[Skybird]

I mentioned this author repeatedly in the past.

Hamed Abdel-Samad on Christchurch

Those who, after an Islamist terrorist attack, always emphasize that terror has no religion, have stated after the attack on the mosque in New Zealand that terror has a race after all. The same people, who rightly demand that Muslims should not be placed under general suspicion, are now freely talking about the „white man“ as a category.

We often tend to stamp a whole group either as victims or as perpetrators. But self-exaltation, self-flagellation, and victimhood are mechanisms to flee from reality.

Every person, regardless of race or religion, is capable of anything, both positive and negative. However, there are factors and thought patterns that promote hatred and exclusion, such as believing that one’s own group is chosen and above humanity. This thinking is common among Muslims as well as white men. The „white supremacists“ do not differ much from the „muslim supremacists“. Both are exclusive and believe in a world conspiracy against them. Both have a colonial project and dream of bringing the world under their control. Both hate each other outwardly, but in reality they inspire each other and provide each other with arguments for survival.

Modernity has massively weakened three pillars of classical identity: nation, religion, masculinity. It has enabled us to distance ourselves from these identity anchors or relativise them. Not many can live with this ambivalence. You need clear identity contours. The white supremacists and muslim supremacists are now leading a counter-revolution against modernity and want to bring this trinity back to its old strength.

The question now is, what do we have about identity models in the Islamic world and in the West in response to this counterrevolution?
The economic, political and cultural asymmetry between East and West is growing, providing more fuel for hatred on extremists on both sides. Education in the Islamic world does not manage to break away from this exclusive thinking and to open up to modern, flexible identity models. In the West, on the other hand, modernity and the Enlightenment are partly relativized in order to integrate inflexible and sometimes radical ways of life. This inspires both the white supremacists and the muslim supremacists as well as other radical currents - and weakens the sensible. We have expanded pluralism so far, but no common denominator for peaceful coexistence.

The problem is that our commitment to freedom is as weak as it has been in a long time!

https://www.achgut.com/artikel/hamed...u_christchurch