West, Russia and Islamic world all bear responsibility for Paris attacks

I DISAGREE with your editorial requesting our Muslim leaders to condemn the Paris atrocities. This is racist. Why are Jewish leaders not asked to condemn the killing of Palestinians in occupied Palestine who are killed on a daily basis?

Or why is the American embassy not asked to condemn the killing of innocent civilians dying on a daily basis from drone attacks?

The only reason I can think of is that a French life is more valuable than an Arab, African or Asian.

This is the racism inherent in the knee-jerk reaction of expecting our Muslim leaders to condemn the terrorists whenever they kill Europeans.

Acts of terrorism and Islamic State (IS) are symptoms of a malaise in the Western world, Russia and the Islamic world rooted in history.

The underlying malaise in the Western world and Russia comes from the following:

The asymmetrical distribution of political, economic and military power.

The use of UN Security Council vetoes by the US and Russia to continue the oppression and killings of the Palestinians and Syrians.

The continuous interference of the West and Russia in the affairs of the Middle East to control their oil reserves and to destroy Israel’s enemies.

The underlying malaise in the Islamic world comes from the following: Literal interpretation of Qur’anic text. An inability to change and reform political, legal, economic, social and educational systems.

An inability to set up democratic institutions, a lack of political and religious tolerance and an inability to unite.

Unless we move to a world based on justice, equality of opportunity and democratic rights for all, endless condemnation will be futile and will fall on deaf ears.

Because there is resistance to change in the West, in Russia and in the Islamic world, the revolutions, wars, invasions, oppression, tyranny and terrorism will go on for many years to come.

It would rather be more productive to ask our Muslim leaders in South Africa to provide the leadership required in the Islamic world to modernise the curriculum taught at the colleges and madrassas where they are still teaching 9th century philosophy, politics, law, ethics and theology – which, ironically, forms the bedrock of IS’s ideology.