In 2005, some "intellectuals" in Egypt were violently attacked, for inviting them to "celebrate" the 200th anniversary of the French campaign against Egypt, ignoring the looting, executions, and violations of the rights of Egyptians, and sang the French "enlightenment." Two years ago, a famous Lebanese singer embraced French President Macron and clung to him. As a child, she "takes refuge" with her father, and some Lebanese presented him with a document demanding the return of France's occupation of their homeland, which is unacceptable, even with the political "machinations".
Every day we see many who "satisfied" - like these - for themselves to live with Stockholm Syndrome to varying degrees.
In 1973, after a bank robbery in Stockholm and hostage-taking, the world was surprised by the hostages' desperate defense of the kidnappers after the police rescued them, and they collected donations for the kidnappers and strongly sympathized with them.
One of the hostages yelled at the prime minister as he sought to rescue them and asserted that they had not abused them, as if forced detention in itself was not abuse.
Hence the name Stockholm syndrome, which is a psychological phenomenon that afflicts the individual when he sympathizes with his enemy or those who offended him in some way or shows some signs of loyalty to him or sympathy and harmony, and it may reach the point of defending him and solidarity with him.
These feelings are irrational and irrational in light of the danger that is actually happening to her, as the victim misunderstands that not being offended is benevolence and mercy.
Some of those subjected to forced detention and sometimes rape have repeatedly defended those who have "violated" their humanity.
Some believe that these are exceptional cases that cannot be measured, but the reality proves that they are abundant in our world around us.
One of the most important examples that I see applied to this syndrome is what they call "acceptance of the other."
Those people who reduce this other to the American and European West and overflow with love, sweetness, and sometimes reverence when they talk about it, frown and rise up, and may despise the African and Asian other and the other in the same country, and sometimes in the same family.
You see them shouting at us: When you travel abroad, do not do what contradicts their customs, and when foreigners visit us, they shout: Stop being backward, and do not force them to respect your strange customs. We must go along with them if we really accept the other.
In both cases, we are the only ones who must respect the other, and accept and conform with his behavior, habits, and way.
Only we must submit.
So why do some plant inferiority within their mind and heart and spread it desperately among their fellow countrymen, as if they are not alone in stripping themselves of their roots?
We have the right to ask, and we also have the right to know the situation when this other is not Western, do we accept him or make fun of him?
Do we see its advantages?
Or is it a mass of defects?
What about the historical and contemporary massacres of the West against us?
What about the other with the same religion, language and homeland?
We mean the whole Arab world, not the homeland in its narrow sense.
We see the disaster in the prostration of quite a few in front of the other who despise him and has an ugly history of exploiting him and plundering his wealth.
Fear of confrontation will not erase the results of the assault, and it will entrench in the mind the victim's entitlement to him and increase the crushing in front of the aggressor and insulting those who appreciate him, perhaps to compensate the soul for prostration in front of the unjust other, and we guide them to the words of "Kissinger" after Sadat's expulsion of the Russian experts: "We would have paid him a lot to expel them, But he didn't demand, and no one pays for something after getting it for free."
Another example of the insolence of the other, which fascinates some, is a statement by the US State Department spokesperson, in which he says, "We are concerned about how these amendments affect the practice of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Indonesia."
In it, he was expressing his country's concern over the criminalization of sexual relations outside marriage by the Indonesian parliament, and their monitoring of the impact on freedoms in Indonesia, and that this may even harm investment in the country.
Gandhi said: "I will open my windows on the condition that you do not uproot me from my roots."
And to such people we say: Who are you?
We can respond to them with the words of "Rob Moore", the famous British writer, and his objection to the protests against Qatar for banning alcohol in the World Cup stadiums and for rejecting homosexuals, and he referred to the arrogance of the West and its belief that it has the only way to live and its right to go to the other and dictate to different cultures and peoples how to live their lives and impose the views of the West They have to go to someone's house, rearrange his furniture, raise his children, and criticize his habits and culture.
We do not find a better response than the wonderful saying of Imam Ali, may God honor his face: “If you put someone above his destiny, expect him to put you below yours.”
Acceptance of the other is a double-edged sword. “Smart” acceptance avoids conflicts that hinder us and we benefit from the advantages of the other. “Submissive” and perhaps dazzled acceptance violates our lives in every sense of the word. Fascination “turns off” insight and facilitates submissiveness without awareness. In accepting the other in politics, marriage, family and work.
We will not look for a mirror in which we see ourselves, and we will not abandon ourselves to be a tail for others. Accepting the other does not mean abandoning what distinguishes us and walking behind it, nor submitting to it, imitating it and "wiping" it in pursuit of a greater position. And the imitator will always gasp behind those who imitate him, and he will destroy his true position that surpasses imitation, and he will cultivate with his mind and conscience the “misguidance” and the constant need, no matter how high his position in society is “because” of his imitation.
Gandhi said: "I will open my windows on the condition that you do not uproot me from my roots." Naguib Mahfouz reached universality by his pride in his "locality".
Let us start with positive self-acceptance before accepting others, appreciating and respecting oneself and cherishing oneself and expelling thinking, even for a second, about dealing with the other with psychological and mental inferiority. Adaptation or adaptation and flexibility does not mean abandoning our individuality.
We reject blind dependence and call for dialogue based on self-respect with a "positive" push to accept and take "only" what adds to it and rejects everything that detracts from it.
And let us pay attention to the other in work relationships, marriage and friendships, as most of us “drain” some of our energies and lives in distress from what others say or do, as if it is the “catalogue” that everyone must follow, and it is necessary to differ and sometimes conflict in opinions and interests, and this must be accepted without concession Our rights or never giving up our human uniqueness, and saving life for the most important condition of “mutual” respect for difference.
We find that many people of both sexes and all ages “narrow” their lives by trying to force those they deal with, including life partners, children, co-workers, and friends, to “match” with them.
The painful thing is that those who do this, we find them lenient with those who caused them pain and looking for justifications for them, and they may join them against those they love as if they are “breathing” the Stockholm Syndrome, so we find those who praise those who offend their political current, and employees who justify the injustice of managers, and the poor who sympathize with the rich who oppress them and look above the weak Like them and catching mistakes for them, and defending the mistakes of some doctors that they see a lot and get tired, as if they do not get paid, so even the volunteer is required to take care of his work and if he makes a mistake he apologizes.
As for the Lima syndrome, not many people know it, and it is the opposite of Stockholm Syndrome, in which the enemy or the kidnapper sympathizes with the aggressor (hostages) out of mercy, sympathy, and pity.
The term came after the hostage-taking of those invited to an official party sponsored by the Japanese ambassador at the embassy in Lima (Peru) in 1996, when 14 members of an armed movement known as Tupac took hostage hundreds of people who were attending a party at the official residence of the Japanese ambassador.
Then, the resistance movement released most of the hostages, including the most important personalities, only a few hours after the kidnapping, out of sympathy for them.
It is noteworthy that during the detention period, a helicopter besieged the embassy took pictures showing the armed group members playing football with the hostages in the back garden of the embassy, which some considered an attempt to relieve the hostages, and after a while the kidnappers began to release the detainees successively without clear reasons, and with the release of Hostage release The term "Lima syndrome" was given to the condition in which the perpetrator sympathizes with the victim.
We hope that those who accept the arrogant Other who violates their rights will not wait to be blessed with crumbs of Lima syndrome, as the wait will be long and lives will be wasted and will not return even for a second.