A father yearning for a long-waited reunion with his daughter loses the glitter of her rejoicing eyes to the flames of a triple bombing attack in Amman on November 9. Their hands hadn't even touched. That tragedy was prolonged with the loss of the same grieving father hours later. As their blood blended in the same pool in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt hotel, their souls sought a long waited reunion in death. The lives of two guiltless souls, Mustapha Al Akkad and his beloved child, were lost in a cheap terrorist attack.
The loss is grave. Akkad, the Syrian international film director, had spent a lifetime spreading worldwide the innate mercy and tolerance of Islamic values. He took Arab and Muslim pride and dignity to the heart of Hollywood. He was a class of his own, who combined professional excellence with profundity and purpose.
In his film, "The Message", Akkad had shown to the world the true inclusive and tolerant nature of the holy message of Islam, the religion that spread by inducing faith and respect rather than fear and intimidation. The film celebrates the moral teachings of the message of the Prophet Mohammed, which are most needed in our world of today. Even while abused and persecuted, the prophet forbade his companions and followers to cut a tree, kill a child or a woman, and humiliate or torture a captive. He taught them to obey and observe God's commands in all they did and said. The world, West and East, its racists and extremists, are in dire need of "The Message".
The calamity is painfully paradoxical. The protagonist of Islam was killed at the hands of "Islamist" terrorism, in a Muslim capital, on his way to Damascus to celebrate the world's movie culture.
It is another replay of the ferocious terrorism that has wasted thousands of innocent lives in the mosques, market-places and streets of Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Turkey, obliterating with these lives the true face of Islam from the collective memory of the world. This thereby offered a free service to racism and the conflict of cultures.
The painful loss shows, once more, that terrorism threatens us all in the East and West, and North and South. It is not restricted to a region, race, or religion. Dressing terrorism up in such exclusive attire, or worse, masking it with minor successes, undermines any strategy to face and defeat it.
Officials in the West talk about elections in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan as the promising spring for their people, and about economic and political reform in the Middle East and North Africa are bearing fruit. They talk about democracy and modernization, and bypass occupation, the rage it evokes, and the racism it spreads. They talk as if elections are an all-purpose remedy. The raging uprising in France, with its long-established European democracy, shows that elections are not the only criterion for democracy, and that human dignity, security, and equality are just as essential. Otherwise, violence would not have become the medium of expression.
The world is in dire need for honest and truthful examination of human suffering everywhere. Passing accusations, and dividing the world into civilized and uncivilized, democratic and non-democratic halves is not a solution. Some international soul-searching is overdue.
The murder of Akkad, director of "The Message" and "Omar Al Mukhtar", in the name of Islam, should rouse Muslims around the world to the fight. We should be in the first ranks to eradicate the criminals in both East and West. Islam and terrorism are not two faces of the same coin, as many benefit to claim. Muslims, ahead of all people on earth, are suffering the gravest loss and paying the highest price for such self-serving misconceptions. The loss of Mustapha Al Akkad is a painful and unforgettable testimony.
Bouthaina Shaaban is Syrian minister of expatriates.
Viewpoint: The Message
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