THERE is a folktale that supposedly dates back to the era of Prophet Suleiman (Solomon) (PBUH). One day, a bird went to a pool of water to quench its thirst, but found some children near it. Fearing for its life, the bird decided to wait until the children left in order to drink water from that pool.
By chance, a man with a long beard came to the pool. Seeing the man, the bird thought, “This is a dignified man who cannot harm me.” It then went down to the pool to drink. But the man threw a stone at it, which hit its eyes. The bird then reported the incident to Prophet Suleiman (PBUH), who summoned the man and asked him if the bird owed him anything that allowed him to hit it with a stone.
The man said, “No”. Then Prophet Suleiman (PBUH) issued his ruling that the man’s eye be gouged, but the bird objected, saying, “O Prophet of Allah, it is not his eye that deceived me, but rather his beard … So I request that he be shaved as a punishment so that he does not dupe anyone else.”
Irrespective of the source of this story, it expresses a reality that the Arabs lived in for about a century, as they were led to fall into the clutches of the trick of long beards, shortened clothes, and perhaps a star imprinted on the forehead of religious claimants to complete the trick they use to achieve their goals.
Arabs and Muslims have swallowed the poison of extremism through this game, which the followers of partisan Islamization groups have mastered. Their lie has spread to a wide segment of the elites in our countries, especially the Gulf countries, which allowed them to infiltrate the joints of some countries.
For a century, that poison was able to infiltrate the Arab body until it brought us to a sea of blood among the people of the same country. This happened in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and before that, Algeria. Its deadly effects appeared in Egypt after the uprising of 25th January 2011 when the Muslim Brotherhood Group hijacked the sacrifices of tens of millions and took control of the elections to usurp power.
In this matter, the deceitful appearances of the Sunnis did not differ from that of the Shiite extremists. Both drank from the same tap of extremism, and the symptoms of the disease appeared after Khomeini’s coup against the Shah of Iran, who kindled the fire of extremism in the region.
Hence, these groups began to work on framing societies according to their vision, by changing the educational curricula disguised as blaspheming governments and rulers who do not agree with them in that vision, and portraying them as being outside the religion and faith.
Similar is the case in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where the Muslim Brotherhood Group has reached decision-making positions, and imposed a social behavior that weakened national immunity. For example, we began to read about sectarian differences and the two parties’ atonement for each other. We hear fatwas that contradict the provisions of the Quran and the Sunnah (traditions) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
These groups also imposed their own laws, especially in Kuwait, which today suffers from a great disregard to its heritage of tolerance and openness, and has almost become a “Afghanistan-Taliban” but in “dishdasha”, “ghutra” and “eqal” (headband).
In fact, this is the basis of the problems that the country is currently experiencing. After this group put a siege on the legislative authority, it sought to weaken the executive authority, which unfortunately provided it, intentionally or unintentionally, with all the tools on a silver platter to practice its political prostitution and to paralyze the country.
The bird was wise when it asked for the man’s beard to be shaved, so that others would not be duped by appearances and fall into the trap of those who claim to be religious and corrupt any land they exist in.
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
