Muslim Ummah rived in infighting

Asif Haroon Raja

The Indo-US-Western-Israeli media has been orchestrating a malicious campaign to ridicule and defame Islam to supplement liquidation drive undertaken by the neo-con crusaders. This was coordinated by American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee. All those within the Muslim world who help them in undermining Islam and eliminating practicing Muslims and scholars are richly rewarded. Since the word terrorism helped the US in continuing to fight war on terror endlessly and to achieve its hidden motives, it got emotionally attached to it. The US kept stoking the embers of terrorism whenever it felt them to be dying out. The fire of terrorism lit by George W. Bush was further inflamed by Barack Obama.

Notwithstanding the traditional animosity of the Christians, Jews and Hindus against the Muslims, the Muslims themselves are their worst enemies. Muslim history is replete with incidents wherein the Muslims suffered defeat at the hands of their non-Muslim adversaries due to debauchery of rulers, or treachery of some unscrupulous elements within their own ranks, or failure of other Muslim states to come to their rescue. The Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Spanish Moors and the Ottomans reached the pinnacle of their glory during their respective stints in power. Their infighting and intrigues to promote selfish interests and digression from the path of Islamic teachings led to their humiliating downfall and large-scale massacre.

But for the treachery of Al-Qami who had extended an invitation to Halaku Khan to invade Baghdad in the vain hope of establishing an Alawide State, the hordes of Halaku might not have succeeded in massacring Iraqis in huge numbers and destroying Baghdad in 1258. Mir Jaffar joined hands with Lord Clive forces in the crucial battle of Plassey in June 1757 which led to the defeat and death of Siraj-ud Daula. The victory made East India Company the strongest power in Bengal. Mir Sadiq’s betrayal and failure of neighboring Muslim states in India to collectively fight the British forces resulted in the defeat and martyrdom of Tipu Sultan in 1799 in the battle of Seringapatam. Removal of the most dangerous thorn from the scene made the British the strongest power in southern India.

The flag of the Mughal rule in India fluttered high from 1526 to 1707. Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 marked the beginning of end of Mughal Empire. The latter Mughal rulers took to worldly pleasures and allowed disruptive forces to gain strength. War of Independence in 1857 failed to evict the British from India because of Punjab Army comprising Punjabis, Sikhs and Pathans which crushed the uprising. In fact, infighting between greedy Muslim rulers and perfidious role of Hindus helped the British to annex India.

The unholy practice of Muslims fighting among each other is in vogue in many Muslim countries. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and some others are currently involved in infighting. Tunisia, Egypt, Jordon, Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had got infected by the Arab Spring in 2011, possibly triggered by CIA and Mosad. As a result, there were regime changes in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. Despite the change in regimes, infighting in the three countries is still continuing.

Insurgency by SPLA under Col John Garang in oil rich and Christian/Animist heavy South Sudan was instigated by the West in 1983 and assisted by Ethiopia. Gen Jaafar Nimeiry’s only fault was that he had imposed Shariah in Sudan that year and his successors Sadiq al-Mahdi and Gen Omar al-Bashir followed suit. Bashir negotiated an end to one of the longest and deadliest wars of the 20th century by granting limited autonomy to South Sudan in 2005 for six years followed by a referendum. No sooner this front started to subside, western province Darfur heated up because of interference by French oil companies working in Chad. South Sudan became an independent Christian State in 2011 because of heavy intervention of the UN, US and the West. Bashir is the first sitting president to be indicted by International Court of Justice on charges of war crimes in Darfur.

The Afghans had collectively fought the Soviet forces in 1980s but started fighting among each other after the Soviets departed in February 1989. Cleavage between Pashtun and non-Pashtun Afghans accentuated once Taliban seized power in 1996 and pushed Northern Alliance (NA) to Panjsher Valley in northern Afghanistan. The country progressed well despite the sanctions and most of the societal vices were effectively purged because of application of Shariah. NA readily joined hands with the US to fight the ruling Taliban in October 2001.

Excessive force including depleted uranium was used by invaders to oust Taliban regime. After bloodying Afghanistan for over 12 years, the occupiers are now mollycoddling the outcast Taliban to hold peace talks. The US would quit Afghanistan in December 2014, but the war-torn country would remain in turmoil. Afghans will continue to fight among each other for a very long time and its spillover effects would fall upon Pakistan.

Both Iraq and Iran were economically drained and militarily enfeebled in 8-year futile war instigated by the US. Despite the long war with Iran, First Gulf War in 1991 and prolonged harsh sanctions, Iraq retained its military and economic power under Saddam Hussein. We know how the US faked WMD case and made it into a pretext to destroy Iraq in 2003. Iraqi Shias and Kurds in Iraq were instigated by the US and UK to fight Sunni regime led by Saddam. Gen McChrystal pitched Sunnis against al-Qaeda in crucial battles of Ambar and Fallujah in 2006-07 and then fomented sectarian war. The occupation forces exited from Iraq in December 2009 but left the country in chaos and retained control over oil.

