Annual ritual at the UN

By Zafar Bangash


Each new session of the United General Assembly in September opens with much fanfare. Not much is achieved at the UN except that leaders of different countries get an opportunity to talk about their pet subject. Few people, whether inside or outside the assembly chambers, pay the slightest attention. It is understandable for Western rulers to come and prattle on about the world order and their superior place in it. After all, it is they who crafted this “order” and they who want to make sure those potentially uppity others know their place in this hierarchy. But what attracts leaders from “Third World” countries, especially in Africa and Asia to the UN General Assembly? They could save much cash by staying away from this spectacle. Why do they want to be seen rubbing shoulders with other world leaders?

For most “Third World” leaders, presence at the UN is a way to boost their sagging popularity at home. Without exception, every ruler is accompanied by a huge entourage of cameramen that record their every word and movement as they strut about the UN. This is projected back home to show how important they are. Being photographed with the US president or the can work wonders for most rulers that ordinarily would not be allowed anywhere near the White House outer gate. Thus, a visit to the UN is a ritual they must participate in to enhance their standing at home.

Each year, the UN session also has an overall theme. This year, the main talk was about reducing global poverty. There is nothing wrong with it except that those who talk about reducing poverty in the world are the biggest contributors to such inequalities and polarization. The extravagant lifestyle of the West led by the US and the endless wars they wage to grab the resources of other people are directly responsible for this sorry state. In 2000, it was announced at the UN that world poverty would be halved by the year 2015. Last month, it was announced with much fanfare that the plan to halve global poverty was on target. How and why was not explained.

There are at least 1.2 billion people living in absolute poverty globally today. There are also different scales of poverty assessment. In the US, poverty is defined as a family with an annual income of less than $30,000. For most people in the “Third World”, this would be a life’s dream. Poverty in places like India, Pakistan or Africa is defined as people earning $2 per day, a grand total of $730 annually. For these people even one meal a day is a huge blessing.

Rattling off statistics about poverty reduction while sitting in the plush surroundings of the UN plaza can please those reciting this mantra, the reality on the ground is lived by real people. The recent recession in most Western countries has also led to a major rise in food and fuel prices. Several of the original eight goals, such as slashing maternal and child mortality, will probably not be met. There are other caveats as well: global population does not remain static. Population growth will add to the number of absolute poor. There is a racist notion in the West that people in “Third World” countries produce too many children. While it is true that there are more people in the “Third World”, their total consumption is insignificant compared to those living in the West. It is the extravagant lifestyle of the West — for instance, North America with a 5% population, consumes 40% of the world energy resources — that is directly responsible for growing global poverty and inequality.

To make real progress in the world economically and politically, some practical steps need to be taken immediately. First, the unjust system of permanent members of the UN Security Council must be abolished. Who gave these warmongers the right to determine how the rest of the world should behave? Second, there should be an immediate agreement to cut food and fuel consumption in the West. Third, there should be a total ban on all nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. This must be complied with by all countries, starting with the US and its militaristic allies. The trillions of dollars spent on weapons production are the single most important contributor to wars worldwide. Violators should be tried as war criminals. Without these basic steps, all pronouncements about poverty reduction are smoke signals substituting for substantive action.

The two opposite poles of the global Islamic movement

Abu Dharr

Deep down inside the recesses of the Islamic movement there is what one may call a dichotomy — two mutually exclusive subclasses of the worldwide Islamic movement. One of them is centered on Islamic Iran















and the other around what is today called “Saudi” Arabia.









This animation is so intense and profound but no one wants to express it in public. It is limited to the inner circles of the inner circles of the polite and well-educated members of the worldwide Islamic movement. In a sense, the active and informed Muslims who belong to one or the other branch of this umbrella Islamic movement are alienated from each other because their individual organizational hierarchies have to answer to either one of these two divergent and many times mutually exclusive official umpires. Currently there is a detente between the government in Arabia and the government in Persia; both, of course, affirming in strong terms their Islamic credentials. But are they both legitimate points of reference for the larger Islamic movement in the world? Our humble but strong opinion is an emphatic NO. We say this with the support of facts on the ground and the record that speaks for itself.

In the first demonstration of facts, there is the Islamic political willpower in Iran


that has, in word and in deed, taken on the imperialist and Zionist superstructure of kufr and shirk, and their combined might.







