Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Culture of Justification and Akkad”s Reward | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page

My arrangements had been made to meet the Syrian director Moustapha Akkad in Dubai at the end of this week. It is evident; however, that death had an earlier appointment with him.

Moustapha Akkad”s death has forced us to face the constant and repetitive painful incidents of extremists practicing their so-called battle against innocent people. The irony is that Akkad, the very man who delivered a wonderful image of Islam, was killed by Al-Qaeda, the very organization that has defamed Islam and Muslims.

Wednesday”s crime in Amman portrays one clear truth, that Amman is just one more Arab capital, added to the list of the other wounded Arab capitals and added to the list of other innocent civilians of various Arab nationalities.

However, some still dare to issue nonsensical statements that seek to justify such horrific acts, or as the Jordanian Prime Minister described it, &#34The justification culture of murdering innocent civilians.&#34

Those who seek to justify the assassination of Akkad, his daughter, the guests of the wedding, the kidnapping of the Moroccan embassy workers, the murder of students at their schools, the killing of those praying in the mosques, are themselves part of the crime. The justifying of a crime is a major sin, even according to Al-Qaeda whose central figured denounced its own actions. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the operational leader of the Al-Qaeda organization, has criticized his deputy in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi for targeting civilians saying that such acts will only lead to people refraining from Al-Qaeda. Al-Zarqawi, an ex-convict, however, believes that murdering civilians is a cheap price to pay in order for the organization to achieve its greater goals.

If even the Al-Qaeda leaders have become concerned about the targeting of civilians, how then can Arab writers celebrate such action or describe it as a heroic operation when Al-Qaeda officials run from security authorities to attack innocent civilians? Those who sought to justify these acts are successful in societies that have been distant from terrorism, where it has been easy to convince bombers to carry out their acts based on emotion. However, their cause has been lost after the witnessing of such brutality and the recognition that these justifications are mere fabrications used to cover up these criminal acts.

After all these crimes, who needs more evidence or more murder victims or victims of kidnap? After years of using the same justifications, the terrorist”s slogans have fallen and claims of Arab nationalism or Islamism have faded. Last Wednesday”s crime was registered in Al-Qaeda”s file under the name of the Prophet Mohamed”s companion, Al-Bara”a Ibn Malik, to evoke sympathy amongst the Muslims. This goal, however, has failed.

How could the group of such a crime share the name of such a noble companion of the Prophet? This companion was renowned for being a courageous fighter, who fought armies face to face, whereas these assassins cowardly attacked unarmed innocent people who were celebrating at a wedding as if they were an army.

Akkad and another sixty victims who were murdered in the bombings of Amman, and the two Moroccan embassy workers in Iraq have been added to the long list of terrorism”s victims. Amman has been added to the list of terrorism”s targets that has not spared anywhere in its operations between Mecca and Casablanca. Are the lives of these people not enough to unify the Arabs against terrorism and admit the painful truth of these crimes?

Terrorists had awarded Akkad for his noble works of art but had granted him the most atrocious of deaths. Akkad who had served Islam a thousand times better than extremists who claim to be the defenders of Islam whilst they are its very enemy, was murdered by the hands of the extremists.