by Abdi-Noor Mohamed
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Two days ago a Danish Cartoonist Kurt Westergaard whose drawings of Prophet Mohamed PBUH sparked off a spate of demonstrations in 2005, has been attacked by a Somali terrorist who has been implicated to have links with the Al-Shabaab insurgents of Somalia.
Europe is where we have come for protection after running away from war. Since we are not facing survival difficulties in Europe our main challenge was how to make necessary adjustments while thinking of functional approaches to restore peace in the motherland. Nevertheless we are being devastated by the daily news reports of Suicide bombers such as that of Shamo and Pirates off the Somali Seas. it is quite unfortunate that similar scenarios of terror acts are taking place at our doorsteps here in Europe
What will the European authorities do to us in retaliation to that terrorist attack? Will they label all Somalis as terrorist-supporters? or they will punish only the culprits as enshrined in their constitution? Somalis are not terrorists by culture and tradition and that is quite evident in their history and relaxed manners of dealing with religious issues.
And in Europe they are loyal citizens, who pay taxes and are grateful for the assistance they have been accorded to by their host governments and nations. Such people do not deserve to be tainted with terror-related acts or brought under a close police scrutiny simply because a few extremists are vowing to crush the west. We have no wish seeing our children stigmatized in schools just because they hail from a community that produces extremists who have no respect for life of show no tolerance to other religions and cultures.
But an inescapable truth is that actions of the man who had wielded the axe against the cartoonist would harm us one way or the other. Our reputation which had already had some visible fractures as a result of poor integration, high youth crime rate etc, might worsen the situation.
What should a Somali do to clean his or her name? Should we take the streets and shout “Down with Religious Terrorism”? If we just sit back and watch, our inaction could be interpreted as a gesture of giving green light to those are involved in crime. Should we come out in the open and condemn terrorism as being unislamic or we should remain in the shadows of fear until our soul is split into two in which one component debates with the other bitterly over the issue of terrorism thereby developing a severe personality disorder of schizophrenia.
De-radicalization of Somali youth in Europe and in Somalia as well, is one possible way to curb the problem but not until some people in the west (who themselves share the blame with terrorists) stop provoking Islam by writing or sketching out cartoons to incite people. Such provocations would only strengthen the terrorists as they exploit the ensuing farce for their own advantage to gain a wider popularity among the Muslims.
Away from war I have a way to go
Bombs are not exploding anymore
Bullets are not wheezing around
Fire rockets are not ricocheting
Sharpnels are not flying overhead
But into the corridors of peace
Danger is creeping at a slow pace
A momentum of time is building up
Terror attacks are taking place
Not back home but inside Europe
They are carried out by terrorists
Brainwashed by religious radicals
Using Islam as a spear of horror
Putting us under security watch
As we pay the brunt of stereotype
Silence is golden but sometimes not
Complacency could be a muted yes
I speak out in defense of my integrity
I condemn Terrorists hijacking Islam
I am a Moslem not a hostage of evil
Abdi-Noor Mohamed
Writer and Film maker
Växjö University
Sweden
[email protected]