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Arabs: U.S. ‘Hijacked’ Our Honor, Dignity
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A U.S. soldier walks past Iraqi detainees standing behind razor wire at Abu Ghraib
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By
Ahmad Maher, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
May 18 (IslamOnline.net) - The torrent of digital graphic and
abhorrent photos of smiling U.S. soldiers sexually abusing and
torturing helpless Iraqi prisoners has checkmated the U.S. quest to
win "the hearts and minds of the Arabs," who now feel the
U.S. has "hijacked" their honor and dignity.
One
year after the invasion of the oil-rich country, the behavior of some
of debauched U.S. soldiers has, in effect, badly besmeared the
image of the Americans and made America look un-American.
Arabs
believe that the psychological scars left by the shocking
"pornographic" photos
mounted to the ones created by the 9/11 attacks on the Americans. Even
more.
"It
is more than killing," said Nafisa Zaki, a 62-year-old Egyptian
housewife. "The Americans were taken unaware in the September 11
attacks."
"But
the torture and raping of our brothers in Iraq are intentional
humiliation and insult to the dignity of the entire Arab world. It
showed how much hatred they harbored for us. I swear that animals and
even devils can't do this."
She
stressed that "the breath is poor and speech unable to express
our disgust at these photos. When the Americans invaded Iraq, we were
saddened. Now we are disgusted."
U.S.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) had admitted that, "If somebody
wanted to plan a clash of civilizations, this is how they would do
it".
Weak
Point
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The New Yorker said Rumsfeld has authorized the prisoner abuse |
Rania
Galal, an Egyptian journalist, believes that the U.S. military knew
how to break the staunch will and pride of the Arabs.
She
said the Americans have taken advantage of Arab and Muslim taboos of
nudity and reverence for a traditional code of ethics.
"They
rolled into Iraq with prior knowledge of how to humiliate the Arabs
and play on their weak point of honor and dignity."
Jalal
went on: "The Americans treated our Arab brothers in Iraq like
animals. They were fully aware and even trained in how to bring the
Arabs to their knees.
"With
all these pictures now unfolded, the torture of Iraqi prisoners has,
as far as I’m concerned, dwarfed the 9/11 attacks with its sadistic
nature."
The
journalist also hit out at U.S. "parrot-fashion" of women's
rights in Iraq, saying reports of raping female prisoners and women
being forced to expose their breasts are a case in point.
"Needless
to say the story of an Iraqi girl called Nour, who was
rapped by U.S. soldiers in Abu Gharib and then disappeared
without a trail," she said.
"I
think the death penalty is the most just and fair punishment for those
soldiers."
Iraqi
prisoners who were set free from Abu Gharib prison Friday, May 14,
called for issuing an international arrest warrant for U.S. Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his
trial over their abuse.
The
American New Yorker magazine dropped a bombshell Sunday, May 16,
saying the torture was
okayed by Rumsfeld.
Taher
Mahmmoud, the director of The Noble Qur’an radio station in Somalia,
said the Arab world has got the message now.
"This
torture is deliberate and intentional, no doubt," he said.
"It is done in a disgusting and shocking way. I myself was
dumbfounded and can’t look at these pictures."
Drawing
a comparison between the 9/11 attacks and the "prisoner
attacks", Mahmmoud said Al-Qaeda was not authorized by the
Islamic or the Arab world, but those soldiers were given the go-ahead
from their commanders.
"I
can’t even talk about this pornography with my friends or my
family."
In
a damning report presented to the U.S. administration in February,
U.S. Major General Antonio Taguba found numerous "sadistic,
blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Gharib
prison.
The
female U.S. soldier who appeared in many abuse photos admitted that
she was "instructed"
by her commanders to pose for photographs with naked Iraqi detainees.
Jamal
Arafawi, a Tunisian journalist at Al-Sahfa newspaper, thinks "the
abuse was conducted by ill-experienced and unprofessional soldiers.
"But
I also think that the U.S. intelligence community might have exchanged
expertise with Israel’s Mossad on how to extract confessions from
prisoners."
He
asserted that the Israeli occupation soldiers use the complex
significance of honor in the Arab world to interrogate the
Palestinians.
New
Look
Reaping
what it has sown, the U.S. administration now licks its wounds in Iraq
after it slipped into a "sex scandal" under its wartime
President George W. Bush, who assumed power under a halo of morals and
had been tirelessly boasting about human rights, democracy and what he
called the "global war on terror".
Rania
Sherif, a Jordanian-born auditor, said Bush has now his own sex
scandal and needs a "new look".
"I
think that the U.S. president needs now a new look just like actors
and actresses to face the world," she said.
Mrs.
Sherif, who lives in Cairo, expected the humiliation of Iraqi
prisoners, not to mention the U.S.-led invasion, will surely fan out
terrorism, citing the
beheading of American civilian, Nick Berg, in Iraq.
Ayman
Al-Masri, a Lebanese journalist, agreed that the scandal discredited
Bush's clichés of spreading freedom and democracy in war-torn Iraq.
"History
will not forgive the crimes of the U.S. administration and its army
against the Iraqi people and humanity, on the one hand, and Arabs and
Muslims in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the other," he said.
However,
his Tunisian colleague, Arafawi, expected Bush to succeed in shining
up his tarnished image, thanks to the pro-administration media and
homeland security, the catchphrase of his re-election campaign.
"I
think the beheading of Berg played well into the hands of the Bush’s
lobby," he said.
Arafawi,
yet, stressed that Americans should condemn the misconduct of their
army as we Arabs strongly denounced the terrorist 9/11 attacks.
"Both
operations are against helpless and innocent civilians. They are
against humanity irrespective of race and religion.
"It
is the dignity of the man, whether being Arab, Hindu, German. The
scandal has indeed placed the United States in a tight corner."
Bush
appeared on Arab TV channels on May 4 in an attempt to regain trust of
the Arab world in the aftermath of the abuse scandal.
He
apologized for the misconduct of his soldiers, denouncing it as
"abhorrent, shameless and unacceptable" but his apologies
failed to water international outrage.
On
Tuesday, May 18, the U.S. military took a group of journalists on a
tour inside Abu Gharib but denied them interviews with the detainees.
Public
Apology
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Lebanese women hold up copies of the graphic photos in a demonstration |
Though
Zaki, the Egyptian housewife, refused to place the American people and
the administration in one basket, she said the Americans do not care
whether to apologize or not.
"Every
society, we have to admit, has its own social ills," she said.
"But the Americans, nevertheless, know nothing about other
peoples. They are indifferent."
"A
telling example is the TV footage of Palestinians suffering day in and
day out in occupied Palestine at the hands of the Israelis.
"Yet,
the Americans don’t give a dam except for a handful of activists,
like Rachel
Corrie, who had seen the appalling conditions of these
people," she added.
Mrs.
Sherif now "hates the Americans very much" after the
humiliation of the prisoners.
"Because
they can topple this president as they live in a real democracy unlike
the Arabs.
"There
must be a massive popular action against the Bush administration, if
the people there are only convinced. Silence will be understood that
sodomy, homosexuality, rape, sodomy as normal and regular in their
society.
But
Rayan Hafez, a Saudi IT specialist, said the Arabs do not need this
apology.
"We
want the American people to take concrete and crucial steps to
pressure their administration and decision makers into changing their
aggressive policies in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan."
Masri,
the Lebanese journalist, said the American people cannot be held
accountable for the wrongdoings of members of their government.
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