Sultans and Scarves
Three weeks ago, an Egyptian Muslim mother and wife, four months with child, was stabbed to death in Dresden, the civilian city bombed to the ground by the allies during World War II. She was stabbed in full view of her son and husband, and when her husband rushed to defend her, he himself was shot by the German police because they assumed him to be the attacker.
Go figure.
For the last three weeks, I’ve heard people say, and I’ve said it myself based on what I’ve seen – that the international media hasn’t found this story quite as interesting as that of The Death of Neda Sultan.
I’ve now done the numbers:
As of today, a search for Neda Sultan on Google, brings up about 1.14 Million results (I’m accounting for spelling variations by adding up the results for ‘Soltan’ and ‘Sultan’ – so this is the total of the two) for Neda. A similarly conducted search for Marwa Sherbini (with variations such as Sherbiny and Sherbeni, etc..) brings up about 220 thousand results. A bit less than a 5th of the results obtained by searching for Neda.
So perhaps the truth is quite simply that yes, the international media, goaded by political interests, wanted to sell an Iranian Revolution but are simply disinterested in a the story of a woman who in the 21st century Europe can be killed for her beliefs, race, or fashion sense.
It just sounds so…retro. I mean – this is what the Arabs are supposed to be so good at right? Being judgmental, being fundamentalist, being basically inhumane.
In contrast, it might be interesting to note just what Marwa and her husband did when they were harassed by their neighbor, the man who eventually stabbed her. The couple did the most that any civilized democratic civilization suggests that you do -
They went to the Law.
Unfortunately, there’s a loud vocal crowd of people who believe themselves to be doing ‘good’ – who tend to cloud the issues. When they turn Marwa into the ‘headscarf martyr’ – I’m not sure they understand quite how silly that sounds to an ear not familiar to the context. Did sympathizers come up with that nickname or did their enemies? Focusing on the headscarf is a mistake, and immediately begs the question – why would anybody die over a headscarf?
Yes, it’s that bad. If you think otherwise, wake up.
Calling her murder an example of ‘racism’ is also incorrect, and kicks a ball in a field for which the strategy has obviously not been thought out. It’s much more likely that this is the exclusive creation of the sympathizers – but it is still a huge mistake. By confusing religion with race, the issue becomes genetic. The implications here are complicated and messy, and completely unnecessary – the only religion that is ‘racial’ (or ‘racist’ if you choose to see it that way) – is Orthodox Judaism – since it is through maternal lines.
A Christian, on the other hand – is anybody who gives himself over to Jesus, and a Muslim is anybody who accepts Mohamed as the Prophet and submits to God’s will.
Zionism of course, has been lifting the Maternity Clause because they want more of ‘any-other-than-Arab’ races in Israel than they can get otherwise, and of course, there’s also the historical background of the Khazar Empire – now dispersed throughout Europe, a people who ‘decided’ (never mind the Orthodox) to ‘be’ Jewish.
But Islam, as with Christianity, has none of that. You decide to be a Christian, presto – you are. You decide to be a Muslim, presto again – it’s about Idea & Choice.
NOT race, and we do our battle a disservice by claiming it to be so.
What do you call an ideology that destroys any other ideologies?
Well, the closest I can think of is Facism.
Pure and Simple.
We have to think through the logic.
Otherwise – we get emotional and distracted, and we’re not thoughtful with our defenses or positions, barely fighting off the aggression and not mounting our own agenda. I’ve played a lot of Real Time Strategy games, and this is how you lose.
Omar Kamel is a video producer, musician, writer, blogger, and photographer.
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