Hazem Saghieh

Many have noticed that Fatah al-Islam kidnaps "Fatah" Movement and, therefore, the Palestinian cause and its heritage, and, at the same time, kidnaps Islam. However, as long as language has a meaning, it is not enough to record the fact of kidnapping and forgery and then suffice to say that Islam and Palestine are innocent of their being abused.

The abuse of Islam must be stopped, as should the abuse of Palestine, in politics, for ever. Fatah al-Islam is not the first, or last, to practice this abuse.

Many regimes, organizations and parties have done the same before Shaker al-Absi and his group did. Each practiced kidnapping and forgery in their own way, although some of them are completely irreligious, and others have only verbal linkage to Palestine . Such misuse, in many countries, has reached the extent of considering kidnapping, murder and beheading, in Algeria and then in Iraq, as activities that bring victory to Islam and Palestine!

The reproduction and spread of the phenomenon come as a result of many factors, including the emotional position of Islam and Palestine among many people, as well as poverty, frustration, spread of illiteracy, and the sense of humiliation. However, the most important reason is the weakness of political and constitutional legitimacy of political actors, the ruler and the ruled alike; the power and the opposition or dissented party.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that what is called politics in Arab life is nothing but a bloody game played by all parties which lack, though unevenly, political legitimacy. Due to this structural weakness, it is easy to resort to Islam and Palestine to compensate for the lack of that legitimacy, to drown that lacking in demagogue, and also to cover the inability to link politics with their national sources. The less the answers we have for these pressing questions which are related to promoting viable Arab nation states, the more the tendency to take politics toward religion, or toward associating it with fighting Israel or resisting America along, of course, with the 'Jews', 'Crusaders' and many imagined enemies.

It is impossible to halt that phenomenon without drawing some lines of demarcation supported by education curricula, media strategies, along with political, cultural and religious discourses.

Islam, as a religion, is above the realm of politics; and Palestine lies behind the national policies of each concerned country even if it intersects with these polices at one point or another. Otherwise, this will lead not only to insulting Palestine and Islam, but also insulting politics which have become a tool of cheap manipulation and cheaper overbids used by military despotism as well as the forces of civil wars.

A ruler should not fall because he made peace with Israel or because he is "God's enemy"; nor should be supported because he has fought Israel or because he is "God's beloved". The ruler's integrity is tested by his record in politics, namely in security, economy, health, education, construction, gaining more friends for the country he rules, and avoiding wars and disasters.

Such a change in the political and intellectual mode might help to dry out the sources of the groups that misuse Islam and Palestine, both of them in most cases. However, these tiny groups turn overnight, thanks to the easiness of kidnapping Islam and Palestine , in addition to the general economic and social situation, into forces that cannot be underestimated and whose influence should be taken into account as if they have a huge historical stature.

Hazem Saghieh is the editor of the Arabic newspaper Dar al-Hayat