Syrian MP, Muhammad Habash, on the Historical and Philosophical Roots of American Culture.

May 9, 2004 Al-'Alam TV (Iran)

Dr. Muhammad Habash, a member of the Syrian parliament, was interviewed by Al-'Alam TV, the Iranian TV channel broadcasting to the Arab world in Arabic. In this interview, Dr. Habash commented on American culture and its roots. Following is a verbatim translation of Dr. Habash's comments:

Dr. Muhammad Habash: When the American adventurer arrived [in America], the good Indians carried his luggage and rejoiced while shooing the flies from the face of that American adventurer who came to them. They did not notice the dagger he concealed.

I want to talk about the philosophical roots of this condescending culture, a culture that realizes the desire for expansion at the expense of others. Take for example Nietzsche, the 19th century philosopher. I personally view him as the philosopher of American administrations and philosopher of American policy. He speaks very clearly about the need to create a superman and that the creation of superman, the creation of a strong man, requires the annihilation of the weak from the face of this earth. Nietzsche said through Zarathustra in his book Thus Spake Zarathustra and which angered the Zoroastrians who condemned these words… Nietzsche says, "If we want to build our culture we must crush the weak, oppress the weak, crush them, climb all over their corpses. We must fulfill this duty in order to build our culture." Nietzsche says that Christian values are lethal poison [impeding] any cultural development. He said, "We work and our fathers worked just to sustain the poor, the miserable, and the weak. We must supply the poor with an honorable and quick death so we can build the culture, this cultural giant, this superman." These words are not an attack on American culture. This is exactly what a well-esteemed philosopher wrote. You can tell me… You cannot claim that Americans are Nietzscheans in this sense, because the American fighter now operating in Iraq has probably never heard of Nietzsche…

Moderator: Dr. Muhammad...

Dr. Muhammad Habash: Let me tell you. I must clarify this idea. The culture that is exported today, through Hollywood, for example, is a culture of violence, a culture of films ending usually with the policeman bleeding and the robber hugging his lover and smoking a cigar. These images glorify cruelty, glorify force, glorify the man who is victorious because of his might and his weapons. This is the language that still controls these people's culture...