Will our problems with the West end by securing its interests in our region?

In this paper, I claim that the Western hostilities against our Muslim nation over centuries have not stopped at the point of controlling raw materials that abound in the Muslim world geography (oil, wood, rubber, gold, copper, mica, uranium, and precious metals) nor controlling strategic marine passages (the Suez Canal, Bab el Mandeb, the Strait of Hormuz). I claim that the Western hostilities against our Muslim nation have preceded running behind oil and the recovery of international trade which help to explain the aggressive historical phenomenon against our Muslim nation that characterized the American and European behavior in its dealing with the Muslim world.

Accordingly,

● This is an important point on the subject because if the Western aggression on our nation has stopped at the material interests of the West in our region, we would have thought and innovated methods to secure its interests for the sake of lifting aggression from our nation and grant it a historical chance to regain its breath and move forward toward the future and moderate development.

However, in my opinion, this is not the case, but rather if the Western interests are material, it will not stop at that point.

Through quick reading on the issue of the relationships between the West and us, we found out that the West is trying to dominate us whether spiritually and religiously which entails its interference in reformulating our history and canceling our value system which is connected by our dogmas and Shari`ah facts. This requires that we should think carefully about this matter and adopt new readings to the regional and international level, finding anti-domination strategies, and preserving our Islamic initiative at the international level.

We say it frankly that the Islamic movement with its various views and names have to know that the West is targeting all of us: The Book of Allah, His Messenger, His Shari`ah, the language of the Qur'an, its people, its material and moral values. Tracking what is going on in American and European decision-making circles and after September 11 in particular leads to this conviction, as Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you (O Muhammad peace be upon him) till you follow their religion. Say: "Verily, the Guidance of Allâh (i.e. Islâmic Monotheism) that is the (only) Guidance. And if you (O Muhammad peace be upon him) were to follow their (Jews and Christians) desires after what you have received of Knowledge (i.e., the Qur'ân), then you would have against Allâh neither any Walî (protector or guardian) nor any helper." [Surat Al Baqarah 120].

The Political West:

We have to note that the West has double-faces: A political face which is apparent to the Western civilization and an intellectual face that represents the scientific base of the Western civilization and its actual position of Islam and Muslims. The political West has been dominant throughout history over the Muslim resources. Given that the current international system has a (Center) represented in the United States and Western Europe and has (Periphery) where the Muslim countries are located with their various colors, tongues, and geography, we find that the center controls the periphery through four aspects:

1 - Monopoly of the culture of armament and its traditional and nuclear trade.

2 - Monopoly of oil and other raw materials (especially the strategic).

3 - Monopoly of international legitimacy (through the United Nations and the Security Council).

4 - Monopoly of global trade, culture, and media (globalization).

The intellectual West:

● As for the intellectual West which is represented in the system of the Western cognitive discourse in its vision and understanding of Islam, it is based on four points:

1 - The stance on the revelation.

2 - The stance on the prophethood and the personality of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

3 - The stance on the cultural achievements of Muslims (in the field of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, geography, and others).

4 - The stance on the issue of the Muslims' backwardness and its causes.

(See the details in the useful book by Dr. Samir Suleiman "Marked by Islam and the West - Beirut 1995").

We will see through the historical review of the Western interpretations of these four issues represented in the writings of (Doze), (Lamans), (Sordell), (Watt), Robinson and now (Jerry Falwell), (Robertson. P), (Graham Bill), the Godfather of U.S. President George W. Bush), (Buchanan. P), and many others in the Western capitals and cities. We shall notice that all of them denied Revelation and prophethood, insulted the Prophet (peace be upon him), and denied the role of Muslims in the achievements of civilization. Moreover, they emphasized that the cause of Muslims' backwardness is Islam itself and most of their writings tended to try to undermine the basis of Islamic faith represented in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. This historic Western position (both politically and intellectually) is difficult to strike off from the memory of the Islamic nation, elites, and intellectuals, therefore the West has to keep its moral responsibility towards the Muslim nation if it wants to preserve its literary stature among Muslims. As long as the West demands us to improve our image, at the same time, it is asked to improve its image after fifty years of its dreadful support for the Israeli revel in the region.

