Kurdishaspect.com - By Dr. Aland Mizell
If the majority of the Kurds were not Muslim, what would their status be by now? Would the Kurds get support from Christian nations? Would Kurds have their independence? Would their case be like East Timor, which was granted independence from Indonesia, so that now East Timor is a sovereign state in the 21st century and one of the only two Asian countries that is predominantly Roman Catholic? The other is the Philippines. Since today most Kurds are being oppressed and deprived by Muslim countries such as Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, what would be their status if those countries were not Muslim,? If Kurds were oppressed by Christian countries, what would the status of the Kurds be? Would Kurds have support from Muslims nations? Would Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul visit Kurdistan because it was being oppressed by the infidels? Would Syrian President Bashar Assad or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visit Kurdistan because many Kurds have disappeared? Would Erdogan speak for one minute for the whole world to listen as he denounced how the Kurds are being oppressed and suffering? What would the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) do? If Kurds were not Muslim, would the OIC support the Kurds like they support the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MLIF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the Southern Philippines to get their independence? The OIC ‘s web page and its mission statement ask for support for the struggle of the Palestinian people to assist them in recovering their rights and liberating their occupied territories, so if the Kurds were being oppressed by non-Muslims, then probably they OIC would speak out. Maybe because the OIC assumes, as the Turkish Prime Minster said, “Muslims do not commit genocide, perhaps because only non Muslims commit genocide.” Is the Sudan a Muslim country? Is Syria a Muslim country that killed and leveled Kurdish towns early in the 80s? Is Iraq a Muslim country whose government gassed thousands of Kurds? Is Iran a Muslim country that killed and jailed many Kurds? Is Turkey a Muslim country that killed so many Kurds, burned their villages, and caused thousands of them to disappear?
Hypocrisy is a lie in action and the legacy of indecency. The OIC is an international organization consisting of fifty-seven countries that combine their efforts and speak with one voice to protect their interests and to secure the progress and well being of Muslims in the world. I wonder what the OIC has done for the Kurds’ well being. But the OIC has granted the MNLF observer status, a privilege given to nonmembers to allow them to participate in its activities. It also defends the rights of and helps Muslims in the Philippines. Iran and Libya had even at some point in the early 70s put an oil embargo on the Philippines because of the national government’s bad treatment toward Muslim minorities and subsequently forced Manila to give Muslims an autonomous region—the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The MLNF, which has a permanent observer status in the conference, is strongly opposed to the Philippine national government. The Republic of the Philippines has been seeking observer status in the OIC since 2004, but Turkey has objected to it, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen joining in the protest. The MILF has repeatedly accused the Philippine government of violating the human rights of Muslims in the Mindanao region. It is true that Muslims have been oppressed and deprived by the government, but why does the OIC not protect the interests of the Kurdish people who happen to be oppressed by the Muslims, not by the Christians? How can we talk about fairness and justice? Is fairness what justice really is? The government in a democracy should ensure justice, fairness, and equality for all. One cannot speak of government where these do not exist. Power dominance is transitory, but truth, justice, integrity dominance are eternal. Even if these conditions do not exist for the Kurdish people yet, I hope they will be practiced in the near future. If Turkey wants peace, why does it not work for justice?
