[iwar] [fc:An.Open.Letter.to.President.Bush]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-29 07:20:07
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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                   An Open Letter to President Bush

                  SAFAR IBN ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-HAWALI

 15 October, 2001

Mr. President:

I am writing this letter to you in hope that it will be taken into
account without regard to the faith of its writer, or the color of his
skin, and despite your new division of the children of Adam into the
civilized who support all your views, and the barbarians who do not.

Perhaps this letter is strange to you, as I write to you as one of the
heirs of the prophets, and the prophets, as we know, used to address
the tyrants of the earth in the hope that they might repent and fear
the Lord of all the worlds. Thus did Moses peace be upon him- address
Pharaoh, Haman, and Karun, and thus did Jesus peace be upon him-
address the Romans and the High Priest of the Jews, and thus did
Muhammad -peace and blessings be upon him- address Abu Jahl in Makkah,
as well as the Roman Emperor Heraclius and the Persian Emperor
Khosraw. It is not necessary for the recipient to listen to or
acknowledge the messenger, but it is merely his duty to convey the
message.

I write to you as a member of an oppressed and persecuted community in
a condition like that of Jesus when he was persecuted by the Jews on
one side, and Romans on the other side. It is regrettable that the
United States, a nation founded by immigrants fleeing persecution, has
taken for itself the position of the Roman Empire which persecuted the
followers of Christ peace be upon him- and colluded with the enemies
of faith (the unbelievers of the children of Israel) to slay the
prophets and messengers, and to slay their followers in all times and
places. At that time the Roman Empire claimed to be the symbol of
freedom and civilized values, just as you claimed referred to America
in your first statement after the incidents of September 11.It was the
greatest world power of its day, the heir of Greek civilization. It
had a Senate and a façade of democracy. The Roman citizen had freedom
of religion and personal behavior. All this made it superior to other
Empires throughout the world, and yet history does not speak well of
this Empire because of the repulsive crime with which it stained its
reputation: the persecution of the Christians. For this reason that
Great Power lost its valuable distinctions when it oppressed a group
of believers in God: Who alone possesses absolute power, absolute
might, and absolute justice, Who is Mighty in His punishment which He
withholds for the oppressor for awhile, but Who one day takes
vengeance against him.

Indeed, that is what He did. The Northern Barbarians overpowered Rome
and destroyed it, They burned its cultural symbols and shattered its
arrogance at the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era.
Two centuries later, God caused the followers of the final Prophet
Muhammad God s blessing and peace be upon him- to inherit the Holy
Land in which Christ peace be upon him- had lived. This was a
tremendous victory for Christ since the Islamic Faith which conquered
and liberated most of the known world from despotism and persecution,
and filled it with mercy and justice, manifested for mankind the
greatness of Christ peace be upon him- and the truth of Christ s
message, as well as the merit of his disciples and their followers as
was revealed in detail in the Holy Qur an. The Islamic community
considered itself to be the final link in the long chain of followers
of the prophets which began with Abraham, and included Moses and Jesus
peace be upon them- and declared to all the world that the enemies of
Christ peace be upon him- are the enemies of freedom and lofty values,
especially the Jews, regardless of whether they denied Christ and
incited the Romans against him, or whether they pretended to follow
him so as to distort his message as did Saul who is called Paul. The
amazing thing is that the peoples who tasted the affliction of Roman
tyranny and arrogance rejoiced at the destruction of Rome and wondered
at the actions of the Northern Barbarians who did it, despite the fact
that they did not know or like them, yet how much more so would it
have been if for example- Rome had been attacked by the oppressed
Christians? Would anyone have ventured to blame the Christians if they
rejoiced or sympathized with the attackers?

