The Arab World: a valley of death for Islamists and a paradise for tyrants

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

Why so much enmity to democracy and Islam?

The USA has lost confidence to win any war. Further war can only precipitate economic collapse and no victory. This is the lesson that the USA has learned from its humiliating defeat in Afghanistan. But the issue for the USA still remains. It can leave Afghanistan, but can’t leave its agenda of global dominance –its core business in world politics. So, it takes the alternative strategy. It is through collaboration with Islam’s internal enemies in each Muslim country. Therefore, the market price of the Arab tyrants in the US eyes goes very high. Because these tyrants can be easily used as stooges to dominate the oil-reach Arab World as well to guarantee the security of Israel. Since these tyrants possess no power base amidst their own people, depend solely on foreign powers like the USA for survival. So they can be easily drawn into the USA’s war on Islam. But they can’t do the same with the popular democratic government. Hence the USA and its allies find it the best strategy to invest more money and more intelligence to make a coup d’état against any democratic government in the Muslim World. So, the USA and its allies stand as the worst enemy of democracy in the Muslim World –especially the Arab World. Since democracy is the common enemy of both the USA and the Arab tyrants, the tyrant rulers of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and Oman are ever-ready to co-operate with the USA’s anti-democratic project in the Arab World with their petrodollar -as they did in Egypt in 2012 and now in Tunisia.

The tyrannical rule is the most effective way to obstruct the civilizational progress of mankind. It is the most powerful tool to keep people de-empowered, morally shattered, and mentally subservient. It keeps people away from the path of moral, social, and political development. This is why the enemies of Islam love autocrats. The history of such love affairs is huge. All the dictators of the Arab World enjoy the support of the USA and Israel without any exception. The USA and its allies never attempted any coup d’état against the worst dictators like President Jamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, Hafez al-Assad of Syria, or any tyrant King of Saudi Arabia. But they always attempted coup d’état against the democratic government of the Muslim World without any exception. In 1953, they engineered a coup d’état against the elected government of Iran -the only democratic government in the whole of the Middle East. They removed Iran’s elected Prime Minister Sharif Musaddeq and installed the deposed Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. In 2012, they supported the coup d’état against Dr. Mohammed Morsi -the only elected ruler in Egyptian history. Now the same gang celebrates the overthrow of the democratic government of Tunisia -the only remaining elected government in the whole of the Arab world. On 15 July 2016, they also made a coup attempt against the elected government of Rajab Taiyeb Erdogan of Turkey. Not surprisingly, the hawkish neo-con like John Bolton –the former Security Adviser to President Donald Trump runs a think-tank called the Turkish Democracy Project to hatch plans to overthrow Turkey’s democratic government. But none in the USA runs any project to promote democracy in the tyrant-infested Arab World.

 The calamity of the enemy occupation 

Even if a tree dies, it leaves a strong stump and deep roots in the ground. So, no new tree can grow there. The growth of a new tree is only feasible after a deep uprooting of the old one. This is exactly true about an enemy rule in a country. The long colonial rule in the Muslim World has ended, but its strong stump and deep roots still exist. These cause huge obstacles in the democratic governance of the former colonies. Each colonial government of the European imperialists built massive infrastructures of cultural, educational, and ideological engineering to make people subservient to their rule. These are the educational, cultural, and training institutions, the state-owned media, the bureaucracy, the Army, the judiciary, the literature, the theatre, and many others. Later on, these colonial institutions built up a deep state -a powerful club of former mercenaries inside every formal colonial state. It survived as the remnant of the colonial legacy of the long occupation. Because of this deep state, the democratic regimes couldn’t function in newly independent states like Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Indonesia, and many other former colonies. In fact, this deep state paved the way for internal occupation by the native enemy invaders. This is why the dictators like Ayyub Khan in Pakistan, Nasser in Egypt, Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia, Ben Bella in Algeria, and Zafar Numeri in Sudan could have such a long rule. And they could keep the civilians –their enemy out of the power structure.

