He had acted alone

"He had acted alone". This is what we always hear when a white Western man commits a crime such as the one committed by the American soldier who went on a shooting rampage leaving 16 Afghan children and women dead (he set some of the bodies on fire), or when  the Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 innocent people, white Norwegians like himself, or when some white teenager shoots some other kids in some state in the US. The latter have become quite commonplace in the US, but we never hear anyone talk of influence or some secret circles behind these white men committing such atrocities. Most of the time, they are referred to a psychiatrist to assess their mental health and in most cases they are pronounced unstable, out of touch with reality or crazy.

Why are these people always acting alone? Is it because these white men from civilised countries are clever enough to commit crimes without being instructed to do so. Or is it because they are programmed to kill just like Terminator but there is no programmer, they are born with the genes that lead them to commit crimes.  So, it is innate in them and it is not the influence of the surrounding environment in these white-majority civilised nations that turns one into a mass murderer. But if that were true, why are they proclaimed unstable, or crazy. Is it because white men cannot do such a barbaric thing unless there is something wrong with them. There must be a lot wrong with Bush and Blair who led the ‘coalition of the willing’ to kill masses of Iraqi civilians.

So these white civilized crazy murderers could not have been under the influence of anything such as the media which keeps demonising their to-be-victims and turning them into deserve-to-die people, they are definitely not influenced by politicians’ speeches who blame every problem in white nations on immigration from inferior less civilized nations. How could they?

Now, when a non-white man whose 5^th or 10^th great grandfather hails from a non-civilized  Muslim country, commits a crime,  the story is very different. This average Mo who has never seen a mosque in his life and does not know what Islam is, suddenly turns into a devout Muslim who ain’t acting alone.  He is instructed to commit a crime by some obscure group headquartered in some exotic Afghan place. Names like Kabul and Kandahar spring to the surface. The media digs deep to find out where his 10^th great grandfather comes from.  If he isn’t white then they have to find out his origins. That’s how journalism works, don’t you know? So, after we find out where his roots lie, he is referred to as Mo a European or American of [Muslim country origin]. All newspaper have to do that, they couldn’t leave the right-wing papers enjoy the exclusivity of mentioning the origins of a mass murderer [or a shop-lifter].  Left-wing and right wing papers differ on many issues, but in this department, they shake hands and leave all their differences aside.

I am no sociologist nor an anthropologist, but I would like to know the relationship between skin-colour and religion on the one hand and acting alone when it comes to crime on the other. Why do people whose origins are non-white never act alone when committing a crime? but white men always act alone. Do people of Muslim origins show more solidarity even when it comes to a murder. After all Islam emphasizes the importance of solidarity. Could it be that people of non-white non-Christian origin are not clever enough or brave enough to act alone. Or could it be that these people are so human, so kind, so angel-like that they cannot commit a crime without being under the influence of an evil group based in Afghanistan. The latter explanation has not been circulated in the media, I wonder why?

Israel and the Wall of Silence

Three unconnected events deserve our attention as they  reveal yet again the absurdity of the Israeli defense mechanisms and their isolation from reality. These are about a poem, a Big Brother contender, and a song.

Last week, the German poet and winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in literature, Guenter Grass, was declared a persona non grata in Israel after composing a poem in which he criticized the world for its silence over the Israeli nuclear program and alluded to the double-standards of the –powerful-Western world vis a vis the Israeli  and Iranan nuclear programs. The western world which seems to only see through the beer goggles of Israel and thus concentrate on Iran.  This Iran has always been months away from acquiring a nuclear bomb, this was the case three or four, wait even five years ago.  The Israeli propaganda machine is in full swing now, digging deep in the past of the German poet and his nation and other Western nations to resurrect the Holocaust and the anti-Semitic tape that we have become all too familiar with. It is sickening how this spoiled brat of a nation has built a bulwark around itself made of lies, threats, and victimization. It has silenced the world over its illegitimate policies and practices. By being silent, the majority has become an accomplice in the spread of injustice in this world.  

The poem:

But why have I kept silent till now?
Because I thought my own origins,
Tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,
meant I could not expect Israel, a land
to which I am, and always will be, attached,
to accept this open declaration of the truth.
Why only now, grown old,
and with what ink remains, do I say:
Israel's atomic power endangers
an already fragile world peace?
Because what must be said
may be too late tomorrow;
and because – burdened enough as Germans –
we may be providing material for a crime
that is foreseeable, so that our complicity
wil not be expunged by any
of the usual excuses.
And granted: I've broken my silence
because I'm sick of the West's hypocrisy;
and I hope too that many may be freed
from their silence, may demand
that those responsible for the open danger we face renounce the use of force,
may insist that the governments of
both Iran and Israel allow an international authority
free and open inspection of
the nuclear potential and capability of both.

The other event  is about the Israeli  version of Big Brother “HaAh Hagadol’ and how, much to the dislike of the majority of Israelis, one contender , Saar Szekley,  voiced his opinion on live TV about the injustice of Israeli IDF action in Palestinian territories and its illicit occupation of Palestinian land. He was attacked by fellow roommates in the Big Brother House, and was the subject of denigration.  He was threatened with gruesome acts of assaults and facebook pages have been dedicated to the matter; he was ostracized. Poor him, he thought he was in democratic nation, the beacon of the Middle East.

The last but not least is about an Arab girl, Nissren Kader, who by being a sycophant to Israel, thought she may be accepted by fellow Israelis. She took part in a Pop Idol-like contest singing in Hebrew and praising Israel and claiming that she was proud to be Israeli. Like all traitors in history, she was rewarded with countless complaints by REAL Israelis to the channel that DARED accept an Arab girl to sing on Israeli TV and hurt the sensitive ears of Jewish citizens.