Defense Alliance of Muslim Countries
By Naveed Khan
San Jose , CA
The recent carnage in Gaza, bordering on genocide of Palestinians and on-going war against Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Palestine, Somalia, Eriteria and Chechnya should be a stark reminder that Muslims globally are under threat. Their values, cultures, religion and very existence are under threat.
The aggression started with the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs and Croats between 1992-1996. The 1.3 billion Muslims collectively failed to prevent the mass killing. The Russians resorted to mass killings of Muslims in Chechnya followed by the USA/NATO forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel in Lebanon and Palestine, and India in Kashmir. By conservative estimates over three million Muslims have been killed, over 10 million permanently displaced and thousands incarcerated in different countries without any charges or recourse to legal process, a very well respected pillar of Western society created under the proclamations of Magna Carta Libertatum ( Great Charter of Liberty) in the year 1215.
Once again the eyes of the Western powers are on Pakistan and Iran. No Western government raised even a finger at Israel after its brutal and genocidal onslaught on Gaza but they are overly critical of Pakistan and Iran on one pretext or another.
Many Muslims living in the Western world are traumatized and discriminated against by being suspected as terrorists and denied their very basic civil right of freedom. Even in the most civil of the ‘modern society’ of the USA and the UK, Muslims are under constant surveillance and threat of being entrapped by government functionaries in false cases of terrorism.
It is time for Muslims as individuals and nations to work out a strategy to protect themselves against the gathering storm. Even their physical well-being is under enormous threat. 56 Muslim countries represented in the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) should contemplate forming a political and defense alliance similar to NATO. It is high time that countries like Pakistan, Turkey and Iran join hands and form a military alliance, not to threaten anyone but to ensure the protection of Muslim populations globally. Unless Muslim countries show some courage, I suspect that globally Muslims will be further subjected to aggression and humiliation. If Muslims do not demonstrate the willingness to protect themselves, their culture, their values and belief, they will remain under the threat of aggression from the USA, NATO, Israel and India.
