Re: David Miller's Decaptitation Strike
Dear Editor,
For the past few years, David Miller has consistently and persistently displayed a remarkable ignorance of Middle
Eastern issues, instead relying on "modus populous" - what is popular in Western media. I would urge him to quit barking
up the wrong tree.
He incorrectly compares bin Laden to Sheikh Yassin. The former is the product of a pampered lifestyle, delusions of
grandeur and perhaps a few too many shell-shock incidents fighting the Soviets. Sheikh Yassin, on the other hand, is a
product of ethnic cleansing and occupation. When he was 10 he was forced off his land, which was duly appropriated to
European Jews. In 1988, he formed Hamas after spending much time in jail. And he was jailed again and again.
Hamas and Al Qaeda are also at polar ends. Hamas is a socio-political entity with a military wing. It builds social
programs, sees to people's education when Israeli forces cordon off schools, distributes clothing and food in times of
siege.
Al Qaeda, on the other hand, is comprised of disgruntled and disenfranchised political aspirations. Members of Al Qaeda
have abandoned their countries to wreak havoc elsewhere. They have not lifted a finger to alleviate the plight of any
peoples.
Hamas is fighting for a country, for nationhood.
The Palestinian people have the enshrined right to resistance of an occupier who has defied more than 140 UN resolutions
and agreements. In February alone, some 87 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli incursions into Gaza and the
West Bank. True, suicide bombings are deplorable, abhorrent, and contrary to the laws of nature. But so is the forcible
occupation of a people for more than 55 years. So is the humiliation that Palestinians must endure at checkpoints. The
unemployment, the killings. Does Miller know that some 47,000 Palestinians have been maimed and wounded since 2000?
Miller is the type of person who believes there is a lull in violence when no Israelis are killed, but scores of
Palestinians lose their lives.
The only real terrorism here is Miller's diatribe - the much-repeated jingoism of imperialism and the White Man's
Supremacy.
To deny the Palestinians their rights and merely paint them with the brush of terrorism is racist, bigoted, arrogant,
and prejudiced.
Miller would do well to either travel to the Mideast or take a few courses on the subject.
- Firas Al-Atraqchi