The Islamic movement and its leaders:

● The West spreads the news that the leaders of the Islamic movement and its staff do not understand the West. Man is the enemy of what he does not know and the reason of ignorance is that the Islamic Movement leaders are filled with the Islamic culture which hinders any intellectual common ground with the Western culture. The West says: There is no way that the Islamic movement is getting rid of (the Cultural Shock) but through systematic reformulation according to the Western system. Therefore, the West raises the idea of reviewing the curricula of religious education in the Muslim world, which is the reason for (schizophrenia) between the Islamic movement and the West.

● This is an incorrect and inaccurate idea and the political Western departments and Western decision makers know that for sure. We do not doubt that most of the leaders of the Islamic movement worldwide understand the West well because most of them had studied in the West and received their education in their universities, institutes, laboratories, and even in the Western factories of iron, steel, and heavy industry. Dr. Hassan At-Turaby, for instance, speaks English and French, and received his postgraduate studies at the Sorbonne in France and studied law there, later on he became the dean of the law Faculty at Khartoum. Dr. Erbakan was an engineer who received his study in Germany, specialized in diesel machines, and became the minister of industry in the town of Turkey. Rashid Al Ghannouchi received his education in France then he studied philosophy at the University of Damascus. Sayyid Qutb (may Allah have mercy on him) received his master's degree in educational administration from an American University and speaks, reads, and writes English. Abassi Madani (Algeria) was one of the leaders of the Islamic movement in Algeria and used to speak and write in French.

Furthermore, Anwar Ibrahim the Malaysia Islamic activist received his education in the United States and was our colleague in the world Muslim students' league. Through his lectures and intellectual views, he was outstanding and deep understanding of the West, its intellectual system, and its political mechanisms.

Therefore, those who believe that the leaders of the world Islamic organizations are the Shari`ah knowledge seekers or those who suffer from a cultural shock in their dealing with the West are mistaken. Moreover, we may say that most leaders of Islamic organizations did not receive Shari`ah education, but most of them received a secular education in the West. Moreover, reading deeply some philosophies led some of them to doubt and atheism in some cases. We say this to prove that the leaders of Islamic organizations worldwide, especially in countries like (Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan) had engaged well with the Western languages, cultures, sciences, institutes, and universities, therefore its superficial to accuse some of them that they do not understand the West because they understand it well and speak their languages (English, French, and German) and realize the geopolitical dimensions to its strategies in the Muslim world and its implications. The leaders of these organizations see that the Western project (the American and the European) in our region is a project of comprehensive dominance on us, so we will see this opposition to the Western project.

Western incitement against Islamists:

● Helene D'Encause, the French researcher, said when she was analyzing the Afghan crisis that the American and European strategies should be designed to meet the new phenomenon of Islamic awakening that has emerged as a force on the ground that can affect the so-called (I'espace Islamo -pétrolier) which covers the territory of the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula. D'Encanuse warned against the emergence of Islamist in this field of Islamic oil where the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula forms its heart, where Makkah, the Sacred House, and the grave of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) as a spiritual source to attract the Muslim world from Nouakchott to Jakarta. D'Encanus warned the West that the arrival of Islamists to the power in Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and their interesting combat in Chechnya with the Russian Federation army for a long period may affect the power balance and thus may hinder the flow of oil from the area of Islamic oil territories to Western strategic markets.

● The US former President, Richard Nixon, expressed his concern from Islam and Muslims by publishing two books: The first was (victory without war) and then was (Seize the moment). Nixon in these two books that, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992 will face the West and the United States in particular (a giant last) is the Islam should be on the United States to act quickly on constipation so-called B (Leadership Spiritual Spiritual Leadership) in the world before the "green giant wakes up from his sleep," as he put it.

● According to Stephen Bellathier (Stephen Pelletiere), an expert professor and a  consultant in the War College subordinates to the American Army War College that the main obstacle in front of Islam in the Middle East is not the Arab governments and the Arab peoples but the Islamic movement of Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and both are Islamic parties, see the study of Bellathier: Hezbollah & Hamas-Challenges to peace.

● Martin Kramer, the Director of the Moshe Dayan center of Tel Aviv University and one of the most serious ex-Zionist strategic thinkers, and holds dual U.S. and Israeli nationalities. Kramer asserts that the United States should work to eradicate the Islamic Movements even if they came to power through secret ballot and democratic approach, as happened in Algeria and Turkey. According to Kramer in a paper published in the Aspen Institute in Washington in 1998: The U.S. administration and the White House should not waste time in opening dialogues with Islamic movements, but he urged the U.S. administration to support the Arab regimes by all necessary means to suppress and eradicate those movements. Kramer said that he does not find it very difficult for the American democrats and republicans administrations to understand that.

