Batir Wardam Blog
Blogging about media, science, development, culture and future trends from the perspectives of a Jordanian liberal observer.

Principles for "Civic Jihad" against Israel and the Bush Administration
Wednesday, August 02, 2006

What we can do to stop or at least resist the Israeli aggression backed by the US Administration against the Lebanese and Palestinian people? This is a burning question that is eroding all our ability to think and perform in every aspect of our life
Most of us blame the Arab governemnts and what is called the "international community" and that position is completely true. Arab governments are failing miserably to meet the requests from their people to act in an effective way in standing against the Israeli agression and protecting the lives of innocent palestinians and Lebanese. The "international community" is nothing but a lie. Israel is beyond all international governance systems.
The horrific images of the Qana massacre and other crimes committed by Israel against the innocent people of Lebanon have been stabbing the hearts of everyone. A fantastic expression was coined by my fellow blogger Quwaider who has declared the death of the Arab moderate. This is true. Most people in the Arab World are turning into extremisms, including me. I used to have a short lived illusion that a peaceful end of the Arab Israeli Conflict can be acheived with some will, but it is almost crystal clear that Israel does not want peace in this area and it has to be "forced" into peace by Arab standards and not by Israeli standards.
Most people in the Arab and Mislim world call for "jihad" against Israel and the USA. Jihad is the term most commonly linked with Terrorism, but in the Islamic context Jihad was always associated with the religious duty of fighting enemies of Islam who attack muslims. This term has been misunderstood everywhere in the west and even in the Islamic world with the idiotic behaviour of organizations like mAl Qaeda who have targted innocent westerners and Arabs in terrorism attacks. This terrorism is not real Jihad that is performed by organizations like Hizbullah and Hamas who have only targeted their weapons at the real and only enemy of the Arab World: Israel.
For millions of Arabs who are not military active and who want to respond to the duty of participating in the struggle for freedom and dignity against Israel it is always possible to develop a package of civil and peaceful acts that can be considered as "civic Jihad" which is non-violent and can never be associated with terrorism. In this argument I will try to develop some principles and ideas for a civic Jihad campaign at the level of the Arab World and Jordan
To begon with, there are certain principles to higlight:
1- We have to define the enemy. The state of Israel is the first enemy of Arabs. It will remian so until it adheres to the UN resolutions demanding Israel to withdraw from the land occupied at June 5th 1967. We do not call for the destruction of Israel but for a complete package of peace agreements that respond to the Arab rights and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
2- The second enemy is the US administration lead by pro-zionist neo-conservatives. The USA is not an enemy as a state and the American people are not enemies as well. Arabs must do all their efforts to enlighten Americans with the reality of the Middle East and stop the control of pro-zionist media on the flow of information to the US population. The USA and American people should not be targeted military by Arabs but the US adminsitration should attacked with all political, economic and social means available.
3- Europe and the West are not enemies to Arabs. Although the positions of the UK government and now germany are disgraceful this does not reflect on the people and institutions in Europe who should be considered as potential supporters for the Arab rights against the Israeli crimes.
4- There shall be no support or justification for any military acts targeting anything except Israeli military targets. Even the targeting of Israeli civilians should be controlled although Israel does support the killing of Arab civilians. A very difficult ethical line should be highlighted. If Israelis are war criminals we should not be.
 
These principles will be followed with two posts about ideas for civic jihad in the collective Arab, and specific Jordan context.
 

posted by Batir Wardam in New Middle East @ 2:48 AM

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(4) comments


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On August, 02, 2006 2:55 AM , Begging to differ
from United States said:

Is this supposed to be as a matter of opinion or as a matter of fact ? I think that you are currently crossing the thresh hold into what I call " too much generalizations zone" Speak from your own experience and education without geralizing because when you generalize you lose the effectivness of your speech. Speak about things from your own outlook, from your own perespective, without saying We, or The Arabs should do this or that, just tell us what you can do and leave the general public alone. This is only a friendly and brotherly reminder since most of your essays these days are driven by too much ad hominem, and quite frankly, they are bordering ad nauseam.Stop or at least slow down and take a breather. Thanks

On August, 02, 2006 8:28 AM , Batir's non-fan said:

Begging to differ:

Can you beg to differ somewhere else? When someone suggests something constructive you jump to argue. Put forth your alternative then we can compare the two proposals.

I rarely agree with Batir, except when it comes to peaceful resistance.

On August, 07, 2006 4:00 PM , Joop van den Berg
from Netherlands said:

Dear Mr. Batir Wardam,
I wish you well and strongly hope for peace in the Middle East. Although I do not trust the Israeli politics, your assay strikes me as too one-sided. With all respect you seem to be missing the broader picture: Arabs and Islamic groups for that matter are not only at odds with Israel but mainly with themselves. The lack of democratic representation in the Arab nations to me is the prime cause for violence in the Middle East. Israel does not oppress the Palestinians, Iranians, Egyptians, etc. any more then their own governments do. Indeed, although second rate citizens Palestinians in Israel still have a better life compared to outside of Israel. The gross mismanagement (as indicated by UN studies; co-written by Arabic scholars) of the ME countries explains much of the present poverty, discontent and indeed fleeing from their countries to the US(!!) and Europe. As long as the Arabic / Islamic people rather blames Israel or the West for their situation the violence will not stop and the poverty and despair will continue. Even the eradication of Israel and a 100% Arabic supportive Western policy will not change that.
Respectfully, J. van den Berg

On August, 08, 2006 2:10 AM , Batir
from Jordan said:

Dear Mr van den berg:
Happy to recive a comment from the heart of liberal Europe and it truely reflect the collective mind of democratic Europe. I am certain you are right in what you say about the suffering of Arab people at the hands of their governments. But whouldn't you find it bizare that Lebanon, the only Arab state with true liberal democracy is subjected to this brutal Israeli attack without providing Lebanon with support from the "free and civilized World".
I consider my self to be a peace seeker moderate, but what we have seen from the programmatic agression and brutality of Israel, backed by a narrow-minded pro-zionist US administration has changed a lot of my convictions. I did not say I lost hope for peace but I belive Isarel should be forced into peace by a collective civil movement that will replace terrorism.
I am well aware of the UN Human Development Report and I know almost 90% of our stagnation in the progress of civilization is due to our own mistakes, but the problem is that the continuous pressure from seeing the Israeli agression and crimes has let people like me, and I am specialized in environmental issues to take hard-core politics as a means for acheiving any progress in development. WE do not live in tranquility but in severe pressure, and that is why I enjoyed so much my 3 dats stay in Holland in 2004 since it was a different world for me. Best Regards



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