The ancient Pharaohs of Egypt could bring huge behavioral, attitudinal, and cultural changes among the people. Because of such a change, they could establish themselves as gods. Such tamed people were so much corrupted intellectually that they developed deep disdain even against the great prophets like Musa (peace be upon him) and Harun (peace be upon him). Thus it proves that if the thinking faculty of the people are damaged then they even worship any human, cow, snake, or idol. More than a billion people do that in India. To be worshipped by such domesticated people, it doesn’t need to be super-human. This is why the most inhuman dictators like Jamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia could easily attain that status.

All the tyrants apply the same methodology to tame people. In reality, these tyrants were so poor in quality that they couldn’t show any talent in any field. Even the worst democrat is far better than a tyrant. Because a fair democrat gets power only after showing his talent in public. More a democrat fears accountability in the court of people in elections. But a tyrant doesn’t have that.  Jamal Abdel Nasser failed in every sector of his countries like its defense, health, economy, education, and Arab unity. In the 1967 war, Nasser couldn’t stand against Israel even for 6 days. He lost the whole of the Sinai Peninsula to Israel. He could only over-perform in rhetorical demagoguery and election manipulation. He won plebiscites (there was no election under his rule) in 1956, 1958, and 1965 -while he was the sole candidate. He disbanded all opposition parties, gaged all independent media, and barred all opposition candidates from election. He deprived people of their political rights and right to free expression. He took all power in his own hand. He had a parliament, and its only duty was to ratify his every decision.

Arab World: a valley of death for Islamists

 The Arab world has turned to a Valley of Death for the Islamists. All Arab tyrants possess one thing in common. It is their toxic venom against the Islamists. No rule of law, no fair justice, and no human rights provision work for the Islamists. As if, killing Islamists is like killing dogs and cats on the streets. In all Arab countries –without exception, Islamists are labeled as terrorists. Islam that entails Islamic state, sharia, hudud, jihad, pan-Islamic unity, and rule by shura is labeled as terrorism cum barbarism. Jihad –the highest ibada in Islam is made a taboo in the Arab world. The imams of the mosques, columnists of the newspapers, academics of the universities do not dare appreciate jihad in public. Islamophobia cum jihad-phobia run very high in the Arab World. Distancing from Prophet (peace be upon him)’s original Islam that raised the first and the finest civilizational state in human history has become a norm in public. The cities like Aleppo, Mosul, Raqqa, Dera Zour, Ramadi, Falluja, Tikrit, and many others were razed to the ground by the USA carpet bombing. But the anti-Islamist propaganda hype is so high in the Arab World that these destructions are described as the works of the Islamists. The photos of the destroyed cities are shown in Arab World’s television networks with Islamists’ emblems.

The toxic venom against Islam and the Islamists was firstly injected into the Arab psyche by Jamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and later on by Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia. The radical secularism of Nasser and Bourguiba has a stipulated political aim. Nasser aimed at eliminating his political enemy – Ikhwan ul Muslimeen. Habib Bourguiba’s disdain against Islam’s fundamental ritual was extremely toxic. He made Tunisia a bastion of radical secularism in the Arab World. In the month of Ramadan, he used to eat in public to ridicule Islam’s teaching. He didn’t give any political space to the Islamists. His protégé Zain el Abedin ben followed in his footsteps. The largest Islamic party En Nahda (the Islamic resurgence party) was banned. Jamal Abdel Nasser’s enmity against the Islamist party Ikhwan-ul Muslim was very terrific. He indeed declared a full-fledged war on the Islamists. In that war, he wanted to bring the Egyptian people on his side. For that, he staged a false flag shoot-out drama to hit two targets with one stone.  Firstly, to manufacture a myth about himself; secondly, to defame Ikhwan-ul Muslim –the largest Islamic party in the public eyes.

