"But Then, Nothing, Nothing
Justifies Terrorism"
Mahmoud Darwish
The catastrophe that hit Washington and New York has only one name-the Madness of Terrorism.
This catastrophic event was neither a dark science fiction film nor was it the Day of Reckoning.
It was terrorism that is country-less, colorless, and creedless, no matter how many names of gods, deities and agonies of man it may
have enlisted in order to justify itself. No cause, not even a just cause, can make legitimate the killing of
innocent civilians, no matter how long the list of accusations and the register of grievances.
Terror never paves the way to justice, but leads down the shortest path to hell.
We deplore this horrendous crime and condemn its planners and
perpetrators with all the terms of revulsion and condemnation in our
lexicon. We do this not only as our moral duty, but also in order to re-assert our commitment to our own humanity and our faith in human
values that do not differentiate between one people and another. Our sympathy with the victims and their families and with the
American people in these trying times is thus an expression of our deep commitment to the unity of human destiny.
For a victim is a victim, and terrorism is terrorism, here or there,
it knows no boundaries nor nationalities and does not lack the rhetoric of killing,
Nothing, nothing can justify this terrorism that melds human flesh with iron cement and dust.
Nor can anything justify polarizing the world into two camps that can
never meet: one of absolute good, the other of absolute evil. Civilization is the result of world societies contributing towards a
global heritage. The accumulation and interaction of which leads towards the elevation
of humanity and nobility of consciousness. In this context, the insistence of modern-day orientalists that
terrorism resides in the very nature of Arab and Islamic culture, contributes nothing to the diagnosis of the enigma and thus offers no
solution. Rather, it makes a solution more enigmatic because it becomes caught in the grip of racism.
Therefore, when America searches for reasons to explain the animosity towards its politics (an animosity not held towards the American
people and their globally popular culture), it must distance itself from the concept of the "conflict of cultures".
It should also dispense with the need to identify an ever present enemy, necessary to test "western supremacy".
Instead, it should move into a political arena, where the United States can meditate on the sincerity of its foreign policy.
In particular it should reflect on its success in the Middle East, where the great American values of freedom, democracy and human
rights, have stopped functioning -- especially in the Palestinian context where the Israeli occupation remains free from answering to
international law while the U.S. provides it with what it needs of rationalizations and justifications for practices which border on
"state terrorism".
We know that the American wound is deep and we know that this tragic
moment is a time for solidarity and the sharing of pain. But we also know that the horizons of the intellect can traverse
landscapes of devastation. Terrorism has no location or boundaries, it does not
reside in a geography of its own, its homeland is disillusionment and despair.
The best weapon to eradicate terrorism from the soul lies in the solidarity of the international world, in respecting the rights of
all peoples of this globe, to live in harmony and by reducing the ever increasing gap between north and south.
And the most effective way to defend freedom is through fully realizing the meaning of justice.
Security measures alone are not enough since terrorism carries within its folds a multiplicity of nationalities and recognizes no
boundaries. The world cannot be divided into two societies, one for the rebels
and the other for the officers of the law.
But then, nothing, nothing justifies Terrorism.
Source: Gush Shalom
http://www.gush-shalom.org/
email: info@gush-shalom.org
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