Two wonderful human beings with whom I have become familiar over the last few months illustrate the superficiality of the Marxist concept of Materialistic Determinism, the Leftist notion that people who fail to excel are invariably victims of the “oppressive” circumstances to which they were born. Both Mosab Yousef and Narges Mohammadi in fact epitomize Man’s transcendent capacity for Reason and Moral Integrity.
Mosab, the son of Hassan Yousef, a co-founder of Hamas, escaped to Israel in 1997 as a mere 19 year old. In his 2010 book, “Son of Hamas,” he recounts the agony of having to leave behind his family as well as the multiple reasons for his rejection of Hamas as a vile, terrorist organization rooted in hatred. A staunch supporter of his new homeland, he has appeared with such high profile figures as Piers Morgan and Dr. Phil before whom he argued that the “Palestine” so coveted by Hamas has never existed as an established Arabic Nation, and indeed that the territory involved has been the homeland of Jews for much of recorded history. While his own people are dying in today’s Middle Eastern warfare, he absolutely defends the Israelis against the charge of Genocide, insisting they are in fact merely trying to survive the obviously genocidal intentions of Hamas and indeed of his very own father.
On Jan. 25, Canada’s Globe and Mail published a lengthy piece on Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian activist who has spent much of her adult life behind bars due to her relentless opposition to her country’s Theocratic Dictatorship. Released from prison for 3 weeks on Dec. 4 for health reasons, she granted an interview to the Globe’s Samira Mohyeddin on Jan. 16, clearly a date by which she was supposed to be back in jail. With Samira, I am not certain at this point of Mohammadi’s present status. But her courage and her values are beyond doubt. “Women, life, freedom” being the slogan of the 2022 Iranian movement of which she is an integral part, she actually received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2023! Yet absurdly, she has been repeatedly arrested for refusing to wear her hijab while singing and dancing with joy in public, all crimes for Women under Iran’s ridiculous, Oppressive, Medieval Patriarchy. Ironically, that regime characterizes her actions as propaganda, an accusation familiar to conservatives here in the West where every statement not consistent with Leftist Ideology is smugly dismisses as “misinformation”!
Above, I cite the lives, courage and convictions of Mosab and Narges as examples of the fact that we are not defined by our Race or Gender, but rather by our capacity as Intelligent, Volitional Beings. My implication, of course, is that the Identity Politics of the contemporary Left is insanely superficial. And that it is!