Some Maldivians are opposing our government's efforts to re-establish diplomatic contact with the state of Israel.
Their arguments are these:
1) Israelis are illegally occupying Palestine, causing them much hardship.
2) Err..
I'm not the biggest fan of Israel either. But when it comes to logical argument, I'm a fanatic.
SYMPATHY FOR FELLOW MUSLIM BRETHREN
Here's my theory: We don't really care about Palestinians. We don't really give a shit about Israel either. We ARE, however, MADE TO believe it's our religious duty to hate them.
Has anyone else wondered how Palestine has spilled over from being a political issue to a religious one? (Just like Kashmir, Iran, Iraq and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan)
I'll tell you how.
Political Islam is the only tool that can keep this war going. And there are not a few people on both sides of the Palestinian conflict who profit immensely from this war.
The Zionist right in Israel consolidates its voter base by promoting hatred against Arabs, including its own Israeli Arab citizens. The Hamas and their ilk in Palestine exist solely due to Israel's continued occupation. If there were no war, or hatred for Israel, Hamas would automatically cease to exist.
So it is vital for both of them to carry on with this war. Religion has nothing to do with it, except in gaining sympathy for each side in continuing the conflict. Jews play the 'holocaust victim' card, the Arabs play the 'Islam under attack' card. Religion in the hands of politicians, as usual.
For those of you who think your sympathies lie with Palestinians because of some common religious bonds - think deeper.
When was the last time you were similarly outraged when your 'fellow muslim brothers' in other countries suffered on an equally horrific scale?
When have we ever considered setting up funds to help our 'fellow Muslim brothers' in flood-hit Bangladesh? Or Indonesia? Or for the homeless, hungry in North Africa? Where is the worldwide concerted Muslim effort to help out those refugees in the name of Islam?
These are also extremely poor, calamity-prone countries I'm talking about.
Why the double standards in dealing with two different sets of 'fellow Muslim brothers'?
(Oh, and where is the global Muslim outpouring of grief over this "100% Muslim" country of ours sinking under water?)
The argument that the Mujahideen are fighting for the holy, reverential places of the Muslims in Palestine is also not true.
What explains the Mujahideen 'warriors' that went to rescue Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion? Which holy mosque of great importance is in Afghanistan? Or in Kashmir?
The truth is that these are artificial religious wars made out of political issues - by self serving politicians. The outrage that you feel is instilled in you through their relentless propaganda that projects Palestine as Islam's tragedy, rather than a human one.
No doubt, the Palestinians are undergoing terrible living conditions - but are they really any worse off than the hundreds of thousands of people literally getting butchered in Darfur district (an area that's roughly the size of France) of Sudan right now?
Are they worse off than hungry, disease-ravaged peoples of war-torn Africa? Shouldn't 'human concern' extend to ALL humans - and not just a select group of people that our Arab masters want us to sympathize with, because it lines their pockets?
We all know how we treat Bangladeshi laborers in the Maldives - with utter disrespect and open racism. But guess what? They're muslims too! (Just not Arab enough to count, perhaps)
The Palestine 'jihad' is an artificial religious war kept alive by greedy interests. The best thing we can do to end this war is to not participate in it.
It is not our belief in a 'Muslim brotherhood' or a 'United Ummah' that causes the outrage in the muslim world. It is because our Arab puppet-masters want us to react this way.
Besides, there is no such thing as a united Muslim ummah under infidel threat. Most of the death, destruction and misery in the middle east (especially in Iraq) is inflicted by one group of Muslims on the other.
So there goes the 'brotherhood' and 'suffering' arguments down the drain.
ISRAEL IS ILLEGAL, DEFIES UN RESOLUTIONS
Now coming to the argument that Israel has 'broken' many UN resolutions and continues to act with impunity.
I agree. But it's certainly not the only state to do so?
The USA defied the UN and went to war with Iraq. The USA also aggressively protects Israeli interests with its dominant position, arms Israel, and funds it with money and technology.
And yet we maintain excellent relations with the United States, don't we?
