Fear and hate are the prevailing sentiments in today's world. As fear leads to anger which in turn leads to hate that consequently leads to suffering, it seems that globalisation has had its negative impact on everything around us, even our feelings.
The negative results of globalisation can be attributed to the advancement in the tools of the media and information technology. Even as the world shrinks with the advancements in technology, the divide between nations and peoples deepens culturally and socially.
People in today's world don't fear from the other as a human being or society that differs in culture, colour or faith only, but also fear from nature and its devastating disasters as well as from corruption and excessive consumption.
People also fear from tomorrow, instead of hoping that every new day will bring good news for a better life. People fear from what will happen in their countries, while others experience daily terrorist acts as a result of foreign occupation or domestic oppression.
We today live in a state of uncertainty in a dark world where there are entire communities that fear from ghosts, while others are living as ghosts. Yet, they all share the fear of the unknown future.
The world as a whole has been living in this state since September 11, 2001 specifically, as this day has become a black day in history following the attacks.
Since then, the world is driven by blind anger that does not differentiate between guilty and innocent people, as the September attacks have been used as a pretext by the neo-conservatives in Washington to adopt a foolish policy based on fuelling fear, anger and hate.
Emerged victorious
September 11 was a black day on which extremism emerged victorious in its battle against innocent people everywhere, and gave a boost to all political and religious extremists who serve each other even if they fight in different arenas where all their victims are only the innocents.
Following the criminal attacks and the exposure of the policy of stoking people's fear, anger and hate, racists in Europe and the US called for condemning Islam and Muslims, not for holding the perpetrators responsible for what they did, but to divide the world between communities living in fear and others living on hate. In 1990s and after the fall of the Soviet Union, many Arabs wrote about Israeli plans to make Islam "the West's new enemy". Meanwhile, some others in the US and the West wrote about the theory on the clash of civilisations. Yet, these writings and theories remained ink on paper until attacks on September 11, 2001.
This war launched by the US and the West against Islam and Arabs is failing, as it was based on a wrong theory. They just adopted and repeated the methods they used in their struggle against communism during the Cold War.
This is simply because the communist enemy (USSR) actually governed huge countries spanning from the Far East to Central Europe, in addition to communist parties in most parts of the world.
Moscow already possessed nuclear bombs directed at America and its western allies, then what explains the reality of the "new enemy"?
It is ‘the War of Ghosts', but is based on violent means adopted by extremist groups that have been practising terrorism in their countries and against their people first, similar to what happened in several Arab and Islamic nations.
Prior to divine religions, some people worshipped the fire and made it a deity. With the exception of the sanctity given by the Hindus to the Ganges River, history has not told us about people who worship water!
Although human body cannot go more than a few days without water, which also covers more than two-thirds of the earth's surface, ancient people never gave it the sanctity given to fire.
I wonder if this is a confirmation that people, specifically the ignorant ones who proceeded the ages of monotheistic religions, often resorted to glorifying a symbol of violence and destruction, driven by their fear, while ignoring good and useful things.
Add to this the concerns of global warming and the fear of climate change which threatens the future of the planet with drought or flooding, which could significantly affect the four seasons and leave the Earth between harsh hot summer or cold winter. This natural imbalance is probably made by man who was supposed to protect his planet.
It seems that we are now living in the age of extremism, in terms of ideas and beliefs, with fear, anger and hate are prevailing over everything else.
We are living in a world where one does not like the other who has different ideas or belongs to a different nation and culture.
It is more important today than evey to adopt moderation in dealing with the other regardless of his religious, ethnic and ideological backgrounds.
No doubt that embracing the method of moderation and rejection of extremism is the only way out of this dark path.
In other words, the difference between people is God's will and one of His norms of the Creation, but extremists or those who call for extremism and belong to different religions and nations, want the world to be the way they are. They believe in one thing "You are either with us, or against us" and threaten those who contradict them with excommunication, even if they are from the same religion and nation.
This is a destructive way of thinking that feeds on acts of extremism that are carried out by other extremists in other places.
However, those who feed on others' divisions and stoke violence and extremism will come to their end soon, because there are still good and moderate people who will intervene to stop them.
Sobhi Ghandour is the head of Al Hewar Centre in Washington.
