Away from emotional loyalties, I offer the following uneasy challenge. We Muslims will not progress much until we learn to become a people who are results-oriented rather than a people who flare up with feel-good rhetoric and charged symbolism and deflate with the lack thereof. Remember Erdogans much-hailed one minutes speech at Davos where he stormed off the stage after telling Israeli president Shimon Peres you know how to kill? Arabs around the world exploded with elation and raced each other in Erdogan adulation, hailing him as the only Muslim leader with backbone. Erdogan, being the wiley politician, sensed the popularity kryptonite and waxed lyrical with more tough rhetoric and symbolism at every opportunity to this day. He even defiantly announced his intention to visit Gaza, the announcement was enough to heap praise, no one particularly cared that years later, he has still to actually visit (bah, details!). So now its time to do what many of us are often loathe to do: assess results. And so I ask, what did that Davos action or his subsequent rhetoric actually change? Turkey remained a primary trade partner for Israel; no actual policy was significantly changed, no sanctions levied, and no action taken. When Israel willed that it should kill again, it did not hesitate for one second nor did it give a hoot about what they rightly assessed to be empty rhetoric from our mighty hero. Erdogan and Erdogans Turkey is a complete non-factor. Thats the God-honest hard-to-accept truth for some. While strong diplomacy is to speak softly and carry a big stick, we seem to go gaga over leaders who speak lofty and carry small or no sticks. Thats true locally in the community and globally in the Ummah. Until that changes, until we replace emotional feel-good placebos, charged symbolism, and big but empty rhetoric with calm strategic persistence, results-oriented accountability, and measurable action, it will be status quo interrupted with ebbs of chest-beating outrage that fizzle into foam no sooner than the immediate stimulus subsides. So go ahead, inundate our FB newsfeed with Youtube clips by excited arabs exclaiming: did you see what Erdogan said... But take a moment to pause and ask, nevemind what he said, what did he do? Enough building up mythical figures just to placate our desperation. Let us learn to cut through the fat and drill down to the meat of things. Wheres the beef?
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 03:54:52 +0000
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