Are there such protests outside the Embassies of very rich oil
producing Potentates and Feudal Kingoms of the Middle East? Not one of
those nations have opened their doors to Arab Muslim refugees fleeing
Islamic extremism. Why?
Europe is dealing with an unprecedented influx of refugees not seen
since World War II. These refugees all want to flee to Western nations
because those nations are accepting of immigrants and other cultures
more than most nations in the world.
They are predominantly Christian albeit secular nations that Islamic
Radicals are sworn to destroy. ISIS is killing more Muslims and raping,
burning, destroying whatever is in their sickening Fascist path. Why are
people not protesting asking ISIS to stop their madness? Why is Saudi
Arabia not opening their doors? or UAE or, Kuwait(which by the way was
invaded by Saddam Hussein and was liberated by a US led coalition in
1991).
Germany has agreed to take in at least 800,000 refugees. How many
have the Arab nations oozing with oil wealth agreed to absorb? Do you
know why these people flee to Europe and US and Canada? Because they
know they will be safer there and take advantage of and receive welfare,
and food and eventually be able to find work and educate their children
in secular schools. This is no different from any other human tragedy. A
lot of Sri Lankan Tamils fled west after the barbarism of 1983 and the
prolonged war.
*Photo – Palestinians paid tribute to the 3-year old Syrian boy
who drowned while fleeing the Syrian war, by building a sand sculpture
of him on a beach in the Gaza Strip. Dozens paid tribute to Aylan Kurdi
by re-enacting the heart-wrenching scene of how his body was found
washed ashore.
The question this young child should
have asked his parents or whoever asked him to carry this placard, is
why are all these people fleeing to Western Christian European nations?
Not a single Major oil rich Arab nation is taking in these Arab Muslim
refugees. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE have not opened their borders. It is
shameful.
The radical extremists in ISIS the Islamic militant group is wreaking
havoc in Syria along with Assad’s minority Alawite Shia regime. Between
the two of them, they have killed more Arab Muslims than any other
group(as Sunni dictator Saddam did during his disastrous 9 year war with
Iran and his suppression of Kurds and Shias). The Wahabi Salafist
radicals hate Shia Arabs. The want to force everyone to abide by their
twisted version of Islam: which is by far a peaceful religion. Turkey
too is suffering; while Turkey is a predominantly Muslim nation it is
not a religious theocracy.
It is indeed a tragedy, and an irony that there are extremists who
blame the West for everything and in particular the US but when it comes
to humanitarian responses to crisis; it is the Westernm nations that
are at the front of the effort to provide relief! The influx of refugees
of a different culture, values, and ethnicity will cause long term
social and political problems for all the European nations who are now
accepting refugees. Germany has said it may absorb nearly a million
refugees.
Imagine the cultural and societal challenges and pressures. The Pope,
the head of the Catholic Church has said each parish should adopt at
least one refugee Family. That is amazing. Not one wordm has been heard
from Rich Arab nations when the victims are all Arabs.
This is a shameful indictment on them. It is wrong for the few west
hating Sri Lankan Muslims to be so one-sided and ignorant of facts on
the ground. The town this writer lives in has a Masjid proudly
emblazoned with Arabic lettering, many Halal stores and even an Islamic
student center; the previous town he lived in had a beautiful large
mosque, hundreds of peace loving Muslims from many nations and a large
University center built at US tax payer expense to facilitate prayer for
its international student population: both in the heart of the Bible
Belt in the USA. How many Churches or Temples are there in Rich
Westernized Arab nations for people of other faiths to openly and freely
worship? What if this little boy who carried that sign knew these
facts?
Everyone blames the US and Europe, but when it comes to humanitarian
actions, they are always expected to take the lead. China and Russia are
also nowhere to be seen! The destabilizing impacts of this massive
influx of refugees is frightening. This number of refugees have not
flooded Europe since World War II. They are desperate for help and for
economic opportunities. Whatever causes that lead to the emergence of
ISIS from the disastrous US and British invasion of Iraq in 2003 to
other factors, it is a human tragedy that cannot be ignored. There are
far too many conflicts in the world that are leading to massive
displacement of people. Given this tragedy, everyone’s wish is that Sri
Lanka will never again see war.
Fact is that secular modern western nations are still far more
tolerant and accepting of people of totally different ethno-religious
backgrounds than other nations in the world. Secular democracies triumph
religious theocracies and dictatorships any given day. Sri Lanka is a
developing nation and it cannot say much about this sort of global
crisis.
Whatever the causes of Radicalism and violence based on religious
ideology, it should never be tolerated by anyone in Sri Lanka; be it BBS
type extremism by some misguided Buddhists or ISIS like violence by
twisted perverted sexually repressed misguided Muslims.
India and Sri Lanka will soon be facing combatants who have gone to
the middle east for training and fighting these radical extremist wars;
it is in India’s and Sri Lanka’s interests to coordinate intelligence
efforts to make sure such foreign hate filled destructive ideologies do
not spread in multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracies such as India
and Sri Lanka.
There should be zero tolerance for religious extremism and violence
or anyone propagating segregation and violent expansion of any political
or religious extremist ideology. Islam like Buddhism are ways of life
of peace and co-existence are they not? It is frightening to see the
proxy wars between Persian Iran and Shia vs. Radical Sunni extremism
wreaking such havoc and creating a humanitarian tragedy equivalent to
what happened in Rwanda which started in 1994. Let there never be war
between communities in Sri Lanka leading to tragedies such as 1983.
May all communities live and let live and respect different systems of
faith. Is that young boy being brainwashed in an extremist ideology at a
foreign funded Madrassa inside Sri Lanka or was he genuinely saddened
by the plight of millions of innocent Arab children? Was Samuel
Huntington right when he spoke of a clash of civilizations way back? (By: Mano Ratwatte)
Read more articles of Mano Ratwatte, click here>>>
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