These are just examples and samples for the Western perceptions of Islam and Muslims.

Is there oil in Jerusalem?

● The most important military victory achieved by the First Crusade is taking over the city of Jerusalem in 1099 AD. The Crusaders committed the worst massacres in history against the Muslim population of Jerusalem, and they did not stop at that limit but collected the members of the Jewish community in their temple and set fire in them, since then Jerusalem has become the capital of the crusaders which was known as the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. (See more details in the book of Dr. Samir Suleiman).

● The Christian dimension behind the occupation of Jerusalem was clear. There were no oil, minerals, or cereals in Jerusalem, and it is not located on a world marine trade passage, but it has a spiritual importance for Muslims. So, it was important for the Crusaders to seize that spiritual symbol from Muslims. This is a historical evidence that the West regarded Islam as a Geo-strategic threat as it bears an evidence that the West is not secular in the sense which it is trying to depict, moreover, there is a rigid religious dimension to its policies and military campaigns. This historical polarity between Muslims and the West about the issue of Jerusalem is a physical evidence on the apprehension of the West from Islam and its spiritual centers. The Western stance on the taking over of the Zionists, the Judaization of Jerusalem, and the strategic alliance existing between the West and the Zionists (a coalition that has lasted for over fifty years and still) is other evidence in this context. Won't that indicate a religious dimension of the Christian West in its policies towards the issue of Palestine in general and Jerusalem in particular?

They did not protect Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

● In another point, we will notice a prominent activity against Islam in the region of the heart of Europe. So, the NATO interference in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and Dayton agreement in November 1995 were all targeting Muslims and keeping them away from the center of the decision making in the Balkans.

The NATO gave the Serbs all the needed time to slaughter Muslims, cut off their heads, and cut open the bellies of pregnant women, whereas there was an international decision to arms embargo for Muslims in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo, moreover they banned the interference of the Islamic Conference Organization by any means. When the Serbs killed Muslims in large numbers and their matter completely exposed, the NATO interfered to lay down the Dayton Agreement about which Mr. Ali Izetbegovic said: (unjust peace is better than a just war).

As for their manifest interference in East Timor, their military threat to Indonesia, and their encouragement to the establishment of a Catholic Christian entity directly linked to the Vatican amid the Muslim Indonesian archipelago, it refutes their claim of spreading peace and agreement in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo. Why it is lawful for East Timor and forbidden in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo?

You must re-examine our priorities:

As long as the matter reached this critical stage, we have to re-examine our priorities.

First, we have to study the global scene and the strategic Western trends which tend to comprehensively dominate the Islamic world.

Second, we have to limit the cycle of conflict, the point of focus, and actions and we should not squander time, energy, and abilities in secondary battles of no use.

Third, we have to exert more efforts on the issue of the Muslim-Christian dialogue and in the issue of the Muslim-Muslim dialogue, and as we go to Rome, Brussels, and London to have dialogues with the bishops, cardinals, and priests about the Muslim-Christian cooperation, we have to go to Medina, Cairo, Tihran, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Damascus and other Muslim capitals to reach the Formula of Concord and activate our organizations.

Fourth, immediate engagement in creating a comprehensive strategy tending to eradicate resistance and stop the Western dominance in all fields. This is not a call for unbalanced confrontation, we do not call for that, but we call for resistance and fight back. Indeed, the resistance of domination especially the American, in Iraq and Afghanistan is an obligatory duty as it is a strategic necessity for the nation.

Fifth, because the United States of America represents the (center of gravity) in the West, as it is the successor of the European dominance project, especially the British, which provides the Zionist project by the means of military superiority, so it is impossible to achieve this qualitative transition for the Muslim nation except through focusing on resisting (the center of gravity) of the West represented by the United States. It is important to clarify that we do not resist except for protecting ourselves from the aggressions of U.S. administrations.

The goal of strategic resistance —as drawn by the Muslim strategist Dr. Hamid `Abdul-Majid Quwaysy— is making a dislocation in the international system which captures the Muslim nation through resisting the American gravity center represented by the United States.

We have to invent new means for resisting the American dominance, fight back the Western dominance, and not to surrender to it at this stage.

The last of our call is praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.