18/09/2023

By Dr Mahboob A Khawaja *

“War provides an outlet for every evil element in man’s nature. It enfranchises cupidity and greed gives a charter to petty tyranny, glorifies cruelty and places in position of power the vulgar and base.”  (C.E.M Joad. Guide to Modern Wickedness, 1936)

The Leaders Who could not Lead to Political Change and Peace

The Arabian landscape portrays continuous wars, insurgency against authoritarianism, insecurity and lack of moral and intellectual leadership to political change for the good of people. For more than a decade, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Afghanistan have not emerged stable entities after the conflicts.  This week, the Laws of Nature signaled the staunch reminders to all mankind via flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes and raging wildfires across the globe. Would any serious thinkers take notice of these natural acts for change, reformation and security? Please view:  “Global Peace and Security:  World Leaders Betray the Canons of Truth, Wisdom and Humanity”, “Peace and War The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Urgently Needs a Dialogue for Peace”, Uncommon Thought Journal: 8/26/2023, and “Arab Triangle: How the prosperity bubble destroyed the Arab Moral and Intellectual culture” Uncommon Thought Journal: 6/12/2013.

Militarization of the Arabian Peninsula appears high on the agenda items for policies and  practices. The European and American policy makers view the oil exporting Arab leaders as “camel jockeys”  and draw hollow laughters.  According to John  Perkins (Confession of an Economic Hitman, 2006), Arab States are like ‘cows to be milked as long as necessary.’ Most of the Arab leadership families are the former colonial agents hired by the British, French and US Empires to control and manage the oil export business. They pay to the Masters for protection of their palaces, but not of the people. Even a common person cannot think outside the capsule of secret police apparatus.

There are no objective moral, spiritual and intellectual values in the imperial philosophy of global economic development except power and wisdom are immeasurably separated by the gulf of greed, militarization and hegemonic control over the oil-rich Arab Middle East. The puppet rulers and the imperial Masters demonstrate sadistic policy behaviors  and cruelty to safeguarding their vested interests and strategic priorities for hegemonic economic development across the Arab world.

Evil is deprivation of good. The coming of Islam glorified the Arab moral and intellectual cultures from an age of ignorance to an age of human development, change, progress and  to the peak of Golden Age of scientific and human progress lasting 800 years in

Al-Andulcia- Spain. Marai Rosa Menocal (A Golden Reign of Tolerance: The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, 2003), highlighted the contributions of Islamic civilization in Spain. 

The Islamic civilization identified the Arabs as “Ummah of Khair – people of goodness and peace.”  The message of Qur’an is clear:  “We have revealed for you (O men!)  a book in which  is a message for you: Will ye not then understand?” (21: 10). And it warns: “Then the Apostle will say: O My Lord! My people took this Qur’an for just foolish nonsense.”(25:30), “Does Man not see; It is God Who created him from sperm. Yet Behold! he (stands forth) as an open Adversary.” (36:77). Today, the Arab world exemplifies a decadent moral and intellectual landscape. What a moral and intellectual human tragedy for those knowledgeable people, who defied the logic of truth. The oil exporting superficial prosperity betrayed the heritage of Arab nations and changed them to be interdependent and subservient to the West as puppets and stooges living to compete in erecting high-rise buildings and palaces without any purpose, importing luxury cars, organizing  and enjoying football matches and striving for exclusive consumerism and nothing else. They lost sense of humanity,  and consequential futuristic calamities and accountability to God.

The Arab Spring (2011), raised hopes for systematic rethinking and socioeconomic and political change but the authoritarian Arab leaders crushed the spirit of people’s movement for political change. Islam professed a movement for human development and change but the neocolonial opted for a short lived economic prosperity. The Arab people have become victims of their own rulers and their complacency to remain in power, fair or foul.

