America's thoughtlessness
The United States has urged the United Nations Security Council to condemn Iraq for flying 104 haj pilgrims from Baghdad to Saudi Arabia aboard an Iraqi aircraft, in defiance of the UN- imposed air restrictions on the Middle East country after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
The Security Council failed to reach a consensus yesterday and will decide the matter today. It seems that the U.S. has exaggerated its reaction, so its argument sounded mindless and silly. Iraq did indeed violated the sanctions and failed to ask the UN's permission, but the problem is not so simple. The haj pilgrimage is the fifth tenet of Islam and compulsory for every Moslem who can afford to go to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. The Iraqi regime said that the flight had a purely humanitarian and religious purpose.
Washington's strong opposition against Iraq's action might be based on its -- as well as other Western countries' -- assumption that all Moslem countries are terrorism mongers. The U.S. clearly lacks in understanding of Islam, which has than one billion followers around the globe. Suspecting the actions of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the U.S. believes that he could never have any connection with humanitarianism.
But this time it turned out Saddam's actions were of a humanitarian nature, and that he does has moral character, even though some understanding countries believe he might have acted unwisely in the past.
Saddam had no intention of asking permission from the UN for the religious operation because he believed his request would be turned down. He also wanted to follow Libya's success in flying its pilgrims to Saudi Arabia in its own planes for the last three years in violation of a similar restriction. The UN banned flights to and from Libya after the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, of which Tripoli denied any involvement in.
Saddam might also have believed that only countries without a sense of humanitarianism would protest his sacred mission.
The U.S. reaction does not reflect President Bill Clinton's actions of respect for Islam when he invited Moslems into the White House for an Idul Fitri celebration in February. The confusing situation might also be repeated in an uglier way in the role Washington is playing to guarantee that the Oslo agreement be implemented sincerely, especially by Israel.
We hope the UN will make a wise decision in the Baghdad case and will guarantee the safe return of the Iraqi pilgrims after they have performed their religious obligation. It is time for the world body to decide whether Iraq and Libya should be free to send their annual haj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia with their own planes. This would show respect, not only to the two countries, but also to the entire Moslem world.