As 2016 comes to a close, I cannot help but to reflect on the year in hindsight, as both an American and global citizen to better prepare myself, my decisions, and navigation in the New Year.
The world we inherited this moment is a theatre where our silence finally imploded into storms which have inundated the stage and drowned the audience, where the actors and actresses’ on-stage-drama spewed into the audience, and touched us all with it. We are now connected to the drama of the actors on stage.
We sit in the audience in 2016 soaked, gloomy, frustrated, and now alert. Where civilians yell at policymakers for ill choices and policymakers scold civilians for their society not being up to speed to the visions of government. We are all growing frustrated with our mediocricities —and with reason emboldened. Collectively passionate and confused.
In a trance we watch 2016 before our eyes.
I want to draw specific attention to the Middle East and our relation to this region, its relevance, and some contextualization of what has been brewing throughout the year; now bubbling over.
The Syrian Refugee Crisis:
It was a mistake for the United States and international community to crack a nation state whilst rallying and supporting the Syrian people under the democratic values we set our country upon, under freedom, under human rights. We gave ignition to a people frustrated --understandably so --however with that we activated an uneducated passionate demographic. A demographic that we stopped guiding, all of a sudden.
Our red line we carved was crossed and the Syrians we had once championed only got louder --but we chose to sit there and stare, and each global power grinned in awareness that the United States back-peddled, a sign of weakness in our integrity, credibility, and might. This occurence was the point of reference where the international community learnt once more that a massive bloodbath can be a justified with the most lazy pretext.
Through the crises in Syria, we and the international community lessened our support for taking out the regime, and conveniently changed our stance to a diplomatic solution with the government. Lest we not forget that we were the ones who activated and capitalized on a population uneducated and passionate with our previous support to various civilian and rebel groups, and we chose to leave this demographic handle the Syrian crises themselves.
Some civilians grew hopeless and some rebels became radicalized in their frustration of being pawns on the international community’s board of chess. And we sat and cracked our whipping words “have hope” as we sat and stared.
We the international community had a large hand in the loss of hope that has sucked the air out of lungs of innocent, and that has radicalized rebels into a sickly force –ISIS.
Islamic State in Syria:
2016, was the year of giving ammunition to the very thing we wished to destroy.
We the international community made a cancerous mistake that led to the growth of a terrifying force —ISIS —and are now left with some pending symptoms of our own that need follow up treatment. We are undergoing both denial and disconnection with anything affiliated to the Middle East region, all that be Arab or Islam.
We are first being in denial of the crises at hand and that the reality is we need a solution. Secondly, we are suffering from disconnection because we are aware that for a solution we must confront and hold accountable our poor choices and support for almost all sides in the conflict of Syria. So what we do is we try to disconnect first from Syria whole and at large --in hopes that we can isolate ourselves and have the privellege to close our eyes and feel no effect, turn the page, and march forward.
The coupling of political and human disconnection has led our ill-choices and crass rhetoric of influential figures in our countries to be interpreted and spread into what has became a hate towards Islam and a negativity to the Middle East region. This spread of hate is quite convenient for the United States and International Community at the moment, as it enables us to dehumanize and disconnect our emotions from the conflict in Syria and tangled Middle East.
Whether a tactic or a coincidence, the escalation of Islamaphobia must be ceased and any individual with human-decency would understand that this hatred we release from the West gives greater rise to the force we wish to dissolve --ISIS.
Our crass rhetoric has the capacity to radicalize frustrated civilians and puts an aim on our back. We must cease this rhetoric, because if you look into the eyes of the other, one uneducated, and one frustrated --in their view our words and actions reinforce our intention. We must stop the rhetoric that has emboldened populations from The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Egypt, and devise of ways that civilians who are vulnerable can channel their frustration into creativie and unconventional solutions for a better future —not a cycle of rallying that leads to violence.
Islamaphobia:
Engraved in the bronze of our leading lady the Statue of Liberty, is nested, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.” From this line alone I know that the American value is to accommodate and include all who share a value of justice and freedom.
What is missing from this line however, is racism and bigotry, which leads me to understand that we have a virtue, but having an illicit affair with hatred at the same time.
Islam has been around for thousands of years and shares the same core values, stories, and histories of those of Christianity and Judaism. So why is it that a slur of stories have arisen that Islam is inherently violent. Why are citizens of the United States and Western countries fearing from Muslims?
We are fearing Islam without understanding the context of why certain demographics cling and sometimes cling too much to religion. The rise of rebel groups, terrorist organizations, and those rallying under political Islam even if peaceful --is collectively rooted in the rise of the other.
In the Middle East there is a famous phrase that goes: “The Palestinian-Israeli conflict lives within all Arab peoples.” This phrase captures the feeling of millions who find Israel’s status and ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people, the rise of nuclear weapons exclusively to Israel in the region, and continuous support throughout war crimes to be an exhibition of the United States’ interest in the region. Which to many is not a just interest, nor equal interest, but worrisome.
Contextualized from the other’s point of view, from a Muslim and an Arab, the rise of the State of Israel, the growth of Zionism, and Western support for the previous mentioned, has put the faith of Judaism on a pedastol and that those of that faith were the chosen people and deserved a land for their religion built on exclusive privellege. Israel’s great success and growth domestically and internationally is a point of reference of the power of religion to unite and mobilize civilians under.
