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http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintWriterName.aspx?URL=Shireen+M+MazariAre Muslims Europe's new Jews?

Shireen M Mazari

Wednesday, July 15, 2009From Print Edition

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In Europe the faade of tolerance and secular "liberalism" is so well maintained it iseasy to be fooled into believing this is the reality. In fact there is an insidious socialcompact between the media, ruling elites and the white Christian majority to sustainthis faade at all times. That is why the murder of Marwa el-Sherbini, the EgyptianMuslim lady in Dresden, Germany simply because she wore a hijab barely founda mention in the European press and the US media saw no reason to create a fuss. Ofcourse had it been the murder of a Jewish lady specifically for displaying hercultural/religious Jewishness, the western media would have gone to town cryingfoul and the German government would have been put fairly and squarely in the

dock.

The murder came shortly after French President Sarkozy gave his "secular" fatwa against theburqa and it seems that now there is open season on hijab-wearing Muslims in some parts ofEurope those parts that ironically see themselves as being more tolerant and "liberal". Infact European secular "liberalism" is being defined increasingly in terms of non-acceptance ofthe new multi-religious and multi-ethnic Europeans by the old white Christian Europeans.When European leaders display this characteristic in public statements, it gives leeway to theracist bigotry that still pervades in Europe only now the Muslims have replaced the Jews asthe bte noirs.

In fact the case of Marwa el-Sherbini is frightening because her only "crime" was that shewore the hijab. A year before her murder, a 28 year old man of Russian origin had insulted herby calling her a "terrorist" and "Islamist whore" for wearing a hijab when she asked him to let

her son sit on a swing. At the time the man had been found guilty of abusing and insultingMarwa and had been fined 780 Euros. But he had appealed which is why the parties were allpresent in a Dresden court room when the gruesome murder took place in full view of Marwa'shusband and her three-year old son Mustafa. As Marwa, pregnant, was in the dock recallingthe incident, the accused walked across the courtroom and plunged a knife into her 18 times.What is even more horrific is that as her husband, Elvi Ali Okaz, ran to save her he, too, wasbrought down, shot by a police officer who declared that he mistook him for the attacker. Cananything be more ridiculous? Two serious issues arise: One, why was a man known to beviolently disposed towards Ms Marwa Sherbini allowed to walk into the courtroom with a lethalknife? Two, how could the policeman have mistaken her husband for the attacker when hemoved much later and separately or was the attacker not taken into custody when he hadbegun his attacks? Why was he allowed to stab Marwa 18 times? Where was the samepoliceman and why did he not shoot at the accused when he was stabbing the lady?

Whichever way one looks at it, the acceptable racism cannot be denied

both at the officialand unofficial levels. The German government's only reaction was to sweep it all under thecarpet. There was a shameful silence on the part of all the "liberals" and human rights activistswho are so ready to condemn the misdeeds of Muslim extremists anywhere in the world.Ironically, apart from the Central Council of Muslims' leadership, it was the Central Council ofJews General Secretary, Stephan Kramer who decried the "inexplicably sparse" reaction of themedia and German politicians. After all, the Jews of Europe know only too well that it beginswith one incidence after another and, if one remains silent, the victimisation becomescollective.
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Does that not make one wonder if Muslim women in hijab are now going to be targeted withimpunity by extremists, racists and others of the lunatic fringe in Europe? Why has the EUleadership not condemned this act of religious hatred? Is Marwa el Sherbini going to be thefirst of many headscarf martyrs as her native Egyptian media is calling her of Europe,especially in the wake of the Sarkozy statement? It would be a pity if the grand tradition ofFrench freedom and equality is reduced to a superficiality covering an underlying intolerancetowards cultural and religious diversity.

Perhaps the most shameful has been the reaction of the Muslim World including Pakistan. Whyhave we seen no official condemnation when we see the EU leaders and their media waste notime in issuing condemnatory statements whenever any incident of a crime against women orreligious minorities occurs in Pakistan? It is good that they seek to act as our conscience onthese occasions, but there has to be reciprocity and we should not shy away from acting astheir conscience when they lose their way or shy away from exposing such crimes!Interestingly, there was a very high-powered electronic media delegation that had gone on theGerman government's invitation to Berlin around this time. So why was this issue not raised?In fact, as a protest the delegation should have given up this summer freebie or at least havegiven the case due publicity at home. When we can and rightly so take strong issue withthe flogging of women by the Taliban, can we not also condemn the equally vile act of murdercommitted by a secular or Christian extremist? Or does a crime against a woman in hijab oragainst the "Taliban" not move our public in quite the same way especially our elite?

After all look at our silence on the mass murder of Taliban prisoners by that murderouswarlord Rashid Dostum and ally of the US after 9/11. Even President Obama is hesitant totake too strong a stand in this issue and we seem to be least bothered to raise it widely in ourmedia. Why? Are we now accepting the double standards and hypocrisy of the west in termsof human rights so that the killing of certain types of Muslims is more acceptable outside ofthe bounds of law?

As long as we remain selective about condemning violence and crimes against women,whomsoever they are and wherever they are, we will have little credibility to our protest. Afterall, the crimes of the Baloch sardars in burying women alive, or the Tumandars of southernPunjab cutting off the noses of women or the Sindhi feudals setting dogs on women to killthem are as horrific as the Taliban crimes against women and they happen with as regular afrequency. And now this new wave of crimes against our Muslim sisters in Europe simply

because they choose to wear hijab is no less despicable. So where are our voices now?

Of course, in terms of our leadership, one has no expectations given the bizarre statementscoming from that quarter whether it is relating to the US in Afghanistan "what the US doesin Afghanistan is its own business, it is a sovereign state", implying that the US can continueto wreak havoc on Pakistan through Afghanistan or the rise of the Taliban. Apart from beinghazy on the facts, no leader makes admissions of past covert policies whatever they may havebeen especially when his Party was so deeply involved in these policies, as General Babarhad once admitted! If nothing else, the many Yanks he deals with should at least tell him howthe US to date has never even admitted to any CIA killings, let alone so many other covertdeeds of horror at the level of the Presidency!

This is not to say that we should not recognise our mistakes and learn from them rather thanrepeating them over and over again. But our leaders do not have to make it a habit to go

through a full confessional especially when being interviewed by the foreign media. One canalter direction without yelling and screaming just to prove one's loyalty to, at best, a dubiousforeign ally.

But looking beyond our hapless leadership and before we become the next victims ofEuropean history, the nation should ask why it continues to be part of an apathetic MuslimUmmah?

The writer is a defence analyst. Email: [email protected]


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