Muslim Victim Mentality and our Duty as Infidel Dogs to accept Just Punishment

Let's talk about the self-victimizing/revenge logic and rhetoric that lay behind the current acts of mass violence perpetrated by religious or secular Muslims, who certainly do not represent all the Muslims of the world:

–"We, the real believers, are oppressed and discriminated against around the world by the infidel dogs. We need a national home where we can live our lives with dignity according to what the Prophet taught to us. And we must liberate the sacred land where the Holy Quran was written, nowadays desecrated by traitors, imperialists, infidels and zionists." Isis

–"We are under attack of the enemies of democracy (and Prophet Muhammad)! We face a great peril and defense is our duty and only option!". Erdogan and his followers, while massive detentions and lynchings of opposers are perpetrated. The lynchings have also taken place in German cities.

–"This is the result of your actions. You must pay for the suffering of our brothers and sisters killed in the Caliphate by your bombs." Bataclan murderers, Würzburg train attacker.

–"Enough! No more humiliation. No more silent suffering. You must pay for drawing cartoons. You must be punished for humiliating us and disrespecting The Prophet!". Charlie Hebdo murderers.

–"...And if I could kill more of them I would do it. I must revenge the desecration of Holy Al Aqsa (by tourists, Christians or Jews who visit the place, a historical hotspot in Jerusalem and a sacred place for people belonging to three religions)". Palestinian murderers about the cold-blood stabbing of passers-by perpetrated by them in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

–"You have discriminated against me. You have mobbed me. You have forced me to buy a weapon and make you pay." Munich murderer. A slightly different version of this logic seems to have motivated the Orlando killer. With regard to the Munich killer it could be argued that he was not a religious fanatic but a depressed young man, like the pilot of German Wings who crashed his plane with 150 persons against the Alps in March of 2015. The key point here is not wether non-muslims can perpetrate massacres because they certainly do it, but the logic of self-victimisation and revenge that lays behind the recent massacres perpetrated by muslims in Western countries, a logic that usually is explicitly stated by them during the very carnage, or by those who justify them afterwards. Within that framework, it should be noted that the pilot of German Wings did not explained nor justified his action wether in that moment or with a suicide note, and for that reason it took some time until the German authorities established what had happened.

The list could continue. But I want to close it with a couple remarks made by several people from that diverse group in conversations with me:

–"Why do they hate us so much? We have only contributed to the development of civilization (several references to Al Andalus and the sciences under the Arab empire followed). When did Muslims invade a country? Never! When did Muslims use slaves like the Europeans once did? Never!"

–"They (the Jews) have not only invaded Palestine and kill innocent children every day! They have also stolen our rituals and prayers (making reference to the morning ritual cleaning performed by believers of the two religions)". When I noted that Islam descends from Judaism, a religion that is at least 1500 years older, the answer was: "Nevertheless! They have copied almost all from us! But they will never get enough, so they also kill us!"

There are two elements related to that phenomenon that are equally interesting and strategically ominous:

1. Such people do not merely use that rhetoric as a source of legitimacy for the massive violence that some perpetrate, and others justify if they feel that they can speak freely to you (and that is how I have listened a lot). We do not face a pragmatic and hypocritical discourse. The fact is that it is not about "rhetorics". It is about a particular logic -a worldview- according to which Muslims are victims of a culturally inferior and / or immoral civilization. Within that context, the violence that we see and suffer is perceived as legitimate, although some people among them would consider it disgusting. That worldview is certainly interesting as a cultural product, but according to my experience it is terribly boring to listen to the endless moaning of those who express it.

2. A wide sector of left-wing militants in Europe and Latin America who make part of traditionally secular movements agree with these arguments. According to them we do not face a genocidal ideology or movement, but the legitimate reaction of people who unfortunately use wrong methods, but wage a fair war. In their minds, the hairs of Marx's beard are equivalent to the hairs of Al-Bagdadi's beard. That understanding is the source of several sometimes shy, sometimes cynical attempts to relativize or even justify the attacks perpetrated by those who are frequently depicted by "progressive" people as "noble savages".

***

I originally wrote this post in my Facebook profile, so it was more or less a rush of ideas that I have been considering during the last days on the basis of my long experience among mainstream muslims in Germany and Israel, and the news I have read during the last months. But when I was editing the text in order to include it in my blog I did some research, and found that the subject has been already addressed by others. Tariq Ramadan and Sadiq Khan, two English religious muslims have spoken about the need to reject "muslim victim mentality". In an interview held in 2006 Ramadan said that

"[claiming that muslims in Western societies live in an islamophobic world] is nurturing a victim-mentality, the idea that everyone is against us. […] We have to be cautious about projecting a victim mentality, which is what I see from some of the fatwas of an organisation of imams and scholars called the European Council for Fatwas and Research. They are about fear. They say: you need to protect yourself, be careful, we are being attacked from everywhere, so it’s all about being defensive."

Two years later, Sadiq Khan, a Labour politician declared that

"[Muslims] need to take responsibility for our own lives […]. We need to take more responsibility for our own families, ignore those who propagate conspiracy theories, and above all we need to leave behind our victim mentality."

Falsa conciencia

Hace muchos años, en un lejano país, estábamos en la universidad y usábamos el adjetivo "posmoderno" como arma de destrucción masiva. Por ejemplo:

-Pues, ¿sabe qué? Esa posición suya me parece muy posmoderna. (Haciendo énfasis al pronunciar "muy".)