Australia also send its troops to Iraq, so did the English. Yet we enjoy very close relations with Australia, and many Maldivians study or are settled in Australia. English tourists are also warmly welcomed to Maldivian shores - and they bring in millions in revenue.
Double standards? Hypocrisy? Are we condoning the war in Iraq?
Of course not. And don't let any idiot convince you otherwise either. Fact is that we have condemned the Iraq war, and yet maintain more-than-cordial relations with these countries in our own mutual interests.
The Maldives is - and should act like - an independent, sovereign country, not an inferior clone of the Arab masters. For this I applaud the present government for taking this bold step in the right direction.
Finally, talking about UN resolutions, it was through a UN resolution in 1947 that the state of Israel was recognized in the first place, and the UN mandates the need for all member states to recognize each other.
Israel is a reality. It is not going to disappear. Most Arab nations have also recognized this fact and moved on. Why shouldn't the Maldives?
ISRAEL AND THE MALDIVES
Israel is a country that has never done any harm to the Maldives or Dhivehin - in either words or action. (Despite the Adhaalath wanting to donate our hard earned money to Hamas to buy weapons. Remember that episode?)
Going back into history, Maldives was perhaps the second country in the world to officially recognize Israel. And Israel, in turn, was the first to send an ambassador to the Maldives in modern times.
That Israel is a technological powerhouse is no secret. I'm in software - and in my field, Israel is rightly envied for its highly advanced high-end defence and military technologies. The Maldives stands to gain enormously from friendly relations with them.
The Israeli elite would also be a lucrative market that could rejuvenate and revive the Maldives' tourism industry.
There are so many detractors to Israel's claim that it is the only democratic country in the entire middle east.
Some sardonic comments on various Maldivian forums say that Israel is 'democratic' only in name and that it discriminates against its Arab citizens and only caters to its Jewish population in a form of religious apartheid.
Well I got news for you.
Guess which other pretend-democratic country openly practices religious apartheid and aggressively suppresses minorities? Us!
That's right. The Maldives.
Our own record is much worse off than Israel in that field, as we do not even grant non-Muslims and other minorities the most basic right imaginable - the right to exist.
[This actually gives us all the more reason to bond with Israel on this unique common ground; an alliance between the only two apartheid theocracies posing as democracies. ;-)]
PALESTINE
There's something that irks me about the average Maldivian's desperate desire to become more catholic than the pope. (Damn.. my Christian antecedents play up again! :p)
For all their outrage, many Maldivians I know are very ill-informed about Palestinian history.
Quite a few people I've talked to didn't realize that there was no independent country called 'Palestine' in the area where the 2 countries are now bleeding over.
Nor was there an Iraq or Syria or Jordan or Iran.
Also, not many Maldivians are aware that during the First World War, the Arab nationalists, eager to defeat the Ottoman Turks, were initially more than willling to let go of that very land in return for a Pan-Arab nation that would also include Syria.
The Arab states DID initially accept the establishment of a Jewish state as a matter of recorded history. The first war was also waged by a grand Arab coalition on Israel, not the other way around.
Also, look at this map.
That's the sparsely populated, oil-rich, friendly, sympathetic Arab nations surrounding Palestine.
The Hashemite kingdom of Jordan - once a part of Palestinian British Mandate - is a strong US ally while also sympathetic to Palestine. (Jordan lost the West Bank in the 1967 war, but it has later wisely relinquished all claims over the West Bank, and pursued development and modernization ever since)
Why doesn't it accept the Palestinian refugees into its much larger and relatively sparsely populated country?
Saudi Arabia - floating in billions of oil dollars - and with hundreds of extravagant, lavish billionaire princes and princesses, also claims to be sympathetic to Palestine. It is also a major US ally.
If they only spent a portion of the billions they spend on promoting their wahhabi bullshit on the Palestinians welfare, food and medicines instead, then the Adhaalath wouldn't have to FedEx our money to appease their Arab overlords in Palestine. But they don't.
