An Open Letter to President Bush
By Safar ibn Abdur-Rahmân al-Hawâlî
15 October, 2001
Mr. President:
I am writing this letter to you in hope that it
will be taken into account without regard to the faith of its writer, or the
colour of his skin, and despite your new division of the children of Adam into
the civilized who support all your views, and the barbarians who do not.
Perhaps this
letter is strange to you, as I write to you as one of the heirs of the prophets,
and the prophets, as we know, used to address the tyrants of the earth in the
hope that they might repent and fear the Lord of all the worlds. Thus did Moses
–peace be upon him- address Pharaoh, Haman, and Karun, and thus did Jesus –peace
be upon him- address the Romans and the High Priest of the Jews, and thus did
Muhammad - peace and blessings
be upon him- address Abu Jahl in Makkah, as well as the Roman Emperor Heraclius
and the Persian Emperor Khosraw. It is not necessary for the recipient to listen
to or acknowledge the messenger, but it is merely his duty to convey the
message.
I write to
you as a member of an oppressed and persecuted community in a condition like
that of Jesus when he was persecuted by the Jews on one side, and Romans on the
other side. It is regrettable that the United States, a nation founded by
immigrants fleeing persecution, has taken for itself the position of the Roman
Empire which persecuted the followers of Christ –peace be upon him- and
colluded– with the enemies of faith (the unbelievers of the children of Israel)
to slay the prophets and messengers, and to slay their followers in all times
and places. At that time the Roman Empire claimed to be the symbol of freedom
and civilized values, just as you claimed referred to America in your first
statement after the incidents of September 11.It was the greatest world power of
its day, the heir of Greek civilization. It had a Senate and a façade of
democracy. The Roman citizen had freedom of religion and personal behavior. All
this made it superior to other Empires throughout the world, and yet history
does not speak well of this Empire because of the repulsive crime with which it
stained its reputation: the persecution of the Christians. For this reason that
Great Power lost its valuable distinctions when it oppressed a group of
believers in God: Who alone possesses absolute power, absolute might, and
absolute justice, Who is Mighty in His punishment which He withholds for the
oppressor for awhile, but Who one day takes vengeance against him.
Indeed, that
is what He did. The Northern Barbarians overpowered Rome and destroyed it, They
burned its cultural symbols and shattered its arrogance at the beginning of the
fifth century of the Christian era. Two centuries later, God caused the
followers of the final Prophet Muhammad –God’s blessing and peace be upon him-
to inherit the Holy Land in which Christ –peace be upon him- had lived. This was
a tremendous victory for Christ since the Islamic Faith which conquered and
liberated most of the known world from despotism and persecution, and filled it
with mercy and justice, manifested for mankind the greatness of Christ –peace be
upon him- and the truth of Christ’s message, as well as the merit of his
disciples and their followers as was revealed in detail in the Holy Qur’an. The
Islamic community considered itself to be the final link in the long chain of
followers of the prophets which began with Abraham, and included Moses and Jesus
–peace be upon them- and declared to all the world that the enemies of Christ
–peace be upon him- are the enemies of freedom and lofty values, especially the
Jews, regardless of whether they denied Christ and incited the Romans against
him, or whether they pretended to follow him so as to distort his message as did
Saul who is called ‘Paul.’ The
amazing thing is that the peoples who tasted the affliction of Roman tyranny and
arrogance rejoiced at the destruction of Rome and wondered at the actions of the
‘Northern Barbarians” who did it, despite the fact that they did not know or
like them, yet how much more so would it have been if –for example- Rome had
been attacked by the oppressed Christians? Would anyone have ventured to blame
the Christians if they rejoiced or sympathized with the attackers?
Mr.
