The war on Gaza... unveiling religious extremism in the West

Israel arrests 2,600 Palestinians from Gaza (Reuters)

Painful scenes of Gaza are crowded on television screens and smartphones, and with each new scene we emerge from a situation we thought was the ugliest to an even uglier situation.

Is there a more uglier scene than the scenes of children suffering from hunger and thirst, and the scenes of corpses lying on the side of the road with no one to bury them, out of respect for the souls that inhabited them!

Everyone with a sound human sense wonders: How can normalization be achieved with these scenes and conditions that cannot be described in words?

When we look with the eye of memory and imagination, we do not find anything equivalent to these scenes in cruelty and extremism except in the scenes that are full of many widespread films and series, such as the series “Walking Dead” or the movie “I am a Legend.” , “Rules of Engagement,” or “28 Weeks Later.”

These series and films, and countless others, embody the heroism of the surviving group that finds itself forced to practice cleansing and genocide in order to survive, and all of them strip the audience targeted by the genocide of humanity, turning it into just a group of rabid beings who have no right to exist.

We can say;

The American film industry has contributed for nearly a century - and continues to contribute - to numbing the human sense to the end of belittling the killing of human souls.

It is true that other cultures, including Arab and Islamic culture, are not devoid of writings and narrations that facilitate killing.

But this ease reached its peak with the motion picture arts, which Western culture played a major role in developing.

It has become common for generations who grew up in this culture to enjoy films in which the killing of a human soul is accompanied by sarcastic words from the hero, to the point that death in many Hollywood films has become the subject of comic treatment.

Perhaps what we see as America’s persistence in providing support to Israel in its killing, starving and displacing Palestinians is nothing but the result of a firm religious belief.

It is not surprising that the American imperial culture, as shown in many cinematic works, is characterized by extremism, which pushes its owner to the point of accepting the extermination of other peoples without distinguishing between the warrior and the cripple.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the disdain for the killing and death of others reaches a great degree in imperialist American political discourse.

Perhaps one of the evidences indicating this underestimation is what we hear from the words of many analysts, words linking the approaching date of the American elections and the possibility of the current administration accepting the call for a ceasefire.

Is this belittling of the minds even more significant?!

The call to spare the blood of innocent children and infants is not a call governed by a clear humanitarian and moral principle that transcends electoral political purposes.

Rather, it is one of the strategies used to win over groups and segments of society that oppose barbaric and uncontrolled killing.

The mind is baffled by the purging, starvation, and abuse that is taking place against the defenseless Palestinian people.

If it is permissible to say that the acceptance of scenes of killing in Gaza by a broad group of political decision-makers in the United States and the West in general may be due to the perceptions that have settled in their imaginations that dehumanize others and make them targets to be captured from afar, through the mediation of technological tools and lethal weapons;

What stands behind the acceptance or coexistence of decision-makers in the Arab and Islamic world with these scenes?

Is it the inherited structural weakness of post-colonial states, the fear of military confrontation, or geopolitical calculations?

In the face of the numbness of the human feeling regarding what is happening in Gaza, whether among decision makers from within the Western political system, or within the Islamic blocs and bodies and the Arab League, a person stands confused: should he address the Palestinian person, the Arab-Islamic street, the human conscience, or the Western political system? Or those responsible for Arab and Islamic bodies?

There is no doubt that what is happening in Gaza in terms of the abuse of women, children and the elderly serves to reinforce the feeling of injustice, humiliation and humiliation among broad segments of Arab and Islamic societies.

Whatever the political settlement after the end of the war, the feeling of helplessness and humiliation will remain among the most dominant feelings among the Arab-Islamic self.

This means that the Arab Muslim person, in his relationship with the world - especially the Western world - will continue to emerge from emotional positions that are not controlled by the control of a sound mind, but rather by emotions that force their owner either to submit and submit to the status quo, or to reckless reactions with uncertain consequences.

In his book: “The Geopolitics of Emotion” (La Géopolitique de l’émotion), Dominique Moïsi talks about three types of emotion, some of which establish a culture of fear, some of which establish a culture of feeling insulted, some of which establish a culture of hope, and all of them. It contributes to shaping the features of our contemporary world with its geo-strategic and geo-political characteristics.