It is alleged that on 26 October 1955 some Abdul Latif fired 8 shots from a distance of 25 feet to assassinate Nasser. Not surprisingly, not a single bullet hit him. Because none of the bullets was targeted at him. It had only a political target, and the whole drama was displayed for political consumption. In the midst of the engineered chaos, Nasser delivered a very high-spirited speech, “My countrymen, my blood is for you and for your country. I live for you and die for the sake of your freedom and honor…” Truly, Nasser never gave any freedom to his countrymen. They were given only one freedom, and that is to praise him. His above speech was put on the air numerous times to boost his image among the public. The shooter was projected as a man of Ikhwan ul Muslimeen, and the ploy was used to hang eight senior leaders of the party and to put thousands of its workers in prison. The famous scholar Syed Qutb was put on a 15-year jail sentence and later on hanged. 140 pro-Islamic Army officers were also sacked from the job. So, the whole drama had a singular objective. It was to eliminate the top leaders of Ikhwan-ul Muslimeen and to band the party. And Nasser did that.

Like Jamal Abdel Nasser, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, too, couldn’t tolerate the elected Islamist President Dr. Mohammad Morsi. Dr Mors was a member of Ikhwan-ul Muslimeen. Hence, he did a coup d’état against him and grabbed the power in his own hand. On 14 August 2012, thousands of men and women came to the streets to protest against the Army take-over. To crush the protest, General al-Sisi rolled tanks and heavy artillery guns on the street against the unnamed protestors. More than two thousand people were slaughtered by the Army. It was a genocide against innocent civilians. But no one was punished. As if, the Islamists do not deserve any justice. As if, the killers who killed so many people don’t deserve any punishment. Rather, those who survived the carnage were arrested on terror charges. The USA government and its western allies kept tongue-tied silence –as if they have seen nothing and heard nothing. And this is indeed American justice and morality.

Even a killer thug gets affection from his pet dogs and cats. Such animal behavioral norms also work in humans. This is why the ancient tyrant Pharaohs were worshipped by the domesticated Egyptian people. Nasser revived that Pharaonic methodology to make Egyptian people deeply submissive to him. He launched his social, cultural, and ideological engineering to cultivate hero-worshipping. And the projected hero was Nasser himself. He used the media, writers, singers, dancers, sportsmen, theatre performers as his foot soldiers to raise him to that status. And it worked. This is why when this tyrant autocrat died, millions of Egyptians joined his funeral.

The current tyrant General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi follows the footsteps of Nasser. He also runs the same social, cultural, and intellectual engineering. All the TV channels and newspapers work for him. He has gaged the opposition voice. He has banned Ikhwan-ul Muslims. Its leaders and workers are now languishing in jails. Many of them faced execution. In fact, Jamal Abdel Nasser, Hosni Mubarak, and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi appeared as modern Pharaohs in Egypt. They caused massive cultural and ideological captivity cum molding of people. As a result, a large number of Egyptians developed incompatibility with the democratic norm of governance. This is why coup d’état against President Morsi was celebrated so wildly in the streets of Cairo. The same wild celebration took place in Tunis after the dissolution of the democratic government of Tunisia. This owes to the fact that although the Islamists could get electoral victory both in Egypt and Tunisia, they couldn’t eliminate millions of radical anti-Islamists from society. So they were ready to celebrate the Army take-over. These anti-Islamists are indeed the grave security threat for Islam and Muslims everywhere.

Arab World: a paradise for hedonist tyrants

The Arab World has turned into a paradise for the debauched tyrants. It looks that the Arab people have returned back to square one –the days of pre-Islamic tribalism. The 1.4 billion Chinese have one country called China. The 1.3 billion Indians have one country called India. 280 million Indonesians with more than 15 thousand islands have one country called Indonesia. But 400 million Arabs with the same land have built 22 countries. Even an Arab oilfield gets a flag, a map, and a name of statehood. Jews from Russia, Poland, Germany, and the USA, the UK, Iraq, Morocco, Ethiopia, and many other countries with different languages, dresses, food habits, and cultures could live in a single country of Israel. But the Arabs with the same language, the same landmass, and the same ethnicity can’t live in a single country. Instead of unity, division and feudal feuds have become part of the Arab culture and identity. Unity gives strength and division gives weakness. So defeating 400 million Arabs of 22 Arab states is nothing more than a cakewalk for 8 million Israelis. In the 1967 War, the joint armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan couldn’t stand even for 6 days. They surrendered with huge humiliation. The Arabs can celebrate only their divisions. They have indeed no victory or glory to celebrate.