President, we Muslims are a nation of justice. At the same time our ethics do
not allow us to rejoice over the misfortunes of the afflicted, yet we would
still hope that the United States would review its stand and be more fair, so
that we might once again give the benefit of the doubt to the United States for
which there are precedents that encourage this hope, and which demonstrate how
we used to move two steps towards them for every step of theirs, and a mile for
every move of theirs. When President Wilson announced his fourteen points at the
end of World War I, and especially the right of self-determination of peoples,
it was greeted by the Islamic world as a just position towards European
Colonialism that dominated most of its peoples. The Muslims rejoiced at a voice
from among the Christian nations themselves saying that the time had come for an
end to racial discrimination and crusader campaigns –such as the one led by
General Allenby. Thus, the
Islamic peoples hastened to place their complete trust in this neutral nation
(the United States of America) and the United States profited greatly from this,
since besides the moral distinctions it earned, it also achieved the greatest
economic advantages in history. Their trust was not shaken even by its unjust
position concerning the establishment of the Jewish state and the deprivation of
the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, but the Islamic
peoples clung to their hope that that policy was simply an error that might be
rectified. Similarly, President Eisenhower’s position towards the three-party
aggression against Egypt was one of the biggest factors that encouraged the
continuation of the benefit of the doubt for America and the refusal to listen
to the claims of the communists –which were not entirely false.
However, the
trust in America and its justice was rapidly shaken and then declined to the
ground because of America’s own behavior which came in the form of one proof
after another which permanently refuted the benefit of the doubt.
Perhaps the
first of these absolute proofs was the actions of President Nixon and his
Secretary of State Kissinger during and after the Ramadhan (October) War of
1973, then your father, President Bush whose duplicity of standards were obvious
to everybody. Iraq violated the same or fewer international agreements then
those that Israel has and continues to violate. Iraq’s excuse in doing so was
similar to those used by America to incorporate Texas into its territory. As for
Israel’s excuse for occupying Palestine, it is worse than the British
justification for keeping America as a British colony, and more repulsive than
your ancestor’s excuse for the genocide of the American Indian!
It is this
contradictory position which compelled the Islamic peoples to attend
demonstrations by the millions in support of a dictator whom none of them had
previously liked. Then came President Clinton and his Jewish administration. He
was more concerned than either yourself or your father with finding a solution
for the problem but he followed the same wrong road; describing the horrible
terrorist attack on the Abraham Mosque in Hebron as no more than a “crime.” You
and he both know that up until now there has never been a Palestinian attack on
any Jewish place of worship, and when the terrorist attack occurred in Cana he
was not ashamed to describe it as “an unintentional mistake done by the Israelis
in self-defense,” Yet when Israel was faced with bombings, he gathered all the
World and Arab leaders at the Sharm al-Shaykh conference so that they could all
condemn “terrorism” ignoring the continuous barbaric massacres and the long
chain of tragedies which the Israelis have brought upon the Palestinians and
Arabs, which were not described at all. This caused the Islamic peoples to
dissociate from America in view of the fact that it dictated to the attendees
what Israel wanted, and from their governments in view of the fact that they
yielded to the American administration. They turned with all their suffering and
hopes to the groups described as terrorist without any concern about that
description, since the conference taught them a good lesson in understanding the
terminology of the American double standard: that when America decides that
someone is a terrorist or an extremist it places them in the position of
legendary heroes in the eyes of the oppressed and the wretched who need some
airing after their long defeat and subservience, and as Claes (former Secretary
General of NATO) officially informed them that the alliance had placed Islam as
the focus of its enmity in place of the former Soviet Union. There is no need
for additional practical proofs after this unique title, proofs which arrive
daily from everywhere from the Philippines, Timor, Kashmir, the Caucasus, the
Balkans, Sudan, and many other places –except that what occurred in Palestine
after the defiling of the Aqsa Mosque by the greatest terrorist criminal of this
age: Sharon, outweighed all the others.
It was your
misfortune after your difficult election victory to be contemporaneous with that
criminal, and to continue your eternal strategic alliance with him.
We Muslims
desired to see you elected and we have proof that the votes which gave you
victory were our votes, and I personally advised Muslims to vote for you. Some
of them hoped that you would be fairer than the Democrats although others
clearly stated that the matter was no more than choosing the lesser of two
evils. We did not do that out of forgetfulness of the crimes of your party and
your father throughout the Muslim World, but because we are a nation of justice
and reason we held back our feelings and made the choice which we felt was best
for us and for America also. We hoped that you would repay good with good, but
you did the complete opposite by increasing your predecessor’s material and
political support of Zionist terrorism in the form which has occurred and
continues to occur. Bewildered questions were repeated on the lips of everyone
in the Islamic Word: Does the American administration have a conscience? Does
this biased stance which has dismayed the entire world have any justification
and will it ever end? Is America Greater Israel or is Israel Lesser America?
