10-31-2006, 02:28 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Karbala to Mecca </b>
Sandhya Jain
Political Islam took its first mature step to recover agency from its Western tormentors by applying a healing touch to the bleeding fields of Karbala, where Mohammed's nascent faith split irrevocably into Shias and Sunnis. While it is too early to gauge the impact of this largely ignored initiative by King Abdullah, the fact that Iraq's Shia and Sunni clerics recently met in Mecca and signed a covenant to end sectarian strife in that tormented nation is momentous. Formally organised by the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the meeting is an important step in uniting the faithful as a prelude to tackling the new colonial menace in the oil-rich Muslim heartland.
The covenant follows King Abdullah's disapproval of Iraq's growing sectarian violence, and belies Western hopes that Saudi fears of increased Iranian influence over Baghdad's new Shia elite would accentuate Shia-Sunni rifts in other Muslim countries as well. Far from fearing the assertive Shia elites of Tehran and Baghdad, Riyadh has dexterously recruited them as partners in Islam's last battle for dignity on the world stage.
Since King Abdullah's arrival in New Delhi as Republic Day guest this year, some of us sensed a break from the schizophrenic policy of financing fundamentalism while submitting to Western exploitation and domination. The King realises that the third crusade with political Christianity is already underway. The anti-Prophet cartoons; the Pope's attack on Islam as an evil doctrine and his previous call for the conversion of Europe's Muslim population to Christianity; and the deliberate controversy over the veil in Britain, all suggest that Europe is gearing up to push its Muslim population out of its space, even as the Western military-economic corporates rape and ravage Muslim lands.
<b>King Abdullah is custodian of a faith that from its inception gave its followers political agency; something no other religion has done. Yet among the colonised peoples of the 19th and 20th centuries, Muslims have suffered the most enduring humiliation. Their lands have been divided arbitrarily and puppet regimes imposed upon unhappy people, to facilitate Western domination over their lands and resources. If Islam today commands attention in the international arena, it is because the Iranian Ayatollahs resisted this thinly-veiled imperialism. Leaders like Saddam Hussain fell foul of the colonial-corporate mullahs for the same reason. </b>
Today, America's naked aggression in Iraq lies completely exposed. Yet, the Muslim world fears that Washington will not quit gracefully and will use the sectarian violence to push for a tripartite division along Shia, Sunni, and oil-rich ethnic Kurd lines. The Shias and Sunnis would be abandoned, and the oil-rich section would become a Western 'protectorate' (naturally).
As for Shia Iran, the danger remains. America has been waiting to avenge the ouster of its favourite dictator, Reza Shah Pahlavi, who gifted it favourable access to Iran's oil wealth. The excuse is now available with the so-called secret uranium enrichment. Mr Ahmadinejad has mocked these allegations, offering to open Tehran's nuclear sites to tourists! Yet he must be a worried man, as sanctions against his country could literally kill millions of citizens, as happened in Iraq <b>because Saddam Hussain refused to give America a rapacious oil deal on the lines of the 60-year monopoly that President FD Roosevelt forced upon the Saudi royals. Now, a Vichy-type of regime has handed over Iraq's oil to the Texan oil majors linked with key figures of the Bush Administration. </b>
Some recent events have sent warning bells ringing in leading Islamic capitals. At a time when Saudi royals wish to distance Islam from jihad (some of us expect the slow evolution of a Pakistan not so keen to serve America), Washington has told the beleaguered Hamid Karzai to talk to the vicious Taliban in Afghanistan<b>. This suggests that America never broke ties with the Taliban, which it used to engineer the Twin Towers tragedy to provide an excuse to move troops to the region, with the ultimate objective of possessing the oil wealth of Iraq and Iran. So after a brief strategic exile, the Taliban is being resurrected as Gen Musharraf is proving a slippery customer. Thus the ugly face of Islam meshes with ugly America</b>.
