I had a mate at Richmond in the mid 70s that had married a girl from Sri Lanka or another former British colony in that part of the world. At school she had been taught about the terrorists in her country. Following independence school children were taught about these same people - except that they had become freedom fighters.
There are always two sides of history - that of the victor and that of the vanquished. That of our political masters and that of the other peoples political masters.
We in the west are not taught the same history as those in the Middle
East. From our perspective the Crusaders were defending the holy land
from the infidel. From the Moslem perspective it was the Moslems
defending the holy land from the infidel. I remember as a kid watching a
TV show about Richard the Lion Hearted and his noble conquests on the
crusades.
We know the history of the holocaust and the settlement of the modern state of Israel as a safe haven for Jews. Moslems can tell us every act of terrorism carried out by the Zionists as they displaced the Palestinians.
Arabs and Persians (Iranians), and the various tribes of each, have hated each others guts for centuries. But all these tribes also know the history of Western interference and betrayal and it is this hatred of the West that can unite them.
A mate of mine spend a few years working in Dubai. He was told one day by one of his Arab mates that if it was not for Israel the Arabs would be tearing each other apart.
Its not only the Middle East that has long memories. A Catholic mate of mine and his brother were hitch hiking through the Republic of Ireland some years back when they were given a lift by the local Protestant minister.
'What's your name?'
'Fitzgerald'
'You Fitzgeralds! Your great-great-great ... grandfather ...'
Also a long memory that saw decades of violence.
So what am I trying to say?
Perhaps if we in the West were to be honest with our history, to admit to the historical wrongs our side have done, and to try and avoid those same mistakes in the future, we might begin to diffuse some of the anger on the other side. And if we did that perhaps we could give ISIS and their ilk less ammunition to play with in their appeals to the Arab/Iranian world.
We know the history of the holocaust and the settlement of the modern state of Israel as a safe haven for Jews. Moslems can tell us every act of terrorism carried out by the Zionists as they displaced the Palestinians.
Arabs and Persians (Iranians), and the various tribes of each, have hated each others guts for centuries. But all these tribes also know the history of Western interference and betrayal and it is this hatred of the West that can unite them.
A mate of mine spend a few years working in Dubai. He was told one day by one of his Arab mates that if it was not for Israel the Arabs would be tearing each other apart.
Its not only the Middle East that has long memories. A Catholic mate of mine and his brother were hitch hiking through the Republic of Ireland some years back when they were given a lift by the local Protestant minister.
'What's your name?'
'Fitzgerald'
'You Fitzgeralds! Your great-great-great ... grandfather ...'
Also a long memory that saw decades of violence.
So what am I trying to say?
Perhaps if we in the West were to be honest with our history, to admit to the historical wrongs our side have done, and to try and avoid those same mistakes in the future, we might begin to diffuse some of the anger on the other side. And if we did that perhaps we could give ISIS and their ilk less ammunition to play with in their appeals to the Arab/Iranian world.
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