A debacle has erupted in Jordan this past weekend surrounding the death of 17 year-old Christian youtube personality and musician Shadi Abu Jaber.
Abu Jaber, who was a contestant on the popular “Jordan Star” tv show last year, was killed on Thursday when the vehicle he and his friends were riding in collided with another in the south of the Jordanian capital Amman. Abu Jaber, a teenager of 17 years and Sophia Shanti, just 15 (a sweet 16 bitterly stolen), were killed in the crash, while four others were injured.
Shadi was a well-known personality in Jordanian society, especially in the Christian community where his mother, Irene Abu Jaber, is a gospel singer. Of the Jordanians who took to social media after his death, the vast majority expressed their grief and sorrow in the wake of the untimely death of a young man with such talent and promise.
But not everyone thought the same way. A vocal, sizeable minority of social media users (but more audible alas) responded with hate dressed up as holiness, actively arguing against showing a recently deceased 17 year-old boy and his bereaved family respect and compassion. Why? Because he wasn’t Muslim.
Is God’s mercy and compassion reserved for a token few?
When a person dies, Arabs of all religions and sects typically say “Allah yerhamo” in the same way that English speakers say “rest in peace (RIP)” or “may God rest his soul.” Though there are many translations, the idea is simple: May God show the deceased his mercy and compassion and rest his soul.
The general argument made by conservative Muslims against the sympathy directed towards the late Abu Jaber is that mercy and compassion - specifically mercy from God - are reserved for God’s chosen few. Not a commodity given freely to all human beings, Allah’s mercy for these fundamentalists is merely the preserve of believing Muslims. Citing passages from the Quran or personal knowledge, this vocal group of social media users began criticizing individuals saying “Allah yerhamo”.
“Compassion is not permissible except for Muslims. This is the law of God and his religion. So how can God show mercy on Muslims and “Christians”? How does that work with you Abu Srour?” [Note: The comment was in reply to “Ahmed Srour”, well known Jordanian TV personality.]
Others were yet sharper, attacking Shadi’s religious beliefs:
“Tsk tsk tsk, Abu Jaber you missed your chance. We wish you were one of us but I don’t suppose you found anything except the guitar. There is no power except in God Almighty.”
Of course, it’s not all fire and brimstone - most social media users found themselves repulsed and disgusted by comments made by other users.
“Mashallah! All the people are now issuing religious decrees!
Let’s see you waxing religion and philosophy when your brother or son dies and someone comes up to you trying to do the same thing! Either say something decent or get lost.
God rest your soul, Shadi.”
"When you hear that a human being dies you have two choices in front of you. You either say “God rest his soul” - or you shut up!"
"Christian! Muslim! Jew! Buddhist! Athiest!
The person who died was a human being, a teenager, and was lost in a tragic accident.
Ask God to show mercy on him and be with his grieving family.
You either say something good or you remain silent."
Deep tensions
Despite the pleas of more rational, cooler heads - it cannot be denied that religious tensions run deep in the Arab World, where often times discrimination comes not merely in social circles but from the state as well. Jordan, which has known relative communal harmony between Muslim and Christian minority neighbors, compared to Lebanon or Iraq for example, still does not allow a Christian to become prime minister. Institutionalized discrimination against religious minorities is a serious issue in the relatively progressive Hashemite Kingdom.
In Saudi Arabia, a special form of Wahabbi Islamism preaches a “kuffar or takfir culture” - the shunning, of or worse still violence against infidel non-Muslims. While mainstream Islam would consider Christians or any other “People of the Book” (Followers of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) to be believers and deserving of respect, this special brand of radicalism does away with that in favor of a more hateful belief system.
The main worry is that this aberrant species of the religion is growing - spreading via radical religious leaders and social media - an exported hate that could expose the world to dire consequences. Jordan’s social media today represented a hurtful reminder of the ugliness of takfir – that grim ‘Islamic’ word that consigns people deemed not Islamic enough to hell.
Facing the facts
It’s easy to take a moral high ground and remind those unfamiliar with Islam or the Arab world that these radical, hateful, ignorant voices represent a small minority of a greater and more reasonable whole. All Muslims must have appreciated the reasonable voices in Europe, including that of our revered Pope (or Baba for Arabs) who, even when traumatized by another extremist wing operating in the name of religion — Daesh – let common sense prevail and held forth that Islam was not to blame, preaching a 'civilisation of love'. In turn, maybe Arab Muslims closer to home need to model better behaviors to resist the reach of radical forces and insidious cultural influences. If Muslims succumb to this kuffar culture which calls for the hating of the non-Muslim, including believers of other faiths, then what right have they to ask that their ‘Western’ fellows to not tar them with the same brush as Daesh, and worse still to not wage war on Islam?
What’s still harder is to look the problem in the eyes and admit that this is not a fringe, radical group - but rather a sizeable portion of the Arab world who are heavily influenced by radical ideology on a daily basis. Takfir does not spare anyone its shaming spree, and attacks the not-Muslim-enough as well as those of the Shia branch of Islam. They're all infidels to the Salafi bigots.
Shadi Abu Jaber’s tragic death proves two points. The first, that indeed - the majority are appalled and moved by the untimely passing of a non-Muslim, agreeing that he is worthy of compassion and mercy. In fact, the religious leadership of Jordan issued a formal fatwa that clarifies that prayer, compassion, and well-wishes to deceased non-Muslims is acceptable. But there’s a second and just as important point: the minority who thinks otherwise is vocal, sizeable, and their ideology is a threat to those who think differently.
The victims of this ideology are the moderates, the progressives, the ethnic and religious minorities that have become interwoven with the various cultures of Arab nations - and our rosy-eyed apologetic silence not only empowers this radicalism but silences the progressive, brave, and critical Arab voices who are most threatened by it.