<b>At the same time, the Saudi ruling family apprehends increased US support for 'genuine democracy' in the country; a prelude to another puppet regime. </b>Further, Washington's choice of South Korean Ban ki-Moon as next UN Secretary-General has upset the Islamic world, as contrary to popular perception, he is not a Buddhist, but a Christian. The refusal to consider a candidate from the Gulf; the shoddy treatment previously meted out to Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali; and Mr Kofi Annan's zeal in serving Western interests<b>, has convinced political Islam that continued subservience to Western polity is suicidal. </b>
Presently the West does not even admit the need to politically engage Islam as a legitimate world force. The Pope's Regensburg address makes it clear that Europe supports the American President's evangelical-cum-neo-colonial agenda for the non-Christian world. <b>The Saudi initiative for a sectarian truce in Islam, on the lines of the Catholic-Protestant ceasefire, could checkmate Western unilateralism in non-Christian lands. It could lead to internal reform and change within Islam, and inhibit the non-Islamic and non-Christian world from choosing between Islam and Christianity in the so-called clash of civilisations. As such, it is a deft move, well worth the risk.</b>
Significantly, the Mecca covenant specifically calls for respecting the holy sites of both communities and for defending the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq - a recognition of nation-state which is revolutionary in Islam. It seeks release of 'all innocent detainees,' a reference to Guantanamo Bay and a direct attack on the White House. Further, it forbids "spilling of Muslim blood," kidnapping, incitement of hatred, and attacks on religious sites. This apparent repetition cannot be accidental, so I wonder if it extends to non-Muslim religious sites like Ayodhya, Akshardham, and Raghunath Mandir.
It is plausible that Mecca has inspired the changed voices emanating from Deoband regarding Imrana's marital status following rape by her father-in-law. <b>Interestingly, though the veil has never been an issue in India, Ms Shabana Azmi felt obliged to tear it after receiving an award from the British House of Commons. Secular Islam, like jihadi Islam, is a protégé of Western Christian colonialism. </b>
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Sandhya Jain
Political Islam took its first mature step to recover agency from its Western tormentors by applying a healing touch to the bleeding fields of Karbala, where Mohammed's nascent faith split irrevocably into Shias and Sunnis. While it is too early to gauge the impact of this largely ignored initiative by King Abdullah, the fact that Iraq's Shia and Sunni clerics recently met in Mecca and signed a covenant to end sectarian strife in that tormented nation is momentous. Formally organised by the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the meeting is an important step in uniting the faithful as a prelude to tackling the new colonial menace in the oil-rich Muslim heartland.
The covenant follows King Abdullah's disapproval of Iraq's growing sectarian violence, and belies Western hopes that Saudi fears of increased Iranian influence over Baghdad's new Shia elite would accentuate Shia-Sunni rifts in other Muslim countries as well. Far from fearing the assertive Shia elites of Tehran and Baghdad, Riyadh has dexterously recruited them as partners in Islam's last battle for dignity on the world stage.
Since King Abdullah's arrival in New Delhi as Republic Day guest this year, some of us sensed a break from the schizophrenic policy of financing fundamentalism while submitting to Western exploitation and domination. The King realises that the third crusade with political Christianity is already underway. The anti-Prophet cartoons; the Pope's attack on Islam as an evil doctrine and his previous call for the conversion of Europe's Muslim population to Christianity; and the deliberate controversy over the veil in Britain, all suggest that Europe is gearing up to push its Muslim population out of its space, even as the Western military-economic corporates rape and ravage Muslim lands.