Higher human identities like democracy, basic human rights, free media, free writings, free talks, open meetings, and street rallies are the common features even in countries like Turkey, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Peru, Bolivia, and many others, but such practices are punishable crimes in all Arab countries. Out of 22 Arab countries, not a single one is democratic. The only one was Tunisia, and recently that has also been dismantled. What a shame! Democracy, human rights, free thoughts, and free expression have never been the stuff of tribal life. These are indeed the accurate marker of civilizational progress and maturity of human development. The Arabs score very low on those development indicators. Unfortunately, these crucial issues are seldom discussed in the intellectual circles of the Arab World. One can find hardly any discussion on these issues in the Arab newspapers.

When Muslims built the finest civilization on the earth, they built not only mosques and madrasas. They developed social policies on the basis of basic human rights. They also implemented a democratic way of governance. So, the rulers of the Islamic State like Abu Bakar (RA), Omar (RA), Osman (RA), and Ali (RA) need not have any familial inheritance from the former ruler. They were directly elected by the people. Whereas, tribalism restricts such democratic rule of governance. Here, the tribal inheritance of blood and the power of savagery decide who should rule the tribe. The perfect rule of jungle works here. Hence a killer like Mohammad bin Salman who organized a gang for cutting into pieces Jamal Khashoggi –a prominent journalist can also claim the throne of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia leads the club of Arab dictators. Hence Saudi Arabia is the first country to congratulate the coup d’état in Tunisia.

In tribalism, man’s piety, honesty, morality, and education don’t count. Because of tribal occupation, the holiest sites of Islam now stand occupied by the most unholy people. Hence, there exists no space for decency, morality, and the rule of law in the tribal Arab World. People enjoy rights of protest and can through stones even under the Israeli occupation, but such right doesn’t exist in the Arab World. Iraq and Algeria are the only two rare exceptions. In such a permissive milieu, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi could roll tanks and artillery guns on Cairo’s streets to kill about two thousand innocent protesters. And the killer didn’t face any prosecution, let alone punishment.

The Arab World is known for its abundance of debauched tyrant rulers. No other part of the planet is embedded with so many tyrants. Fascists like Jamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, Hafez al-Assad of Syria and King of Saudi Arabia, Shaikh of UAE, and Bahrain are the prototypes of the worst tyrants in Arab history. Thieves breed thieves. And tyrants breed tyrants. Hence with the death of a tyrant, tyranny doesn’t end. Another tyrant takes his place. Hence the Arab people couldn’t get rid of the tyranny of the autocrats. Abdul Fatah al-Sisi of Egypt, Basher al-Assad of Syria, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and recently Kais Saeid of Tunisia are the latest brand of Arab tyrants.

 The only way out

 What people eat and drink decide their physical health. What they read decides the moral health. If the shops run out of food and drinks, famine starts. And if the quantity and the quality of books, journals, newspapers, and media deteriorate, moral health worsens. Sadly, the Arab World runs a severe shortage of readable stuff like books, journals, and newspapers. Books, journals, and newspapers generate knowledge and make people thoughtful. Civility, morality, and civilizational process start from such a thought-generating process. Awfully, this is the most restricted sector in the Arab World. This way the tyrant Arab rulers restrict the intellectual growth of the Arab people. The government keeps an eye on every page of the published book, journal, or newspaper. In the early years of this current century, the UNDP published a report that exposed a horrendous scarcity in the intellectual treasure of the Arabs. The number of books that are published by a single country like Spain is not published even by 22 Arab states. It tells a lot to understand the intellectual ill-health of the Arab people. It amply explains why autocracy flourishes and democracy fails in Arab countries.

