| Fadlullah: Obama should start by withdrawing the laws of "psychological restraint" conducted against Muslims in his country |
His Eminence, the Religious Authority Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah, issued a statement addressing some of the issues recently brought up by the American President. The following is the text of the statement:
The American President's last visit to the region has left several impressions that something is changing in the United States of America and the movement of the new Administration. However, the effects did not go beyond the rhetoric and the reconciliation-based language, especially concerning the relation with the Arab and Islamic world and it stayed within the generalities that the American President has mastered conveying to others, through which he sent messages of friendship to both, the Arab and Islamic worlds, that did not actually sense any practical effects or results for it up till now…
The talk that the USA is not in a state of war with Islam is beautiful; however, a certain conduct, derived from it ought to be initiated, especially inside the United States itself, in which a huge number of Muslims feel that they are accused until proven not guilty… At the time that the American President is seeking to close the Guantanamo prison, he would better start by releasing the Muslims inside The United States of America and taking them out of the circle of psychological restraint and legal pursuit based on the assumption that they are suspects; the assumption that everyone realizes how it was started by the American agencies on inhuman backgrounds, especially that many Muslims have left their original countries under the pressure of emergency laws and intelligence pursuits, heading for countries they thought they enjoyed freedom and democracy, but instead, these countries dealt with them in accordance to the laws of the third world set by emperors and moved by dictatorships. The former American President, Bush, has admitted that his country has strived to protect these dictatorships for over sixty years.
If the American President is urging his country and the countries of the European Union to treat Muslims as friends, neighbors, and partners in confronting injustice, then he ought to prove his respect to this friendship by withdrawing the laws that justify their random pursuit in his country. In addition, his explicit commitment to work against oppression, imposes on him to reject the Israeli oppression represented by the occupation and its savage practices in occupied Palestine, and to stop providing this entity with weapons of genocide, with which our peoples are killed on a daily basis, including the cluster bombs that haunt our children, women, and elderly in all the fields, gardens, and valleys of the South… The fact is that Amnesty International has mentioned in a statement issued a few days ago that Israel has obtained a large shipment of weapons sent by the United States of America, which arouses doubts on Obama's readiness to interfere to prevent Israel from waging a new aggression that might include war crimes, and breaching the International Law, like what happened in Gaza… as mentioned in the statement of Amnesty International.
We listened to the American President setting forth the theory of rendering the world free of nuclear weapons, and that the moral responsibility is on the shoulders of his country being the only force that used this weapon… However, the question lies in how can these words be "cashed out", and is America ready to abandon its imperial ambitions and disengage its nuclear arsenal, in an attempt to convince others to go down the same path?
Will the American Department of Defense's abandonment of certain armament programs be an overture to prevent weapon deals from crossing the oceans to reach the enemy's entity, or is the matter simply a devious one, so that it would be said that America has brought up human suggestions that the world did not respond to properly?
We believe that the American President's Administration ought to start setting practical strategies for the issues presented by Obama, and to go through executive plans and programs to interpret them, and convince the Islamic world, by actions and not just sayings, that it is not an occupying force, nor does it seek to put its hands on the Arab and Islamic wealth, and that it will stand against the occupation, considering that it is the most horrible state of oppression and the highest level of terrorism. In addition, it ought to convince them that its foreign policy will be based on listening to everyone and make balanced decisions that are not based on dictations that send practical friendship letters to Israel and the verbal ones to the Arabs and Muslims who did not witness even one American stand taking the path of justice, concerning their issues, especially the Palestinian cause.
The American President has adopted a rhetoric that exhilarated many people in our countries, now it is time for him to take practical steps and not to confine them to sending emotional and passionate messages from Islamic platforms, at the time his country sends huge military shipments to Israel…
We believe that the Arab and Islamic world, represented by its rational vanguards and responsible circles, should not only listen to others, but they also ought to play their role by submitting to the Americans and others, studies and researches on how to promote the real peace between our peoples, for we are the nation of peace and dialogue that seeks building strong friendships with all the peoples of the world and works – inspired by its principles and values – to stand against oppression and oppressors, regardless of their identity, affiliations, and goals.