<b>King Abdullah is custodian of a faith that from its inception gave its followers political agency; something no other religion has done. Yet among the colonised peoples of the 19th and 20th centuries, Muslims have suffered the most enduring humiliation. Their lands have been divided arbitrarily and puppet regimes imposed upon unhappy people, to facilitate Western domination over their lands and resources. If Islam today commands attention in the international arena, it is because the Iranian Ayatollahs resisted this thinly-veiled imperialism. Leaders like Saddam Hussain fell foul of the colonial-corporate mullahs for the same reason. </b>
Today, America's naked aggression in Iraq lies completely exposed. Yet, the Muslim world fears that Washington will not quit gracefully and will use the sectarian violence to push for a tripartite division along Shia, Sunni, and oil-rich ethnic Kurd lines. The Shias and Sunnis would be abandoned, and the oil-rich section would become a Western 'protectorate' (naturally).
As for Shia Iran, the danger remains. America has been waiting to avenge the ouster of its favourite dictator, Reza Shah Pahlavi, who gifted it favourable access to Iran's oil wealth. The excuse is now available with the so-called secret uranium enrichment. Mr Ahmadinejad has mocked these allegations, offering to open Tehran's nuclear sites to tourists! Yet he must be a worried man, as sanctions against his country could literally kill millions of citizens, as happened in Iraq <b>because Saddam Hussain refused to give America a rapacious oil deal on the lines of the 60-year monopoly that President FD Roosevelt forced upon the Saudi royals. Now, a Vichy-type of regime has handed over Iraq's oil to the Texan oil majors linked with key figures of the Bush Administration. </b>
Some recent events have sent warning bells ringing in leading Islamic capitals. At a time when Saudi royals wish to distance Islam from jihad (some of us expect the slow evolution of a Pakistan not so keen to serve America), Washington has told the beleaguered Hamid Karzai to talk to the vicious Taliban in Afghanistan<b>. This suggests that America never broke ties with the Taliban, which it used to engineer the Twin Towers tragedy to provide an excuse to move troops to the region, with the ultimate objective of possessing the oil wealth of Iraq and Iran. So after a brief strategic exile, the Taliban is being resurrected as Gen Musharraf is proving a slippery customer. Thus the ugly face of Islam meshes with ugly America</b>.
<b>At the same time, the Saudi ruling family apprehends increased US support for 'genuine democracy' in the country; a prelude to another puppet regime. </b>Further, Washington's choice of South Korean Ban ki-Moon as next UN Secretary-General has upset the Islamic world, as contrary to popular perception, he is not a Buddhist, but a Christian. The refusal to consider a candidate from the Gulf; the shoddy treatment previously meted out to Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali; and Mr Kofi Annan's zeal in serving Western interests<b>, has convinced political Islam that continued subservience to Western polity is suicidal. </b>
Presently the West does not even admit the need to politically engage Islam as a legitimate world force. The Pope's Regensburg address makes it clear that Europe supports the American President's evangelical-cum-neo-colonial agenda for the non-Christian world. <b>The Saudi initiative for a sectarian truce in Islam, on the lines of the Catholic-Protestant ceasefire, could checkmate Western unilateralism in non-Christian lands. It could lead to internal reform and change within Islam, and inhibit the non-Islamic and non-Christian world from choosing between Islam and Christianity in the so-called clash of civilisations. As such, it is a deft move, well worth the risk.</b>
Significantly, the Mecca covenant specifically calls for respecting the holy sites of both communities and for defending the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq - a recognition of nation-state which is revolutionary in Islam. It seeks release of 'all innocent detainees,' a reference to Guantanamo Bay and a direct attack on the White House. Further, it forbids "spilling of Muslim blood," kidnapping, incitement of hatred, and attacks on religious sites. This apparent repetition cannot be accidental, so I wonder if it extends to non-Muslim religious sites like Ayodhya, Akshardham, and Raghunath Mandir.
It is plausible that Mecca has inspired the changed voices emanating from Deoband regarding Imrana's marital status following rape by her father-in-law. <b>Interestingly, though the veil has never been an issue in India, Ms Shabana Azmi felt obliged to tear it after receiving an award from the British House of Commons. Secular Islam, like jihadi Islam, is a protégé of Western Christian colonialism. </b>
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