Where is Pan-Arabism and where is Islam?
Where is Pan-Arabism and where is Islam?

The situation in the Arab and Islamic world has descended to such a horrific low, that here and there we actually hear the voices of Arabs who simply cannot keep quiet anymore. They use the media to warn the world about what is going on, hoping that some decision maker will read their words and do something positive to help.

One of those people is Dr.Ali Mahmud Fakhro of Bahrain, a person whom I castigated several weeks ago in one of my articles for his attempt to blame terror on mental disturbances of some kind. On July 27, however, he published an article in Arabic in the London-based "Al Quds Al Arabi" titled "Where is Pan-Arabism and where is Islam?"

This article is brought below in its entirety, with my added explanations in parentheses.

"We turn to the leaders of the Arab and Islamic peoples and wish to know: are you too busy to notice the children of the millions of Arab and Muslim migrants wandering the four corners of the earth, children begging for charity in the streets, humiliated, bent and broken as they look into the legs of passersby? Are your important affairs allowing you to look at their daughters, to look at their wives subjected  to harassment and extortion as they beg strangers to give them some food or a few pennies to buy powdered milk for their babies?

"Are your important affairs leaving you enough time to look at your country's television screens - when they are done broadcasting songs of praise and thankfulness for all the good you are doing for your people - and see the tears of the elderly, the beatings suffered by them and the unfortunate children in the Negev desert of occupied Palestine, in the ruined cities of Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan?

"The Arab nation, weakened, struck by disaster, lost and dispersed does not think its leaders have the time to worry about such insignificant things - they have more useful and important things to do. They have to direct the Great Islamic War between the Salafist political Islamic movements and the newer ones (such as the Muslim Brotherhood) - and the others that are sure to emerge (alluding to additional struggles and schisms, both military and political, under religious and ethnic flags that even Allah has never heard of).

"Where are the words of the supreme and omnipotent Allah who talked about a normative nationhood, about affection among believers and the love that binds them (alluding to the Koran and Hadith)? Where are the ethics and wisdom of Mohammed (found in the works of Islam)? Where are the rights, justice, decency, balance,  good deeds, equality and words of truth? Where is the fear of the Lord? In other words, where is Islam when it comes to the Islamic nations and Muslim regimes? In the world of Muslims is there really an Islam of Mohammed, the Koran, and a heavenly mission?

'The  answer rings loud and clear. Arab and Muslim leaders bear responsibility for a heartrending and shameful negative response, and they bear this responsibility vis a vis their people and the Lord of the universe. This may be a painful and difficult conclusion to have reached, but it is a fair and accurate expression of the feelings of fear, despair and hysteria that have been spreading at a dizzying rate among the citizens of Arab and Islamic nations. These feelings will either set off conflagrations that leave no survivors extant, or will lead to apathy and a lack of faith in the efficacy of any political struggle or activity in the suffering Arab countries. 

"And if certain leaders (alluding to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Emirates) think that the way out of the crisis of misery that typifies the Arab pan-nationalism and Islamic religious commonalities is by reaching an accord with the Zionist entity in occupied Palestine, or by holding talks with international Zionist organizations and enlisting their aid to topple one Arab or Islamic regime or another  (alluding to Iran), they would do well to realize that the Zionists will use their money and territories to achieve their well known colonialist Zionist goals, including settlements, the goals that can be seen in their writings and the declarations made at their conventions. After that, they will throw us onto history's rubbish heap or into a chaotic Hell.

"The above is also true when it comes to turning to America, Europe, Russia  or any other country for aid. Arab existence, the entity known since the beginnings of history, is in the throes of great danger and must either undergo great changes or else be removed from the international cultural picture and be discarded at the very border of humankind. Islam s being tested ever since the insane and irrational takfir jihad (that defines all non-Muslims as heretics who can be slaughtered) brought us into conflict with the entire world.

"All this has no effect on the minds or consciences of the leaders of the Arab world, does not lead them to make use of Arab solidarity and friendship which would be the expected result, nor turn to the dictates and obligations demanded by the religion of Islam. That is the reason they have no right to man the control room of the sinking ship without the help of the others who will sink with them.

"All the institutions, organizations and parties who claim they are working to strengthen Arab national unity and Islamic cooperation are unable to provide answers to the demands of the complex and dangerous historical period we are in at the present time. They must, accordingly, remove themselves from the picture and disappear entirely so that in their stead can arise new institutions, organizations, parties and regimes who are capable of accepting responsibility for energizing the national Arab and religious commonalities in a dynamic, intelligent and serious manner.

"O leaders and those in positions of responsiblity, have pity on yourselves and on us, before it is too late."

That is how the good doctor's article ends. His words are certainly pointed and important, but beyond his criticism of the connections that certain Arab and Islamic countries have forged with Israel, he has no tangible suggestions, because when he demands the dissolution of existing organizational frameworks in the Arab world, he has nothing to offer in their place. Has the pan-Arabism he tries to advance ever had a solid, longterm history in the Arab world?  Were the 1400 years of Islamic history filled with peace and tranquillity among the Muslims themeselves?

Dr. Fakhro , to our great sorrow, sees the miserable situation, understands the far-ranging problem, but ignores the only way to overcome it, by changing the way those in the Middle East view the "other" - that is, as an enemy by definition. As long as Arabs and Muslims see one another as enemies because they belong to different tribes, religions and ethnic groups, there will be no cure for the suffering of the Arab and Islamic  nations, the bloodshed will increase and the flood of refugees continue to grow.  

Israel is not the problem of the Arab and Muslim world, their problematic culture is.

The Koran says: "Allah does not repair people until they repair themselves." Perhaps it would be a good idea for the good doctor to study his own sources.

Written for Arutz Sheva, translated from Hebrew by Rochel Sylvetsky, Arutz Sheva Op-ed and Judaism editor.