Although Shias are now ruling Iraq, but sectarian war which peaked in 2007-08 continue to fester and smolder. The Sunnis feeling sidelined and deceived have joined al-Qaeda and are striking Shias to bring down Nurul Maliki’s government. Sunnis and Shias are wantonly drawing blood of each other giving an extremely perilous dimension to sectarian war. 2013 is proving to be a deadly year in which 1000 people lost their lives in May alone.

Northerners and Southerners in Yemen are at war with each other since 1962. In the 1962-1970 civil war in the north, Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser had sent 70,000 troops to support rebellious Republicans. Saudi Arabia and Jordon supported the Royalists. Yemen was united for the first time in 1990 by Ali Abdullah Saleh. Arab uprising in 2011 infected Yemen as well and protests started in January 2011 to bring down Saleh. Al-Qaeda added fuel to fire by making Yemen its HQ for Arab Peninsula. Mansural-Hadi has taken over but the change has not lessened the antagonism between the warring tribes. Shia Houthi rebels in the north wish separation.

Libyans in exile and those who had defected from Libyan Army and Police together with handful of disgruntled teachers, lawyers and workers formed the rebel group to topple Muammar Qaddafi regime. They were supported by three world powers, US, France and UK as well as al-Qaeda starting February 2011. Excessive air power of NATO together with depleted uranium was used to defeat government forces. Besides some Arab countries, Sudan had also extended support to Libyan rebels for the reason that Qaddafi had supported Sudanese rebels in 2008.

Qaddafi had provided free electricity to all, provided loans without interest, awarded $50,000 to the newlyweds, provided free education and medical care to all, gave free of cost land, equipment, seed, livestock and house to Libyans who took up farming, made available a car on 50% government subsidized price to a buyer, fixed price of petrol at $0.4 per litre, sent a portion of Libyan oil sale directly to the bank accounts of all Libyans and gave handsome salaries. Libya had become a model Islamic welfare state under Qaddafi. He was brutally murdered by the US based neo-con Zionists to capture Libyan oil to save sinking US economy and to enslave Libyans. The country is now webbed in chaos and sooner than later there will be bloody civil war.

Sunni rebels and assorted militias in Syria aided by foreign powers are fighting Bashar al-Assad’s Shia regime. While USA, western world, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Hamas are supporting the rebels, Russia, China, Iran and Hezbollah are supporting Bashar. Irked by Assad’s defiance and failure of the rebels to topple him, Obama has now openly declared his intention to arm Syrian rebels. All out efforts are in hand to repeat the story of Libya in Syria where so far 100,000 people have died. But for Moscow and Beijing’s stand essentially because of their economic stakes, by now a regime change might have taken place. Syrians seemingly unconcerned with Libyan tragedy have not learnt any lesson and are madly fighting among each other since the start of 2011.

Notwithstanding Syria’s demographic imbalance wherein 11% Shia Alawides are ruling, the fact is that Assad dynasty leading Baathist Party turned Syria into a strong country and is the only country left in the Arab world that stands up to Israel’s bullying. Syria aligned with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and Iran had emerged as a formidable challenge to Israel desiring unchallenged monopoly in the Middle East. This grouping has been cracked up by embroiling Syria in deadly sectarian war, isolating and cornering Iran, impelling the two allies Hezbollah and Hamas to become opponents in Syrian war on sectarian basis.

Emulating the example of the uprising in Tunisia, it took the secular-liberal protestors assembled in Tahrir Square of Cairo on January 25, 18 days to bring down Hosni Mubarak led autocratic regime on February 12, 2011. The leaderless people’s revolution was however hijacked by Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and it captured power through fair and free elections. Islamic government under populist President Muhammad Morsi was established for the first time in Egypt on June 30, 2012 and MB renamed as Justice & Freedom Party. Mindful of the sentiments of the seculars, Coptic Christians and Shias, Morsi tried to blend western model democracy and Shariah by operating Islamic system within the precincts of secular state structure.

His experiment however didn’t appease the liberals who wanted consensus constitution ignoring the fact that it was approved by 63.8% votes. They remained indignant despite the fact that Morsi expressed willingness to gradually reform Islamic principles to make them compatible with western concept of governance. In the face of Judiciary’s undue interference, he restricted powers of judiciary and ruled that he will not be answerable to higher courts for his acts. His autocracy angered both the judiciary and the Army which never felt comfortable with Morsi after he removed the senior military brass.