The Middle East and Arabs are distinct however, they share a common thread of Islam. And the rise of another religion, made them cling so much to theirs more than they already have. Perhaps, one could argue the zionist state of Israel gave a template for surrounding neighbors that the mobilization of people under religion is a powerful tool. The Israeli and Palestinian people must find ways to live together peacefully, the United States and regional neighbors should prioritize the brokering of talks between the two. The only way to find out if the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict is a core of other issues frustrating the Arab people is by making peace there a priority. For if anything, I know, that the Jews and Muslims are considered “cousins” who lived peacefully together; the past seventy years are not a reflection of the history they share.
Contextualizing a Rebel Group:
Many Arabs are connected with the people of Palestine and support the rights of Palestinians to defend their rights. Naturally one would understand if someone took your land, left you with nothing in return, or set up a settlement on your front lawn --inevitably one would self-defend.
But what I find difficult to comprehend is why have we marked oppressed groups who are defending themselves as terrorists or belonging to an inherently terroristic religion.
ISIS is clearly a terrorist group, but what I worry in the past months and forthcoming, is that any group under politicized Islam or affiliated to Islam is being deemed one --when the reality is that Islam is the natural entity that organizations cling to as it is the most widely understood platform of communication in a region disconnected by poor education, illiteracy, and lack of mobility. Islam is not the cause of violence, rather faith in religion is the guiding force that provides basis that justice will prevail like any religion. In the West some may see Islam as violent, however this is because those do not understand the root of the oppressed groups.
Deeming groups affiliated with Islam a terrorist group is a very dangerous and destructive narrative for the United States to have, as we are pushing a majority of the Middle East who have been oppressed, frustrated, and deprived who hold to religion for motivation in one grand category of terrorism. We should recognize that there are indeed Islamic groups that are terrorist in nature but must find better practices to understand the differences.
Our current narration on Islam and those affiliated with Islam will only lead to the radicalization of much more than we can imagine, and give rise to an even greater force than ISIS --and for that I fear most.
The reality is that the lived experiences of the generations in the Middle East have grievances and unanswered questions that need to be shed light on. We need a solution that engages every single country in the Middle East and do our due diligence as the United States to take the lead in brokering talks between regional neighbors in dispute and display their connections to each of their neighbor and their distinct necessary role in the termination of terrorism. If anything we need to better connect the administrations of the region which our policies have had a dividing effect on.
We need to listen to them in a roundtable -- Israel must be invited to the same table as Saudi Arabia, that would be invited to the same table as Qatar and Egypt.
For yes we are strong and safe in our land, but we cannot afford to lose civilians in the region to terrorism, governments in the region to other global superpowers.
Solutions for 2016:
Our international community has suffered a disease the past years of denial, uncontextualized motives, which has divorced us all from our senses. We must have our foreign policy and diplomacy capabilities that was once unchallenged, un-hijacked.
If the international community were an individual, I would prescribe it the same medication one uses to treat alzheimers. Something so that we can remember the root problems our two regions face because everything we are experiencing in the Middle East today is something of a lived experience within the century. Not a deep-rooted character of the people of the Middle East, not a trait of the people of the United States, and not a consequence of any people of faith whether that evangelical or Islamic. We must reassess our foreign policy and start with clear briefings and candid conversations that will lead us to the next step whatever that may be.
As the theatrical performance comes to an end and the stage dims --as 2016 concludes --I would like to express deep optimism though, for 2017 for I believe it will be a year of confrontation.
I have hope in various Arab countries that are often shamed in the United States and reduced down. I have faith that Egypt who has a robust military and rich history can grow to become an important ally for the United States and can provide military and human capital to the region. I have faith that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who is often critiqued for Wahabism and forms of Islam to leading to terror --will create more bridges of understanding to better contextualize their ideology, for after all, the Kingdom and Arabian Peninsula at large has not gone through governments and civilizations like that of Arab countries encompassing it. We must understand the people, the system, and as Americans we must speak to the minds of them at the same level. The Kingdom has been made aware that there are leaps to be made in the Islamic education system and the elevation of the society --I trust that we the United States will help them and not beat against them.
The United Arab Emirates is a federation of different people and tribes united under one nation, they serve as an example of diversity in the Arabian Peninsula, progressive steps, and commercial growth. They exhibit the possibility for growth in the Middle East. Qatar is uniquely small in population, but has an inclusive accommodating government that accepts all whether various international actors side with those they accomodate or not. They have relations with groups who are frustrated and rebelling for self-defense, Doha has the capacity to broker and aid in peace in the Middle East, particular in the Israeli-Palestinian peace building process.
I am looking forward to 2017 as I believe it is a year of confrontation by the United States for our past ill-decisions, and confrontation leads to opportunity for those who seize to participate in a collaborative solution.
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise, and I would be both ecstatic and satisfied if the amount of light we will hold in 2017 is equivalent to the light of five-minutes past sunrise --for that is an improvement of the dark gloomy globally calloused theatre that was 2016.