It Takes A Lot Of Preparation To Arrange A Spontaneous Outpouring Of Rage

by Raed Salah, Islamic Movement

Umm el-Fahm, July 25 – To the uninitiated observer, the explosion of violent demonstrations after Israel put up metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount must have looked like an impressive display of sudden protest by tens of thousands of Muslims who all felt the need at the same time to express how fed up they are with the situation. And it was impressive. But sudden? No, it takes a good bit of preparation to arrange such a spontaneous outpouring of rage.

I’m not only talking about logistics, though arranging all those buses for a spontaneous bunch of protests can certainly pose a daunting task. I’m referring to years and years of preparatory rhetoric, education, and culture to instill in our people an intolerance for any sign of Jewish empowerment. Only with those mores firmly in place can we hope to trigger large waves of violent protest, which is our primary political tool.

It would be selfish and dishonest of me to claim credit for putting in place this conditioning system, though I have devoted myself to it for most of my adult life. It began centuries ago, at the dawn of Islam, when the supremacy of our faith first became, well, an article of faith, such that no infidels may be allowed to display any signs of independence or power. With this land under Islamic control from close to the beginning of Islam, only the Crusades forced an interruption in the supremacy of Islam here. Until the British came along. But we like to pretend it was the Jews who usurped it.

All this means that we have maintained a simmering discontent over our fall from dominance, which I and other leaders exploit at frequent intervals both to keep our supremacist sensibilities fresh and to keep asserting our political strength. It takes more than a few phone calls to lay the groundwork for riots that invite deadly force and inspire further acts of murder and mayhem.

So the next time you see what the news media present as a spontaneous outpouring of righteous Palestinian rage, please spare a thought for all the preparation that had to go into making it happen before continuing as you were and swallowing the line that collectively we all got fed up with something at the same time and weren’t just looking for a pretext to flex our political muscles.

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