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LET HIM LIVE
The deadline* set by Australian Douglas Wood’s captors is less than four hours away. His family yesterday offered to establish a charity for Iraqis in order to secure Wood’s freedom:
Mr Wood’s brother Malcolm asked the kidnappers to show the same sense of charity the family was offering Iraqis.
Explaining that they could decide how the money should be spent, he said the family’s experience of the past few days had “forced us to reflect on the many difficulties, sorrows and humiliations experienced by the people of Iraq, who are our fellow brothers and sisters”.
Not the words (or course of action) I’d employ, in ideal circumstances. But these circumstances are as far from ideal as can be imagined. Wood’s family—desperate, but dignified—is doing everything possible to save his life.
Less worthy are comments from Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly, described as the “spiritual leader of Australian Muslims”, who is on his way to Iraq to rescue Douglas Wood—and to score vile and opportunistic political points in the process:
Calling for all Muslims to pray for Mr Wood, he says the 63-year-old engineer was in Iraq to help the Iraqi people and he should not suffer because of politics, “be they right or wrong”. “We value your jihad and your efforts, and we call upon you to do something for the sake of our community and all Australian society, which does not support Howard’s pro-American policies,” the Egyptian-born Sunni tells the kidnappers.
That line about “valuing jihad” was too much even for Keysar Trad, the Sheik’s former translator:
The former translator for Australia’s Muslim leader has criticised the mufti’s choice of language in a message sent to the captors of Australian hostage Douglas Wood.
“He has used language that’s not consistent with our expectations as Australians and I think he could have stopped at the first part of his statement without going this far and the message would have been just as clear.”
Foreign minister Alexander Downer is more forgiving:
He doesn’t say things which are consistent with the position of the Australian Government, but he nevertheless is entitled to his own point of view and he’s put his view out there and we hope that he might be able to make a contribution.
*Some confusion exists over the exact deadline. According to this SMH piece the deadline is 2am—“if the 72 hours set by insurgents for Australia to agree to withdraw troops from Iraq began when Reuters first reported the ultimatum early on Saturday.” In this SMH piece, however, the deadline is 5am Sydney time.
UPDATE. Californian reader Sean Paden writes:
For a number of years, an Australian family (husband, wife and daughter) lived across the street from my parent’s house when I grew up. According to my father, the Australian in question was Mr. Wood. It was such a long time ago that I honestly can’t recognize him from the picture.
My parents live in Buena Park, California (a city just on the south side of the LA/Orange County border, and not too far from Disneyland). My dad believes Mr. Wood lived across from us in Vestavia Avenue. His family would have lived there during the early 1970s, until around 1979.
I only saw Mr. Wood a couple of times and, like I mentioned before, can’t place the face to the pictures I’m seeing. His daughter, on the other hand, I used to hang out with quite a bit (she was a year older than me).
There are plenty of folks who would do a much better job eulogizing Douglas Wood than me, but it absolutely kicked me in the gut when I realized I (might) know him.
If he is executed, I suspect a number of articles and commentaries will spew forth from the usual gang of idiots asking, in some form or another, what his death accomplished. I’ve been thinking about that question all day to come up with an answer, and here it is: I don’t know what his death will accomplish, but his life accomplished a great deal. He helped rebuild a country and help a people that have been ravaged by the very fucking scum that now has the unmitigated gall to stand in his judgment. It is the terrorists who haven’t accomplished anything. Nobody is running away. Not the Americans. Not the Australians. Not the British. And last—but most important—not the Iraqis themselves. They are standing up to these bastards, and it is good men like Douglas Wood who helped make that outcome possible.
UPDATE II. Divergent views among the family of Nicholas Berg, murdered in Iraq last year:
[Father] Michael Berg holds President Bush chiefly responsible for his son’s death, blaming what he sees as Bush’s abuse of power … [Berg] has intensified his anti-war activities and traveled the globe to meet families of other civilians kidnapped or slain in Iraq.
[Sister] Sara Berg neither holds Bush responsible nor considers Nick’s death a result of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Instead, she considers it the premeditated work of terrorists.
“Somebody who gets killed in war, that is not murder, legally. That is a killing,” she said. “By calling (Nick’s death) an act of war, it gives a certain legitimacy to it that I don’t choose to give.”
While she once believed that terrorists should be captured alive and tried, she now says the inherent risk of such a mission outweighs their right to a trial.
“These individuals are capable of such horrendous evil and show no appreciation for human life,” Sara Berg said.
What she said.
While I’d normally slam al-Hilaly for insane remarks like that, it’s possible he’s simply trying to play to the captors, and thereby increase the chances of Wood’s release.
He certainly has a self-interest in securing Wood’s release - after all, few people have done more to sour the image of Muslims in Australia than al-Hilaly. It would be a public relations coup for the Mufti if he pulls it off.
And he knows more about how to deal with Arabs than the rest of us, so it may not be as nutty as we first thought.
Posted by Steve Edwards on 2005 05 09 at 01:14 PM • permalinkI think Steve Edwards makes a good point. However, it’s the ABC’s treatment of these comments that really pissed me off. Did you see the way they tried to skirt around them on the 7:30 Report last night? What is it about this guy Hilaly that broadcasters like the ABC and SBS feel they have to protect him. On 3 consecutive days last week we had stories featured on ABC’s midday news bulletin which maliciously sought to ridicule Christianity in the United States. There was of course no mention what-so-ever of the Sydney Sheik…not Hilaly this time…who blamed victims of rape for their fate. If we had a Christian Minister calling homosexuality immoral there would have been, as usual, a seismic reaction at every one’s ABC. Islamic Clerics are apparently immune from this.