Mr. President, we Muslims are a nation of justice. At the same time
our ethics do not allow us to rejoice over the misfortunes of the
afflicted, yet we would still hope that the United States would review
its stand and be more fair, so that we might once again give the
benefit of the doubt to the United States for which there are
precedents that encourage this hope, and which demonstrate how we used
to move two steps towards them for every step of theirs, and a mile
for every move of theirs. When President Wilson announced his fourteen
points at the end of World War I, and especially the right of
self-determination of peoples, it was greeted by the Islamic world as
a just position towards European Colonialism that dominated most of
its peoples. The Muslims rejoiced at a voice from among the Christian
nations themselves saying that the time had come for an end to racial
discrimination and crusader campaigns such as the one led by General
Allenby. Thus, the Islamic peoples hastened to place their complete
trust in this neutral nation (the United States of America) and the
United States profited greatly from this, since besides the moral
distinctions it earned, it also achieved the greatest economic
advantages in history. Their trust was not shaken even by its unjust
position concerning the establishment of the Jewish state and the
deprivation of the Palestinian people of their right to
self-determination, but the Islamic peoples clung to their hope that
that policy was simply an error that might be rectified. Similarly,
President Eisenhower s position towards the three-party aggression
against Egypt was one of the biggest factors that encouraged the
continuation of the benefit of the doubt for America and the refusal
to listen to the claims of the communists which were not entirely
false.

However, the trust in America and its justice was rapidly shaken and
then declined to the ground because of America s own behavior which
came in the form of one proof after another which permanently refuted
the benefit of the doubt.

Perhaps the first of these absolute proofs was the actions of
President Nixon and his Secretary of State Kissinger during and after
the Ramadhan (October) War of 1973, then your father, President Bush
whose duplicity of standards were obvious to everybody. Iraq violated
the same or fewer international agreements then those that Israel has
and continues to violate. Iraq s excuse in doing so was similar to
those used by America to incorporate Texas into its territory. As for
Israel s excuse for occupying Palestine, it is worse than the British
justification for keeping America as a British colony, and more
repulsive than your ancestor s excuse for the genocide of the American
Indian!

It is this contradictory position which compelled the Islamic peoples
to attend demonstrations by the millions in support of a dictator whom
none of them had previously liked. Then came President Clinton and his
Jewish administration. He was more concerned than either yourself or
your father with finding a solution for the problem but he followed
the same wrong road; describing the horrible terrorist attack on the
Abraham Mosque in Hebron as no more than a crime. You and he both know
that up until now there has never been a Palestinian attack on any
Jewish place of worship, and when the terrorist attack occurred in
Cana he was not ashamed to describe it as an unintentional mistake
done by the Israelis in self-defense, Yet when Israel was faced with
bombings, he gathered all the World and Arab leaders at the Sharm
al-Shaykh conference so that they could all condemn terrorism ignoring
the continuous barbaric massacres and the long chain of tragedies
which the Israelis have brought upon the Palestinians and Arabs, which
were not described at all. This caused the Islamic peoples to
dissociate from America in view of the fact that it dictated to the
attendees what Israel wanted, and from their governments in view of
the fact that they yielded to the American administration. They turned
with all their suffering and hopes to the groups described as
terrorist without any concern about that description, since the
conference taught them a good lesson in understanding the terminology
of the American double standard: that when America decides that
someone is a terrorist or an extremist it places them in the position
of legendary heroes in the eyes of the oppressed and the wretched who
need some airing after their long defeat and subservience, and as
Claes (former Secretary General of NATO) officially informed them that
the alliance had placed Islam as the focus of its enmity in place of
the former Soviet Union. There is no need for additional practical
proofs after this unique title, proofs which arrive daily from
everywhere from the Philippines, Timor, Kashmir, the Caucasus, the
Balkans, Sudan, and many other places except that what occurred in
Palestine after the defiling of the Aqsa Mosque by the greatest
terrorist criminal of this age: Sharon, outweighed all the others.

It was your misfortune after your difficult election victory to be
contemporaneous with that criminal, and to continue your eternal
strategic alliance with him.

We Muslims desired to see you elected and we have proof that the votes
which gave you victory were our votes, and I personally advised
Muslims to vote for you. Some of them hoped that you would be fairer
than the Democrats although others clearly stated that the matter was
no more than choosing the lesser of two evils. We did not do that out
of forgetfulness of the crimes of your party and your father
throughout the Muslim World, but because we are a nation of justice
and reason we held back our feelings and made the choice which we felt
was best for us and for America also. We hoped that you would repay
good with good, but you did the complete opposite by increasing your
predecessor s material and political support of Zionist terrorism in
the form which has occurred and continues to occur. Bewildered
questions were repeated on the lips of everyone in the Islamic Word:
Does the American administration have a conscience? Does this biased
stance which has dismayed the entire world have any justification and
will it ever end? Is America Greater Israel or is Israel Lesser
America?

