{"id":863,"date":"2010-03-01T10:11:13","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T04:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mohamediqbalp.wordpress.com\/2010\/03\/01\/a-diatribe-against-muslim-unity-much-of-which-is-true\/"},"modified":"2010-03-01T10:11:13","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T04:41:13","slug":"a-diatribe-against-muslim-unity-much-of-which-is-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2010\/03\/01\/a-diatribe-against-muslim-unity-much-of-which-is-true\/","title":{"rendered":"A diatribe against Muslim unity, much of which is true"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"kicker\">Op-Ed Contributor<\/div>\n<h1>  Muslims Won\u2019t Play Together  <\/h1>\n<p>   function getSharePasskey() { return &#8216;ex=1425013200&amp;en=26bb97c0d41d1b7b&amp;ei=5124&#8217;;}  function getShareURL() { \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8216;http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karsh.html&#8217;); } function getShareHeadline() { \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8216;Muslims Won&#8217;t Play Together&#8217;); } function getShareDescription() {   \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8216;The collapse of the Islamic Solidarity Games provides lessons for the West in dealing with the Islamic world.&#8217;); } function getShareKeywords() { \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8216;Islam,United States International Relations,Arabs,Palestinians,International Relations,Iran,Persian Gulf,Israel,Islamic Solidarity Games&#8217;); } function getShareSection() { \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8216;opinion&#8217;); } function getShareSectionDisplay() {  \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8216;Op-Ed Contributor&#8217;); } function getShareSubSection() { \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8221;); } function getShareByline() { \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8216;By EFRAIM KARSH&#8217;); } function getSharePubdate() { \treturn encodeURIComponent(&#8216;February 28, 2010&#8217;); }  <\/p>\n<div id=\"toolsRight\">\n<div class=\"articleTools\">\n<div class=\"toolsContainer\">\n<ul class=\"toolsList\" id=\"toolsList\">\n<li class=\"timespeople_btn_recommend\"><a class=\"timespeople_recommend_link\"><span>Sign in to Recommend<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"twitter_item\">      <a id=\"twitter_button\">        <span>Twitter<\/span>      <\/a>    <\/li>\n<li class=\"email\">  <a id=\"emailThis\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?URI=http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karsh.html\">Sign In to E-Mail<\/a> <\/li>\n<li class=\"print\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karsh.html?pagewanted=print\">Print<\/a> <\/li>\n<li class=\"singlePage\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karsh.html?pagewanted=all\"> Single Page<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"adxToolSponsor\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/adx\/bin\/adx_click.html?type=goto&amp;opzn&amp;page=www.nytimes.com\/yr\/mo\/day\/opinion&amp;pos=Frame4A&amp;sn2=f8475720\/9aad5d74&amp;sn1=237a01d1\/1a96fb49&amp;camp=foxsearch2010_emailtools_1225561c_nyt5&amp;ad=CH_120x60_OscarNoms_02.03.10&amp;goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoxsearchlight%2Ecom%2Fcrazyheart\" target=\"_blank\"> <br \/><\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"byline\">By EFRAIM KARSH<\/div>\n<div class=\"timestamp\">Published: February 27, 2010 <\/div>\n<p>     <!--NYT_INLINE_IMAGE_POSITION1 -->           <\/p>\n<p>London<\/p>\n<div id=\"articleInline\" class=\"inlineLeft\">\n<div id=\"inlineBox\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karsh.html?pagewanted=1#secondParagraph\" class=\"jumpLink\">Skip to next paragraph<\/a>      <\/p>\n<div class=\"image\">\n<div class=\"enlargeThis\"><a href=\"\/\/www.nytimes.com\/imagepages\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karshimg.html',%20'28karshimg',%20'width=720,height=484,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')\">Enlarge This Image<\/a><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"\/\/www.nytimes.com\/imagepages\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karshimg.html',%20'28karshimg',%20'width=720,height=484,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karshimg\/28karshimg-articleInline.