In this book, which was published in 2008, the Arab and Islamic world is classified as belonging to a culture that is based on experiencing feelings of injustice and humiliation.

Moisi’s words are true in many ways. Throughout the twentieth century, the Arab and Islamic world experienced a feeling of weakness and humiliation.

This feeling continued to build his culture through which he interacted with the world.

However, the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their stand in the face of the most powerful military forces in the world came to indicate a new turning point, as if we were with this people pushing the culture of feeling insulted and humiliated to its maximum extent, so they went out bare-chested seeking to face death, and their language was saying: death or life.

Thus, the door of hope is opened for the rest of the peoples of the Arab and Islamic region to put aside feelings of insult and emerge to a new existential horizon, a self with the hope of contributing to creating the world of tomorrow.

The war on Gaza represents a pivotal moment in the history of the Arab and Islamic world.

It is of no use to confront what is happening in Gaza with official silence.

Hoping that the end of this round of war will lead to some kind of stability, or to achieving gains for the peoples of the region.

What is most likely, and even certain, is that Arab and Islamic culture will have little significance in the world that is under formation unless we have the courage to contribute to awakening the world from cultural coma and ridding it of the effect of anesthesia exercised on the minds by deceptive and misleading image arts.

Upon contemplation, we find that the violence practiced against the Palestinian person and the subsequent destruction of the components of his existence are rooted in extremist Tehran religious thought.

In his novel “Act of Oblivion,” or “The Amnesty Act,” Robert Harris tells the story of two fugitives from British justice who were close to Cromwell, the extremist who was behind the hanging of Britain’s King Charles I.

While they were on their way in search of a safe place inside America, their guide decided that they would spend a night with some Native Americans, and during that time he was telling them about the effort he was making to call these people to Christianity, and he said: “We must work to bring them into the fold of Christ, as the Bible calls us to.” Where he says: “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” As soon as the man finished his words, “Woe,” one of the escapees, said: “But you did not complete the rest of the text: You will smash them with a rod of iron, like a potter’s vessel you will break them in pieces.”

The mentor continues in response to Will, saying: “I do not agree with this at all, even though I know many who look at things from this angle.”

This dialogue refers us to the nature of the Puritan thought centered in the history of the United States of America, which is based on the belief that other nations must be destroyed and broken like a porcelain vessel.

Perhaps what we see as the persistence of support for Israel in its killing, starving, and displacement of Palestinians is nothing but the result of this deep-rooted religious belief.

It is not surprising that the American imperial culture - as demonstrated by the aforementioned cinematic works - is characterized by extremism, which pushes its owner to the point of accepting the extermination of other peoples without distinguishing between the warrior and the cripple.

The position of the guide, who did not go along with the two fugitives in their perception of the Red Indians and in their belief that they should be destroyed with an iron rod, makes it clear to us that America’s history is not purely religious Puritan;

Rather, there are other forces that contributed to its creation, and these forces are the ones that can be relied upon to move the world out of the blind logic of religious wars, towards a broader humanitarian horizon.

The imperialist culture that is based on the religious belief that calls for the annihilation of others is a culture that produces nothing but destruction and devastation, and it brings its owners into the rule of those who spread corruption on earth while they do not realize it, but rather think that they are among the reformers.

Perhaps the height of corruption lies in the loss of feeling of the human being’s destruction of the foundations of the existence of others.

The pinnacle of righteousness lies, as the story of Solomon - peace be upon him - with the ants in the Holy Qur’an makes clear to us, in feeling the existence of creatures and seeking their survival. This feeling is included in the number of blessings that require a person to give thanks to his Creator.

After Solomon - peace be upon him - heard the ant say, “Enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his soldiers destroy you while they are not aware,” he, peace be upon him, smiled and said: “My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your blessings that You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteousness that pleases You, and admit me, by Your mercy, among Your righteous servants.”

The war on Gaza played a major role in revealing the religious extremism of the West, after the concept of this extremism only applied to Islamic extremism.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.