When the secular-liberals came out on streets and assembled at Tahrir square in large numbers on June 30, 2013 and demanded resignation of Morsi and re-elections, the Army considered it a God given opportunity to exploit their charged sentiments. With undue haste it sacked the president on 4 July, exactly one year after his takeover. Islamic dominated Upper House of parliament was dissolved and chief justice of supreme constitutional court Adly Mansoor made interim president and pro-US El-Baradei interim PM. Constitution was held in abeyance. While several countries condemned the military coup, the US didn’t do so but advised Gen Abdel Fattah to make the civilian transition peaceful.

Three supporters of Morsi were shot dead on 5 July and 51 Islamists massacred by Army soldiers on July 8. Use of brutal force is likely to further strengthen the resolve of Islamists to go to any length to restore Morsi to power. Liberals euphoria may not last for long since they are in minority and MB is the most organized and strongest political party in Egypt with considerable street power. Liberals neither have the capacity to confront them politically or physically in the streets nor the ability to form a long lasting stable government. Even al-Nur Islamist Party has decided to quit the distance itself from interim setup after the July 8 killings.

Unless the Army acts prudently and resolves the matter amicably, the crisis is likely to balloon up into a bloody civil war with horrendous consequences for the country as well as the region. Imposition of martial law by Gen Fattah will also prove counterproductive because of its biased behavior. A new Islamist group called Ansar-al-Shariah has announced that Egyptian Army’s intervention amounts to declaration of war against Islamic faith and cautioned that it will be resisted to preserve religion of Islam in Egypt.

The US aided by the West and Israel had pumped in millions of dollars in support of secular reformist candidate for presidential election in 2009 in Iran to bring down anti-US and anti-Israel Islamic regime. Although Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the bout with a narrow margin, election results were rejected by the Reformists. Noose around Iran’s neck was gradually tightened through sanctions, stopping its oil trade with the west, bringing its foreign banks under scrutiny and isolating it from the world comity to force it to abandon its nuclear program. CIA continued with its covert operations with the help of Jundullah group. While Pakistan was pressured to cancel Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, the Arab world was frightened that Iran has ambitions to export Shiasm into Arab states. Iran was repeatedly threatened by USA and Israel that its nuclear sites will be destroyed; the US Navy moved aircraft carriers and other warships close to Persian Gulf. Ahmadinejad was painted as an obscurantist and a confrontationist with narrow vision.

All these draconian measures brought severe strains on Iran’s economy and added to the hardships of the people. It thus became easier to defeat the populist leader and get Reformist Hassan Rowhani elected as President with a thin majority of 51% in June 2013 election. Western media is describing him as a moderate, balanced and amenable person who will engage in constructive dialogue with international community over contentious issue of nuclear program suspected to be geared towards producing a bomb. The US led Western world is quite excited about the change and is feeling much relaxed.

It is suspected that Taksim Square crisis in Istanbul were also CIA-Mosad inspired to reinvigorate seculars and to exert pressure on 11 year old Islamic regime of Erdogan to change its cold behavior towards Israel and its inclination to tilt towards the east. Turkish police did a good job in dispersing the crowd at Taksim Square, which was trying to repeat the story of Tahrir Square in Cairo, but simmering hasn’t died down. Secularists are regrouping to affect a change.

Pakistan is another target where FATA, Balochistan and Karachi are being systematically destabilized for the materialization of sinister plan to denuclearize, secularize and balkanize Pakistan. Ideologically motivated TTP and secular BLA-BRA supported by multiple foreign agencies are pitched against Pak security forces for a decade. Sectarian flames kindled by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are gradually swelling.

Wherever there was peace, the US invaded and ended it. We have the examples of Japan in 1945, North Korea in 1951, Vietnam in 1960, Beirut in 1980, Iraq in 1991 and in 2003, Somalia in 1994, Afghanistan in 2001, Pakistan from 2004 onwards using drones and covert operations, Libya in 2011 and now Syria. Iran is being encircled and economically choked. Indo-US-western-Israeli nexus is working on a set agenda to neo-colonize the Muslim world and steal its resources. Sectarianism and secular-Islamic divide are cleverly fanned to pulverize the Muslims from within. Focus is on Middle East to realign its boundaries suiting US-Israeli future strategic interests.

There may be more drastic changes in some other Muslim countries but there is hardly any change in the behavior of Muslims. The Muslim Ummah rather than closing ranks and pooling its resources to fight the evil remains divided and prefers to remain dependent upon the US led west. Morally degenerated Muslim leaders and disgruntled elements within the target countries hungering to gain personal benefits are playing into their hands and helping them to achieve their objectives.

The writer is a retired Brig and a defence analyst.

Email;asifharoonraja@gmail.com