13/12/2023
(ANTI)SEMITISIM
I've been wanting to write on this topic long before the recent conflict in the Middle East began, however, due to my own laziness and my inability to structure my time to the best of my capability, I am now writing. Nevertheless, I hope this will be meaningful even now that you're glancing through.
I really get so worried over my own ignorance and luck of courage to speak my mind whenever I'm being beating down by my oppressor to the extent that I'm developing a Stockholm syndrome which is also not healthy. Therefore, its time I do justice by standing up for myself for no one will do that for me.
To delve into the topic above, it is obvious by now that the reader knows me the writer is a Muslim and I therefore need to make it clear that I am Semitic and not antisemitic.
I am not an antisemite because, even in Ghana that secular state has a great percentage of Muslims and allows for its citizens to learn Arabic from the basic schools all the way to the University.
Once I happen to pass through a symposium organized by the University of Ghana Arabic department, I saw a lady reciting an Arabic poem so eloquently to the extent that I felt jealous. My jealousy stemmed from the fact that I didn't have command over the language like she did. The one thing that was beautiful about the event was, she had adorned herself with the cloak popularly known as abaya among the Muslim ladies.
I thought she was one of us until I was told otherwise. One may ask what has an Arabic poem, and a non Muslim got to do with the topic under discussion.
It has got everything to do with it because Arabic is a Semitic language.
SEMITIC- the definition by just a google search says, relating to a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic and a certain ancient language as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the main subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family.
With the definition been established, I'd like to make it clear that it is so unfair for one group to call the other a terrorist and the other Semitic when they are both related.
I say this because, back in my tertiary days, I took a course by the name Political Communication, during one of the sessions, the Lecturer took us through Political actors and the term terrorism and terrorists popped up. Unfortunately, most of the non-Muslims in the class associated the terrorists to Islam. It became very obvious when one specific lady made mention of Muslims.
Fortunately, the Lecturer who was open minded in her analysis stopped her there and then, making it clear to her that, the term has been associated to them by a certain group of people for their own political agenda.
We discussed those in Political suits who are also terrorists and those in long apparels who are Semites. After the class, some colleagues of mine and I had a long discussion and among the most basic questions I asked them was, Muslims and non-Muslims have been living for a long time at least here in Ghana and there has never escalated between these groups violence based on religious grounds, therefore they should not sit in their comfort zones and be tagging along with those who tag along in Geo- Politics
Jews have lived peacefully in Muslim lands far more than in any other religious lands, their great thinkers still to date live in Muslim lands including Morocco, Syria, Turkey, Yemen and even Iran. This is so because we are all Semites and not the other way round. Whatever issue occurs between groups, judge the issue from the lenses of Justice and not due to your alliance with one of the groups.
One of the greatest verses in the Qur'an is chapter 4:135 and it reads, Oh you who have believed, be upholders of justice and bearers of witness to truth for the sake of Allah even if it may be against yourselves or against your parents and kinsmen be they rich or poor, for Allah is more concerned with their wellbeing than you.
I'll pause here but I'll encourage you to read the next post as well.