In the midst
of this continuous confusion and frustration, the events of the 11th
of September occurred. I will not conceal from you that a tremendous wave of joy
accompanied the shock that was felt by the Muslim in the street and whoever
tells you otherwise is avoiding the truth. It is my opinion that America which
believes in freedom and democracy -as you repeat in your speeches- should not
become upset by this one-time joy, and should not seize upon the Muslim’s
spontaneous outpouring of feeling. This nation, which worships God and believes
in justice more than any nation on earth, did not do that out of racist enmity
or evil intent, but they were joined in this by the entire world: the world that
kicked you out of the Organization for Human Rights. 3000 popular organizations
mobilized against you at the Durban conference. More than forty nations suffer
from your oppressive boycotts and economic penalties, let alone from your
military incursions. Even the environment has identified you before the world as
its greatest enemy.
People’s
shock at your first speech was greater than their shock at the event itself. It
totally equated America with freedom, justice and noble values, and it contained
a harsh threat of vengeance rather than a promise of fair cooperation. We tried
to excuse you because of the shock of the events and the need to absorb popular
anger, but all of your statements as well as your actions have been of the same
mode and have severed any other possibility.
Reckless
accusations and hasty revenge are the real tragedy for America, and the true
test of its values and civilization. Your security apparatus –which had boasted
that it could catch a fly passing over the Pentagon and that it would no about a
riot among the Eskimos before it occurred- rushed to the nearest flight school
and the nearest hotel and took down the name of every Arab or Muslim student or
resident and announced that they are the terrorists!
Imagine
Mr.President, if you were sitting among your family or tribe thousands of miles
away and heard or saw the news that you had been part of a suicide operation on
a plane? or that it was done by your brother who had died a year ago? Wouldn’t
you thank God that you were not a citizen of that civilized country or a
believer in their so-called values and justice? Especially when your very
civilized people answered these calls of yours, your cabinet members, and your
security apparatus and started to attack the barbarian invaders in every free
and civilized part of your country. I and the people of my country have
discovered how barbaric were are when a gang of Westerners –I will not call them
terrorists since they have white skin and blue eyes- performed a series of
explosions in our cities, we watched as they gave their serious confessions, and
yet we made not the smallest move to attack any Western person in any place in
our country, we did not kill them, or strip search them in our airports, nor did
we place them in solitary confinement, let alone incite the whole world to form
an alliance against them. No, we did nothing of that which your civilized people
have done to our children and Muslim brothers in general.
What caused
us to behave in this manner is our religion and ethics, for which gift we thank
God. At this point I would like to ask you Mr. President, if the world chose you
to give a prize for the people with the most advanced morals and values, and the
best treatment of others, which of the two peoples would you give the prize? To
your people or to ours?
Does this
mean that we bear ill will toward the American people for that we are racist in
our treatment of them? No. Never. We believe that the American people in general
have such good attributes that they are the closest of all Western peoples to
us, and the most deserving of all of them of our desire for them to achieve good
in this life and in the hereafter. They are a people the majority of whom
believe in the existence of God, and who donate to charitable work more than any
other people in the world (and by that we do not mean the evangelization of the
Muslims).
The truest
proof of the goodness of the American people is that they have embraced Islam
more quickly and in greater numbers than other peoples of the world, and have
tried to understand it better even after you held the Muslims responsible for
the disaster without evidence.
We desire
all good and honor for a people like this from the bottom of our hearts, and
good and honor are only achieved by any people by one of two things:
1-
Embracing God’s Faith which is alone
acceptable to Him, the Faith of all the prophets: Islam. By doing this Allah
grants them both the good of this world and that of the next world.
2-
Making peace with the Muslims, loving them,
and treating them kindly. By doing this Allah rewards them security and good in
this world.
This Islamic
nation, the followers of Abraham and Muhammad –God’s blessing and peace be upon
him- is dearest to God of all nations. Whoever honors them is honored by God,
and whoever despises them is despised by God, though He may grant them respite
for a time. History is a witness to this.