Because of this, the loudmouths and bullhorns of racist Zionism and socioeconomic class imperialism are frothing at the mouth.

Their corporate media fumes with the same, now tiresome, innuendo against the leadership of the Islamic state in Iran because of its self-willed and unwavering opposition to both militarist and political Zionism.



This fearless and daring position by the Islamic leadership in Iran should remind every active Muslim who knows his history of the Yahudi forerunners (of today’s Zionists) in Arabia 14 centuries ago — the same ones who were also seething with rancor and conconcting countermoves against the Prophet (pbuh) when Islamic self-rule was on the rise in Arabia at the time.





Contrast Islamic Iran with the official Saudi sponsorship of a grand plan to reconcile the dispossessed Palestinians with their Israeli overlords. The official Saudi creatures and their unofficial Egyptian and Jordanian tools are what they call the “moderates”. And, who said there are no “moderate Muslims”? The real power-brokers in Arabia and its extensions into Egypt and Jordan among other countries along with that strain of the Islamic movement that answers to royal Riyadh are all showing excessive and compulsive concern with a slowly-but-surely consolidating front that will eventually move all the Muslims from Central Asia to the Mediter-ranean in a wave of military determination to pluck the regime of Zionist Israel out of existence.



The American hegemon who went into Iraq and Afghanistan, giving both Israel and Saudi Arabia a decade of wiggle time, is beginning to pack his bags and gradually but surely moving out of Iraq and eventually out of Afghanistan. We call forth the wits and wisdom of this long paralyzed branch of the Islamic movement that has been sheltered and weltered by the financially obese and mentally anorexic Saudis to open its eyes and see the light!



This past month the top news item from Arabia concerned the $60 billion dollar military contract that the Saudi halfwits signed with the American military-industrial-banking complex. What an insult to every living and thinking Muslim everywhere! Are the Muslims in Arabia so brainless as to be unable to begin to build a military industry of their own? Let them begin with manufacturing their own guns and bullets and then proceed from there to manufacturing their own tanks and aircraft. This is also an insult to the larger Muslim population of the world; do the Saudi statesmen and representatives not believe that the 1.8 billion Muslims in the world are capable of initiating their own military industry that will free them from being dependent on their enemies for purposes of self defense? And at the end of the day all these weapons purchases will end up injecting much needed cash into the corporate coffers of weapons manufacturers like Raytheon, Lockheed, General Dynamics, Grumman and Northrop among others as well as the predatory policies of imperialist occupation and invasion forces — the ones that occupy Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan to be precise. We can almost hear their chief executive officers say behind closed doors “Thank God for Saudi Arabia”. Of course, Saudi Arabia returns the thanks to the US by making sure that its contingent of the worldwide Islamic movement does not forget that the USA [and even Israel] are Ahl al-Kitab!

Contrast this Saudi capitalist cash-cow with an independent Islamic Iran that has crossed the rubicon on its way to becoming the first independent Islamic nuclear powerhouse in the world. The quality and quantity of enriched uranium in Iran this coming year will be enough for the Islamic Republic to kiss all Western offers of “uranium exchanges” good-bye.



Step by step, there is a serious behind-the-scenes Euro-American discussion and at times argument to factor in Iran as the up-and-coming undisputed regional power in the “Middle East” and to factor out Saudi Arabia as the undisputed last-ditch stand by the old-school of political imperialist political thought that seeks to prevent Iran from becoming the acknowledged regional superpower. We have to remind the pre-Imam Khomeini “Shi‘i” faithful that these audacious and resolute strides are not attributable to a “theological” or “historical” superiority that some diehards never tire of expressing to the outside world. No indeed; it is the result of the hard work of the sons of the revolution who never forgot the eight years of imposed war and all the characters involved in those eight years, including the war financiers — the crude oil Arabians.




Listen, O sons of the broad Islamic movement in the world! If we were to rip this whole issue to its bare bones we could agree, I hope, to see that there is a real core conflict that puts the Islamic Republic of Iran on one side and the Zionist regime of Israel on the other. The rest are, let us say, “fillers”. The number one supporter of racist Israel is the United States of America. Any run-of-the-mill Muslim knows that. And the number one supporter of Islamic Iran is Syria, in the shaping up of the not-too-distant firestorm between an Israel of Zionism and an Iran of Islam.