After the 9/11 tragedies, the US led bogus “War on Terrorism”, and its War-Industrial  Complex fetched the Arab rulers with a sense of insecurity for their survival.  John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hitman, 2006), outlines how the economic and industrial development scenarios were linked to a ‘Saudi Arabian money laundering affairs’ to modernize the Kingdom by an unusual coercive and secretive agreement worked out by Henry Kissinger. Under the conspicuous scheme of things:

“Saudi Arabia would use its petrodollars to purchase US Government securities; in turn the interest earned by these securities would be spent by the US Department of the Treasury in ways that enabled Saudi Arabia to emerge from a medieval society into a modern, industrialized world….Our own US Department of the Treasury would hire us at Saudi expense to build infrastructure projects and even entire cities throughout the Arabian Peninsula.” Perkins adds that “Washington used its advantage to impose one other critical condition…. and I sometimes find it difficult to understand how Saudi Arabia could have accepted this condition.”

John Perkins views the grand scheme of Arab economic development as a blueprint for the US ambitions of empire building across the globe: “ it was part of a sinister system aimed not at outfoxing an unsuspecting customer, but rather at promoting the most subtle and effective form of imperialism the world has ever known…….most puzzling was that final entry under the list of my clients: US Treasury Department, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Arab world lives under the Western Imperialism and War Racketeering

“War is a Racket Then and Now” (Free Thought Manifesto: 05/29/2011) describes Mark Sheffield. Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler (WAR IS A RACKET) of the US marines served 33 years but “had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until [he] retired to civil life did [he] fully realize it.” The wars sustained capitalist governance and made millionaires into billionaires. “WAR is a racket.  It always has been.  It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.  It is the only one international in scope.  It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”  Butler asks many rational questions: “How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle?  How many of them dug a trench?  How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dugout?  How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets?  How many of them parried the bayonet thrust of an enemy?  How many of them were wounded and killed in battle?”

War is a crime in a civilized context. What is the cure to raging indifference and cruelty to the interests of the whole of mankind?The 21^st century new-age complex political, economic, social and strategic challenges and the encompassing opportunities warrant new thinking, new leaders and new visions for change, conflict management and participatory peaceful future-making. The Divine knowledge offers logical substance of reality to be reckoned with:

Verily in the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth and in the succession of the night and of the day, are signs for men of understanding;
Who standing and sitting and reclining, bear God in mind and reflect on the creation of the Heavens and of Earth and say: Oh, our Lord- Thou has not created this in vain.  (3: 190: The Qur’an).

The imperial networks export militarization and wars to destabilize the Arab Middle East. The Arab world has one focal issue – Palestine and the Two States solution.  The contemporary Arab world has no honest leaders to protect the Masjid Al-Aqsa and its sanctity from Israeli’s Ultra Nationalist provocations and to reason with Palestine and Israel and what future options could be imagined for peace and security: Please see by this author: “Al-Aqsa Mosque Waiting for the Arab Leaders.” http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57491.htm

Wars, deaths and destruction are at the top notch agenda items in relations between the West and the Arab world.  Was the discovery of “oil” a conspiracy (“Fitna”) to forfeit the Arab culture and Islamic civilization? The on-going bloodbaths across the streets of Yemen, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere provide a staunch reminder of something terribly wrong with human thinking and military actions. How do such crimes portray the nature of Arab societies in which bloodbaths are taking place under the aegis of economic development and militarization? Do the paranoid Arab authoritarian rulers envisage an advanced culture of “modernity?” The whole of the Arab world is a quagmire of conflicts, sectarian warfare and foreign interventions. Wars kill people, destroy the planet and those who possess power show no wisdom to dream of triumph and glory over human mind and soul. The on-going war between Russia , Ukraine and NATO,  and the war-torn Middle East overshadowing the common citizens of the world feeling incapacitated and dehumanized to share a terrible sense of helplessness and wonder how to save the humanity from the scourge of imperial led war racketeering and the consequences of man’s intransigence, triviality and viciousness against his own existence and future on Earth.

*Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Germany, 12/2019.

Source: https://countercurrents.org/2023/09/how-arab-leaders-betrayed-islam-and-defied-the-logic-of-political-change-peace-and-security/

Sept 10, 2023

Could We Save Humanity From Being Destroyed by Ignorance and Perpetuated Animosities?

