1979 – When It All Began
By Ahmad Faruqui, PhD
Dansville , CA
President Barack Hussein Obama’s much-anticipated speech at Cairo University was without precedent. His narration encompassed the sweep of Islamic history in a way that no sitting president of the United States had achieved before.
The speech will continue to be analyzed from all angles in the weeks to come. One thing is clear. His vision of peace and cooperation between the Muslim world and the West will be welcomed by all but the most hardened anti-Americans in the Muslim world and the most hardened Islamophobes in the West.
Obama said that he was seeking a “new beginning” between the US and Muslim world based on “mutual interest and mutual respect.” He said that America and Islam were not mutually exclusive. Indeed, while traveling to Egypt , he told a German reporter that the US was one of the world’s largest Muslim countries.
In Cairo, he said America and the Muslim world shared common principles of justice, progress and tolerance and, most importantly, they conferred dignity on all human beings.
The speech was remarkable for what it contained and equally remarkable for what it did not contain. Obama did not apologize for American policy in the Middle East, as many in the region had hoped he would. Neither did he hurl invectives at Muslims or their faith, as some non-Muslims would have liked.
In recognizing the current tensions between the US and the Muslim world, he conceded that the Cold War and the decades of colonial rule that preceded it had fueled tensions. But he pointed squarely at violent Muslim extremists for worsening the ties.
The people who had carried out the attacks of 9/11 were continuing on a global rampage, attacking civilians regardless of faith to further their agenda. He said these extremists did not represent either the Muslim world or the religion of Islam.
In so doing, he echoed what many Muslims throughout the world have been saying. Unfortunately, many religious leaders in Muslim countries have not been saying it loudly enough. They continue to blame America for all their problems.
This will not do. This has to change. The ‘Ulema have to come out and condemn terrorism in all its forms.
And the political leaders in the Muslim world need to sow the seeds of tolerance both within their own societies and with other societies. Obama put it very well when he said: “So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather peace.”
What Obama did not go into, perhaps given the impolitic conversations that it might engender, was how the US and the Muslim world had arrived at the current impasse. Much of the current tension dates back to events that took place 30 years ago.
As 1979 dawned, the UN declared it the International Year of the Child. It would prove to be a prophetic title but not in the way that is was intended. It would spawn geo-political problems that would linger on for decades.
In January, the Shah fled from the land where he had ruled as the “king of kings.” The Shah had been America’s boy in the Middle East. He was known to flip through the pages of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine, shopping for arms like it was the Sears Catalogue. He was expected to guard the oil resources of the region once Britain closed its East-of-Suez bases.
In February, the Ayatollah Khomeini ended his exile in France and landed in Tehran. In April, Iran was declared an Islamic Republic. In November, staffers at the American Embassy were taken hostage. The war against the Great Satan, which had installed the Shah by deposing an elected civilian ruler in the 1950s, had begun.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Iraq, in July, Saddam Hussein took over as President. He portrayed himself as a secular alternative to the emerging theocracy in Iran. The West bankrolled him in his eight-year war with Iran which killed some 1.5 million people on both sides and left Iraq with a mountain of debt. When Kuwait called on him to repay the debt, he annexed that country as its nineteenth province, precipitating the Gulf War.
That war led to a sizeable American presence in Saudi Arabia and gave credence to Osama bin Laden’s cause in ways that were not anticipated by Washington. Al Qaeda would not be what it is today without that blunder.
In April 1979, the military government of General Zia in Pakistan executed the deposed prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, making himself a pariah among the West. On Christmas eve, Soviet armor rolled into Afghanistan placing Kabul under the iron hand of the Red Army.
Zia played up the Soviet threat by recalling the dreams of the Czars to have a warm water port. The West now made him its savior, granting him billions in military and economic aid. This myopic act by a Republican administration in Washington conferred legitimacy and longevity on what would otherwise have become a discredited regime.
Democracy was placed on the backburner. Once the Soviets pulled out, the mujahideen broke out into a civil war which would lead to the birth of the Taliban in the mid-nineties. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies served as the midwife for a new regional order based on a deadly cocktail of narcotics, Kalishnikovs and religion.
In the years to come, the Taliban, in conjunction with Al Qaeda, would engage in suicide bombings aimed at innocent civilians, beheadings of Muslims and non-Muslims alike and enslavement of Muslim women.
In November 1979, in a sign that politically disenfranchised movements were breaking through the surface, the Grand Mosque in Makkah was taken over by extremists. The Saudi Royals did not pay heed to the simmering revolt by reforming their society and would pay for it in the decades to come.
As he embarks on a journey that has the potential to transform ties between America and the Muslim world, President Obama will be attacked from all sides by people who seek a clash between civilizations. Attacks from the neoconservatives have already begun pouring in.
That is why it is essential to view current events through the lens of history. There is no better way to shed light on what happened and why it happened and to derive insights about what needs to be done in the future to prevent a repeat.
Faruqui@Pacbell.Net.
