A Monolith of Faithful Violence

It has often been pointed out that the West doesn't understand that Islam includes people from various walks of life having little in common with one another but their shared religion. Islam is worshipped in many countries of the world, both democratic in governance and on the other hand many that represent Muslim-led theocracies. People from various ethnic groups having little in common but their faith in Islam. For that reason, it is pointed out, Islam is not monolithic and should not be viewed as such. Fair enough, and readily understood.

But there is something that places Islam and its faithful apart from many other groups of faith and that is its blind passion. In the sense that believers appear to be willing to be led astray, to believe where they should question, to allow themselves to be wilfully manipulated - as a group. How else to explain the universal outrage within the Muslim world that erupted in a carefully constructed choreography by religious leaders to demonstrate to the world at large that Muslims will not sit idly by while their religion suffers the indignity of comic censure?

The instances of the publication of the Danish cartoons come to mind, most of which were harmless enough in their depictions and intent, a few of which were cynical in nature but true to the reality of political cartooning and most especially in the more modern relaxed atmosphere of pricking just about anyone's pretentions. As I saw it at the time and still do, while Muslims were protesting that Islam is a religion of peace, their co-religionists were busy blowing up innocent civilians.

Muslims were busier trying to defend themselves against charges of silent assent than decrying the atrocities perpetrated in the name of their religion. The kind of mass protest that was launched in protest at the publication of the offending cartoons could have been launched against the murderous assaults by Islamists against Western targets, but it just didn't happen. We saw protests launched again when the Pope's address wherein he quoted the condemnatory opinion of Islam as a religion of Peace by a medieval writer came to light and was used in the same way by opportunistic Muslim leaders.

And now, the latest, an innocent-enough public works project launched in Jerusalem around the holy site of the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The project was undertaken as a result of a pre-existing access ramp having been damaged by an earthquake in 2004. Its purpose is to reconstruct the ramp safely for the "benefit and safety of visitors". Any governing authority, particularly one tasked with the unkeep of important monuments of one kind or another commonly visited by local citizens as well as tourists has that civic obligation of responsibility.

Yet this handily presents itself as yet another opportunity for Islamic teachers, imams, ayatollahs to besmirch the intent and responsibility of the authority of Israel. To enlist public support from among their followers they insist that this is an Israeli plot to "Judaize Jerusalem", as they urge Muslims throughout the world to "protect" East Jerusalem and the mosque compound. The Israeli work amounts to "hostile measures" they claim, describing the issue as one resulting in a "day of Palestinian anger".

Oh dear. Despite protestations of innocence of such diaboligical designs by Israeli authorities, the issue has been brought to the Security Council of the United Nations on the insistence of the Arab nations. Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni has attempted time and again to assure protesters that the preparatory excavation work would do no damage, explaining that extremists are attempting to exploit already-existing tensions around the site.

"There are irresponsible elements, who know full well that no harm is being caused here to any holy site, who are exploiting Israeli democracy to fan religious feelings for political gain", said Ms. Livni. And who in their right mind can deny that? The thing of it is, religious fervor invoked draws people completely out of their right minds and into the sphere of religious fantasy inspiring a fantical display of holy fervour for their undying cause.

Tourists had their bus bombarded with bricks, stones and bottles by a mob of Palestinian youth protesting the construction project. Which, in actual fact, is closer to the Wailing Wall, the foremost holy symbol of religious worship for Jews, than it is to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third most-important venue for Muslims. The excavations are about 50 metres from the mosque.

Palestinians don't seem to need much of an excuse to riot in exercise of their rights of assembly and protest under the protection of Israeli laws. And it's a mixed blessing for them to take world attention and censure away from the unseemly fratricidal blood-letting by the fanatical militias of Hamas and Fatah over the past several weeks, and to focus it instead on the ongoing plight of the Palestinians, imagined or real.

Their response to the manipulations of their issue-seeking imams is certainly monolithic in nature, or so it seems to this onlooker. And yet, I recall seeing the photograph of an area Palestinian shopkeeper loath to shut up his business during the day of protest, being strong-armed by masked members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Still, for the most part this is a unified and illogical response to any and all perceived irritations.

The busy minds of the religious leaders finding fault and due cause to foment mass outrage in the name of Islam, triumphant in their exhibited power to unnerve and bully others into meek acquiescence. Just to make them go away, for heaven's sake, for they are unrelenting. Israel, for her part, has invited foreign journalists to the dig site to examine for themselves that the work poses no danger to the mosque.

It is also thinking of placing video cameras on site to provide a record for posterity, to counter what Israel's security minister, Avi Dichter, calls Arab propaganda of the mosque endangerment. Good luck.