Former US president Jimmy Carter once said: “We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don’t make us weak. They’re the source of our strength.” Although I cannot fault his basic message, I believe it needs a slight qualification: Differences can indeed be a source of strength. But if mishandled, they can also be a cause of weakness and strife.
We need only to look at the horrific recent events in Tunisia, Kuwait or Charleston in the United States for evidence of how “differences” can be twisted into an apparent justification for mass murder. How can this keep happening? How can educated adults fall into this trap over and over again?
When we talk of civil war, people of my generation see images of Iraq, Libya, Rwanda or Yugoslavia. But what makes a “civil” issue so difficult and malevolent is that the enemy is more than just a physical target — it is an ideology. While armies or individual fighters can be physically attacked and overcome, combating an ideology is much harder — something that the world is only now coming to understand.
Our region’s never-ending geopolitical challenges have reached a new crossroads with the dangerous enemy of sectarianism. Sectarianism is not new, and historically it has been overcome by the general goodwill of the public and the presence of a common cause or common enemy. However, nowadays we have fanatical groups who pride themselves on being the “true” representatives of the Sunni or Shiite sect; who fight and kill in order to become “the rightful defenders of Islam”. In the warped minds of these deluded individuals, terrorist attacks on innocent people are not only justified, they are necessary. “Convert or be purged” is the approach. What makes sectarianism even more dangerous is that anyone can be deemed to be an enemy and there is an inevitable increase in mutual hostility after every attack. There will always be people who exploit extreme ideologies for their own benefit and playing the sectarian card has been both historically popular and depressingly effective. To blame and point fingers is easier than sitting down, discussing and working on genuine, long-term change and understanding. People are impatient and prefer an instant justification of their failings rather than spending years working patiently to achieve a goal.
Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslavia, for example, was a unique example of international prominence during the Cold War era, attracting praise from both the capitalist West and the Communist East for its apparent ability to unite Orthodox and Catholic christians and Muslims under one flag, setting the standard for Eastern Europe, both economically and socially. Ironically though, that same make-up also led to its rapid downfall and to the Yugoslav Wars. Neighbours killed neighbours in an outpouring of hate and Tito’s great empire very quickly fell apart as a result of a few individuals’ lust for power. While some of them have faced the tribunal at The Hague, it amazes me how they were able to influence thousands to follow their words and to commit genocidal atrocities. A similarly horrific tale can be told in Northern Ireland and Rwanda.
The consequences of this impatience can themselves last for centuries, not only in the lives lost and the families destroyed, but also in the impact on societies and countries themselves. In any case, the simple reality is that unity and social synergy will take social and economic growth far beyond anything offered by those sowing division or hatred. We may be different and we may disagree, but if we have respect for ourselves and each other as human beings, we can come to an understanding and work together for our mutual benefit.
So, extreme ideologies such as sectarianism can be beaten, through education and enlightenment, and through a focus on our shared humanity. We need to educate our youth, in schools, at home, in our neighbourhoods, and in our cultural centres, to respect and accept people from different educational and ethnic backgrounds in one society. Social and religious leaders must play a key role in leading and guiding people through this dangerous predicament.
More than 2,500 years ago, the Greek writer Aesop said: “United we stand, divided we fall.” While it is all too easy to plant the seeds of hate and to nourish them with impatience or indifference, it is a far harder task to take down the tree, roots and all.
Hatem Abdulhameed Hatem is a Bahrain-based writer.
