The Glorious Western Civilization!

A curious debate once arose in extremist circles: was Mohammad Atta, the 9/11 hijacker, a greater jihadi than Maulana Masood Azhar?
 
From Kathmandu, terrorists hijacked a plane to Kabul and forced a developing nation into submission. Prisoners were exchanged for passengers—India humiliated before the world. While New Delhi scrambled desperately to secure the release of its citizens, the First World—America included—watched with a smirk, enjoying the spectacle like jackals dressed as pundits.
 
Earlier, under Dawood Ibrahim’s command, Mumbai had been ripped apart by serial blasts. In a decade, terrorism claimed 50,000 Indian lives, and in Palestine, hundreds of thousands more. In countries where the average income hovers between one and ten thousand rupees, human lives are evidently cheaper.
 
Then came 9/11, laying bare a cruel truth: the lives of some are precious, the lives of others expendable. During the Kandahar hijacking, America and NATO—champions of democracy—spent not a single word on Masood Azhar’s release. In India, during President Bill Clinton’s visit, forty Hindus were massacred in Kashmir. Yet the world expressed no outrage. When Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee pleaded with the world to unite against terrorism, his appeal was broadcast like a weather report—heard, noted, dismissed.
 
The Collapse of Pride
 
And then, in a matter of minutes, the grandeur of three hundred years of Western arrogance crumbled. The mighty American civilization—armed with nuclear power—was undone with nothing more than plastic knives and box cutters.
 
We of the smaller nations felt a secret, guilty joy. Though we dared not express it—lest the elder brother take offense—we thought silently: so, how does it feel now?
 
When terrorists struck India, Vajpayee begged for solidarity. When America was attacked, President Bush did not beg. He commanded. He summoned. He decreed that it was the duty of every nation on earth to stand beside America. And if any dared refuse, America would bend fingers—coerce, punish, destroy.
 
What a staggering threat! And when Afghanistan refused, missiles rained down upon it, showing the world what happens when you disobey the elder brother.
 
Bush: Terrorist or Statesman?
 
Mohammad Atta was a terrorist. That much is certain. But by the same logic, was George Bush not also a terrorist?
 
In the hunt for al-Qaeda, the US unleashed indiscriminate bombardment, killing helpless civilians—women, children, the defenseless. If Atta’s act was terrorism, why not Bush’s? Is atrocity lawful when committed by an elder brother, but unlawful when committed by an enemy?
 
Thus Western civilization—almost unanimously—declared: blood for blood, death for death.
 
The Hypocrisy of Civilization
 
Italy claimed Western civilization was superior to Islamic civilization. Perhaps so. But what is this superiority?
 
For three centuries, the so-called glorious West has plundered and oppressed the colonized world—murder, genocide, loot, cultural annihilation, man-made famines, two World Wars. Long before the Mohammad Attas of history were born, Western civilization had perfected mass slaughter.
 
Indeed, if we trace Islamic extremism itself, its roots lie in Western games. America created Osama bin Laden to bleed the Soviets in Afghanistan. Russia propped up Saddam. America nurtured Syria. To guard oil, the Middle East was turned into a colony of the West. Pakistan was groomed into a terrorist state by American patronage. The violence in Kashmir over the past four decades thrived on this support.
 
And today, America poses as saint?
 
The Value of Lives
 
For the West, the lives of Middle Easterners, Afghans, Pakistanis, Indians, Vietnamese—count for little. Millions have perished in wars where America pulled the strings for political gain.
 
Now, when America is wounded, the entire world must weep? Some radicals now frame the struggle not as terrorism versus civilization but as America and its sacred allies versus the impoverished, downtrodden peoples of the earth. This framing may not be entirely true—but one must admit: America itself is also an extremist power.
 
Bin Laden and Bush differ only in style. Bin Laden is the ancient, covert fundamentalist. Bush is the modern, technological extremist. Bin Laden exploits Islam; Bush exploits Christianity. When Bush stood at the pulpit of a church and called for blood in exchange for blood, intellectuals applauded. Jesus’ message of peace was shelved; vengeance became gospel.
 
The True War
 
If America were honest, why cloak war in the robes of religion? Why invoke the church as the stage for vengeance? Because the real purpose was not to defeat terrorism—it was to assert the supremacy of their religion, their civilization.
 
Thus the Third World’s fists are clenched in hatred. Upon the heads of defenseless innocents, in the darkness of night, bombs and food packets fell together. The starving rejected this food in contempt, recognizing it as a mask for domination.
 
What We Know
 
The children of the Third World know Bush’s aims. We, who were once colonial slaves, know Western civilization to the bone. Yet we remain under its umbrella—World Bank, IMF, Microsoft, global capital. We cannot protest; we lack the strength. And America’s bombs remind us: not just a country, but the entire world could be obliterated. Opposition to Bush? Impossible.
 
The Fear of the West
 
But there is one fear that haunts Bush. That among the impoverished, marginalized nations, new rebels will rise. Men unafraid of death. Men who need no institutions, no intellectual patrons.
 
With nothing more than a plastic knife, another Mohammad Atta may one day topple the edifice of the glorious Western civilization again.
 
It is this thought that robs Bush of sleep.