Egypt: - Sympathetic to Palestinian cause. Strong US Ally. But doesn't open up its borders with Palestine permanently to let in 'fellow Muslim brothers'. Has peace treaty with Israel.
Iraq - has the second largest Oil reserves in the world. Now caught in a civil war where 'fellow Muslim brothers' are suicide bombing each other. Might eventually split in three mutually hostile kurd, sunni and shiite nations. The rule of a secular tyrant ended with US invasion. This country also invaded 'fellow Muslim brothers' Kuwait in early 90's.
Iran - Shiite Ayatollah ruled state. 'Sympathetic to Palestine'. President Mahmoud I'm-a-Nut-Job wants to wipe Israel off the map. This country also engaged in war against 'fellow Muslim brothers' Iraq. (Umm. 'Sunni heretics' rather... but who cares)
Syria, Lebanon : 'Sympathetic to Palestine'.
Turkey: A non-Arab secular Nation. Once the seat of the Islamic Caliphate that came nearest to being an 'Islamic ummah'. Dismantled by the allies with so much support from all the so-called 'fellow Muslim brothers' I mentioned earlier.
___After looking at that map, and the profiles of their neighboring countries, it is quite obvious that Palestine should be lacking in neither sympathy nor funds.
And yet, the Palestinians suffer and don't have a place to go.
Meanwhile, Israel, sandwiched between all those hostile neighbors, continues to progress in leaps and bounds.
So much for Muslim unity, Arab 'sympathy', and 'lack of funds'. The Arabs have chosen NOT to take care of their own.
Why indeed, should we Maldivians then be more catholic than the Pope?
SECURITY OF THE MALDIVES
There is a growing concern among some Maldivians that by recognizing Israel, the Maldives is subjecting itself to a security risk from the Al Qaeda and their 'fellow Muslim brethren' (I'm growing to love that term, by the way)
Perhaps.
But the way I see it, no Arab is going to take the trouble of catching a plane, flying all the way to Male' with his ammonium nitrate, and blow himself up at Alimas Carnival for the sake of a protest.
Not a chance.
They're going to rely on locals. If there's a bomb (like there was) it'll inevitably turn out to be Maldivians themselves killing their 'fellow Muslim brethren'.
These suicide bombing jihadis are radicalized in the very atmosphere of blind, official support of jehadi causes. Like the anti-israel slant that TVM spewed all these years that makes even the ordinary, non-religious Maldivians react as if Israel stole their mothers.
For this very reason, we have to move away from bigoted stands, and establish links with Israel - and encourage people-to-people contact, to bring harmony and greater understanding between the Jewish people and Maldivians.
That's the best way of defusing anti-semitism in the Maldives - and PREVENT radical tendencies and terrorism.
Of course, there are those who adamantly abhor the very thought of peace and friendliness with Israelis. They are the moral cowards who are afraid that everything might end up fine and peaceful.
SOVEREIGNTY OF THE MALDIVES
I've always believed that an independent, sovereign country's foreign policy should be based on its own personal interests.
Instead, if our foreign policy is dictated by the emotional concerns of some middle-eastern mullahs, I should say that we're neither truly independent nor sovereign.
We can't have it both ways.
There are dozens of countries that are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause including almost every big power in the UN.
Our friendliest neighbor, India, is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. But Indians are smart enough to follow an independent foreign policy and has strategic defence and military ties with Israel.
Heck, even the Palestinians themselves have diplomatic contact with Israel. So does Jordan and Egypt that share borders with the West Bank and Gaza.
That's how independent countries of the world work. The Maldives-Israel ties would be highly tilted in the Maldives' favour - and there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't pursue closer ties with them.
If maintaining diplomatic relations with countries that engage in war means having blood on our own hands - then all Maldivians must be held equally culpable for Iraq and Abu Ghraib and Gitmo.
Then we would also have to cut off ties with India, Sri Lanka, US, and Pakistan and half the Middle East.
Or we could just stop being hypocrites, and become patriots for change and do what's best for our own country.
~ Peace!
~ And Understanding!
~
