Arab World: Political Disintegration and Search for
Reason
Dr. Mahboob A.
Khawaja
Terror is the engine of war.
And terror is what all sides in this conflict produce in overabundance …….We
torture hostages in our black sites and choke them to death by stuffing rags down their throats. They torture hostages in squalid
hovels and behead them. We organize Shiite death squads to kill Sunnis. They
organize Sunni death squads to kill Shiites. We produce high-budget films such
as “American Sniper” to glorify our war crimes. They produce inspirational
videos to glorify their twisted version of jihad. The barbarism we condemn is
the barbarism we commit. The line that separates us from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) is technological, not moral. We are
those we fight. …..“From violence, only violence is born,” Primo Levi
wrote, “following a pendular action that, as time goes by, rather than dying
down, becomes more frenzied.” (Chris Hedges, “The
Terror We Give Is the Terror We Get” Truthdig: 2/08/2015)
Arab masses live in a matrix of lies and delusion. While
the oil exporting economic prosperity glitters from distance, the Arab world is
fast becoming worst than being useless entity in global affairs. West Europeans
used several million Arabs to fight their nationalistic Two World Wars and to
build the shaky empires. But the contemporary Europeans view them as liability
in their own social construct and subservient neighborhoods. Nothing appears normal if at all normal could
be defined rationally. Good many parts of the Arab world are engulfed in chaos
and political disintegration. Looking critically, nothing seems accidental but
planned and well orchestrated strategies to dismember the neo-colonial States,
national boundaries, tribal landmarks and national identities. The 2003 American-led
war and occupation have incapacitated the Arabian geo-political culture.
Rational thinking is absent but deaths and destructions are daily affairs under
various titles and captions. Baghdad
was known to be the hub of the ancient civilizations. But planned sectarian
killings and destruction are the order of the day. Syrian history was evolved
over many centuries, yet it is in complete ruin of the human civilizations
because authoritarianism will not heed to voices of reason. The Arab heartlands
are on fire and its ripple effects have endangered the integrity and future of
the whole region. Inventive rhetoric and
vicious exaggeration is leading the war of unknown consequences. All are fighting
against all, not knowing how and where would they end-up in time and history? Political incapacity multiplied by deceitful
complacency, the egoistic leaders are happy that their palaces are operational
and protected by foreign mercenaries. There are no Arab proactive leaders to
think and move forward with a sustainable imagination for tangible navigational
change. The phenomenon of people-led political change remains aloof but a
culture of authoritarian tyranny and continuing disintegration persists.
Arab Culture and Terrorism are Incompatible
Arab world is at
the threshold of another catastrophic disaster- the willing coalition of the
few complacent in US-led sectarian bloodbath with no ending in sight. The ego
turned into cancer consuming all positive energies and time and spreading volatile
animosities and insecurity across the Arab heartland. The leaders and people
breathe oxygen in conflicting time zones being unaware of the Laws of God –
what future holds for their complacency in another war against the masses. After
the 9/11, the terrorism myth was super-imposed on the Arab-Muslim culture.
Western mythologists used the news media as a weapon to enlarge the political nature
and scope of the 9/11 attacks against the Muslim people. The real aims were to
wage the bogus wars and to occupy the natural resources of the Muslim world.
Ironically, few Arab leaders are complacent in supporting the American-led war
on terrorism. The Arab masses are the net victims of all of the tragic and
inhuman impulses pursued by the self-centered tribal agents of influence. The
Arab world does not appear to enjoin any new vision or political imagination
for a navigational change out of the absurdity of foreign imposed wars and
sectarian divides raging across the Arab Middle East. Islam sought unity in its
system of governance; Arab nationalism continues to enrage division, sectarian
animosities and daily bloodbath. Across Iraq,
Syria, Egypt, Libya,
Yemen
and other neighboring Arab states, people are fighting for money and influence,
and not for Islam or a genuine cause to protect national freedom and human
dignity.