You may say,
or others may have said on your behalf, “I have apologized for using the term
‘crusade’, I have visited the Islamic Center, and I have advice the people to
control themselves,” but we say, “We are used to America to inflict deep wounds
and then putting a small bandage on them, but your present attack on Afghanistan
has violently removed those bandages and opened a wound in the heart of every
Muslim.
Mr.
President, if only when you did what you did, you had avoided the racist
terminology of your speeches about hostile action. It would have been enough for
you to simply claim the right -with no need for justification- treat the world
any way you want, and to punish whomever you want, whenever you want. But then
you had to go on and leave the desire for revenge open without any end in sight
when you said “ Today we will concentrate on Afghanistan, but the battle is
wider than that.” Is it not enough for you to destroy a whole nation because of
an unproven accusation against a single person or organization forced to live in
that country? Is this hostility which exceeds all values and morals, and shakes
every living conscience in the world only a drop in the sea of your vengeance?
Did Christ
–peace be upon him- grant you that power? Far be it for him to do that. Even
Machiavelli himself does not grant you that degree of power. Your precedent in
this is Samson. Won’t you fear God –you who have made your slogan to be “God
bless America?” How can God bless and protect her when Christ His Messenger
taught exactly the opposite of what you do: “Whoever strikes you on your right
cheek, then turn to him your left cheek. Whoever takes from you your garment,
then give him also your cloak. And whoever mocks you for a mile, go with him for
two miles.”
Do you not
understand that when you make the desire for endless vengeance to be the
attribute of the civilized nation, you make Christ –peace be upon him- to be an
uncivilized barbarian? Far be
it for him, but you have rejected God and Christ, and followed the behavior of
the Popes of the Middle Ages who used to grant indulgences and excommunication
according to their whims. You have granted an everlasting pardon to yourselves
and to the Zionist State, and to every hostile tyrant, and you have issued an
excommunication for anyone who hesitates to join your endless hostility by
describing them as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.
You search
with microscopes for so-called terrorist groups in Somalia which has been
destroyed by poverty, or in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon whose
humble dwellings are threatened by Zionist terrorism every day. But you forget
that horrible terrorism tangibly dwells among you. It is you, and nothing but
you. If you do not believe this then tell me by God, if your best friend comes
to congratulate you in ten years on the victory you hope to achieve over the
mysterious enemy you have fabricated, what will he be able to congratulate you
about? Supposing that he says, “Mr. President, we have killed one million
Afghanis, one million Iraqis, one million of this and that,” until the end of
your cursed list, will that be a victory for civilization, lofty values, freedom
and democracy? Certainly among your victims will be starving, naked widows and
children. Will that satisfy your desire for vengeance? Shamelessly, you will use
the fact that they are alive as evidence that you limited yourselves to the
destruction of their mud houses and wooden huts as strategic targets of the
smart bombs of your clean war that do not kill people.
At this
point the world that you have made depressed and sad for as long as God wills,
will finally laugh. Yes, they will be forced to laugh by the civilized joke of
the miraculous intelligence of your missiles: When you hit Iraq, Iran screamed.
When you aimed at Afghanistan during your first attack on that country, you hit
Pakistan, and one of your smart missiles infuriated the Yellow Giant by
destroying its embassy in Belgrade. I admit –in all fairness- the intelligence
of at least one of your missiles: the Patriot missile which saw one of the
stupid Scuds which had lost its way, so it knocked it to the right direction and
invited it to dinner with the American intelligence officers in Khobar.
As for being
clean, the whole world bears witness that you fought the cleanest war but with
one simple observation: that although you cleaned out Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
you unintentionally left a little pollution in its place. Perhaps you will
realize your mistake in Afghanistan and its citizens, and be more generous and
paint the sites with a little cheap American paint.
However, for
the sake of the truth we should also say that there is little doubt about the
cleanness of your war in Iraq since the witnesses against you are children, and
the law does not accept the witness of children even if they number in the
millions, but the witnesses for your side are adults of the level of dictators
and their generals.
Mr.
President, do you think that your list in which you announce the names of
terrorist organizations and the countries that support terrorism will serve your
interests, or will it be further proof that the world is against you? Who is the
advisor who suggested publishing this list at the same time that people
discovered your own house is glass and is still broken? Why do you make enemies
of those who throw stones at you from Japan in the East, to Peru in the West?