It’s sickening, Brian, but you are correct. I can’t wait for Margaret Pomerantz to review that new film about the Crusades. Her “contribution” on Fahrenheit 9/11 has bad enough.
Posted by Steve Edwards on 2005 05 09 at 11:05 PM • permalinkHilaly spoke with the intention of getting the australian out of the custody of the hostages. he said the comments about jihad in the context of his opposition to the war in iraq.
naturally, mr blair, you are an expert in arabic language and linguistics. you therefore know quite well that the word ‘jihad’ means struggle. in technical religious terms, it is generally used to refer to a spiritual struggle which every human being goes through against their baser inclinations.
such jihad is even more necessary in a christian theological context where we are all condemned because Adam ate an apple a few million (or is it thousand?) years ago.
for iraqis, the term jihad would have been used in the context of the ongoing iraqi struggle for political stability and independence.
of course, none of this misunderstanding would have occurred if the mufti were able to speak english without an interpreter. but i guess the mufti is not the only cleric to make stupid and/or misunderstood remarks.
seeya
PlanetIrf - al-Hilaly spoke with the intention of trying to repair his abyssmal reputation. Do you honestly believe that he cares what happens to Douglas Wood or to any non-Muslim?
As for his ‘misunderstood remarks’-
” ... such kidnappings reflected badly on the Australian Islamic community and “we should not bear the burden of political mistakes”.
This is the true reason he is getting involved. He doesnt care about Douglas Wood. He cares only about his own reputation (too late for that!) and the reputation of the Islamic community, which is very bad.
“we value your jihad and your efforts and we call upon you to do something for the sake of our community and all Australian society, which does not support John Howard’s pro-American policies”.
Seems pretty clear to me. This repulsive person, who would have been deported but for the protection of Keating and the ALP, is now speaking for ‘all Australian society’?
al-Hilaly’s consistently vile remarks about Australian society and Jews is a matter of public record. Look it up some time. Or was it ‘mistranslated’?
As for Keysar Trad - I watched him on the Channel 9 Morning show, trying to defend the comments of another vile member of his community - the so-called ‘sheik’ who blamed women for their own rape. He tried to say these remarks were ‘misinterperted’ also, until the interviewer all but laughed at him.
If you think these remarks are simply silly or ‘misunderstood’, you are in dire need of anti-denial pills. Most Australians understand al-Hilaly all too well.
Gees, PlantetIRf, I would be surprised if Mr Blair had much expertise in arabic language and linguistics at all.
Probably has about the same level of expertise as you, I reckon.
If you think that this was an abherrant and misunderstood comment by the Shiek, I suggest you google a few of his previous mistranslated statements. Too many coincidences of ‘mistranslations’ for me.
you therefore know quite well that the word ‘jihad’ means struggle.
So does the German word “kampf”. But a “kampfgruppe” is not a “struggle group”, but rather a “combat group”. Quite often non-English words have meanings that overlap multiple English words.
Pull your head out, “Irf”, and stop inhaling the smoke the jihadis are blowing up your ass. Islam doesn’t mean “peace”—it means “submission”. Until 9/11, I had ONLY ever heard the latter definition.
Similarly, 99% of the time, “jihad” means violence—the “inner struggle” bit sounds good, but that’s all it is, pleasant noise. Any honest Muslim will tell you that no one gets into paradise as a martyr for dying while struggling with temptation, but all of them will admit that a jihadi who dies fighting the kaffir “in defense of Islam” gets his 72 virgins.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2005 05 10 at 12:22 PM • permalinkIrf, you know “crusade” means “great undertaking” as well?
What? It can be used in other contexts? Well, I never…
Posted by Quentin George on 2005 05 10 at 06:14 PM • permalinker, could someone please show me where in the sources of the moslem faith any reference is made to 72 virgins?
i repeat what i have said earlier. there is nothing conservative about casting stupid aspersions against a faith that is followed by 1/4 of the world’s population. instead of attacking the faith and its followers, some of you pseudo-conservatives should go and read its major texts.
but i guess understanding requires intelligence. intolerance and ignorance go hand-in-hand.
someone mentioned vile remarks made by hilaly against jewish people. i agree. no one has the right to cast aspersions on jewish australians. but every australian has the right to criticise a foreign state, especially one with enough nukes to blow australia off the planet.
if sir isaac isaacs can be opposed to zionism, why can’t any other australian?
Irf, I guess you must be trolling becuase I have rarely seen such a drqamatic attempt to change the issue of debate.
I agree that some of the comments here about the Islamic relgion are over the top and reckless. That is not the issue.It’s just that most people here don’t trust Hilaly based on his previous public comments.
hi entropy.
many muslim people i speak to are also unhappy with hilaly. they are upset because they regard him as unqualified to hold any leadership capacity.
for a start, it is a bit crazy having a head honcho in australia who cannot speak english. and on top of that, to have an interpreter who is not an accredited interpreter and translator.
but at the same time, muslim people (most of whom are socially conservative) are also sick of being asked to justify every stupid thing he says. and they are also sick of ignoramuses pretending to be authorities on islam after having read the back jackets of a few daniel pipes books.
if you wanna read what most muslims think, read this ...
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/04/27/1114462100745.html
i think that since this article was published, people are beginning to realise that caricatures like hilaly, trad and co are not representative of mainstream muslim opinion. and who are the mainstream?
go to an AFL or ARL game and look at all the ‘crazy john’ posters. john ilhan is mainstream. go and open an account with the national australia bank and help pay for the executive salaries including that of the CEO.
mainstream muslims are like mainstream jews - they are high achievers but are too busy being australian to worry about communalist crap.
seeya
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Life being a former translator is much easier for Keysar Trad these days where he does have to ....translate. However he has always been the master of saying one thing in English and another in Arabic.