The Arab people have already tried Arab nationalism, tribalism, monarchism, secularism, socialism, and western liberalism. All these ideologies have led to failures. These have proved to be the pathology of the disease and not the solution. In the past, the people of the Arab World could build the best civilization in human history. In fact, that is the only golden part of Arab history. The past glory doesn’t owe to Arab nationalism, tribalism, monarchism, secularism, socialism, and western liberalism. It was only possible because of their adherence to Islam. But the Arab people have abandoned that tested path of success. Instead, they have taken the tested path of failure. Still, they persist to follow the same wrong track. Thus they engage in betrayal against Islam and Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. They read Qur’an only for the sake of recitation, but not for following its teaching in real life. In real life, they follow secularism, tribalism, Arab nationalism, monarchism, and hedonism. Instead of unity, they celebrate division and feuds. If they have an iota of faith in the Qur’an they would have run their judiciary according to the Qur’anic law called sharia. They would compete with each other to be more Islamist rather than celebrating the defeat of Islamists. By celebrating the defeat of Islamists they can only placate Satan and other enemies of Islam. This way they can only invite the wrath of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la.

The Israeli occupation of Palestine, the US-led occupation, and the destruction of Iraqi and Syrian cities to rabbles have never been the signs of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la’s blessing. These are the parts of the promised punishment –as revealed many times in the Holy Qur’an. The Arab Muslims must understand the simple truth that as long as they stay away from Islam and adhere to evil ideologies like secularism, tribalism, Arab nationalism, monarchism, and hedonism, they will only continue to invite terrible failures and the Divine punishment. To understand this simple truth, it doesn’t need to be a scholar, simple crude common sense is enough. But unfortunately, the Arabs are persistently failing to display such common sense.  This owes to deep mental invasion by evil ideologies. Numerous clubs, pubs, casinos, and sea beeches of the Arab countries display symptoms of such mental invasion. Minds can’t work normally with such deep invasion. The tyrant Arab rulers of nationalist, monarchist, Ba’athist, and secularist brands have promoted only such mental invasion.

The days of physical colonization by the enemies have ended but the process of mental invasion and colonization still continues. Now the enemies have started a new cold war against Islam and the Muslims globally. The war aims at re-enforcing the pre-existing mental colonization. The Muslim secularists, nationalists, socialists, and monarchists are the partners of the ongoing US-led war on Islam and Muslims. All these partners proved to be fascists and radical anti-Islamists. These internal enemies of Islam -recruited by the external enemies are helping the kuffar enemies for ideological, cultural, and political takeover of the Muslim countries. For the imperialist enemies, this is more cost-effective than physical occupation. Now it has become the multi-national imperialist expansion project of the west. The USA spent more than a trillion dollars in its 20-year old war in Afghanistan. After the humiliating defeat there, the USA is now focused to make occupation by coup d’état in collaboration with the internal enemies. Hence, the ouster of President Dr. Mohammad Morsi of Egypt and the dissolution of the Islamist-controlled ministry and parliament of Tunisia is not isolated events. These are the well-planned stipulated outcomes of the US-led coalition’s insidious war. To encounter this ongoing war of the enemies, it needs a large number of intellectual fighters. Only this way the Muslims can mobilize enough diehard fighters on the street. Only this way, the Turkish Islamists made a brilliant history by foiling a coup d’état against President Erdogan’s government.

Prophet Mohammad faced the enemy’s cold war during his initial 13 years of prophethood in Mokka. His faith was mocked and abused. His identity, integrity, and honesty were constantly attacked. The enemies used lies and fabrication to assassinate his character and the mission. The Prophet (peace be upon him) had no other weapon except the Holy Qur’an to fight that enemy’s cold war. The enemy’s hot war started only after the migration to Medina. The Holy Qur’an proved its stern effectiveness in fighting the enemy’s intellectual war.  It proved to be the only way to end the mental occupation of false beliefs and to strengthen Islamic spiritual roots. Even today, only strong fortification with the Qur’anic knowledge can protect Muslims from constant enemy onslaughts with evil ideologies. Only this way one can disconnect his soul from Satan and his ploys and connect with the agenda of Allah Sub’han wa Ta’la. This is indeed the most powerful legacy that Prophet (peace be upon him) left for his ummah. The Muslims possess no other option but to follow this legacy. In fact, this shows the only way out from the current quagmire. 31/07/2021.