During the present dangerous security situation in your country wouldn’t it have
been enough for you to choose one country and one organization? Or do you want
to incite all of them, so that if any one of them performs a terrorist operation
you can hold the Muslims alone responsible so that your Crusade against them can
continue forever?
Mr.
President, don’t suppose that I want to recount your few faults and forget our
own (in your eyes) very many faults. No, I will mention to you a serious fault
of us Muslims: we don’t forget our tragedies no matter how much time has passed.
Imagine, Mr. President, we
still weep over Andalusia and remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did there to
our religion, culture and honor! We dream of regaining it. Nor will we forget
the destruction of Baghdad, or the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of your
Crusader ancestors. That is, we are not (in your opinion) at the level of
civilization enjoyed by the Germans and Japanese who support your hostilities
and forget your past treatment of them. Moreover, the African Muslims who
embraced Islam after the fall of Andalusia cry along with the Arabs, just as the
Indonesians do who only heard recently heard about Andalusia. It may be a
problem for us, but who will pay the price after awhile?
Mr.President,
your problem with the Afghans –and the Muslims in general- is that you are
stronger than necessary and they are weaker than necessary. Every time you use
excessive force, or are excessive in using it, it proves to be a weakness in
strength. This is a great divine mystery which reminds us of what happened to
the tyrant Pharaoh at the hands of the oppressed children of Israel. Listen to
the story from God’s Holy Scripture:
Ta
Seen Meem. These are the revelations of the manifest scripture. We recite to you
some of the story of Moses and Pharaoh in truth, for a people who have faith.
Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided its people into groups,
oppressing one group among them: slaying their sons and sparing their women.
Truly, he was one of the tyrants. We desire to bless those who are oppressed in
the land, to make them rulers and to make them the heirs, and to establish them
in the land. We let Pharaoh, Haman and their hosts receive from them that of
which they had feared. “ (28:1-6)
Do not say,
“Who am I compared to Pharaoh?” You have demanded of the Muslims what Pharaoh
never demanded of Moses –peace be upon him- and the children of Israel: that
they should not hate you in their hearts no matter what you do to them or how
you oppress them, or else you will have revenge on them. This is an attribute
exclusive to God, for God Almighty alone is the Able to wreak vengeance on all
who do not love Him. We know of no dictatorial empire in ancient history which
treated people according to what their hearts and consciences conceal, let alone
a twenty-first century democracy.
You may say,
“We intend to remove anything that will incite hate from sermons, school
curricula, newspaper articles and the media.” We reply that if that is your
democracy, then there is try as you like, but you should be sure that you will
not succeed. We learned to hate oppression and love the truth from our religion
and our Qur’an, and it is stronger than all of your means, and firmer than your
mountains. If you refuse everything but the arrogance of force and the
insanity of greatness, then there are no means left for you except the
extermination of all the Muslims with nuclear or biological weapons, or whatever
you want from hellish arsenal contains.
You may ask,
“Why all of them when some of them love us?” Be sure, there is no Muslim on
earth who loves you, even if they donate their blood to you, or set up
intelligence gathering stations for you, or delegate to you setting the
curriculum for the education of their people. Everyone on earth who claims to
love you –and no Muslim is able to make that claim- they only love you like
frightened prey loves a brutal predator.
You may say,
“We will restore the trust of the Islamic peoples by changing their government
into tolerant and democratic systems.” But we say you need only cease your evil
treatment of us. You destroyed the Iraqi people as well as others by this false
promise, and we do not want any freedom or democracy that comes from you and we
will not accept it. The enemy of freedom cannot grant freedom.
Mr.
President, I advise you and put the fear of God before you, to cease and desist
from hostile action. Deal with the problem with fairness and patience, and you
will find that we are with you reservation. Your hostility now, at the beginning
of the way, is easier for you and better for the world. If not, easy beginnings
are usually followed by extremely difficult ends. For that reason I ask you to
think, Mr. President, if you destroy every country on your list of terrorists,
will that be the end or only the beginning? Unless you want to be remembered by
history for Armageddon, and in that case there will be no history anyway
For this
reason I repeat to you: Fear God and think hard.
Peace upon
him who follows God’s guidance,
Safar ibn Abdur-Rahmân al-Hawâlî