Missing the wood for the trees
Reader comment on item: The California Suicide Bomber[: Ra'ed Mansour al-Banna]

Submitted by Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai (India), Apr 6, 2005 at 00:57

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

I think that Pipes is missing the wood for the trees. He seems to believe that one should take care of the pennies while the pound will take care of itself. I have read the his version of TIME story with equal abhorrence wondering as to how and why Ra'ed turned militant. However, I am convinced that he was sincere in his pursuit of happiness and a good career, when he opted to travel to the US. I also believe there is no put on, when he praises the people of the US when he wrote back home. Somewhere his innocence got abused. That point has to be focused, by studying his persona as much as the forces that interacted on him, forcing him to react in a different way that would have been his normal lifestyle specially at his stay in the US...

It is wrong to err on the side of misjudging all Muslims, rather than taking chances with any of them. It is more like the Pharaoh's solution of murdering all first-born, to take out the possibility of one Moses, remaining alive to wreck destruction on his empire. It is strange that Pipes has not taken lessons for his own reading of the holy books and early history. Apparently, the rot was in the affairs of Pharaoh and nothing wrong with the message of Moses. The same dilemma is faced by the rulers of the present day America, who are quick in ordering slaying of all first-born, but not prescient enough to look within themselves to find if they themselves could do something positive to set a better example for others. American society is obsessed with war. And it is the doing of a very small but very influential group that has deeply ingrained Masadic tendencies, that is ruining the whole American society. Observe the TV programs, the films, the cartoon series, the electronic games --- all geared to violence. No surprise as to why others are reacting to their 'innocent' existence! The world has better memories of the US. All is lost even before 9/11 and Iraq. The cold war, that pitted two super-powers, has robbed rest of the world, of any peace and squandered their human and material resources, by forcing them to take sides. We must start noticing the wider picture that is there but invisible to the shortsighted. The new world cannot remain predatory and peaceful at the same time. Something has got to give.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

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