The Right to Sacrifice the Other: The American Genocides

BOOK REVIEW
The Right to Sacrifice the Other:
The American Genocides

By Munir Akash, Beirut: Riad El-Rayyes Books, June 2002.

REVIEWED BY
Abdullah Mohammad Sindi
Ph.D. International Relations:

Dr. Abdullah Mohammad Sindi is a native of Saudi Arabia where has was a Professor of Political Science at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. He now lives and works in the US where he has also taught at 4 universities and colleges in Southern California: The University of California at Irvine, California State University at Pomona, Cerritos College, and Fullerton College. Dr. Sindi has published several articles in different scholarly periodicals both in Arabic and English. His book The Arabs and the West: The Contributions and the Inflictions is sold on Amazon.com.

The American Genocides is a 200-page paperback book in Arabic and the latest scholarly work by Munir Akash who is a well-known Arab-American writer. Educated in his native Arab world, Europe, and the US, Akash authored, edited, and translated many articles and books in Arabic, French, and English on many subjects ranging from politics, to revolution, to poetry and sex. A recipient of several awards and honors both in Europe and the US, Akash also edited several scholarly periodicals in Paris, London, and the US including Jusoor, founded and published by him with the cooperation of Syracuse University's publications in New York.

Written in a lucid style with a great deal of passion and courage which captivate the reader, The American Genocides contains a table of contents; an introductory chapter; seven main chapters documented by footnotes and sources; two appendixes on Native Americans; and two indexes, one on proper names and the other on places. The book also contains a small section about the author and his accomplishments.

Utilizing his expertise in Native American affairs, Akash wrote a profoundly shocking book. He did an excellent job in documenting the European genocides and other crimes against Native Americans from the time of the so-called "discovery" of so-called the New World in the late 15th century to the present. In this largest and longest holocaust in the history of the world, Akash estimated that 112 million Native Americans perished over the last 510 years both in North and South Americas. The invading Europeans destroyed over 400 North American Native Nations, such as the Iroquois, the Apache, the Navajo, the Cheyenne, the Cherokee, the Spokane, the Mohawk, and the Sioux.

Although some of these Native American victims (or so-called "Indians") such as the Mayas, the Incas, and the Aztecs had great civilizations centuries before Europe, often superior to those of Europe at the time, the Europeans still claimed that their "divine" mission was to bring "civilization" to the New World and they brazenly referred to these natives as "savages" and "barbarians". Also, despite the fact that the Native Americans initially welcomed the invading Europeans, were generous with them, and taught them how to survive in a new land, and how to plant food in an alien environment to them, the Europeans still have looked down, from the start, on these indigenous people and have called them such racist names as "brutes", "vermin", "wild varmints", "devils", "devil worshipers", and "animals". Not only uneducated Americans but also their political, religious, and social leaders have uttered these ugly and vulgar adjectives throughout US history.

Of the 112 million murdered Native Americans in the New World, Akash estimated that 18.5 million have been wiped out in what is known today as the United States. He detailed how these horrific genocides and other crimes in the US have been committed by the "super race" WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) at all governmental levels throughout US history as well as by common settlers who brutally settle-colonized North America. From the very beginning of their colonization in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the WASPs have acted like real wasps with potent venom. They have savagely stung Native Americans by various methods of genocides from outright slaughter; to intentional infection by deadly diseases such as small pox, cholera, and plague; to forced brutal deportations known as "Indian Removal"; to confinements in horrible conditions in concentration camps and reservations; to intentional sterilization of Native American women without their own knowledge.

Ironically, some American Christian churches, which supposedly believed in "Thou shall not kill" and "Thou shall not steal", openly condoned and supported at all levels these barbaric acts and slaughters of Native Americans as well as the thefts of their lands, resources, and properties.

Naturally, as Akash indicated, the US government and its agencies have carefully covered up these long series of genocides and ethnic cleansings against Native Americans. In fact, today's standard American history textbooks and official documents throughout the US totally ignore these massacres and horrible crimes committed against Native Americans. According to the official American point of view, North America was "empty" of native people when the WASPs started to colonize it in the early 17th century, or at best "sparsely" inhabited by "primitive" or "uncivilized" tribes.

Nevertheless, being an Arab writer writing in Arabic for Arab readers, Akash then proceeded to make a brilliant analogical comparison between the WASP's brutal racist colonization of North America and the ancient Hebrew's gruesome colonization of Canaan (old Palestine), as well as the current savage colonization of Arab Palestine since 1948 by the Western Zionist Jews. In order to replace the native people and steal their lands and properties, both the WASPs and the Hebrews/Zionists had to commit genocides and brutal racism against the rightful owners of the lands. Both of these two racist colonizers have justified their massacres and thefts as "doing God's work on earth".

In fact, as God's warriors and devout faithfuls, the WASPs and the ancient Hebrews as well as the modern Zionists have used the Old Testament for their own purposes to justify their extermination of the native peoples and the theft of their lands and resources. For example, in Joshua 6:21 we read: "And they utterly destroyed all that [was] in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword." And in Joshua 24:13 we read: "And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not do ye eat."

