Decency, Indecency, and Hypocrisy

Blogger Sikander Hayat writes:

"Israel is making difficult for its friends in the Muslim world to stay friends with it by constantly killing innocent people. Be it Turkey or Egypt, Israel’s actions have made it near impossible for the governments in the said countries to overtly support it. "

He raises an interesting point.

If we're talking about killing innocent people, I haven't noticed the Muslim world exactly falling over itself to condemn Hamas, now or ever...and they've been known to kill a fair amount of innocent people. Except, unlike the IDF Hamas deliberately targets civiians, don't they?

Or what about the Sudan's President Bashir who's got an arrest warrant out on him by the ICC and InterPol for what he ordered done to innocent people in Darfur?

The Muslim world ain't condemning him either. He's travelled to Egypt, Libya and Qatar and is getting a hero's welcome at the Arab League Summit as I write this!

Can Mr. Hayat spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y? I'm sure he can.

I would also question Mr Hayat's premise that Egypt is really a friend of Israel, given the popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood and the anti-Semitic propaganda and incitement that is routine in the Egyptian media. What Egypt and Israel have is essentially an armistice, based on the fact that the Egyptian regime knows it can't afford to lose another war with Israel, with $1.5 billion of desperately needed US aid in the balance and a sucession for the Mubarak regime close at hand.

As for Turkey, as PM Tayip Erdogan's Islamist government gets more of a handle over the secular military, that friendship has become pretty strained too. When a spoiled brat like Erdogan can throw a biased tantrum in public that even sparks a response out of an old dove like Shimon Peres, it tells us something, doesn't it?

The world is not divided by Muslim and non-Muslim, but by the decent and indecent.

It'a a source of sadness to me that so many Muslims ( not all, thank G-d) are unwilling to make a stand for decency and place that above tribal loyalty. Ultimately, it will cost them a great deal.