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| India-Pakistan | |
| Why I am with the Leader of the Free World | |
| 2006-09-24 | |
| Tavleen Singh If there is one thing endearing about the Leader of the Free World, whatever his flaws, it is the contrast between what he says and what tinpot dictators and religious fanatics say when they attack him. This column comes from New York. I arrived on the day Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the UN General Assembly that the US was guilty of ‘hegemony’ and ‘hypocrisy’. The day before, Hugo Chavez called George W. Bush Satan. He said, “Satan was here yesterday and you can still smell the sulphur.” What I found interesting about the speeches of Ahmedinejad and Chavez is that they seemed not to notice that in their own countries they would not have allowed anyone similar freedom to comment on them.
The voice of the un-free world becomes louder in the debating halls of the world because we who live in free societies are almost apologetic about our values and rights. In India if there is the slightest infringement of Muslim rights, we liberals rise to the defense. Within days of the recent bomb blasts on Mumbai’s trains we were attacking the police for scouring Muslim neighbourhoods for suspects. The killers were Muslims. The police had no idea who they might be so where else were they going to look if not in Muslim neighbourhoods? When the Danish cartoon controversy arose and when the Pope recently made a devious reference to the spread of Islam by the sword there was more righteous indignation in the columns of the Indian press than almost anywhere else. This is fine but what worries me is how easily our rules change when it comes to dealing with the un-free world. Why is it that we have no problem with Ahmadinejad threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the earth? Why do we not get upset when Iran allows an exhibition of cartoons that make fun of what the Nazis did to the Jews? Why do Ahmadinejad’s remarks on the Holocaust being only a myth not disturb us? It is my view that the Pope should not have said what he did. If he thinks that Islam spread by the sword and that the Prophet Mohammed had nothing new to say then he would have done better to say this clearly instead of quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor. Only when Christianity’s problems with Islam (and our own) are spelt out clearly will the process of dialogue become possible. But, having said this, may I say that it worries me very much that when fanatical Maulanas speak out against us heathens and idol-worshippers (a.k.a. Hindus) we rarely read an irate editorial. When that Muslim minister in Mulayam Singh’s government put a price on the head of the Danish cartoonist it created barely a ripple in the Indian media. Think what would have happened if Narendra Modi had put a price on the head of “Mian Musharraf”? The problem is not merely polemical. In the streets of New York I see a Muslim face every few steps. There are veiled Muslim women, Bangladeshi waiters, Arab voices and Pakistani taxi drivers. If the West is such a hateful place why are they here? There are plenty of rich, Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia where a good living could be made, are there not? Speaking of Saudi Arabia, may I add that I find it hard to accept the noisy demands Muslims make to be allowed to build mosques in Western cities when countries like Saudi Arabia refuse to give similar rights to non-Muslims. What sense does it make for those countries to talk of human rights and religious freedom when they do not believe in these concepts themselves? We who in live free societies need to be more grateful for our privileges and more conscious of the importance of preserving them. In the funny, scary times in which we live there is a strange, new phenomenon whereby dictators lecture the world on human rights and political freedom and we listen and applaud as if this was the most normal thing in the world. This is happening on account of mindless anti-Americanism that makes us weep daily for the suffering people of Iraq and Afghanistan and forget that what happened in those countries was because of 9/11. For my part, on this beautiful September afternoon in New York, I am on the side of the Leader of the Free World. tavleen.singh@expressindia.com | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Tavleen Singh is a woman. |
| Posted by: JSU 2006-09-24 22:39 |
| #4 Our silence only confirms their superiority. Yes. |
| Posted by: exJAG 2006-09-24 13:38 |
| #3 Sloppy. Experimenting with the &# codes, finally found the trademark sign at WORD symbols.... But the 'smart guy" seems to be of the feminine persuasion, based on the picture at the link.... |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-09-24 10:58 |
| #2 Yeah but he missed the point of the muzzies. They get away with it all because they are The Master Religion™. Our silence only confirms their superiority - and their frustration: If they are so superior, how can they be so backward? Oh, the confusion! They must not be radical enough! Yeah, that's it! 173 ¢ 162 © 169 ¯ 175 ™ |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-09-24 10:54 |
| #1 Sharp guy. |
| Posted by: newc 2006-09-24 07:33 |