Rabat - Discourse misuse or Ill-minded dormant intentions?
Rabat – Discourse misuse or Ill-minded dormant intentions?
What did we not hear this week? What has not been said yet? Is there anything more to add to the invitation to submit children to the guillotine and to create a crematoria for them? How’s that for a piece of hatred discourse and for a direct invitation to violence? This is the final solution proposed, albeit apparently jokingly, by some German social workers responsible for the welfare of Syrian refugees. There are issues, however, about which talking lightly cannot be tolerated, aren’t there?
But is there anyone who still cares about Syrians anymore? There is no doubt interest for Syria is growing but surely not for Syrians despite the occasional pictures of toddlers being drawn from under the rubble or in ambulances with their faces covered in blood that go viral on the net from time to time. An A T.V. Anchor can even break just like a little girl for a while.
The ugliest form of child abuse
A twelve to fourteen year old boy is reported to have burst himself in a wedding ceremony taking lives and creating a lot of sadness, anger, hate, unhappiness,disbelief, and perplexity. The problems of Turkey are more worrying than the world seems to be willing to admit. Actually, they are of the type that, short of democracy, only unnatural alliances, expansion wars, and oppressive policies can resolve momentarily, at least. The current regime seems to have understood this well and is getting rid of the remains of democracy, reviving alliances with Israel and Russia and is undertaking wars in neighboring countries.
The mess is getting more messy
They have created such a mess and made sure no one can still tell who’s who in the whole region? They have made so many alliances and unmade them so often and so fast that they themselves have ended up unable to tell who is backing whom? The over sixty countries strong US led coalition is supporting rebels who often are, have been or will probably at a certain time be allied with ISIS. Likewise, sudden decisions from parties that have kept away from the feuding and that seemed to have chosen the wisdom of neutrality introduce new stakes in the whole situation. In fact, if China has decided to join the coalition which will also include Iran in addition to Russia which has been supporting the Syrian army since the beginning of the hostilities and probably also Turkey, the NATO member, it is certainly not for no reason? To make the decoding endeavor yet more complex, there are those who see the roots of the Chinese intent in the US missile shields set up in South Korea recently. One is tempted to suppose that many years are still ahead for the Cold War to expire.
Diversion in the beach
Meanwhile, heated debates, which may be but diversions from some more severe structural ailments, focus attention in France on female bathing gear! Absurd or not, it is, in any case, interesting to note how French public opinion is said to be hurt and upset by burkini but not by their country’s unconditional support of undemocratic regimes, that have no respect for women and for their rights. They make massive sales of weapons to countries engaged in wars notorious for making casualties among children, civilians, and hospitals. They take aim at precious infrastructure, and their government is directly involved in the assassination of the head of a sovereign state! The French are not as bold as Trump to say clearly that they have problems with Muslims and that they would rather see them all back to their original countries regardless of whether they are second or third generation French born and or they have practically no links with those countries. Well, a few are starting to say it quite loudly!
A question many have asked is whether this much ado about bathing suits would have been posed had “terrorism” not struck in France. They ask the question but suspend the answer to it. In fact, either way, they would be falling short of the political enjoinments of the French Revolution and of the freedoms that are theoretically supposed to characterize the Republic. In fact, supporting the ban would appear as a breach of a fundamental freedom, and opposing it could be taken as support of corporatism and ethnic schisms in the nation. The confusion lies, however, not in the inherent paradox , but, on one hand, in the plasticity of the definition of secularism “laïcicité” in French political philosophy and, on the other hand, in the provisions of the 1905 law which stipulates that citizens have the right to display their religiosity in public. The challenge lies in how intelligent the French can be to develop efficient mechanisms through which conflicting passions, emotions, ideologies, attitudes, and socioeconomic statuses inherited from or perceived to be the heritage of various histories and historical narratives can be acknowledged, understood, reinterpreted, and tamed.
The enforcement of the principles of secularism and of the provisions of the law has unleashed unending heated and passionate debates about the compliance or noncompliance of what is referred to in France as “the integral veil” with the law. The legislature ruled in favor of noncompliance and decided to sanction wearing this veil in public. The law also stipulates that all ostentatious symbols of religion are to be banned in the public space. But the Burkini which mayors issued edicts prohibiting is not a symbol of any religion but a case of complying with some citizens’ religious beliefs in public which the law does not prohibit. This is why the ban was motivated not on religious grounds but allegedly to prevent public disorder. Religion has nothing to do with their decisions, the mayors insist in chorus.
For many concerned observers, what is taking place in France and what is taking place in Syria are two sides of the same coin, namely, a war declared against Islam and to prevent that Muslims unite and recover their dignity.
Castles of sand are falling apart
Meanwhile, strategic alliances are being unmade that very few thought would so quickly. The rules of the game in the region are being re-written. The USA and Saudi Arabia are slowly but surely dismantling the foundations of their union so many had taken to be sacred. Turkey and Russia are reaching for each other ? again. Russian warplanes are flying from Iranian bases. Yemen has all of a sudden recovered its striking power. It would be a mistake to expect ideological motivations for these changes. The vital argument will remain for many years yet essentially of a strategic economic nature ? the challenge is not to miss where the chances and the odds are.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