In the midst of this continuous confusion and frustration, the events
of the 11th of September occurred. I will not conceal from you that a
tremendous wave of joy accompanied the shock that was felt by the
Muslim in the street and whoever tells you otherwise is avoiding the
truth. It is my opinion that America which believes in freedom and
democracy -as you repeat in your speeches- should not become upset by
this one-time joy, and should not seize upon the Muslim s spontaneous
outpouring of feeling. This nation, which worships God and believes in
justice more than any nation on earth, did not do that out of racist
enmity or evil intent, but they were joined in this by the entire
world: the world that kicked you out of the Organization for Human
Rights. 3000 popular organizations mobilized against you at the Durban
conference. More than forty nations suffer from your oppressive
boycotts and economic penalties, let alone from your military
incursions. Even the environment has identified you before the world
as its greatest enemy.

People s shock at your first speech was greater than their shock at
the event itself. It totally equated America with freedom, justice and
noble values, and it contained a harsh threat of vengeance rather than
a promise of fair cooperation. We tried to excuse you because of the
shock of the events and the need to absorb popular anger, but all of
your statements as well as your actions have been of the same mode and
have severed any other possibility.

Reckless accusations and hasty revenge are the real tragedy for
America, and the true test of its values and civilization. Your
security apparatus which had boasted that it could catch a fly passing
over the Pentagon and that it would no about a riot among the Eskimos
before it occurred- rushed to the nearest flight school and the
nearest hotel and took down the name of every Arab or Muslim student
or resident and announced that they are the terrorists!

Imagine Mr.President, if you were sitting among your family or tribe
thousands of miles away and heard or saw the news that you had been
part of a suicide operation on a plane? or that it was done by your
brother who had died a year ago? Wouldn t you thank God that you were
not a citizen of that civilized country or a believer in their
so-called values and justice? Especially when your very civilized
people answered these calls of yours, your cabinet members, and your
security apparatus and started to attack the barbarian invaders in
every free and civilized part of your country. I and the people of my
country have discovered how barbaric were are when a gang of
Westerners I will not call them terrorists since they have white skin
and blue eyes- performed a series of explosions in our cities, we
watched as they gave their serious confessions, and yet we made not
the smallest move to attack any Western person in any place in our
country, we did not kill them, or strip search them in our airports,
nor did we place them in solitary confinement, let alone incite the
whole world to form an alliance against them. No, we did nothing of
that which your civilized people have done to our children and Muslim
brothers in general.

What caused us to behave in this manner is our religion and ethics,
for which gift we thank God. At this point I would like to ask you Mr.
President, if the world chose you to give a prize for the people with
the most advanced morals and values, and the best treatment of others,
which of the two peoples would you give the prize? To your people or
to ours?

Does this mean that we bear ill will toward the American people for
that we are racist in our treatment of them? No. Never. We believe
that the American people in general have such good attributes that
they are the closest of all Western peoples to us, and the most
deserving of all of them of our desire for them to achieve good in
this life and in the hereafter. They are a people the majority of whom
believe in the existence of God, and who donate to charitable work
more than any other people in the world (and by that we do not mean
the evangelization of the Muslims).

The truest proof of the goodness of the American people is that they
have embraced Islam more quickly and in greater numbers than other
peoples of the world, and have tried to understand it better even
after you held the Muslims responsible for the disaster without
evidence.

We desire all good and honor for a people like this from the bottom of
our hearts, and good and honor are only achieved by any people by one
of two things:

1- Embracing God s Faith which is alone acceptable to Him, the Faith
of all the prophets: Islam. By doing this Allah grants them both the
good of this world and that of the next world.

2- Making peace with the Muslims, loving them, and treating them
kindly. By doing this Allah rewards them security and good in this
world.

This Islamic nation, the followers of Abraham and Muhammad God s
blessing and peace be upon him- is dearest to God of all nations.
Whoever honors them is honored by God, and whoever despises them is
despised by God, though He may grant them respite for a time. History
is a witness to this.

