Learn from history
M M Haque, Jeddah, K.S.A
This has reference to many letters that appeared in this column.
If you put the matter on a broader perspective, it is imperative to perceive the history of Muslims and the world politics that evolved around it in the last century. It is not because of Islam or its followers all the time, but for a variety of reasons Muslims got involved in so many conflicts. And which is likely to continue in the foreseeable future. Rendition of this to my understanding is as follows: Solving a sum often requires to start from the end. Likewise, you unfold the history backward. How Israel was born and why the Ottoman Empire had to leave the Middle East, how Syria and Lebanon were separated. Iraq's invasion by British, connection between Kirkuk and Haifa, how Saddam adventured in Kuwait . How the Persian Gulf always remains the centre of conflict and discrimination. Why the Middle East as a whole remains weak and poor despite having most of the world's energy resources, how Syrian army had to pull out, leaving Lebanon undefended. How Kandahar and Kabul all of a sudden emerged as world's attraction just after the former USSR was dismembered. Somalia was left out of focus and even Nigeria left to plunge in darkness. Try linking each with others. Do you see why this region always remain in chaos. How people had to live in a dire state of poverty or oppression, sitting on the treasures of the world. Who benefited most out of it? When King Faisal used oil as an weapon of negotiation, he was killed, of course not by bombing like in Tripoli, Khartoum or Afghanistan. Do you remember the outrage on oil price at that time? Wish you remember the vocabulary between two Persian neighbours during the 80s, or between UAE and Iran, Bahrain and Qatar a few years back. Even yesterday's utterances between two Islamic entities which are the centre of today's much discord and despair of all Muslims. How much of intelligence, foresightedness, wisdom and respect you observed in all these? What Europe and West planned 40 years ago for today, we fail to see only tomorrow. No religion on earth supports violence and anarchy, including Judaism. But it is the mundane interest that creates the conflict for the benefits of one at the cost of others. Before the fall of Saigon, hundred of thousands were killed by so called Death Squad, i.e. Saigonese killed Saigonese or Vietnamese killed Vietnamese or you can say Buddhists killed Buddhists . Identical killings happened in Nicaragua, Honduras, Columbia, and mind it Islam is not their faith. Many democratically elected popular governments were ousted and killed in this part of the world. Hugo Chavez's daily appetite for molestation of world's only superpower, gets its energy from not only its oil revenue, but, a poor labour turned people's leader's desires to lift its nation and the region, using intelligence and will. Before this, despite having prized wealth, the nation was in a big dilemma, like ours. After a long civil war and slavery, a president was killed, many civil right activists ware assassinated, despite having an effective and powerful system of governance, daily killings and arson is no news. Until intelligence and optimism prevails and urge to live better in this world and hereafter is made effective, not because of our religion but due to our resource and market factors, we will have to do what we have been doing. Blaming the religion or faith is a mere propaganda. Islam is the only religion that urge you to live a better life and die for a cause.
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