A Cry in the Wilderness

There are many, many Arab sites and blogs which promote hatred, anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Jewish, anti-Christian viewpoints.

These sites cater mostly to the poor and lower class because (surprise! surprise!) they are the most religious and in the majority.

The Arab (And Persian) middle-class however are a whole different ball game. While only the minority, they represent a point of view that is more reasoned and logical.

They have long odds to beat, but theirs is not a cry in the wilderness.

People are listening and I would like to convey one of these blogs from Iraq for your perusal. (Since this blog is out of Iraq I thought it prudent to give the writer anonymity.)

Begging for more anger!

Iraq's speaker of parliament opened Tuesday's session by complaining "the Pope's excuses are not enough, he must make a clear apology…."

The Islamist speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said it without shame or hesitation, just like all other leaders who owe us a thousand apologies a day for their ignorance and incompetence.

What can I say? We got used to this kind of behavior. When someone is full of mistakes he finds no shelter except in accusing others of being wrong.

I don't know what good this can do for Iraq or its people!

What difference does it make to the average Iraqi whether the pope apologized or not? Did Mr. Speaker ask himself these questions?

My guess is that he was in a state of euphoria after watching 150 teenagers demonstrating in Basra, which is another proof of the ignorance of its managers.

I saw angry young men burning the flags of America and Israel, and I still can't figure out the connection they saw between Israel or Jews and the Pope!!

In fact the continuous pathetic attempts to blame the West and Israel for everything shows clearly that the motives of such demonstrations are political not religious.

Anyway, it looks like the reaction of Muslims were not as violent or as bloody as the leaders wished them to be and that's why they're now provoking and yelling at the "sleeping" masses and pushing them to show more fury.

They want to add another big scene to the countless previous ones—angry mobs burning flags and pledging to destroy the "infidels".

Actually their latest calls for MORE ANGER are becoming pretty much like begging.

Meanwhile, Iran thinks the Muslim people fell short of doing their duty and Qaradawi calls on Muslims to have a "day of fury".

All these are theatrical acts directed by governments and corrupt clerics seeking controlled anger among the mobs to use in intimidating the West and discouraging it from applying more pressure on, or calling for changing, these tyrannical regimes.

Such calls are taking the headlines in the governments-controlled media in the Arab countries, and the governments, whether religious or secular, are promoting this provocation of anger.

Meanwhile, voices of reason are being pushed to the rear -to appear in a short subtitle or in a tiny corner in the 10th page, or even not mentioned at all.

What the rulers want is the anger that the masses, in the eyes of the rulers, did not express enough of.

What has to be done now from the governments' perspective is to lash those lazy masses with the whips of the media and religion to do more angry protests and show more fist-shaking on TV.

For a while let the people forget about poverty, hunger, terrorism, illiteracy and other problems of the region…

And let's redirect the world's attention from "insignificant" issues like Darfur, nuclear reactors, Hizbollah's defiance or Syrian and Iranian meddling with Iraq's or Lebanon's affairs.

What matters now is anger and only anger.

Right Mashhadani? Right Ahmedinejad? Right Asad? Right Mubarak?

Now in answer to this I have to once again quote from the blog: "Enough With The Apologies Already!"

A lot more time has been spent analyzing what the pontiff meant to say, or should have said, or might have said if he had been given better advice.

All of which is simply beside the point, since nothing the Pope has ever said comes even close to matching the vitriol, extremism and hatred that pour out of the mouths of radical Imams and fanatical clerics every day across Europe and the Muslim world.

Almost none of which ever provokes any Western response at all.

Maybe it's time that it should: When Saudi Arabia publishes textbooks commanding good Wahhabi Muslims to "hate" Christians, Jews and non-Wahhabi Muslims, for example, why shouldn't the Vatican, the Southern Baptists, Britain's chief rabbi and the Council on American-Islamic Relations all condemn them -- simultaneously?

By "we" I also mean the White House, the Vatican, the German Greens, the French Foreign Ministry, NATO, Greenpeace, Le Monde and Fox News -- Western institutions of the left, the right and everything in between.

True, these principles sound pretty elementary -- "we're pro-free speech and anti-gratuitous violence" -- but in the days since the Pope's sermon, I don't feel that I've heard them defended in anything like a unanimous chorus.

As one of the newsletters from the Ayn Rand Institute says:
"These people (Middle East governments and clergy) are laughing at us because nobody in the (Western)media or government will stand up and tell it like it really is!"
Just so you know!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html