You may say, or others may have said on your behalf, I have apologized
for using the term crusade , I have visited the Islamic Center, and I
have advice the people to control themselves, but we say, We are used
to America to inflict deep wounds and then putting a small bandage on
them, but your present attack on Afghanistan has violently removed
those bandages and opened a wound in the heart of every Muslim.

Mr. President, if only when you did what you did, you had avoided the
racist terminology of your speeches about hostile action. It would
have been enough for you to simply claim the right -with no need for
justification- treat the world any way you want, and to punish
whomever you want, whenever you want. But then you had to go on and
leave the desire for revenge open without any end in sight when you
said Today we will concentrate on Afghanistan, but the battle is wider
than that. Is it not enough for you to destroy a whole nation because
of an unproven accusation against a single person or organization
forced to live in that country? Is this hostility which exceeds all
values and morals, and shakes every living conscience in the world
only a drop in the sea of your vengeance?

Did Christ peace be upon him- grant you that power? Far be it for him
to do that. Even Machiavelli himself does not grant you that degree of
power. Your precedent in this is Samson. Won t you fear God you who
have made your slogan to be God bless America? How can God bless and
protect her when Christ His Messenger taught exactly the opposite of
what you do: Whoever strikes you on your right cheek, then turn to him
your left cheek. Whoever takes from you your garment, then give him
also your cloak. And whoever mocks you for a mile, go with him for two
miles.

Do you not understand that when you make the desire for endless
vengeance to be the attribute of the civilized nation, you make Christ
peace be upon him- to be an uncivilized barbarian? Far be it for him,
but you have rejected God and Christ, and followed the behavior of the
Popes of the Middle Ages who used to grant indulgences and
excommunication according to their whims. You have granted an
everlasting pardon to yourselves and to the Zionist State, and to
every hostile tyrant, and you have issued an excommunication for
anyone who hesitates to join your endless hostility by describing them
as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.

You search with microscopes for so-called terrorist groups in Somalia
which has been destroyed by poverty, or in the Palestinian refugee
camps in Lebanon whose humble dwellings are threatened by Zionist
terrorism every day. But you forget that horrible terrorism tangibly
dwells among you. It is you, and nothing but you. If you do not
believe this then tell me by God, if your best friend comes to
congratulate you in ten years on the victory you hope to achieve over
the mysterious enemy you have fabricated, what will he be able to
congratulate you about? Supposing that he says, Mr. President, we have
killed one million Afghanis, one million Iraqis, one million of this
and that, until the end of your cursed list, will that be a victory
for civilization, lofty values, freedom and democracy? Certainly among
your victims will be starving, naked widows and children. Will that
satisfy your desire for vengeance? Shamelessly, you will use the fact
that they are alive as evidence that you limited yourselves to the
destruction of their mud houses and wooden huts as strategic targets
of the smart bombs of your clean war that do not kill people.

At this point the world that you have made depressed and sad for as
long as God wills, will finally laugh. Yes, they will be forced to
laugh by the civilized joke of the miraculous intelligence of your
missiles: When you hit Iraq, Iran screamed. When you aimed at
Afghanistan during your first attack on that country, you hit
Pakistan, and one of your smart missiles infuriated the Yellow Giant
by destroying its embassy in Belgrade. I admit in all fairness- the
intelligence of at least one of your missiles: the Patriot missile
which saw one of the stupid Scuds which had lost its way, so it
knocked it to the right direction and invited it to dinner with the
American intelligence officers in Khobar.

As for being clean, the whole world bears witness that you fought the
cleanest war but with one simple observation: that although you
cleaned out Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you unintentionally left a little
pollution in its place. Perhaps you will realize your mistake in
Afghanistan and its citizens, and be more generous and paint the sites
with a little cheap American paint.

However, for the sake of the truth we should also say that there is
little doubt about the cleanness of your war in Iraq since the
witnesses against you are children, and the law does not accept the
witness of children even if they number in the millions, but the
witnesses for your side are adults of the level of dictators and their
generals.

Mr. President, do you think that your list in which you announce the
names of terrorist organizations and the countries that support
terrorism will serve your interests, or will it be further proof that
the world is against you? Who is the advisor who suggested publishing
this list at the same time that people discovered your own house is
glass and is still broken? Why do you make enemies of those who throw
stones at you from Japan in the East, to Peru in the West? During the
present dangerous security situation in your country wouldn t it have
been enough for you to choose one country and one organization? Or do
you want to incite all of them, so that if any one of them performs a
terrorist operation you can hold the Muslims alone responsible so that
your Crusade against them can continue forever?

