Muslims have marched, even if the west hasn’t noticed – Caplin

Gerry Caplan’s rant regarding the hypocrisy of many world leaders and their participation in the Charlie Hebdo march:

Too bad, because by any measure it was one of the great demonstrations of hypocrisy and double standards of our time. Most of the world has seen the historic photo of world leaders marching with linked arms. Charlie Hebdo’s satirists might have had a grand old-time mocking these peace-loving, justice-loving, free-press-loving presidents, prime ministers and the like. The World Press Freedom Index and Reporters Without Borders accuse well over a dozen of their governments as guilty of serious attacks on press freedom and journalists. But their own suppression of press freedom at home was of course different from the attacks on Charlie Hebdo’s journalists in Paris, as everyone except me seems to understand.

And the prominent world leaders in that splendid photo also have much to teach us about democracy, human rights, peace and free expression. Think the U.S., Britain, France, Turkey, Israel, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority. In fact, it’s startling how many of the world’s ills can be traced directly back to these countries. Among a multitude of possible examples:

America’s initial supply of cash and arms to the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, enabling the Taliban. America’s post-9/11 invasion of Afghanistan. The U.S.-Britain invasion of Iraq. The coalition that overthrew Gadhafi in Libya, a country now in turmoil. France’s complicity in the Rwandan genocide, still unacknowledged and unapologized for. Saudi Arabia’s lavish funding of madrassas and jihadis and the enabling of the Islamic State. Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Egypt’s deep-sixing of the Arab Spring. Turkey’s authoritarianism.

What titillated most observers, naturally, was the presence – at opposite ends of the line, to be sure – of the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of the Palestinian Authority. I know it sounds unhinged even to say these words, but in a sane world they would have marched arm-in-arm. For in a real sense, whoever suffers directly from acts of terror, the ultimate victims in our time are Jews and Muslims. What’s worse, instead of demonstrating the solidarity of victims, as would happen in a sane world, the two are ferocious, lethal enemies. Twisted men who are Muslim go out and murder Jews in the name of the Prophet. While invoking the Holocaust, twisted men in Israel scream “death to Arabs.” This is not only insanity. It’s a recipe for permanent war.

What we need is a multi-million person march of Muslims and Jews together, joined by all those around the world who truly love justice and peace. WE ARE JEWS AND MUSLIMS. It’s a crazy idea, but not as crazy as the alternative.

Muslims have marched, even if the west hasn’t noticed – The Globe and Mail.