Truth is one and
indivisible. Terrorism myth has overtaken the rationality of critical thinking.
The 9/11 attacks in the US
were carried out by individuals and not inspired or supported by the religion
of Islam or Muslims. Some hourly paid intellectuals turned guardian of the
approved truth, allege that Islam breeds terrorism. Living without roots and
reason, Islam enriched the Arabs to become global leaders of a progressive
civilization lasting 800 hundred years in Al-Andalusia (Spain). But the oil enhanced prosperity transformed
them into ‘camel jockeys’ and object of hallow laughters across the Western
culture. Money cannot buy wisdom, honor and human integrity. The bogus “war on
terrorism” could not have happened if the Arab leaders - the front line bogyman
of the US Empire had critical mind, intellectual capacity and integrity to
challenge the most irrational and cruel act in human history. The Western mass
media complements the self crafted notion to poison the public thinking and
perceptions and source of judgments against the Arabs and Muslims as
“terrorists” making the treacherous claim as if Islam was at the threshold of
the paradigm. The perception of ‘radical Islam’ was invented and enhanced by
the ‘fear’ of terrorism as if Arabs and Muslims were born in the eye of the
storm and terrorism was an exclusive domain of the Islamic religious tenets. Throughout the oil
exporting Arab world, the contemporary rulers have turned out to be complacent
in the US –Israeli strategic
plans for the future of the Middle East. The
current crises and fighting in Iraq-Syria and ISIL are all aimed at remaking
the future of the Arab world and to undermine the freedom of Palestine.
In Search of Reason
The culture of
success as a whore prevails throughout the Arab Middle East. Nobody cares for
truth and rational thinking to be the guidelines in policy practices and
decision-making. Foreigners enjoy unique merits in political governance and
setting the policy agenda in many of the oil-producing Arab states.
Across the Arabian Peninsula, a culture of political delusion and
mismanagement persists. Most Arabian people seem distracted from reality and
lost. Many conscientious Arab thinkers believe that change is ticking like a
time bomb. But Arab rulers are the stumbling block to stop the process of
political change and people’s oriented system of governance. There are strong emotional crutches embedded
into these perceptual values, and the authoritarian Arab leaders will fight to
defend the lies and deception that they believe-in. The
rulers live in palaces and people live in distant muddy huts and tribal
locations. There are varied cultures and time zones involved in-between the
Arabian ruling elite and the people they claim to govern. The laws and public
institutions date back to the European imperial time and order. The Arab rulers
occupying the political powerhouses for over half a century would have
difficulty to face the mirror. Now, worst is happening by sectarian rivalries
and killings in Iraq and Syria. Al-Qaeda
and ISIL had no presence in Iraq
until the US and Britain
destroyed its civic, economic and political infrastructures. Paul Craig Roberts
(“Muslims
are their own Worst Enemy”: Global Research), offers the following candid observation:
“Muslims are numerous but powerless. Divisions among
Muslims, especially between Sunni and Shiites, have consigned the Muslim Middle
East to almost a century of Western control….Muslim disunity has made it
possible for Israel to dispossess the Palestinians, for the U.S. to invade
Iraq, and for the U.S. to rule much of the region…”
How to Face the Reality Challenge?
The critical issues
call for thoughtful analysis and change and new ideas to phase-out the old and
obsolete thinking and obsessed values flourishing across the Arabian
Peninsula. But the ruling elite failed to build new public institutions
to plan change and to view the imperatives of new trends for policy in security,
peace and conflict resolution and human progress in a global community of
nations. Global politics is not fixed but a constantly changing phenomenon of
life. Arab leaders do not comprehend the imperatives of political change. But
reality will not diminish because nobody is conscious of its existence. After
more than sixty years of freedom from the European imperialism, societal
development remained a primitive mode of tribal folklore and storytelling. The
Arab Middle East faces many critical crises. None of the crises are tackled in
their proper context. There are no independent public institutions to analyze
the political problems and find workable solutions. No proactive thinking
exists in any Arab quarter to strive for political unity and to have coherent
leadership. Leaders who cannot think intelligently or understand the nature of
the current crises, how could they lead to any strategic direction? Few sectarian scholars and leaders are
engulfed in self-geared madness to ensure their survival. The sectarian madness
appears to have gone out of control to imagine a sense of purpose and
rationality. Complacent Arab leaders will sabotage the peaceful endeavors for
crisis management just to escape the challenges of facing reality. It serves
the strategic interest of the US-led war in Iraq,
Syria, Egypt and Libya
and soon to Saudi Arabia,
dismantling of the Arabs by their own hands, guns and bullets. There are no
Arab armies and no Arab Generals to console the masses and to provide sense of
moral and intellectual security. One wonders, why do the oil enriched Arab leaders
are buying billions of dollars worth of military hardware from America or Europe? How and where would it be used and against
whom? If Iraq,
Syria, Libya and Egypt are any example, the
militarization is meant to quell the public interest and aspirations for
political change and future-building. Imagine, if the Arab world had competent armed
forces and leadership on the one hand, and were open to common sense diplomacy
and dialogue on the other, could peace and normalcy have not been restored in Iraq, Syria,
Yemen and Libya?
The challenge is how
to bridge the gap in thinking and actions that the old and dormant neo-colonial
Arab rulers could be phased-out or sidelined in a ceremonial role and the new
and more educated and competent young generations of the citizens could be
phased-in to assume the much needed political leadership and to ensure that
future will happen and it will be safe, secure and sustainable for peace and
change in the Middle East. The prosperity fantasy bubble is fast approaching to an end with
the peak oil forecasts as a visual reality in- waiting. Power, prosperity and poverty are all trials in human
affairs and transitory phenomenon. Was the discovery of oil a conspiracy
(“fitna”) for the Arabs to change the originality of their thinking, beliefs,
values and passion for Islam as successful system of human life?
Do the Arab
leaders expect America, Britain or France to come and stop the on-going
sectarian killings, death squads and resulting destruction? But they are responsible for transforming Iraq, Syria,
Libya and Egypt into failure states and
unworkable political governance. They are all part of the problem, how could
they be part of the solution. The
solution must come out of new thinking and new vision for change, dialogue
between the sectarian divides and competent leadership to achieve the stated
goals. Many Arab leaders pretend like actors and have no understanding of Islam
and its primary values to deal with others. None appear serious about their own
intentions and beliefs. What if they were organized as morally and
intellectually conscientious people and knew the complex nature of global
politics and had proactive thought and freedom to think and act and communicate
with moral strength to the enemies within the Arab societies. Don’t you think, they
could have accomplished something better, something durable in dealing with
some of the emotionally charged issues?
In the 21st century of New World of Hope and optimism, men
who are universally hated and feared can be approached, communicated and can be
imagined to be sitting in front of the table to discuss the on-going problems. That
is, if there are enlightened and competent leaders of vision and moral
integrity to use moral and intellectual strength and are flexible to listen and
learn to the other side. Many if not all man-made problems could be resolved
peacefully and without resorting to bloodshed and committing crimes against the
innocent humanity.
The Arab masses long
for political change and a promising future based on peaceful co-existence with
others. In view of the unstoppable cycle of
sectarian killings and daily bloodbaths in so many Arab states - Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Egypt and
spill-over to other oil producing Arab nations - and reactionary militancy
against the authoritarian rule and dismantling of the socio-economic
infrastructures - is the Arab world
coming to its own end? The Arab rulers
and the masses live and breathe in conflicting time zones being unable to see
the rationality of people-oriented governance - the essence of Islamic system
of governance. The worst is yet to come
as the wars continue, surrender to foreign forces as there are no leaders to
think of the future, no Arab armies to defend the people and no sustainable
socio-economic infrastructures intact to support the masses.
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global
security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in
Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of
several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict
Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Academic Publishing
Germany-May, 2012).
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