Next, Akash articulated his analogy further by drawing a perfect parallel between the WASPs and the Hebrews/Zionists. As the ancient Hebrews fled the brutality of the Pharaoh in Egypt, so did the WASPs from their king in England. As the ancient Hebrews crossed the Red Sea in a dangerous sea voyage, so did the WASPs across the dangerous Atlantic Ocean. As the ancient Hebrews got lost in their voyage to the "promised land", so did the WASPs on their "Mayflower" across the Atlantic. As the ancient Hebrews considered themselves to be "the chosen people of God", so did the WASP "pilgrims".Â As the ancient Hebrews made a "covenant" with "God" during their wandering, so did the WASPs. And as the ancient Hebrews finally arrived in the "promised land" of Canaan, so did the WASPs in the "promised" New English Canaan.

Both the Hebrews and the WASPs wanted to establish "a city upon a hill", a biblical notion of supposedly "a utopian society". In fact, the WASP "pilgrims" referred to their settled-colonies in North America by such names as "Israel", "God's new Israel", "Zion", and "the promised land".

Akash then eloquently argued that the "biblical Jewish/Zionist" philosophy, espoused by the American founding WASP fathers, has naturally evolved into the following 5 basic doctrines, which have guided American policies from the earliest blood baths in Plymouth to the current butchery in Afghanistan:

1. The Israeli meaning of the US (the Hebrew mythology that created the nation).

2. The Divine Election doctrine, "Chosen People" imagery, and the superiority of the WASP race and culture.

3. The right to lead and "save" the world (errand in the wilderness).

4. The predestined expansion (the divine right and ability to expand US domains endlessly).

5. The right to sacrifice the other.

Accordingly, as a direct result of these 5 ingrained doctrines in the American political and social psyches, the author correctly concluded that the intentional annihilation of Native Americans by the "super race" WASPs was not a unique or abnormal occurrence in American history. Rather, "the right to sacrifice the other" has always been a constant and systematic American norm from the dawn of the American nation to the present. In fact, many others groups and races throughout the world, both in past and current US history, have also been brutally killed en masse for a variety of reasons. Among these victims are millions of innocent Black Americans who died during the long history of the American brutal slavery system and the Jim Crow laws that followed it; hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese who were horrifically incinerated by Atomic bombs in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the final days of W.W.II at a time when Japan was already too weak to continue the war and was actually willing to surrender; and millions of innocent Latin Americans, Filipinos, Koreans, Vietnamese, Arabs, Asians, Africans, and other groups throughout the world who have lost their lives as a direct or indirect result of America's military interventionism World-Wide to promote US national (i.e., corporate) "interest".

It should be indicated here that Akash is one of few scholars in the US who had the courage to expose in details the hidden history of these crimes against humanity. In researching his excellent book, Akash meticulously consulted many valuable sources, both primary and secondary, including documents, books, periodicals, and websites. He quoted such important scholars and specialists on Native American studies as Professor David E. Stannard who authored: The Conquest of the New World: American Holocaust; and Ward Churchill, a Native American Professor and author of: Indians Are Us? Culture and Genocide in Native North America.

I do not have many negative remarks on Akash's book. However, in few cases throughout his book one found some Western proper names written only in Arabic as they were mentioned for the first time but without the easier identification of their names by Latin letters next to the Arabic ones. In addition, although the title of the book (The Right to Sacrifice the Other: The American Genocides) gave the impression that each chapter might be devoted to specific racial victims of American genocides, the authored concentrated in the 7 chapters of his book on Native Americans. The author made only passing remarks about the American holocaust against Black American slaves, Filipinos, Hiroshima and Nagasaki's civilians, Vietnamese, Latin Americans, Iraqis, Afghanis, and other victims throughout the world many of which were subjected to biological warfare. For example, in page 151 of his book, The American Holocaust, David Stannard stated that during the American slave trade "... at least 30,000,000 - and possibly as many as 40,000,000 to 60,000,000 - Africans were killed ... before they even had a chance to begin working as human chattel on plantations in the Indies and the Americas".

The American Genocides by Akash is an excellent book for all readers especially those interested in US history and in the plight of the New World's indigenous peoples. I recommend Akash's book without any reservation whatsoever to all Arab readers, young and old. In fact, all Arab readers will be highly intrigued by Akash's eloquent analogy between the WASP "pilgrims" in their brutal invasion of North America and the savage Hebrew/Zionist invasion of Palestine. The similarities between the brutal actions of the WASPs towards Native Americans and the actions of the Hebrews/Zionists towards the natives of Palestine (both ancient Canaanites and modern Palestinians) could also easily explain to all Arabs - especially those who still pin their hopes on the US to be fair - the current American unconditional support for Israel's brutal policies in Arab Palestine. Also, those few Arabs who are still puzzled by the American total blind support of the Zionist entity should read this book.

In brief, Akash's book is powerful and captivating. It is a good and informative reading, well researched and well written.