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"111\" width=\"190\" \/> <\/a> <\/p>\n<div class=\"credit\">Otto<\/div>\n<p class=\"caption\">\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a name=\"secondParagraph\"><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>WE may scoff at the idea that the Olympic Games have anything to do  with the \u201cendeavor to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace,\u201d as the Olympic charter enshrines as its ideal. But  at least nations across the world were able to put aside differences for two weeks of friendly competition in Vancouver. <\/p>\n<p>A mundane  achievement, perhaps, but it\u2019s one that\u2019s beyond the grasp of the  Islamic world. The Islamic Solidarity Games, the Olympics of the Muslim  world, which were to be held in Iran in April, <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/8465235.stm\" title=\"BBC article\">have  been called off by the Arab states<\/a> because Tehran inscribed \u201cPersian Gulf\u201d on the tournament\u2019s official logo and medals. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a small but telling controversy. It puts the lie to the idea of the Islamic  world as a bloc united by religious values that are hostile to the West. It also gives clues as to how the United States and its allies should  handle two of their most urgent foreign policy matters: the Iranian  nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. <\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time that Arabs have challenged the internationally accepted  name of the waterway that separates Persia (or Iran, as it has been  called since 1935) from the Arabian Peninsula. Pan-Arabist thought \u2014  which dominated Arab political life for most of the 20th century \u2014  insisted on the creation of a unified vast empire \u201cfrom the Atlantic  Ocean to the Arab Gulf,\u201d provoking sharp confrontations with Iran since  the late 1960s.<\/p>\n<p>The Islamic regime in Tehran, which came to power  in 1979 dismissing nationalism as an imperialist plot aimed at weakening the worldwide Muslim community (or umma), initially displayed less  interest in the gulf\u2019s Persian identity than in the spread of its  Islamist message. \u201cThe Iranian revolution is not exclusively that of  Iran, because Islam does not belong to any particular people,\u201d insisted  Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. \u201cThe struggle will continue until the calls \u2018there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah\u2019 are  echoed all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet like Stalin, who responded to the  Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 by urging his people to fight  for the motherland rather than for the Communist ideals with which they  had been indoctrinated, Khomeini reverted to nationalist rhetoric to  rally his subjects after the Iraqi invasion of 1980. He also used the  war to justify a string of military and diplomatic actions against the  smaller Arab states like Qatar and Kuwait aimed at asserting Iran\u2019s  supremacy in the gulf.<\/p>\n<p> In this history of a single body of water, one sees a perfect example of the so-called Islamic Paradox that dates  from the seventh century. For although the Prophet Muhammad took great  pains to underscore the equality of all believers regardless of  ethnicity, categorically forbidding any fighting among the believers,  his precepts have been constantly and blatantly violated.<\/p>\n<p>It took a mere 24 years after the Prophet\u2019s death for the head of the universal  Islamic community, the caliph Uthman, to be murdered by political  rivals. This opened the floodgates to incessant infighting within the  House of Islam, which has never ceased.  Likewise, there has been no  overarching Islamic solidarity transcending the multitude of parochial  loyalties \u2014 to one\u2019s clan, tribe, village, family or nation. Thus, for  example, not only do Arabs consider themselves superior to all other  Muslims, but inhabitants of Hijaz, the northwestern part of the Arabian  Peninsula and Islam\u2019s birthplace, regard themselves the only true Arabs, and tend to be highly disparaging of all other Arabic-speaking  communities. <\/p>\n<p>Nor, for that matter, has the House of Islam ever  formed a unified front vis-\u00e0-vis the House of War (as Muslims call the  rest of the world). Even during the Crusades, the supposed height of the \u201cclash of civilizations,\u201d Christian and Muslim rulers freely  collaborated across the religious divide, often finding themselves  aligned with members of the rival religion against their  co-religionists. While the legendary Saladin himself was busy  eradicating the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, for example, he was closely  aligned with the Byzantine Empire, the foremost representative of  Christendom\u2019s claim to universalism.<\/p>\n<p>This pattern of pragmatic cooperation reached its peak during the  19th century, when the Ottoman Empire relied on Western economic and  military support to survive. (The Charge of the Light Brigade of 1854  was, at its heart, part of a French-British effort to keep the Ottomans  from falling under Russian hegemony.) It has also become a central  feature of 20th- and 21<br \/>\nst-century Middle Eastern politics. <\/p>\n<p> Muslim and Arab rulers have always, in their   intrigues, sought  the support and protection of the \u201cinfidel\u201d powers they so vilify.  