Liberal Saudi journalist Nadine Al-Budair, who lives in Qatar, penned an
article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai in which she
wondered how Muslims would have acted if Christians had blown themselves up in
their midst or tried to force their faith on them. She called on the Muslim
world to be introspective and enact reforms, instead of condemning Western
attitudes towards it.
The following are excerpts from the article
"Imagine a Western youth coming here and carrying out a suicide
mission in one of our public squares in the name of the Cross. Imagine that two
skyscrapers had collapsed in some Arab capital, and that an extremist Christian
group, donning millennium-old garb, had emerged to take responsibility for the
event, while stressing its determination to revive Christian teachings or some
Christian rulings, according to its understanding, to live like in the time [of
Jesus] and his disciples, and to implement certain edicts of Christian
scholars…
"Imagine hearing the voices of monks and priests from churches and
prayer houses in and out of the Arab world, screaming on loudspeakers and
levelling accusations against Muslims, calling them infidels, and chanting:
'God, eliminate the Muslims and defeat them all.'
"Imagine that we had provided an endless number of foreign groups with
visas, ID cards, citizenships, proper jobs, free education, free modern
healthcare, social security, and so on, and later a member of one of these
groups came out, consumed by hatred and bloodlust, and killed our sons on our
streets, in our buildings, in our newspaper [offices], in our mosques and in
our schools.
"Imagine a Frenchmen or a German in Paris or Berlin leading his Muslim
neighbor [somewhere] in order to slaughter him and then freeze his head in an
ice box, in a cold and calculating manner... as one terrorist did with the head
of an American in Riyadh years ago.
"Imagine that we visited their country as tourists and they shot at
us, blew up car bombs near us, and announced their opposition to our presence
[there] by chanting: 'Remove the Muslims from the land of culture.'
"These images are far from the mind of the Arab or Muslim terrorist
because he is certain, or used to be certain, that the West is humanitarian and
that the Western citizen would refuse to respond [in this manner] to the
barbaric crimes [of the Muslim terrorists]. Despite the terrorist acts of
Al-Qaeda and ISIS, we [Muslims] have been on [Western] soil for years without
any fear or worry. Millions of Muslim tourists, immigrants, students, and job
seekers [travel to the West] with the doors open [to them], and the streets
safe [for them].
"However, how much longer [will this last]? Today things are
different. [Western] anger [at Muslims] is apparent, and they make scary
declarations. One who recently championed [these views] is Donald Trump, who
demanded to bar Muslims from entering the U.S.
"It is strange that we [Muslims] believe we have the right to condemn
such statements rather than address the implications of some of our extremist
curricula, our education, and our regimes, and be ashamed [of them]... It is
strange that we condemn [the West] instead of addressing what is happening in
our midst - the extremist ways in which we interpret the shari'a and our
reactionary attitudes towards each other and the world. It is strange that we
condemn instead of apologizing to the world.
"How would you react if a European blew up a theater in your city or a
café that your son frequents? What would you do if you heard curses against
your religion and faith every Sunday, as they hear [against theirs] from some
of our imams on Fridays and other days?
"Imagine being in Amsterdam, London, or New York and knowing that
students [there] learn as part of their curricula that you are an infidel, and
that killing you is jihad that leads to the virgins of paradise. Would you
extend your stay there to the end of the summer, or stay away? [Would you] blow
yourself up [as the Muslim terrorists do], or would you do less than that:
[Merely] conquer your rage and demand to ban Christians from entering Arab
countries. What would you do?
"[Imagine] the war that would break out had Westerners shed their
values in the face of the bloody crimes committed by foreigners, and if Western
or Christian counter-radicalism had emerged in our Arab cities?
"After all these farces, some Arab analyst comes out touting a
pathetic message, and reciting the same words in his friend's ear that he has
repeated millions of times: 'Those [Muslims who commit terrorism] do not
represent Islam, but only themselves.'
"This is all we [know how to do] – absolve [ourselves] of guilt.
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