In the distorted view of things within the Saudi sponsored wing of the Islamic movement the Americans turn out to be Ahl al-Kitab and nasara while the Syrians turn out to be kafirs and zindiqs. Before this begins to strain the minds of the indoctrinated Saudi types, would it not be fair if we were to look at how the Ahl al-Kitab American officials came down on all the Islamic fringes that are under the Saudi umbrella. Washington even went as far as demanding the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC close down its religious department which employed scores of da‘is and is said to have had a budget of scores of millions of dollars annually. The American Ahl al-Kitab officials are going to the Arabian nation-states — tribal states to be more precise — and to other Islamic countries and rearranging their educational curricula, seeing to it that all Qur’anic ayat and Prophetic hadiths mentioning Yahud in a negative way are deleted from textbooks.

Can we compare that to a country that has accommodated Palestinian fighters and Hizbullah to the detriment of Israel? Don’t rush to conclusions; no one here is trying to paint a rosy picture of the Syrian regime, we know it has its own agenda against Islamic self-determination in Syria and it should be addressed at the appropriate level. But in the larger scheme of things, the Islamic Republic in Iran has managed to deploy specific Syrian tactics to help with a groundswell program that intends to place all their common resources and assets into the up-and-coming fight with the Zionist tormentors of the Holy Land and its original population.



If the leading light and the momentous policies come from Islamic Iran then what is the Saudi Arabian government’s problem with a free trade agreement between Tehran and Damascus? Why are the Saudi national security functionaries so upset with Tehran and Ankara raising their economic ties to higher and unprecedented levels? Why do we sense nervousness in the Saudi financed Arabian media when Islamic Iran declares that it will begin to refine its own petroleum? One would think that the Saudi lords would feel a pinch of ardor and eagerness to do the same; but no, the Saudi officials are downright resentful and begrudging.

The Saudi royalists are hoping against hope that the Euro-American economic measures against certain banks belonging to the Islamic Republic will pay off. But the brave leadership in Iran called upon the people to adopt a “resistance economy”. And when Wall Street and Western economies have been gripped by structural problems such as inflation, unemployment, currency erosions, recessions looming into depressions, the economy in Iran with all its loopholes has weathered these troubled economic times with relative success. According to some sources, when the American economy in the past two years has been in a free-fall the overall economy of the Islamic State has grown by about one-third.

Its economy is strong enough to make Russia think twice before it decides to cancel a $13 billion S-300 missile system deal. If Islamic Iran’s economy were not doing well Russia would not have had second thoughts about canceling that deal, especially when it is prodded to do so by the US on generous terms. Add to this Islamic Iran’s policies that nudged Syria — its strategic ally — to acquire the Yakhnut surface-to-sea advanced missiles. The Israeli leadership tried in vain to persuade the Russians to call the deal off. No success.

Sure, Islamic Iran buys advanced military technology just as the Saudis do; but the difference is that in Islamic Iran there is an advanced military industry that will make buying weapons from foreign sources obsolete in another decade or so; while in American Saudi Arabia the plan for buying foreign military hardware goes on and on and on and may continue for another century if the status quo continues.

Is he who moves along, head beneath, more apt to be guided [the contemporary Saudi establishment] or he who walks composed on a path [head-up] straightforward [the current Islamic government in Iran]?

The Saudi record of violence against the historical heritage of Islam

Iqbal Siddiqui, Perspectives

The city of Istanbul is among the world’s most popular destinations among Muslims, largely because of the legacy of the Ottoman period and the numerous mosques and other monuments that survive there, through which Muslims can relate to a golden period of Islamic culture.



Other popular destinations include Andalucia in southern Spain, where reminders of Muslim rule survive even though it is nearly 500 years since Muslims were forced from the region.





Cities such as Cairo,





Damascus,





Baghdad







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and Mashhad



are popular for similar reasons, understandably enough, for such monuments provide a very tangible link to the history of Islam and generations of Muslims who achieved so much and built the world we now live it.

But in all the history of Islam, the period and personages to whom Muslims owe the greatest debt and for whom we have the greatest respect are undoubtedly those of the time of the Prophet (pbuh) and the places where he and his Family and Companions lived and worked. Yet those, far from being preserved as an invaluable and irreplaceable cultural resource for Muslims now and in the future, are actually being systematically destroyed by the rulers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who claim to be “Guardians of the Holy Places”.