[Graphic: Imagine Peace, John Maschak, 2015.]

Global Warriors Besiege We, the People in Draconian Conflicts

More than 1.5 years of the ongoing catastrophic conflict between NATO, Russia, the EU, and Ukraine being a victim exposes absurdities and contradictions for their strategic interests. Russia had plans to act with massive forces to destroy Ukraine and limit the affluent NATO for its futuristic militarization plans. The leaders having unbridled ambitions and power acted from violent assumptions of hatred, secret intrigues, and animosities, and killings overwhelmed the daily thinking process of a society. A nation, no matter how normal it claims to be, cannot function as normal beings to co-exist with itself or make any positive contributions to human change and progress coming from such a negative space. While truth-telling is ridiculed and maligned, global leaders pushing war as a means of peacekeeping is like scum floating on a torrent. Despite hollow claims of peace and moral values, no moral and ethical behavior is seen in the sudden and inexplicable plunge into human wickedness.  Even the warmongers cannot predict what the end game is going to be. Evil happens when conscientious men do nothing. God created the Heavens and Earth as a trust to fulfill all human aspirations and to flourish human generations since time immemorial. It was not meant to be bombed and destroyed by sheer ignorance and wickedness. Are we neglectful of our origin and encompassed reality?

Human glory lives in the conception of good and righteousness, not warriors of economic wars, robotic machines, weapons of destruction, or agents of political terrorism. We are moral beings enriched with inner consciousness and a vision for peace, human unity, and a sustainable future.  It is a Hobbesian formula: “war of all against all.” The ongoing war between Russia, NATO, the EU, and Ukraine has far-reaching impacts on the imperatives of life across the globe.  German philosopher Immanuel Kant (“Perpetual Peace”, 1795), was more proactive and realist when he noted that:  “Intellectuals must be seated in chosen assemblies and systems of public governance to overt individualistic insanity against the people.”  But the vices and moral weaknesses of leaders are not invincible as ignorance and animosities could be replaced by nobler and more proactive visionary and competent leaders to resolve the conflicts.

God, The Beneficent, The Merciful, Loving, All-Knowing, and All-Powerful created the human being from a ‘mixed drop’  (“Nutfa”- Cell), equipped with intelligence and inherent diversities, not as fault lines but hallmarks of human identities for unity and sustainable relationships. God created life and death to test human beings with a choice of whether we will do good or evil. The Creator reveals Himself as ‘One’  and has No Partners and is ‘closer to a human being than his (her) jugular vein’ and appointed Man as “vicegerent” with rights and obligations on this planet.

Our professed ignorance and arrogance toward Divine Knowledge have pushed us to echo evil and futility in a global cataclysm – the treacherous conflict causing degeneration to be at the epicenter of a man-made cataclysm driven by lingering suspicion in relation to others within the splendid Universe. The earth and universe are meant for human beings and are enriched to support all of their needs over time and space. Are we living in a disconnected world of our own making? Egoistic leaders imply hidden hatred and prejudices as a favorite perversion to divide and conquer humanity and dominate the species of Earth and the systems of the Nature of Things which support life and our future. How strange! Are we to abhor and neglect our own present and futuristic sustainability?

Jesus is quoted in the Bible saying: “If the world hates you, you know it hated me before it hated you…if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you…John 15:18-25.” How do We, the People of Human Conscience make these ugly and disingenuous politicians learn from history and change the course of events into peace and harmony for all of us? The quality of our intellectual consciousness is lost in the world of time and space. Truth is One and the same unchanging as it was many centuries earlier. 

The Earth is Living and We, the People, We, the Humanity are its Trustees

We live on an earth that sustains all forms of living things, yet human ignorance and arrogance are at work to destroy the essential foundation of our own lives. Weapons of war are weapons of mass destruction and are being used without any sense of responsibility and accountability. We, the people, are rational beings with a choice of righteousness and wickedness to act in human affairs. 

