The Fire This Time - Final
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
Historical analogies are imperfect. However, if one insists on an analogy to the current situation in the Muslim world, the disintegration of the Maghreb between 1212 and 1578 CE offers some parallels.
The Almohad defeat at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212 CE) set in motion the fragmentation of Muslim Spain. The Omayyad Khilafat of Andalus disappeared. Its place was taken up by petty principalities in Seville, Cordova, Granada and North Africa, who constantly waged wars with one another in collusion with the Christian forces of Castile, Aragon and Portugal. The fall of Granada in 1492 was not the end of this story.
The Conquistadores continued their onslaught on land in North Africa and at sea in the Mediterranean and the Indian Oceans. Religion was the major driver in these conflicts. It was not until the year 1578 when the Sa’adid Sultan Ahmad of Morocco defeated an invading force from Portugal at the Battle of Al Qasr al Kabir (1578) that the threat to Muslim North Africa was lifted. King Sebastian of Portugal was killed in the Battle and Portugal became a protectorate of Spain. The Ottomans advanced on North Africa from the East. Thereafter, a balance of power prevailed in the Maghreb between the Ottomans and the Spaniards. During this entire period (1212 – 1578) there was constant meddling from the Christian powers of Spain and Portugal in the affairs of Muslim North Africa. The objective was to keep the Muslim powers divided and prevent the emergence of a unified political and military front that would challenge the ascendancy of the Iberian Christian powers.
As it was in the Maghreb historically, the Muslims today are at loggerheads with one another. The divisions are ideological, political, economic and cultural. The ancient fault lines along Shia-Sunni divide are well known. Add to it the competition for regional political dominance and the control of oil and other natural resources. Historical memories divide people. The Arabs and the Iranians are at each other’s throats. The Turks enter the fray, discarding the prudence that had governed their policies since the days of Ismet Inonu (d 1973). The Kurds, seeing a historic opportunity to carve out their own state are doing so at the expense of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. And so on.
Overarching these internal political struggles is the intrusion of a western economic empire led by the United States. The meddling in the internal affairs of Muslim states is unceasing. The overthrow of Mosaddeq in Iran (1954), the Arab-Israeli wars (1948 and 1967), the invasion of Iraq (1990-91, 2003-2010), widespread killings and rapes in Bosnia (1992-95) (which were mercifully stopped by President Clinton with a bombing campaign against Serbia), the destruction of Libya (2012) and the unending war in Afghanistan (2001-ongoing) are only some of the obvious examples. Outside interference makes it impossible for internal political processes to mature. When there does emerge a political change, it appears as a sudden hiccup, a disjointed response to an event and its effects dissipate and disappear just as do the waves in a pond when a stone is thrown into it.
The Muslim world suffers from a wounded psyche. It is not just the physical abuse, the invasions, defeats and unending wars that have taken their toll. It is also the continuing ideological abuse that throws salt over raw wounds. The propaganda machines in America and Europe drown out Muslim civilian casualties as mere statistics. How many women and children have died in the drone attacks on Pakistan? Has anyone compiled their names? Is the life of an Arab child any less precious than the life of a child of any other nationality? Yet, the media pass over 100,000 civilian casualties in Iraq as if it was a number from a book in arithmetic.
The long-term trends in the propaganda war against Muslims are there for anyone to see. In the 1960s the Arabs were the bad guys. Gradually, the propaganda was expanded to include the Muslims. After 9/11 Islam itself became fair game. Even the Qur’an and the Prophet were not spared. Buses roam the streets of New York and San Francisco with advertisements suggesting that the Arabs and Muslims are savages. The word “terrorist” appears to be reserved for Muslims. Even an individual crime by a Muslim is branded a terrorist act whereas more heinous crimes by non-Muslims are couched in more forgiving terms. The feeling of hurt among Arabs and Muslims is real. Their grievances are genuine.
While many in the Arab and Muslim world perceive that the west led by the United States is out to re-colonize them and denigrate their religion, the general perception in the west is that their interventions have been positive and have been directed towards introducing democracy and reforming Muslim societies. There are multiple issues with these perceptions. The west is not a monolith. Neither is the Islamic world. There are millions of people in America who have a genuine love for democracy and respect the Islamic world. And there are millions in the Islamic world who admire America for its universal ideas and its achievements.
The reality is that the west is not out to destroy Islam, or for that matter any other religion. The empire of the west is an economic empire. It is not an ideological empire as was the Spanish empire. The banker in New York, London or Copenhagen could care less how you pray or when you pray as long as you work during the day and spend the evening shopping at the mall. He would love you even more if you use a credit card and get into debt so that he can charge you interest.
The real issues facing the Muslim world are corruption and economic and social injustice. These are the same issues facing the entire globe. Abject poverty in the face of opulence, the continual squeezing of the middle classes, the corruption and abuse of power by the ruling elites, these are the real issues at the heart of the Arab Spring. Indeed, these are the issues facing the world at large.
The Muslim world faces, in addition, the rising specter of extremism which feeds on poverty, war and political disaffection. It wraps itself in a religious mantle and advertises itself as the shield against western onslaughts. In reality, it is a cancer on the body politic of Muslims. There is no doctrinal basis for extremism in Islam. The Qur’an declares clearly: “Innallaha la hubibbul mo’tadeen” (Indeed, Allah does not love the extremists). And whom God does not love, His creation must discard. The Muslims have themselves to blame for allowing this cancer to spread as much as it has. The extremists impose their contorted vision of religion by force and by coercion. Ignorant and cruel, they are a menace to their own people. Only a broad-based concerted civil effort can contain this menace and extirpate it.
That a despicable movie produced in the back alleys of California could set half the world on fire startled many people. But they need not have been so surprised. The movie was only a trigger, a spark that set off the fire. The fuel was already there through decades of war, defeat, humiliation and denigration. Will this episode impel the Islamic world into a period of creative thinking or will it sink it further into an abyss of recriminations, complaints and finger pointing? Only the future can tell.
As early as 1995, I offered my own vision for curing the malaise that afflicts the Islamic world. I abbreviated it with the acronym SEEEC: Spirituality, Ethics, Education, Economics and Cooperation. To reclaim its destiny as witness over all humankind, the Islamic world must have its firm anchor in the spirituality ordained by the Qur’an. Where there is no spirituality, there is no faith and where there is no faith, there is no civilization. The community must be committed to the ethics of moderation, integrity and fair play. It must provide a broad based education to its men and women in the traditional as well as the modern sciences. It must improve the economic condition of its masses, eliminating graft and corruption and providing a level playing field for its toiling millions. And this great community of nations must work together in cooperation and peace to achieve justice for all peoples of the world, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
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