President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, the champion of pan-Arabism who  had built his reputation on standing up to \u201cWestern imperialism,\u201d  imported more than 10,000 Soviet troops into Egypt when his \u201cWar of  Attrition\u201d against Israel in the late 1960s went sour. <\/p>\n<p>Similarly,  Ayatollah Khomeini bought weapons from even the \u201cGreat Satan,\u201d the  United States. Saddam Hussein used Western support to survive his war  against Iran in the 1980s. And Osama bin Laden and the rest of the  Afghan mujahedeen accepted weapons and money from the United States,  with the Islamic state of Pakistan as the middleman, in their struggle  against the Soviet occupation. <\/p>\n<p>Yet, since it is far easier to  unite people through a common hatred than through a shared loyalty,  Islamic solidarity has been repeatedly invoked as an instrument for  achieving the self-interested ends of those who proclaimed it. Little  wonder the covenant of Hamas insists, \u201cWhen our enemies usurp some  Islamic lands, jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So,  if the Muslim bloc is just as fractious as any other group of seemingly  aligned nations, what does it mean for United States policy in the  Islamic world?<\/p>\n<p>For one, it should give us more impetus to take a  harder line with Iran. Just as the Muslim governments couldn\u2019t muster  the minimum sense of commonality for holding an all-Islamic sports  tournament, so they would be unlikely to rush to Iran\u2019s aid in the event of sanctions, or even a military strike. <\/p>\n<p>Beyond the customary  lip service about Western imperialism and \u201cCrusaderism,\u201d most other  Muslim countries would be quietly relieved to see the extremist regime  checked. It\u2019s worth noting that the two dominant Arab states, Egypt and  Saudi Arabia, have been at the forefront of recent international efforts to contain Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>As for the  Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the idea that bringing peace between the  two parties will bring about a flowering of cooperation in the region  and take away one of Al Qaeda\u2019s primary gripes against the West totally  misreads history and present-day politics. Muslim states threaten  Israel\u2019s existence not so much out of concern for the Palestinians, but  rather as part of a holy war to prevent the loss of a part of the House  of Islam. <\/p>\n<p>In these circumstances, one can only welcome the latest changes in the Obama administration\u2019s  Middle Eastern policy, which  combine a tougher stance on Iran\u2019s nuclear subterfuge with a less  imperious approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. <\/p>\n<p>Secretary of  State Hillary Clinton\u2019s two-track plan \u2014 discussion with Tehran while at the same time lining up meaningful sanctions \u2014 is fine as far as it  goes. But a military strike must remain a serious option: there is no  peaceful way to curb Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions, stemming as they do from  its imperialist brand of national-Islamism. <\/p>\n<p>Likewise, there is no way for the Obama administration to resolve the 100-year war between  Arabs and Jews unless all sides are convinced that peace is in each of  their best interests. Any agreement between Israel and the Palestinians  is far less important than a regional agreement in which every Islamic  nation can make peace with the idea of Jewish statehood in the House of  Islam. <\/p>\n<p>And that, depressingly, is going to be a lot harder to  pull off than even the Islamic Solidarity Games. <\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/pixy.gif?x-id=a66a6d9e-744c-84b4-8ed6-81353a63cf55\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Op-Ed Contributor Muslims Won\u2019t Play Together function getSharePasskey() { return &#8216;ex=1425013200&amp;en=26bb97c0d41d1b7b&amp;ei=5124&#8217;;} function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent(&#8216;http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/28\/opinion\/28karsh.html&#8217;); } function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent(&#8216;Muslims Won&#8217;t Play Together&#8217;); } function getShareDescription() { return encodeURIComponent(&#8216;The collapse of the Islamic Solidarity Games provides lessons for the West in dealing with the Islamic world.&#8217;); } function getShareKeywords() { return encodeURIComponent(&#8216;Islam,United States&hellip; <br \/> <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2010\/03\/01\/a-diatribe-against-muslim-unity-much-of-which-is-true\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}