‘Why Can’t the Arabs See Things as the Rest of the World Sees Them?’

Dr. Amr Isma’ila well known­E­gypt­ian intel­lec­tua answer the ques­tion. This arti­cle was pub­lished on ELAPH, RAZGAR, MEMRI

‘Why Do We Talk by Means of Bul­lets, and Has­ten to Make Sweep­ing Accu­sa­tions of Unbelief?’

“Why can’t we see things as the rest of the world sees them? Why do we always feel that some­one is con­spir­ing against us, and that he is the cause of our prob­lems and our cul­tural and eco­nomic backwardness?…

This is
democ­racy.
If we want a dif­fer­ent regime
let us call it by any other name except democ­racy

Why are we not able to crit­i­cize our­selves and [why do] we view any­one who tries to do so as an enemy of the nation and of its prin­ci­ples, and other things of this kind that make some peo­ple afraid to think?.….

“Why do we talk among our­selves by means of bul­lets, bombs, and car bombs, and when we dis­agree we has­ten to accuse [our inter­locu­tor] of unbe­lief and of being dragged after the West and the East? Why don’t we rec­og­nize that nobody among us has the answer to all the ques­tions and who­ever pre­tends to have the absolute truth is noth­ing but a pre­tender? Have we heard that in any respectable coun­try the par­ties and polit­i­cal streams talk by means of bul­lets, as some­times hap­pens between the var­i­ous fac­tions in Gaza and as is hap­pen­ing now in Iraq?…”

‘We Kill, Blow Up Cars, and Slit Throats in the Name of Allah, Yet Protest When Oth­ers Depict Mus­lims as Terrorists’

“Why are we the only nations in the world that still use reli­gion, Islam, and the name of Allah in every­thing .… in pol­i­tics, eco­nom­ics, sci­ence, art, and lit­er­a­ture. We kill in the name of Allah, blow up cars in the name of Allah, and slit throats in the name of Allah and Islam, and then we protest when oth­ers depict the Mus­lims as ter­ror­ists. We indis­crim­i­nately kill doc­tors who went to pro­vide med­ical care to Afghans, and then we protest when the world describes these acts as acts of ter­ror. We blow up embassies and trains [and con­se­quently] chil­dren, women, and cit­i­zens with no con­nec­tion to our cause are killed, and then we protest when the world describes these extrem­ists, who view them­selves as Mus­lims, as terrorists.

“We do not ask our­selves why no other reli­gious group per­pe­trates these acts of atroc­ity, and when a ter­ror­ist coun­try like Israel does so, it does not say it is killing in the name of the Lord or in the name of Allah, but claims it is doing so out of self-defense. Why Allah is [held respon­si­ble] for our bad deeds and for our desire for revenge… Why don’t we act like [Israel] and say that these acts are for self-defense or for defense of the home­land, with­out bring­ing Allah and Islam into it? Why don’t we ever ask our­selves what are the roots of extrem­ist think­ing and why don’t we try to deal with it? When other coun­tries demand that we deal with these roots and recon­sider them, we scream that they are inter­ven­ing in our inter­nal affairs and that they are the ene­mies of Islam. Why don’t we ask our­selves whether any­one had demanded that we recon­sider our cur­ric­ula before we blew up the [World] Trade tow­ers and killed thou­sands, and before we blew up the trains in Madrid and killed hun­dreds, and before we kid­napped hostages and slaugh­tered them on the TV screens, so that the entire world would see our ugly face?”

‘Democ­racy is the Best Regime, and has Brought Progress and Pros­per­ity to Those Coun­tries that Have Adopted It’

“Why can our brain not under­stand that democ­racy has proven itself to be the best regime and that it has brought progress and pros­per­ity to those coun­tries that have adopted it? Why can our brain not under­stand that democ­racy is not just the elec­tion bal­lots, but is an entire frame­work, the most impor­tant [aspect] of which is free­dom of choice, in reli­gion, in belief, in attire, and in the free­dom to express polit­i­cal and cul­tural opin­ions, even if they dif­fer from what is accepted, as long as they do not incite to vio­lence. Why don’t we under­stand that democ­racy is com­plete equal­ity between peo­ple, regard­less of sex, color, or religion.…

“We have reached a cross­roads. If we want Islam as a polit­i­cal solu­tion, not as a reli­gion .… we must be strong and admit hon­estly that Islam … accord­ing to the belief of groups of polit­i­cal Islam that fol­low bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri’s orga­ni­za­tion … stands in utter con­tra­dic­tion to democ­racy in its true mean­ing… Let all the polit­i­cal Islamic groups, and first and fore­most the ‘Mus­lim Broth­er­hood,’ cease their pol­icy of con­ceal­ing [their real opin­ions] and show their true faces [and reveal] that they are try­ing [to bring] an Islamic rule that at best will be no dif­fer­ent from Iran, and at worst, [no dif­fer­ent] from the Taliban…

“How­ever, if we want a democ­racy, we can­not avoid agree­ing that reli­gion must not [be mixed up] with pol­i­tics, which is the expres­sion of the peo­ple. Since most of our peo­ples are Mus­lims, they will not leg­is­late laws that con­tra­dict the prin­ci­ples and spirit of Islam, and they do not need par­ties that claim to speak in the name of reli­gion, [while in actual fact] they are appro­pri­at­ing it in the name of their polit­i­cal and mun­dane interests.

“Democ­racy has only one mean­ing: No party or polit­i­cal trend has [the right] to claim that it absolutely and ever­last­ingly rep­re­sents the peo­ple. Gov­ern­ing is a ball that we pass between our­selves.…. Cit­i­zen­ship, and its atten­dant rights and oblig­a­tions, belongs to all those who live in the home­land, regard­less of sex, color, or reli­gion. The most basic civil right is the right to vote and the right to present can­di­dacy to any pub­lic office, includ­ing the pres­i­den­tial office, whether man or woman, Mus­lim or non-Muslim, as long as they uphold the con­sti­tu­tion and pledge not to change it, except through the means of change deter­mined in the con­sti­tu­tion itself, and to which the peo­ple have agreed.

“This is democ­racy. If we want a dif­fer­ent regime, let us call it by any other name except democ­racy. Oth­er­wise we will be using the tools of democ­racy in order to destroy it, just as those who con­ceal [their true opin­ions] in our world .…. and these are, regret­fully, many.”