People are occasionally described as ‘mushrooms’, meaning that they have been kept in the dark and fed on manure (that’s the polite version). It is not a very polite way to refer to someone and, without doubt, will seem like an insult to our Muslim compatriots. But then again, almost anything can be considered an insult to them so there seems little point in holding back.
I refer here specifically to the opinion on the current conflict in Gaza. For the record, I am opposed to the course of action taken by Israel, which may not endear me to many readers of TNC, but hear me out as I have no time for Hamas either.
My point is that, notwithstanding my expressed sympathy for the plight of the ordinary Palestinian people (Muslim and Christian), it has proved impossible to have a reasonable conversation with the few Muslim friends and colleagues with whom I have discussed the situation. The topic has come up in the UK and, very recently, in Jordan.
Trying to suggest that perhaps Hamas ought not to have entered Israel in the first place on October 7, is to evoke such histrionics that it is all but impossible to stop the flow of invective for long enough to qualify that statement. There is no question that the massacre was morally inexcusable, but I also firmly believe that it was strategically stupid in that Israel’s response was predictable. Hamas have achieved nothing but rain down death and destruction on the people whom they purport to represent.
It is notable that the destruction is inflicted on the ordinary people of Gaza, while Hamas are undoubtedly holed up in bunkers below ground or living in council flats in west London. Nevertheless, no reason is to be found among those to whom I have made my point, and it is notable that these are moderate Muslims with no brief for extremists. Yet there is such visceral hatred of the Israelis that the inevitable response is Pavlovian in nature.
Clearly there is a level of brainwashing across the Muslim diaspora which travels fast. It leads to extraordinary claims such as ‘Hamas never killed any civilians’ from a colleague in Jordan, despite the copious evidence from the GoPro cameras removed from dead Hamas fighters themselves, to ‘does Hamas even exist?’ from a colleague in the UK. A rather extraordinary suggestion, given that they are the group which claimed responsibility and are currently trying to get Israel to the negotiating table.
I believe that there has been misinformation from both sides over the details of October 7 and subsequent events. But the above claims take the biscuit in no uncertain terms, and protesters on our own streets (mainly useful idiots for Hamas) have even celebrated the slaughter of Israeli civilians.
A Jordanian colleague told me, regarding the Israelis, that ‘we hate them, and they should not even be there’, a point which at least opens up a discussion about the rights and wrongs of the Balfour declaration. But the most staggering point was made to me by a Muslim in the UK, a citizen of our country, who said: ‘What are they even doing there? They were never there before.’
The dinar dropped at this point: I realised it is eminently likely that my Muslim colleagues have no idea about the history of the Jews and have no desire to find out. Despite being ‘People of The Book’ who claim to have respect for the Old Testament, essentially a history of the Jewish people and the Israelis in that region, they have probably never read the Old Testament or had the facts laid out there explained to them. It is eminently likely that they have no idea that the ‘Prophet Jesus’, for whom they claim ‘respect’, was himself a Jew and that the Jews had centuries of history prior to the arrival of the Romans and the spread of Islam.
There may be an excuse for my Muslim colleagues and many like them who have been brought up simply to believe what they are told by their clergy. But there can be no excuse for Muslim Islamic scholars and clergy who must be well aware of the Old Testament. It may well be a case that my colleagues have been reared in the dark and inadequately nourished. If this is so, we have a responsibility to educate them. If this is not the reason and their hatred defies the facts, there is little hope of peace in Gaza.
Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.
This piece first appeared in The Conservative Woman, and is reproduced by kind permission.
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Some people will never allow facts to get in the way of their prejudices, I know ‘anti- colonialist’ Spanish speakers who will not believe that ‘British Colonialists’ didn’t migrate to The Falklands and Gibraltar in the last few decades forcibly displacing an ‘indigenous Spanish’ population. It is seemingly beyond their mental capacity to accept that majority British-identifying families have lived in these places for several generations.
As for Israel/Gaza, a wise person on the Daily Sceptic once commented ‘I hope both sides lose and everybody gets killed’. I keep this in mind all the time as I now have zero interest in this perennial tit for tat farce.
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Islam is essentially a closed philosophical system, that is to say that it does not share with modern western thought any philosophical assumptions on the basis of which both parties might reach shared conclusions. That explains the inability to have a rational discussion on the issues mentioned above. More specifically, Islam believes that the first man, Adam, was a Muslim and that all his descendants have been and are Muslims, except those whose fathers or who themselves have apostatised from Islam. That is why converts to Islam are described as reverts: they are said to be returning to the religion of their ancestors. The Jewish tribe was sent a prophet, Moses, who preached Islam to them, but according to Islam the Jews refused to obey and were turned into apes and pigs as a result. That is why Jews are accused of being the descendants of apes and pigs. It is assumed that figures like David and Solomon were Muslims. It follows that Jerusalem and the surrounding land was initially in Muslim hands, that claims by supposed apostates to be the true possessors of the land are rejected out of hand, and that assertions that monuments such as Solomon’s Temple was Jewish are treated as Zionist propaganda. Islam’s general practice is destroy or repurpose all non-Islamic religious monuments and that explains the treatment by the Islamic authorities of material said to be the remains of a Jewish Temple. It is no good appealing to the evidence of the Old Testament: Islam believes that the Torah of Moses was corrupted by Ezra and that today’s Hebrew Bible is the corrupted text published by Ezra. Islam similarly asserts that the Christians have corrupted the Gospel and that it is this corrupted text that is in circulation today.
“‘does Hamas even exist?’ from a colleague in the UK. A rather extraordinary suggestion”
It was, of course, a question, and the suggestion I’m getting is of the author’s, like his fictional namesake’s, susceptibility to the Stunning Cougar effect, as I believe it’s known.
The label, “Hamas”, has certainly been applied to several, objectively observable, phenomena, but does “Hamas”, as a discrete entity, something which has a hard boundary with everything that is not “Hamas”, truly exist?
Has Hamas any more substance, any more of a defined physical existence, than the “LGB… Community”, or the shadows on the cave wall?
The question is of some importance.
The Israeli regime repeatedly assures the world that it is at war with Hamas.
Prerequisite to the truth of that claim is that Hamas exists, in the sense of being a definite thing, such as the BBC or MUFC. If the regime means, simply, that it is at war with whatever it chooses, from time to time, to label “Hamas”, the statement is devoid of information, and, moreover, there is no objective point at which the bombing must cease.
In the popular perception, “Hamas” extends from the mythical beheaders of forty babies to the Health Ministry whose statistics on annihilated women and children we are cautioned against believing.
Had Roger Watson responded to his colleague with intelligent curiosity, he might have gained this insight earlier, and even reduced his propensity to twist facts to suit theories.
“a Muslim in the UK, a citizen of our country, who said: ‘What are they even doing there? They were never there before.’” ?! Of course they were. Has he never heard or read about The Promised Land [of Israel], Moses, and the Flight from Egypt? Talk about editing history…