Home > The worst ever theology
by Abid Ullah Jan
"Those who want us to believe that the American invasions and occupations abroad and curtailing civil liberties at home are merely the work of a frustrated Neo-con fringe and a few bigots like Pipes are weakening the world’s ability to recognize the scope of the threat and to defend itself from a new totalitarian onslaught."
Our continued silence over the daily death of hundreds of Iraqis at the hands of occupation forces in Iraq and tens of Palestinians in occupied Arab territories by Israeli forces is outright criminal.
Radicalism, fanaticism and fundamentalism are the terms exclusively used for religions such as Islam, Christianity and Judaism. But the worst form of fanaticism that we witness today is of the American domination theology, which is even worse than a cult.
No religion, no matter how it is exploited by extremists, and misinterpreted by fanatics teaches all that the US is demonstrating these days.
With the bipartisan 9/11 Commission’s declaration of a war on Islamic ideology; Bush and Kerry’s equal resolve to supporting Israel, their joint commitment to making all US occupations a success, and with the globalization of America’s terrorism, it is becoming increasingly absurd to ascribe the global threat to a fanatic fringe, called neo-cons.
Americans who note that America is bastion of democracy and country of peace and tolerance are right, but only in a narrow bookish sense which hides the facts that America’s foundations lie in the genocide of natives and 100 Years of Lynchings. [1]
Other than that, the history of US invading and terrorizing other states, carving state territories from other’s land and imposing its hegemony dates as back to the day when America came into existence. [2]
American foreign policy does indeed permit freedom to both its friends and foes. But the prerequisite for American tolerance is America’s rule. Even its relations with Europe, NATO and its closest allies, the contemporary world’s much vaunted "international community," is premised on the primacy of American dominance.
Like a religion, Americanism has become a universal faith that envisions the ultimate transformation of the world in America’s image. But unlike large parts of the Muslim and the rest of the Christian world in our time, America has been inching away from religious pluralism based on the equality of faiths.
For America, historical experience reinforces domination theology. America is the only worldly power which boasts to have won two World Wars, defeated an arch global power and many of its leaders lived to see nothing but the triumph of their "invincible" America. Because America knows power from its very inception, many Americans come to see dominance as their birthright.
Undoubtedly, until the recent past, America proved capable of magnanimity toward its Muslim subjects. But it hasn’t proved its capacity for equality in its quest for dominance abroad. For America, only two options exist: to dominate or be dominated.
The continued support to Israel to continue its domination and terror machine against Palestinian is the most extreme form of that mind-set. The goal of terrorist policy makers in Washington is not supporting Israel for the sake of Israel, Jews or Judaism, but for using Israel to dominate the whole Middle East. It is another matter that in the process Israel is destined to replace the US as the Ruling Global State in the near future.
Contrary to the American theology for domination, Islam and other faiths do not reinforce religious exclusivity at all costs. They do not propose wiping out whole populations to impose their values on subjects. None of the religions suggests to hold people from living by other religions or to exterminate them until they submit to its values. Contrary to the much criticized fundamentalism ad associated with religions, the US domination theology is far worse as it demands total submission to the values espoused by American "intellectual," political and military war lords.
America’s challenge is to balance its vision of itself as a moral leader - the ultimate model of goodness - that dominates the world with a humility that concedes the need for restraint in a world threatened with nuclear destruction.
Humility is a profound trait in the values the American government parades before the world every day. More than most states, America claims to inculcate in Americans a frank acknowledgment of need to respect others’ freedom and human rights. Americans live with a constant awareness that what the US stands for is in the ultimate good of the humanity.
The dark side of that awareness is the demonic phenomenon of the invasions, occupations and conversion of local populations to the values America espouse at any cost. But at its best, the Americans’ ability to accept deaths and destructions elsewhere, believing that it leads to civilizing the uncivilized, is self-destructive.
Those who want us to believe that the American invasions and occupations abroad and curtailing civil liberties at home are merely the work of a frustrated Neo-con fringe and a few bigots like Pipes are weakening the world’s ability to recognize the scope of the threat and to defend itself from a new totalitarian onslaught.
But those who label The United States of America as inherently violent and intolerant are denying its capacity for spiritual growth. And they are abandoning those still-rare but extraordinarily courageous voices within America struggling for exposing the truth and calling for accountability of the tyrants at the top.
Winning this war, then, requires a two-pronged approach. First, the rest of the world must respond to the American aggression without sentimentality or self-recrimination. At the same time, we must support those who are struggling to help correct the US theology of domination so that it can become a crucial shaper of, at least, its own civilization.
The world has two options: a) openly reject the US and Israeli theology of domination, declare all resistance justified, demand and work for ending American and Israeli occupations as soon as possible, or b) openly embrace this theology of American domination and provide the US as much military and moral support as necessary to eliminate all resistance in the shortest possible time, even if it makes the world break all records of former holocausts. After all it would be a war against "evil" and eliminating evil is neither a crime, nor a sin.
If we don’t have the guts to do either, our silence is as criminal as the behavior, words and deeds of the American war lords and occupation troops.
Notes:
[1]. 371 treaties were made by the US government with Native Americans. The United States govenment violated 370 of those treaties, to date. Over 250 years, 160 million Native Americans have been killed by the US government. See: http://www.marxists.org/history/capitalism/white-book-capitalism/usa/native-americans.htm the evidence: http://www.iwchildren.org/calif.htm
"By conservative estimates, the population of the United states prior to European contact was greater than 12 million. Four centuries later, the count was reduced by 95% to 237 thousand." An End to Intolerance Volume 5 — June 1997 Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York (United States)
[2]. See the history of US interventions since 1890-2004: http://www.uwec.edu/grossmzc/interventions.html Also Read Noam Chomsky’s "Terrorizing the neighborhood," 1991.