After hearing the news of the terrorist attacks in Paris, I decided to go and read some comments by Muslims on social media. Much of what I found was in line with my expectations: a lot of Muslims were blaming the "West" for the creation of ISIS, saying that worse tragedies were happening in the Middle East without much media coverage, and denying that there could ever be Muslims as extremist as ISIS members.
This is not the first time I, as an Arab living in the Middle East, have seen this sort of denial and lack of introspection from many Muslims. When Morsi was ousted in 2013, a lot of Egyptians accused the West of conspiring against him and the Muslim Brotherhood in a "war on Islam," supposedly to stop Egypt from developing and obstruct the creation of a true Islamic state. On the other side of the coin, many on the anti-Brotherhood and anti-Morsi side stated that the West was upset with Morsi's ouster and that he served the West's interests in Egypt and the Middle East.
There were and are two diametrically opposed political sides in Egypt, but there is only one constant between them: they both blame a lot of the country's problems and its regimes' misgivings—both the misgivings of Morsi's regime and the current one—on the West and Israel. Actually, a common theme of this sort of placing blame on the West and Israel is saying that Morsi's ouster was to protect Israel, and, on the other side of the coin yet again, saying that the West hates As-Sisi because he wants to advance Egypt and doesn't serve Israel's and the United States' best interests.
Personally, I think it is time the Muslim world, especially the Arab world, stopped scapegoating others and refusing to own up to the problems they are primarily responsible for. Yes, a lot of developed countries (including Israel) have committed war crimes in the Middle East and interfered in the region to advance their own interests at the expense of Middle Eastern people, but let's be real. The region also has a lot of problems that it and only it has created. The first step toward fixing something is recognizing and admitting that it is broken, and this Arab recognizes that much of what is going very, very wrong in his country of birth is due to a lot of its own people's and governments' mistakes and selfishness.
Wake up, Middle East. Introspection is the only way out, not scapegoating, avoidance, and denial.
This is not the first time I, as an Arab living in the Middle East, have seen this sort of denial and lack of introspection from many Muslims. When Morsi was ousted in 2013, a lot of Egyptians accused the West of conspiring against him and the Muslim Brotherhood in a "war on Islam," supposedly to stop Egypt from developing and obstruct the creation of a true Islamic state. On the other side of the coin, many on the anti-Brotherhood and anti-Morsi side stated that the West was upset with Morsi's ouster and that he served the West's interests in Egypt and the Middle East.
There were and are two diametrically opposed political sides in Egypt, but there is only one constant between them: they both blame a lot of the country's problems and its regimes' misgivings—both the misgivings of Morsi's regime and the current one—on the West and Israel. Actually, a common theme of this sort of placing blame on the West and Israel is saying that Morsi's ouster was to protect Israel, and, on the other side of the coin yet again, saying that the West hates As-Sisi because he wants to advance Egypt and doesn't serve Israel's and the United States' best interests.
Personally, I think it is time the Muslim world, especially the Arab world, stopped scapegoating others and refusing to own up to the problems they are primarily responsible for. Yes, a lot of developed countries (including Israel) have committed war crimes in the Middle East and interfered in the region to advance their own interests at the expense of Middle Eastern people, but let's be real. The region also has a lot of problems that it and only it has created. The first step toward fixing something is recognizing and admitting that it is broken, and this Arab recognizes that much of what is going very, very wrong in his country of birth is due to a lot of its own people's and governments' mistakes and selfishness.
Wake up, Middle East. Introspection is the only way out, not scapegoating, avoidance, and denial.
