How will it all end?

From ZUBEIDA JAFFER

       We have come through two world wars in the past century. Yet barely a

       year into the new century, we stand on the brink of the third. 

       It is hard not to conclude that human beings are ahistorical creatures. We

       seem not to learn from our past. The Second World War ended with the

       United States dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. How will this one

       end? Because like it or not, it has started.

 

       How can we forget the image of those twin towers collapsing where some

       of us in South Africa knew our friends worked? For days I waited for news

       about my Kenyan friend George Orwour and was happy to finally  hear

       that he had missed the attack by 30 minutes.  Others were not so lucky.

       How devastating to watch  fighter aircraft taking off to bomb the poorest

       country in the world. The pain is not different but the planes are

       different.  One set came from an extremist group, the other set from the

       world’s superpower, both displaying the same behaviour – naked

       aggression driven by extreme anger.

       The men in our minds  are Osama Bin Ladin and George Bush. At this

       moment, they personify our basest human instinct and that is to kill to

       survive. 

       The challenge for the world today is to move away from the base line. To

       reject the approach and behaviour of both these men and to say lets find

       a third way.

       Last week  thousands of people took to the streets of Cape Town to begin

       to build that third way. In a march for peace supported by at least ten

       thousand people, the Muslim Judicial Council, Cosatu and the Western

       Province Council  of Churches tried to channel anger into a more civilised

       direction.

       Unfortunately, the crowd was mainly Muslim although not entirely. A

       movement for peace  requires the mobilisation of people of all faiths and

       those without faith too. Muslims are particularly affected and are naturally

       feel the impact of this war more directly. Instead of saying that there is a

       group of extremists who attacked the world trade centre, that those

       people should be hunted down and brought to book, there was an

       immediate elevation of one man fighting for Islam to the exclusion of all

       other possibilities. 

        Islam is a magnificent religion but like all religions or societies, it has its

       Timothy McVeighs and IRAs.  The religion I have grown up with is

       peace-loving and most certainly does not support indiscriminate killing.

       Nor does it support suicide. Yet I too, with my Arabic name and my

       Eastern looks, must now hesitate to fly North. 

       Nelson Mandela has consistently said: “There are good men and women

       in all communities.” These simple words contain the wisdom of the ages.

       Therein lies some of the answer to our present dilemma. The challenge is

       to find compassion in our hearts across barriers and to build a third way

       which sends a clear message – we do not want our children to die

       wherever they may find themselves – in Afghanistan, in the United States,

       in Kenya, in  Palestine, in Israel. We need to strip away the ideologies

       and see the common pain of families when their loved ones die.

       Israeli women sent the same message when they placed an

       advertisement in Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper last week. Their eloquent

       words tell the story:

       “Stop the attack on Afghanistan!

       This is no war against terrorism - it is revenge for lost honor and a

       display of power by the rich and strong against the poor.

       "The main victims of this bombing will be Afghani citizens who are

       already

       suffering under the brutal Taliban regime, especially Afghani women.

       "War is never a solution, and the war on Afghanistan will not end

       terrorism.

       On the contrary - this poor, hungry, devastated, and humiliated people

       with

       their millions of refugees will have nothing to lose but their honor, and

       will fight for this honor with all the means at their disposal, even the

       tools of terrorism.

       "Terrorism can be prevented only by ending oppression, hunger, and

       humiliation.

       "Instead of killing and destroying those who rise up against them, the rich

       and sated countries should help build the infrastructure for a decent life

       and a just sharing of resources.  Food and education are preconditions,

       though not sufficient, for creating a more democratic and egalitarian

       society.

       "This universal principle holds true for Afghanistan, and for the

       Palestinians as well:  An Israeli-Palestinian peace can be achieved only

       by

       ending the occupation and the oppression.

       NO MORE WAR!”

        The advertisement was signed by the Coalition of Women for Peace

       made up of the following Israeli organisations:

       Bat Shalom, Machsom-Watch, NELED - "Women for Coexistence", New

       Profile: Movement for the Civil-ization of Israeli Society, Noga  Feminist

       Journal, TANDI -  Movement of Democratic Women for Israel, Women's

       International League for Peace and Freedom - Israel chapter, Women

       and Mothers for Peace - The re-grouped Four Mothers Movement, Women

       Engendering Peace, Women in Black.

       These women are as much part of those women on Thursday who

       marched in traditional Islamic garb. There were also those marching who

       carried extreme posters but there was a place too  for them to shout and

       voice there frustration. True tolerance is going to require that we allow

       the different voices but insist, as the MJC has done, that there be no

       physical attacks or damage done to our country, to Muslim, Jewish or

       American people. When all our rabbis, imams and priests take to the

       streets and assert a higher  morality, they will lead us away from war.

       George Bush and Osama Bin Ladin will take us to another Hiroshima or

       worse.

       When we brought peace to our apartheid-ravaged nation, we developed

       a third way. But this third way required pride to be swallowed, egos to be

       scaled down, uncomfortable compromises to be made. The hard

       challenge is for all those in the Middle East to settle their differences and

       for all the world to help do that or else be engulfed by an uncontrollable

       conflagration. Building peace now requires greater courage than piloting

       fighter planes.

           Ends

                 Zubeida Jaffer is an award-winning freelance journalist based in

            Cape Town. All comments can be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .