DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI analyses the critical situation the Muslim Ummah is facing due to turmoil in the Mid-East and suggests the strategy to be adopted as a long term solution.
Despite the fact that the schizophrenic Col. Mummer Gaddafi had, in response to repeated US warnings, stopped air strikes against his own oppressed citizens, the US-inspired invasion of the oil-rich Libya was kick-started by France and Britain, enjoying moral and material support, in a lesser degree, of Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, which had initially advocated the use of force but, as an after-thought, did not, wisely enough, attend the Paris conclave.
The argument of the pro-assault powers was the UN resolution passed at the behest of the over-enthusiastic US, and vocal demand of the Libyans for foreign intervention. Does this, yet another aggression on a Muslim State not say something about the decay that has set in the Ummah as a whole?
Secondly, in the almost changed situation today, following the attack from abroad and from close and distant neighbours, what has happened in Tunisia and Egypt is going to be repeated in West Asia and North Africa.
Thirdly, would Russia again behave like a dispassionate observer or physically endeavour to keep the United States off the Arab States? The attitude of Moscow during the united onslaught on the late Mr. Saddam Hussein is an uninspiring case in point.
SHIA-SUNNI CONFLICT
Fourthly and finally, the Shia brethren are restive in the entire West Asia and North Africa. The Arabs, almost without exception, suspect their loyalty and credentials. Hence the lack of faith and discrimination. Is there any remedy to reverse the process? How to transform this section into a national asset is, and must be, uppermost in the minds of intellectuals in the region.
Individual and collective experience teaches us that a clenched fist does not, cannot, and has never done, what a warm, soft, open hand can do and has done. Why, if true, for example, a Saudi, a Bahraini, and an Omani or an Egyptian Shia looks towards Iran? ‘If this looking towards’ is confined to just ideological reasons, there is nothing objectionable. Objection arises when matters reach ‘beyond ideology’. The Shia brethren should see to it that that situation never arises.
As far as the powers-that-be are concerned, we sincerely feel, magnanimity can alter the situation. Catholicity does what narrow-mindedness cannot do. Large-heartedness has an inbuilt capacity to win over the enemies. The Shia situation that exists today in the Gulf has, sadly enough, turned an asset into a liability. This bitter ground reality can change with the sweet alchemy of the restoration of confidence. This formula should be tried and Saudi Arabia must show the way in this regard. It is common experience that love begets love; faith begets faith; respect begets respect; cooperation begets cooperation, so on and so forth. This maxim is true in individual and collective life, it should also be true in social reconstruction and statecraft.
RUSSIA & M-EAST CRISIS
Before dealing with the possible Russian reaction to the situation in West Asia, let us remember three points. First, as a rule, nobody pulls the chestnuts of others out of fire. You will have to carry your own cross, as the idiom goes. Did the much-talked-of Sixth Fleet move from its base during the erstwhile East Pakistan crisis in the early 1970s? Two, Russia is basically an anti-Islam power, and considers it dangerous for its geopolitical interests. The deftness with which Moscow suppressed Islam and its adherents during the “Soviet Union” phase is still fresh in public memory. The Kremlin remains eternally apprehensive of Islam as a movement and as an ideology. Three, it has in February, already warned the west, particularly America to remain off the limits in West Asia. The Kremlin supremo, Mr. Dimitri Medvedev suggested the revolts in the Arab world were instigated by outside forces which had already been scheming to subvert Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged the western nations: “Refrain from interfering in the rebellions in the Arab world. People should have the chance to choose their own fate and future without any kind of interference.” To quote Vladimir Radyrulvin, a known Russian commentator: Analysts say the US is using the same techniques in the Arab world it earlier used in staging “coloured revolutions” in the former Soviet Union – in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. They noted the role of the CIA-linked foundations such as the Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in supporting and training civil activists and that of Twitter and Facebook in organising the protest in Egypt and Tunisia.
MUSLIM VIEW
Our view is Russia neither was nor is serious about its protestations, the chief reason being socialism has no attraction to the poorest of the poor in the entire Arab world. The only worry that keeps the Kremlin on tenterhooks is Islam, which, according to its philosophy, should not consolidate and should never come in a position to challenge socialism of various hues and colours. This should not happen, according to the Communists, at least on the soil of the countries under Russian influence. Recall how zealously Russians had cooperated with America in obliterating Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Islam in North Caucasus and its adherents’ sympathy with the oppressed in the Arab world is their serious concern. According to a Russian columnist, Moscow experts have warned that the US should not push ahead with its plan of creating Greater Central Asia which is part the Greater Middle East. The concept of Greater Central Asia calls for the dilution of borders between the post-Soviet States – Kazakhistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and their merger with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
FEAR OF SPILL-OVER
What the Russian leadership fears most is the spill-over of Arab crisis. Kyrgystan and Tajikistan are their points of grave concern.
As regards the spread of the Arab revolution to larger countries and smaller sheikhdoms, let us note two points. This revolution is not organised. Secondly, it is not Islamic. It is an expression of pent-up feelings. There is no visible ideology that could work as linkage. What can at the most be said is it is the voice of the oppressed.
An additional but negative factor is the threat of western military intervention in the Gulf and North African countries, where Islam unfortunately happens to be an appendage, the fifth wheel of the coach. It is neither live nor vibrant nor dynamic. The Ikhwanis will have to painstakingly inject anti-paralysis injections in the body politic everywhere. The basic link in the revolution is missing in the Arab world. Detoxification followed by rejuvenation is the need of the hour.
As far as the ever-continuing efforts in pulverisation of Islam and Muslims are concerned, no shortcut is available to counter it and piecemeal solution is no solution of the Muslim problem. What is needed is a long-drawn world plan, aimed at the consolidation of Ummah which today happens to be divided and sub-divided the world over. There are a large number of hypocrites amongst our ranks. Commitment appears to be the first casualty among our rank and file. The Ummah today confronts gigantic problems not only for survival as an ideological group but also to play the role of a leader of mankind. That requires higher moral qualities like patience, perseverance, grit and rock-like determination.
There are perhaps no two opinions that the Muslim issues should be resolved at Muslim level. For that an impregnable structure is required. And that structure is not available in the market. We will have to build that structure brick by brick.
Otherwise you cannot stop the western machinations. Today has gone Afghanistan, tomorrow will go Iraq and day-after tomorrow will go Libya. So on and so forth.