DON’T EXPECT ARAB APOLOGIES

In Moslem culture, during the Daheyah (Sacrifice) feast, Moslems bring a lamb into the home for a ritual slaughter accompanied by the invocation Allahu Akbar, “God is great,” in the presence of the family and the children. Now we see the Daheyah of radical Islam to be Jews such as Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl, who were beheaded with no mercy, accompanied by the same pious invocation. This is a perversion of Islam, but don’t expect an apology.

To expect the Arab and Moslem leadership to apologize for the barbaric murder of Nick Berg is a reflection of the West’s naive and wrong expectations of Arab culture. In the Arab world to take responsibility and say “sorry” is taken as an unmanly sign of weakness that may get one into more trouble.

Those who admit guilt, even if it is accidental, are given no mercy and may end up taking all the blame and being brutally punished. It is the norm for Arabs to deny a fact, however blatant, and blame others rather than admit to the wrongdoing and apologize. Honesty is not rewarded.

President Bush apologized for the humiliation and abuse of Iraqi prisoners. His apology was taken by the Arab media and the Arab “street” as an admission of guilt and a sign of weakness. It was not appreciated as taking responsibility to find out the truth behind the events that happened due to the actions of a few Americans.

If 19 Americans had committed a terrorist act comparable to 9-11, and belonged to a terrorist American network against any nation on earth, the reactions on all sides would have been much different than what we have seen because of our cultural differences.

Any sitting U.S. president would apologize and take immediate action to stop the terror coming from America. Americans would be outraged. In our politically correct liberal culture, the media and academia would urge all of our citizens to a collective self-psychoanalysis to uncover the root causes of how we could have caused such evil behavior.

This is not the case in the Arab world.

Terrorism is the direct result of the radical Islamist culture that is flourishing all over the Arab world and promoted by Arab media, governments, educational systems and religious leaders. Terrorists are given training camps, money, power and respect for doing God’s work for jihad, or holy war.

Arabs understand that they cannot win a war against the West and all they can succeed in doing is to indoctrinate one generation after another for martyrdom. Their secret weapon is the anger and rage of the Arab street. How can anyone expect them to apologize for a deep-rooted cultural and religious mission to defeat or kill infidels, especially Jews?

Most Arabs still blame Israel for 9-11. Americans should stop judging other cultures with the American value system, and especially stop expecting Arab/Moslem culture to respond rationally according to Western standards.

Most Arabs do understand America’s current dilemma in Iraq but they do not want to sincerely help. They know we want to leave honorably after stabilizing the situation and a new Iraqi democratic government is in business. But they want to see America leave humiliated, even if Iraqis benefited by the removal of Saddam and even if it is at the expense of the Iraqi people and the region.

Above all they do not want to see America, a non-Moslem superpower, as the cause for Iraq’s well-being, especially when all the Arab countries stood by doing nothing to stop Saddam’s brutal regime. Only Arab leaders should be heroes in the Arab world, not Bush. It is a matter of pride.

Arab media understand that America has no desire to occupy Iraq, but they never miss an opportunity to give the raging masses their daily dose of fear of America. “America wants to hand over the keys of Iraq to Sharon” was a recent heading in Egyptian newspapers.

There are many reasons for Arab and Moslem silence. However, fear of speaking out is no longer a credible excuse. Day in and day out all we see out of the Arab world is anger, revenge and a culture out of control. The Arab street is afraid of Arab leaders and Arab leaders afraid of the Arab street, and both can only get out their frustration on America, Europe, Israel and innocent victims such as Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl.

Nonie Darwish, a freelance writer in the United States, was born in Egypt and raised in Gaza. She is a member of Star Speakers ([email protected]), a Los Angeles speakers bureau on Mideast issues.