Terrorism is not a cry for help whatever Dr M may say

Mahathir's qualified condemnation of the attack on a French magazine office was virtually a mitigation plea for terrorists.

COMMENT

It was not the first time. It won’t be the last. Western media is about ratings and the bottomline and Muslims, being vulnerable, are soft and easy targets since they would not generally be able to resist the temptation to fall into any trap set for them.

Former Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin sees the condemnations of the attack on a French magazine office by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and a predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, as a study in contrasts. Najib’s condemnation was outright, fumed Zainuddin, while Mahathir’s in his words was praiseworthy since it was qualified and therefore “moderate” as Islam dictated.

Mahathir’s warped logic, so callously endorsed by Zainuddin as Islamic moderation, was virtually a mitigation plea for terrorists.

The drama in France, for whatever reason, has come to an end at least for the moment. There are any numbers of people including Zainuddin who will simply make up things as they go along especially on the run. We cannot take these ravings, for want of a better term, seriously no matter how cable TV reports them. This is just so much cheap entertainment with an eye on ratings and the bottomline.

How do CNN newscasters, for example, manage to keep a straight face as they come up with their “we know it all” instant analysis in a diarrhoea of words!

It’s not possible for anyone to rattle the security of France given the nature of the republic. France, Catholic as it is, will not be intimidated into submission even by His Holiness the Pope himself at the Vatican. Those days, when the Pope crowned the Kings and Queens of Europe and Christendom are gone, never to return. Even many of the crowned heads have disappeared as well into the dustbin of history. Their time came and their time went.

The right to free speech, even the right to preach hate, is one of the sacred cows in the West. Violence in speech is not the same as actual physical violence. The system comes down hard on anyone who takes the law into his own hands.

Nothing stands in the way of Muslims or other foreigners in France from integrating, even assimilating into French society. The caveat is that one must become French, not necessarily Christian, and there are no two ways about it. Islam and Judaism, as with other beliefs, can be as French as Christianity with one qualification: keep your religion at home, don’t flaunt it in public. However, celebrate if you want in public, if you want others to share in your joy.

Secularism, liberalism, pluralism and equality are other sacred cows. The attack and killings at the French magazine office was so much flaunting of religion in public. It won’t be surprising if the ratings of the French magazine go through the roof and its owners laugh all the way to the bank.

If there are hindrances in the way of integration and assimilation in France as elsewhere in the West, it’s just that the government in general and the larger society in particular will not lift even a finger to assist with the process.

Indeed, just like the human organism which rejects all foreign bodies — unless tricked or the immune system suppressed — western society will be in a perennial flux in response to anything “alien”.

There are complaints in France among Muslims about the “nature of France”. This a misreading brought about by culture shock. The ghetto culture, seeking comfort and security among one’s own kind, is a deadend. The larger society, the real world, is out there. Western civilisation, by its very nature, doesn’t allow for institutionalised racism and discrimination. The West has moved on as evident in the emergence of a black man, Obama, in the White House.

There’s state intervention on a positive note in limited areas.

Western society swears by the brightest and best leading the way for all. Therein lies the nature of the brain drain phenomenon.

At the same time, unless forced by the people affected, affirmative programmes are not generally encouraged in the West.

The belief is in one law of the jungle: survival of the fittest.

The theory that among others terrorism is actually a cry for help will not hold water in the West. The response of the West to terrorism would be merciless and ruthless even if it was primarily responsible in the first place for the emergence of such a phenomenon.

Still, there’s state intervention on a positive note in limited areas.

An exception are welfare programmes for the vulnerable, those who have come to the brink and on the edge, and state pensions.

Athletic and other scholarships are common in the west for those seeking to escape the vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance and disease.

Again, terrorism cannot be a cry for help. The world has double standards even when it comes to regaining sovereignty. Syria is okay, in the eyes of the West in particular, but Crimea and the eastern Ukraine are not.