In my current time zone it is 12:13 A.M. and it is May 3, 2011 - a Tuesday. For some it is still late night, for others early in the morning. As a visual illustration for today's title of my rap I choose a photo taken in southern Morocco - it speaks for itself and the headline here, coming across as a calm counter-point to the rather intense times we can witness everywhere these days. A lot has happened in the last few days and Allah knows what's gonna happen next? A terrorist attack has shaken Marrakesh and destroyed the Cafe Argana, one of my regular hang-outs at the Jemaa Al-Fna Square in the Medina. Luckily I was at the right time far away in a different city of another country and also none of my friends were hurt. Yet some innocent people died due to this horrible terrorist manifestation, spreading fear and insecurity, sadness and anger!
Meanwhile Osama Bin Laden was finally caught and shot in Pakistan. How do we as queer and progressive Muslims react? In certain parts of the US people are celebrating this event as a joyful victory. In other parts of the world people ask some vital questions about the legitimacy of the US army entering Pakistan - supposedly without any knowledge of the Pakistani government - to execute Osama. Why now and is this really Osama Bin Laden? Could he have really lived all this time in this compound without any knowledge of the local secret service and/or government? Wouldn't it have been better to get him alive and put him to trial at an international court? Where is the visual evidence, the detailed proofs? There are lots of questions and the more I think and reflect the more I want to ask. Wouldn't you?
I'm certainly not in favor of Osama Bin Laden & Co. or his perverted and retrograde ideas of Islam nor am I per se anti or pro American - but does his death really mark an end of terrorism? Perhaps the era of tyrants is over as we can see when looking at the Arab revolutions in progress - yet the road to utter freedom has not been reached fully and the problem of terrorism and its roots has really not been solved at all, for that we need some inner quantum leaps, as well as drastic changes in the exterior world. Osama is dead, but unfortunately there might be quite a few people who are still dreaming similar sick dreams as he did. In other words, we are far removed to waltz off into a terrorism-free sunset, I'm sorry to say. But let's not be naive, or cultivating an easy as apple pie mentality. The truth of the matter is unfortunately somewhat more challenging and not as easy as we would like it to be.
On the other hand it ain't a dull period of time. What matters is what we individually and collectively make of it.
Ya Haqq wa ishq bashad saludos,
Rahal