The creation of the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and all working systems are a trust to humanity. Have We, the People, We, the Humanity, honored and protected that natural trust and its obligations?  In a recent article (“Conflict Beyond Reason:  a dialogue to end the war is desperately needed”, 7/26/2023): this author narrated the truth not for geological or meteorological explanations but for the understanding of fellow human beings that the earth spins at 1670 km per hour and orbit the Sun at 107,000 km per hour.  Imagine, if this spinning fails, what consequences could occur to the living beings on Earth? Think again, about the average distance of Earth from the Moon is 93 million miles -the distance of Moon from Earth is currently 384,821 km equivalent to 0.002572 Astronomical Units – (New Scientist). If this God-given system of distance between the Earth-Sun and the Earth-Moon were ever to change, there will be no sign of life, human civilizations, or habitats left on Earth.

The contemporary monstrous war instinct aims at annihilating mankind and the Earth.  To this author, a cataclysm of human intellect is unleashing a highly irrational and unthinkable world of complexity to come to our consciousness destroying all progress and achievements of any human civilization on this planet. Most human intellect knows the basic imperative: “If you THINK intelligently, you could find workable remedies to human problems.”  

All informed global communities have a passion for peace, not war. The planet Earth is not a dead orbiting object but a living entity providing continuous nourishment to human life and existence to all other living beings. When nations and leaders subscribing to political absolutism start acting like God and challenge the sanctity and limits of the Laws of God; historically speaking they become an object of unthinkable natural calamities- earthquakes, wildfires, floods, deaths, and destruction. 

It is God, Who has made for you the Earth as a resting place and the sky as a canopy;
And has given you shape and made your shapes beautiful, and has provided for your sustenance,
Of things pure and good; Such is God your Lord.
So Glory to God, the Lord of the Worlds.
It is He Who has created you from dust,
Then from a sperm-drop,
Then from a leech-like clot;
then He does He get you out (into the light) as a child;
then lets you grow and reach your age of full strength; then lets you become old.
Though of you there are some of who die before,
And lets you reach a Term appointed; In order that ye may learn wisdom.
(64-67: 40: The Qur’an)

The War between NATO, Russia, and Ukraine Needs Urgent Dialogue and Reconciliation for Peace and Global Security

Canons of rationality call for urgent action to a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine using peacemaking as the core value of our floating on the stream of time.  The Universe and all it encompasses are the products of God-given command; and do not operate in concert with man-made laws, constitutions, foreign policies, judgments, hopes, and desires. Light is One, and darkness is many. Life and the Universe exist because it is ordained by the Creator of the Worlds. If history is relevant and is seen as a source of learning and warning, undeniably all those superpowers well equipped with weapons and animosity to destroy others or all have met the same fate of self-annihilation. It is beyond doubt that when they challenged the sanctity of the Laws of God governing the Earth and the living Universe and invaded small and poor nations in distant lands, they ultimately met their own ending by natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes, flooding, tornadoes, exploding lavas, sound blasts, landslides, lightning and lot more. Are there any Thinking people to take heed from the prevalent facts of human history?

 What is the cure to raging indifference and cruelty to the interests of the whole of mankind?The 21st century’s new-age complex political, economic, social, and strategic challenges and the encompassing opportunities warrant new thinking, new leaders, and new visions for change, conflict management, and participatory peaceful future-making. The Divine knowledge offers logical substance of reality to be reckoned with:  

Verily in the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth and in the succession of the night and of the day,  are signs for men of understanding;                                                                            Who standing and sitting and reclining, bear God in mind and reflect on the creation of the Heavens and of Earth and say: Oh, our Lord- Thou has not created this in vain.  (3: 190: The Qur’an)

To be honest with ourselves, the time and opportunities we have are the trial of our lives and we are accountable for our actions to reject corrupt policies of triumph and glory promising happiness and infinity. We cannot be complacent and allow ignorance, hatred, fear, and animosity to destroy our lives, cultures, and civilizations. Can we think to be human in all of our moral, political, and intellectual endeavors?  Late Professor Howard Zinn envisaged the future of humanity in the following words of wisdom:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.”

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and is the author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Germany, 12/2019.