries had per head incomes above the world average of $7,350.
National pride in the Muslim world is derived from the rhetoric of “destroying the enemy” and “making the nation invulnerable.” Such rhetoric sets the stage for the clash of civilisations as much as specific western policies. It also serves as an opiate that keeps Muslims riled against external enemies with little attention paid to the internal causes of intellectual and economic decline.
The Muslim world needs a broad movement to review the material and moral issues confronting the Umma (the community of believers) and an introspection of Muslims’ own collective mistakes.
Muslims must peacefully mobilise against sectarianism and the violence and destruction in, say, Iraq. But for that, Muslim discourse would have to shift away from the focus on Muslim victimhood and towards taking responsibility, as a community, for our own situation.
The Quran describes Prophet Muhammad as the prophet of Mercy. Muslims begin all their acts, including worship, with the words, ‘In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful.’ The Quran also says ‘To you, your faith and to me, mine,’ which removes any theological basis for sectarian violence. But unfortunately these mercy-focused and peacemaking ideas are lost in the overall discourse in the Muslim world about reviving lost glory and setting right the injustice of western domination.
Once Muslims convince themselves that the sectarian violence is a Zionist or American conspiracy or that it is the result of American occupation, their rage gets diverted. There is little rage and resentment against fellow Muslims who are actually engaged in that meaningless violence and little room for a Muslim Martin Luther King to stand up and say “We are responsible for this and we need to put an end to it.”
The writer is director of Boston University’s Centre for International Relations_
ladies and gentlemen, Hussain Haqqani is a columnist at The Oman Tribune.
http://www.omantribune.com
hi
im the enemy.. how are you..
just woke up and in the mood to blog before work i somehow made it to this blog..
had an exhausting day at work yesterday..
after work went to see my mother - her back was a bit out of it..
she made me dinner and then i went home..
was fairly warm so i went to the beach for a walk..
whoa.. how intense hey.. the enemy lifestyle.. pretty exotic heheheh
:)
i am allowed to visit your region because i hold another passport other than israeli..
i hope one day you will also be able to visit mine and i also hope that one day i shall be welcome as an israeli..
most of the people caught up in this predicament are just people.. we didnt choose this or ever want this - in fact many of us vote against it..
wishing us all a brighter future..
feel sorry for the bahraini..
lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
do you know that ppl with israeli stamps in their (non-Israeli) passports can enter Qatar, UAE, Bahrain...?
Do you know that Palestinians are now routinely being denied visas into Qatar???????????!!!!!!!!
And this in spite of what is going on in Gaza currently and the West Bank. Disgusting.
That Bahraini is such a poor guy. Why did they take revoke his Bahraini nationality, it's very implausible.
If Sheikhs are propping deals with the Jewish nation on a daily basis, then why ruining it on such a intrepid athlete? Denying the existence of Israel never benefited us in anyway.
They, the Arab states, should really think before blaming everything on everyone else. D:
Thank you for your nice post.I read the article about "lose the hypocricy "its really very nice to read.I enjoy to read this type of post.
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