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WHAT IS TRUTH ?
Sitting in New York, watching the news of the war in Iraq coming in from all around the world, I watch Al Jazeerah, MSNBC, the BBC, French, German and Italian Television and they are all saying different things. I am left with a question. What is truth?
I see pictures of American troops at Baghdad Airport and a minute later I can see the Iraqi minister of information Saeed al Sahaf, declare there are no Americans there because they are all trapped in the south. I hear American spokesmen say their soldiers are not firing into a Mosque in Najaf and a minute later I see that according to a Pakistani journalist they have destroyed it. I see pictures of Americans distributing food and water and then I see an Egyptian reporter say that they are intentionally killing children and raping women. I see American soldiers backing away from confrontation with Shiites in front of a mosque and then I read a Syrian report that the cowards were scared off by rock throwing worshippers. I hear a Sayeed Ali Husaini Sistani say that Iraqis are using women and children as human shields and then I hear a report from Dubai that he didn’t say it. I see him appear on Television to confirm his Fatwa that Iraqis should not impede coalition troops and then I see someone in Dubai say he was forced to say what he said by the Americans. Television footage shows Iraqi civilians walking towards British soldiers and shot from behind and then I hear that they were shot by Britons. Arab stations declare that Israeli soldiers and planes are fighting in Iraq but Americans and Israelis deny it. ‘Embedded’ journalists report the war one way and newspapers throughout the Muslim world report it another way. Opponents of the war say it is about American power, Christian Imperialism, Oil, Zionism and sometimes all three. Leave aside Muslim perceptions, in so-called Free Western Societies some say the war in Iraq is a scandal and others say it is a relief to oppressed Iraqis.
I am confused. Who do I believe?
Now all this is nothing new. The Christians called them ‘The Glorious Crusades’ but for us Jews and Muslims they were a disastrous period of massacres and oppression. Israelis celebrate Independence Day and Palestinians mourn Al Naqba. Americans say it was Saudi citizens who carried out the 9/11 attacks but many others claim to have proof that it was either the CIA or it was Mossad. Israelis claim they have offered concessions. Palestinians say they haven’t. Camp David was a step forward according to Clinton. It was a step back according to Arafat. Bush says God is on his side and Saddam says Allah is on his side. Is America the Great Satan and Saddam a saint? Or is Saddam a cruel despot and America the policeman of the free world? Is there a truth? On a much more benign level we know there are ‘Lies damned lies and statistics.’
Can there ever be objectivity? Two people can look at the same event and see it differently. I know full well that many aspects of life are arguable and can be seen from different angles. Yet we know from Nazi propagandists that it is possible to tell lies so often people come to believe them. Indeed some people still deny atrocities, whether by Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot or Mao. But I also know there are incontrovertible facts as well. To arrive at these facts, all information needs to be readily available. This is why cruel, primitive societies try to censor books and information. Societies that have burnt books or tried to stop its citizens reading freely have all, all collapsed.
Dostoevsky ( despite his great talent was towards the end of his life himself a bigot) said that the truth can only be arrived at when two reasonable people speak to each other. The trouble is that if we cannot speak to each other, all that is left to do is to fight. This is very depressing. It is comforting to live in a society where people can express their different views. It is comforting to live in as society where I am protected for people who want to kill me just for my opinions.
The issue though is this. If I am seeing red and you are seeing black can we ever talk to each about the same thing? Is there any hope for Jews and Christians and Muslims to get on together? Of course there is because fortunately there are many who do! Our task is to fight for free open and honest information to be there for those who want it. This is what free speech is about and individuals will make up their own minds.
When I hear people say that all Muslims are primitive suicidal murderers it is my obligation not only to demolish patent falsehood but to fight to prevent people from believing this nonsense. By the same token a Muslim who hears another classify all Jews as Nazis or declare that one must kill Jews (not an uncommon phenomenon sadly even on Western campuses) has an equal obligation to suppress this dangerous poison. We know full well there are law abiding Jews and criminal Jews, law abiding Muslims and criminal Muslims.
There are Muslims who kill Hindus, Christians and even other Muslims and vice versa. There are Israelis who want peace and co-existence and Israelis who want all Palestinians to be removed. What is our obligation as human beings? Surely to seek truth and to seek peace. Both Jews and Muslims include the word ‘Peace’ in our greetings and we both know that too many of us ignore our own words. When there is war human beings suffer. When truth is obscured, all humanity loses.
A clash of civilisations is under way. Not the clash that Huntingdon predicted between Islam and the West. We are living through a struggle between countries that allow for different opinions and those who do not. And within free societies there is a battle afoot between those who want to keep them free and those who want to set them back three hundred years.
Rabbi Dr. Jeremy Rosen. New York April 5th 2002.