Donald
Trump’s speech in Riyadh has sparked a wave of declarations against terrorism
and against political Islam. The Arab world is expressing its thirst for
secularism at the very moment that it is being misrepresented in Europe and
used against religions. Faced with this breath of liberty, the British are
organizing the camp of political Islam around Qatar, Iran, Turkey and the
Muslim Brotherhood.
During colonisation and throughout the Cold War, the imperialist
powers used religions in order to gag all protest against their domination. So,
France, which in 1905 adopted an important law about the secularism of its
institutions, immediately decided not to apply them in the colonised
territories.
We know today that the « Arab Springs » were a British
initiative aimed at putting the Muslim Brotherhood in power and thus
reinforcing Anglo-Saxon domination over the « Greater Middle East ».
For 16 years, the Western powers have been rightfully accusing
the Muslims of not cleaning up their own house, and of tolerating terrorists.
However, it is clear today that these terrorists are supported by the same
Western powers in order to enslave Muslims by means of « political Islam ».
London, Washington, and Paris have no problems with terrorism until it spills
over from the « Greater Middle East », and they never criticise « political
Islam », at least as far as the Sunnis are concerned.
By giving his speech in Riyadh, on 21 May 2017, President Trump
intended to put an end to the terrorism which is consuming the region and is
now spreading to the West. The words he spoke did indeed act as an
electroshock. His speech was interpreted as an authorisation to finish with the
system.
What had seemed unthinkable over the last few centuries suddenly
took shape. Saudi Arabia agreed to cut off all contact with the Muslim
Brotherhood and raged against those who continue to pursue their collaboration
with the British, and particularly against Qatar. Riyadh gave the signal for a
cleansing which will sweep much frustration along with it. In a spirit of
Bedouin vengeance, diplomatic relations have been interrupted, and an economic
blockade was organised against the Qatari population – while in the Emirates, a
sentence of 15 years of imprisonment was established by law for any individual
who showed as much as a little compassion for the inhabitants of accused Qatar.
A gigantic displacement of forces and alliances has begun. If
this movement is to continue, the region will organise itself around a new
fissure. The question of the struggle against imperialism will wither and give
way to the struggle against clericalism.
The Europeans lived with this cleavage for four hundred years,
from the 16th to the 19th centuries, but not the United States, because their
country was founded by the Puritan cult who were fleeing from this cleavage.
The struggle against political Christianity was first of all a combat against
the pretensions of the clergy of the Catholic Church, who sought to govern
their faithful all the way into their bedrooms. This only ceased with Paul VI,
who abandoned the pontifical tiara. This triple crown was supposed to symbolise
that the Pope was a higher authority than kings and emperors.
Like original Christianity, which had no ministers (these only
arrived in the 3rd century), original Islam and current Sunnism have none. Only
Chiism has been structured like Catholicism and Orthodoxy. As a result,
political Islam today is incarnated by the Muslim Brotherhood and the
government of Sheikh Rohani (the title of Shiekh indicates that President
Rohani is a member of the Shiite clergy).
Currently, a clerical alliance is in the process of formation,
with the help of the United Kingdom. It could constitute a block including
Iran, Qatar, Turkey, Idleb to the North-West of Syria, and Gaza. This group
would become the protector of the Muslim Brotherhood, and consequently the
defender of the use of terrorism.
In two weeks, the Arab Press, which until now had viewed the
Muslim Brotherhood in a favorable light, as a powerful secret organisation, and
jihadism as a legitimate engagement, has suddenly made an about-turn.
Everywhere, everyone is publishing denunciations of the pretension of the
Muslim Brotherhood who want to regulate people’s lives and the cruel folly of
jihadism.
This flood of commentaries, the centuries of frustration that
they express, coupled with their violence, makes any back-pedalling impossible
– which does not, however, mean that the alliance Iran-Qatar-Turkey-Hamas will
go all the way. This revolutionary tsunami is happening in the middle of the
month of Ramadan. Meetings between friends and families, which should be
consensual celebrations, sometimes turn into arguments about what until now had
been perceived as the basic truths of Islam.
In case the cleavage for or against clericalism should continue,
we will be seeing a general recomposition of the political landscape. For
example, the Revolutionary Guard, which was created to stand against
Anglo-Saxon imperialism, has accumulated resentment against the Iranian clergy.
Many of them remember that during the war forced on them by Iraq, the mullahs
and the ayatollahs manipulated ways of hiding their children, while the Guard
was dying on the battle-field. But, weakened during the first Rohani mandate,
it is unlikely that they would dare to rise against the civil-religious power.
On the contrary, the Lebanese Hezbollah is commanded by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
(here the title of Sayyed indicates that he is a direct descendant of the
Prophet Muhammad), a personality who promotes the separation of the public and
private spheres. Although he has a religious function and another, political,
function, he has always been opposed to blending them both, while accepting the
Platonic principle of Velayat-e Faqih (that is – government by a wise man). It
is therefore unlikely that Hezbollah will follow the Rohani government.
Meanwhile, the whole region is buzzing – in Libya, the Muslim
Brotherhood have left Tripoli, leaving a militia to liberate Saif el-Islam
Kadhafi, and General Haftar to expand his influence. In Egypt, the
General-President al-Sissi has asked his opposite numbers in the Gulf to draw
up a list of terrorists. In Palestine, the political directors of Hamas have
fled to Iran. In Syria, the jihadists have stopped fighting against the
Republic and are awaiting orders. In Iraq, the army has redoubled its efforts
against the Muslim Brotherhood and the Order of the Naqshbandis. In Saudi
Arabia, the Muslim World League has excluded from its administrative council
the Brotherhood’s star preacher, Sheikh Qaradawi. And Turkey and Pakistan have
begun the transfer of tens of thousands of soldiers towards Qatar -which can
now only feed itself with the help of Iran.
A new dawn seems to be rising over the region.
French
intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace
Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in
daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last
two books published in English : 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate.
The articles
on Voltaire Network may be freely reproduced provided the source is cited,
their integrity is respected and they are not used for commercial purposes (license CC BY-NC-ND).
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