Al-Quds and the Muslim world: Part - I

We have come to expect anything from President Trump, as we did from President Bush. The latter showed his character by attacking Iraq (together with PM Blair) on flimsy grounds, and President Trump has shown his hand by moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, known as Al-Quds, Baitul Maqdis and Baitul Muqaddas to Muslims.

Here we see the double standards of the West at work. When Saddam Hussain was (falsely) accused of violating UN resolutions, they went all out to bomb Iraq back to the stone age; PM Blair later conveniently salved his conscience by saying it was a mistake. There were no war crime proceedings against them for the murder of millions of men, women and children. When Israel (and India) violate UN resolutions, no action is taken against them either.

After the US announcement, the Turkish president reacted strongly and called for a meeting among Muslim countries, which our PM and foreign minister attended. There were furious speeches by the 57 participating countries. But, with none of them having any real world power, the end result was still zero. Our PM also joined in the threats to Israel and the US. How strange that an atomic power with more than half a million soldiers, yet unable to vacate Faizabad Chowk for three weeks and D-Chowk for six months, should make such threats.

The Muslim world has reached this situation because of laziness and ignorance in pursuing science and technology, which we dominated from the 7th to 11th centuries. The saying by Prof Dr Alfred North Whitehead: “A nation that does not honour her intellectuals is bound to face disgrace and be destroyed and all past glorious victories will be of no avail if she did not pursue science and technology” amply describes the situation. Up to the 16th century, the Turks were an over-whelming force to be reckoned with to which all the mighty emperors and kings of Europe and China sent expensive gifts. They even laid siege to Vienna while the Moors had reached Tours, south of Paris.

Ever since the Israeli aggression and occupation of the West Bank and Al-Quds, the US and Western countries have been paying lip service and dangling a carrot of a two-state solution in front of the Arabs. But quietly and secretly they made sure that Israel annexed all the occupied Arab lands. A few words here about the Palestinians. After World War I, France and the UK distributed the Arab World amongst themselves. The mischief and brutalities undertaken against the Islamic World are well known and documented. They cheated the Muslims, colonised them, looted their natural resources and pushed their people into the dark ages.

We have more recent examples of Bush and Blair, who lied to the whole world, destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan and murdered almost one and a half million innocent people. After the Second World War, all the efforts of the Western countries have been directed at harming Islamic countries, Kashmir and Palestine being the two most notable cases. The Palestinians have been told that they are still unfit to rule themselves while quite a few backward countries have been considered capable of ruling themselves.

The Jews had suffered so much at the hands of the so-called ‘civilised’ Germans. But now Zionists are perpetrating the worst atrocities on the Palestinians, who had nothing to do with WWII. The UN resolution of 1947 envisaged two states – Israel and Palestine. Israel exists and has meanwhile usurped much of the land reserved for the Palestinians, but there are no powers clamouring for the enforcement of this resolution.

Such conflicts go back to the time of the Crusades. After many wars between the Crusaders and the Muslims, Salahuddin inflicted a humiliating defeat on the combined forces of England, France, Germany and other European countries. The treatment meted out to the wounded and captive Crusaders by Salahuddin is a golden chapter in the history of the Islamic World. Until WWI, things were more or less normal in Palestine, but then Britain, as an occupying power, allowed thousands of Jews to come into Palestine and enabled them to buy and occupy large tracts of Palestinian lands. Most of these Jews came from Europe. The Turkish caliph had forbidden the migration of Jews to Palestine and the purchase of land by them, but this changed with the British occupation. Up till then, all Muslim countries, except Morocco and Mauritania, had been under Turkish rule. Their downfall in Spain, Central Asia and the Middle East was due to in-fighting and intrigues.

The Arabs played a very dirty and treacherous game during WW1. Sharif Hussain of Makkah was the governor of Hijaz under the Turkish government and he, his sons and some other joined the British. Col T E Lawrence of the British Army was accepted as their leader and they attacked the Turkish army and destroyed the infrastructure on the (false) promise that, after the war, all Arab lands would be made into an independent Arab country. The Arabs also destroyed the most useful railway network between Turkey, Baghdad, Basra, Damascus and Madina.

It is rather ironic to see the Israelis, who had suffered so much at the hands of the Germans, now being so cruel and brutal against the Palestinians. They seem to have forgotten that when they were persecuted and thrown out of Spain, it was the Sultan of Turkey who had welcomed them and treated them with dignity and respect and as equal citizens. There are still many Jews in Turkey to this day.

Unfortunately, the aggressive attitudes of presidents Gemal Nasser and Yasser Arafat, and later the indifferent attitudes by both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, were of no help in solving the Palestinian problem.

To be continued

Email: dr.a.quadeer.khan@gmail.com