Mr. President, don t suppose that I want to recount your few faults
and forget our own (in your eyes) very many faults. No, I will mention
to you a serious fault of us Muslims: we don t forget our tragedies no
matter how much time has passed. Imagine, Mr. President, we still weep
over Andalusia and remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did there to
our religion, culture and honor! We dream of regaining it. Nor will we
forget the destruction of Baghdad, or the fall of Jerusalem at the
hands of your Crusader ancestors. That is, we are not (in your
opinion) at the level of civilization enjoyed by the Germans and
Japanese who support your hostilities and forget your past treatment
of them. Moreover, the African Muslims who embraced Islam after the
fall of Andalusia cry along with the Arabs, just as the Indonesians do
who only heard recently heard about Andalusia. It may be a problem for
us, but who will pay the price after awhile?

Mr.President, your problem with the Afghans and the Muslims in
general- is that you are stronger than necessary and they are weaker
than necessary. Every time you use excessive force, or are excessive
in using it, it proves to be a weakness in strength. This is a great
divine mystery which reminds us of what happened to the tyrant Pharaoh
at the hands of the oppressed children of Israel. Listen to the story
from God s Holy Scripture:

Ta Seen Meem. These are the revelations of the manifest scripture. We
recite to you some of the story of Moses and Pharaoh in truth, for a
people who have faith. Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided
its people into groups, oppressing one group among them: slaying their
sons and sparing their women. Truly, he was one of the tyrants. We
desire to bless those who are oppressed in the land, to make them
rulers and to make them the heirs, and to establish them in the land.
We let Pharaoh, Haman and their hosts receive from them that of which
they had feared. (28:1-6)

Do not say, Who am I compared to Pharaoh? You have demanded of the
Muslims what Pharaoh never demanded of Moses peace be upon him- and
the children of Israel: that they should not hate you in their hearts
no matter what you do to them or how you oppress them, or else you
will have revenge on them. This is an attribute exclusive to God, for
God Almighty alone is the Able to wreak vengeance on all who do not
love Him. We know of no dictatorial empire in ancient history which
treated people according to what their hearts and consciences conceal,
let alone a twenty-first century democracy.

You may say, We intend to remove anything that will incite hate from
sermons, school curricula, newspaper articles and the media. We reply
that if that is your democracy, then there is try as you like, but you
should be sure that you will not succeed. We learned to hate
oppression and love the truth from our religion and our Qur an, and it
is stronger than all of your means, and firmer than your mountains. If
you refuse everything but the arrogance of force and the insanity of
greatness, then there are no means left for you except the
extermination of all the Muslims with nuclear or biological weapons,
or whatever you want from hellish arsenal contains.

You may ask, Why all of them when some of them love us? Be sure, there
is no Muslim on earth who loves you, even if they donate their blood
to you, or set up intelligence gathering stations for you, or delegate
to you setting the curriculum for the education of their people.
Everyone on earth who claims to love you and no Muslim is able to make
that claim- they only love you like frightened prey loves a brutal
predator.

You may say, We will restore the trust of the Islamic peoples by
changing their government into tolerant and democratic systems. But we
say you need only cease your evil treatment of us. You destroyed the
Iraqi people as well as others by this false promise, and we do not
want any freedom or democracy that comes from you and we will not
accept it. The enemy of freedom cannot grant freedom.

Mr. President, I advise you and put the fear of God before you, to
cease and desist from hostile action. Deal with the problem with
fairness and patience, and you will find that we are with you
reservation. Your hostility now, at the beginning of the way, is
easier for you and better for the world. If not, easy beginnings are
usually followed by extremely difficult ends. For that reason I ask
you to think, Mr. President, if you destroy every country on your list
of terrorists, will that be the end or only the beginning? Unless you
want to be remembered by history for Armageddon, and in that case
there will be no history anyway

For this reason I repeat to you: Fear God and think hard.

Peace upon him who follows God s guidance,

Safar ibn `Abd al-Rahman Al-Hawali

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