Por aquellos días Celia Cruz (alma bendita) sacó su canción "La vida es un carnaval", y horrorizados escuchamos en la omnipresente radio los versos que decían:

"Ay, no ha que llorar, que la vida es un carnaval,
es mas bello vivir cantando. Oh, oh, oh,
Ay, no hay que llorar, que la vida es un carnaval
y las penas se van cantando."

"¡Qué canción tan posmoderna!" Fue el veredicto de nos, las masas enardecidas, emitido con toda la náusea que podían albergar nuestras magras barrigas estudiantiles (sabido es que las barrigas casi siempre son cultivadas no en la universidad, sino en la época del ejercicio profesional y el apoltronamiento familiar).
La vida no era para vivir cantando. Era para invertirla en solucionar los problemas no digamos de la universidad, no digamos del país, ¡de la humanidad!... Para solucionarlos discutiendo, sacando preclaras conclusiones a nuestra tierna edad guiados por los libros sapienciales que recogían la sabiduría de tantos genios ya finaditos o todavía vecinos de este mundo: de Hegel a Gramsci (que nunca me gustó), de Walter Benjamin a Néstor García Canclini, de Simona de Beauvoir a Henrietta Moore. Y todos leíamos casi lo mismo, descontados los cánones partidarios que alimentaban nuestros respectivos narcicismos de las pequeñas diferencias, y la mayoría (que al menos en eso no me incluía) se enamoraba y despechaba con los mismos versos de Mario Benedetti y las voces atipladas de Silvio Rodríguez y Pablo Milanés ("Silvio y Pablo" para los amigos).
Y acorazados por nuestras aquilatadas voluntades de enfrentar toda la podredumbre emanada por la alienante sociedad capitalista, casi todos nosotros vivíamos de cobrar "sueldo de hijo", y comíamos hongos de los que crecen en la mierda de las vacas en Colombia para conectarnos con la naturaleza, y de un modo u otro integrábamos entusiastamente una suerte de organismo neohippie a la colombiana, cuyos principales espacios sagrados eran el jardín botánico de la universidad, un potrero adyacente llamado "La Manga del Burro", y nuestros apartamentos de estudiantes, en parte versiones modernas de las Sodoma y Gomorra bíblicas.
Pero también teníamos otros templos: el restaurante de la universidad, el coliseo o cualquier sitio donde tuvieran lugar largas asambleas estudiantiles con las que soberanamente nos cagábamos en las preocupaciones pequeñoburguesas de los que querían almorzar como cualquier día en lugar de debatir, o enterarse de si salíamos a marchar o no, si comenzaba el paro o no, sin antes haber tenido la decencia de sumarse al ejercicio pleno de la democracia que algún reaccionario habría llamado diletante, pero que nosotros sabíamos viva, dinámica y potente como la voz de la finadita Mercedes Sosa. Claro, en esa época ella todavía tocaba el tambor y no el arpa como lo hace ahora en compañía de Nuestro Padre Celestial, porque se sabe que en la Gloria no hay tambores, que son instrumentos ordinarios, sino arpas pero no llaneras o paraguayas sino de unas más pequeñas que en la literatura llaman "liras" (vaya uno a saber por qué), y que son más finas y espirituales, porque ¿quién ha visto un ángel tocando un arpa paraguaya o llanera?...
Más o menos así éramos nosotros: impetuosos, instruidos, conectados al mismo tiempo con la madre naturaleza y con las necesidades del pueblo, de la clase obrera, de los campesinos. Tendríamos nuestros defectos como cualquiera, pero de lo que jamás se nos podría haber acusado sin provocar nuestra justa indignación era de ser posmodernos.

–¿Posmoderno yo? ¡Respete, compañero!

A Vision of Hell

Gestern war ich mit X bei der Metropol. Er wollte rumsauen, und ich hatte kaum Lust darauf […], aber ich dachte, dass zumindest ich saunieren könnte, und irgendwann ein Bier mit ihm trinken.
Es war ekelhaft. Da das CSD Wochenende läuft, es war voll, aber alle hatten getrunken oder Drogen genommen. Sie sind wie Zombies frenetisch und mit leereren Augen rumgelaufen. Die Musik, die Dunkelheit, die warme stinkende Luft, die Kerle... Es war wie ein Haus des Irrsinns, oder wie die Hölle, als manche haben sie beschreibt: ein Ort wo es gibt kein Licht, keine Ruhe, kein Ziel, wo eine riesige Menge verdammte Seelen zwecklos, ohne Ende rumlaufen...
[…]
Es war aber Interessant als Beispiel des Verfalles des schwulen Teiles der Gesellschaft. Und als Bestätigung von was für ein Typ ich bin und was nicht. Das […] machte kristallklar, dass ich solche Leute auch für ein Fick nicht brauche.

"Yesterday I was with X in the Metropol [a sex-sauna]. He wanted to mess around and I was not that horny […], but I thought that I could at least use the sauna and somewhen drink a bier with him.

It was revolting. Since the gay pride weekend is ongoing, the place was full, but everyone had drank or taken drugs. They walked around frenetically with empty eyes, like zombies. The music, the darkness, the warm stinky air, the guys... It was like a house of madness, or like Hell, as many have described it: a place where there is no light, no rest, no purpose, where a multitude of damned souls walk around aimless, endlessly...

[…]

But it was interesting as expression of the downfall of the fag part of society. And as confirmation of what kind of guy I am, and what kind of guy I am not. That […] made crystal clear that I do not need such people, not even for a fuck."

[From a chat with C.]

Damned souls wandering to Hell. Detail from the central tympanum of the Amiens Cathedral.