The current month of the Islamic calendar marks the 87th anniversary of the destruction of Jannatul Baqi in Madinah, the City of the Prophet (pbuh), in Shawwal 1373. Among the graves and mausoleums which were razed to the ground were those of several of the Prophet’s (pbuh) wives, his infant son Ibrahim, his daughter Ruqayyah, his grandson Imam Hasan ibn ‘Ali, and his descendants ‘Ali ibn Husain, known as Zain al-Abedin, Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja‘far al-Sadiq, all Imams of the Shi‘i school of thought. So too were the graves of numerous Companions, including Uthman ibn ‘Affan, the third khalifah, and later Islamic personalities, such as Imam Shamil of the Caucasus. Today, Jannatul Baqi is no more than an empty space, the significance of which is not even evident to many who visit Madinah.

The destruction of Jannatul Baqi, shortly after the Saudis seized control of the Holy Cities, prompted protests all over the Muslim world and has come to symbolise the destruction of Islamic sites that has continued throughout the period of Saudi rule. Other sites that have been destroyed include the Mosque of Fatimah Zahra; the Mosque of al-Manaratain; four mosques at the site of the Battle of the Trench in Madinah; the Salman al-Farsi Mosque in Madinah; Jannat al-Mu’allah, the ancient cemetery at Makkah; the grave of Aminah bint Wahb, the Prophet’s (pbuh) mother, bulldozed and set alight in 1998; the graves of Banu Hashim in Makkah and the tombs of Hamzah and other martyrs were demolished at Uhud. Among sites directly relating to the Prophet (pbuh), the houses where Muhammad (pbuh) is believed to have been born in 570ce, of Khadijah, the Prophet’s (pbuh) first wife, and where several of his children were born, and the house in Madinah where he lived after the hijrah, have also been destroyed, as has Dar al Arqam, where the Prophet (pbuh) taught.























Numerous sites in other areas, such as Iraq, Syria and Palestine, have also been destroyed by people influenced by the example of the rulers of Saudi Arabia. According to some sources, 90% or more of historical sites dating back to the time of the Seerah and the Sahabah have been under Saudi management and control.

Since 2007, there have been well-founded fears for the safety of the Prophet’s (pbuh) Mosque in Madinah, which was damaged when Jannatul Baqi was des-troyed in 1925. This is where the Prophet (pbuh) himself, and the first two khalifahs, are buried. In 2007, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs reportedly published a pamphlet proposing its destruction, which was endorsed by Abd al-‘Aziz Aal al-Shaikh, the current Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. The destruction of the Prophet’s (pbuh) grave and mosque is something beyond the imagination of most Muslims, yet it must be regarded as a very real possibility under the current rulers of the Hijaz.



It is difficult to explain this behaviour, especially as the Saudis are clearly not oblivious to the importance of historical monuments and heritage. Last year, the Saudi General Commission for Tourism and Antiquities announced plans to restore 200 historical sites around the country, include the pre-Islamic site of Madian Saleh and numerous palaces and other buildings in Dir‘iyyah associated with the Saudi family. The suggestion that these have greater value than Islamic sites is deeply offensive to Muslims everywhere.

There are many reasons why this issue does not get the attention that it deserves. One is undoubtedly the Saudis’ patronage of many Islamic organizations around the world in recent decades. Another may be that there are so many other issues confronting Muslims, not the least of which are the genocides of Muslim populations and the oppression of Islamic activism in almost every Muslim country, compared to which the destruction of a building may arguably appear of lesser importance. Nonetheless, it is important that every effort be made to prevent the Saudis from destroying what little remains of the heritage of Islam, for it is largely through such monuments that peoples’ historical memories are stimulated and sustained, and the destruction of these memories will have profound implications for future generations’ understanding and knowledge of Islam itself.



While it is right that Muslims focus their efforts on the political struggles going on across the Ummah, the Islamic movement must also be able to recognise the crucial importance of endeavours being done in other fields. There are some brave souls, not least in the Hijaz itself, doing their best to highlight the crimes of the Saudis and preserve what remains of the history of Islam in those regions. They deserve as much support from Muslims all over the world as the mujahideen in places such as Palestine, Chechnya and Kashmir, and their efforts, and the issue itself, deserve to be brought to the very forefront of the global struggle for Islam.