The Islamic State (ISIS), despite the media hype in the US of possible attacks by it in the US cities during the 4th of July weekend that came and went without any incident, has been and continues to be a real threat for the Muslims in the Muslim countries. Tunisia witnessed an ISIS inspired terrorist attack that saw 39 dead a few days ago. In Kuwait, 30 worshippers were killed in a mosque from an ISIS-led terrorist attack also a few days ago. And in the land of ISIS, in Iraq, ISIS is killing mainly Muslims at will in the name of Islam.
Nevertheless, the West and its media remain focused on the fear that terrorist organisations like ISIS are conspiring all the time to attack western cities and recruiting activists for their terrorist activities in the West itself and also globally. They pay little attention to the widespread incidents in the Muslim world of Muslims killing Muslims that started when the western world led by the United States poked their nose in the Muslim countries that in turn have given rise to organisations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda and given them the cause to exist. President Bush's decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in the name War on Terror killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim men, women and children "as collateral damage" in the hands of western soldiers. And now Muslims continue to be killed in Iraq in the hands of ISIS and in Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban as a consequence of the unjust wars. Yet the US continues to build the phobia of ISIS attack in cities of the West and in denial of the killing season that it has opened in the Muslim countries, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The underpinning in the US-led wars in the Muslim world that is at the root of the killing season in the Muslim world itself has been to undermine Islam. Before these two wars, the US also played the leading role in encouraging Muslims fight Muslims in the period preceding the USSR invasion of Afghanistan. Then the CIA was instrumental in creating the Taliban front to fight the pro-Soviet Najibullah Government. And during the Soviet invasion, the US, through the CIA, worked hand-in-glove with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda against the Soviets and the Najibullah government. In the Iraq-Iran war, it was again the US that was strongly behind President Saddam Hussein because his regime was fighting fellow Muslims, the Iranians, US's main enemy at that time in the Middle East.
It is, therefore, time to take a serious look into what is happening in the Muslim countries and at terrorist organisations like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Such a look would underline that there was none or very little conflict in the Muslim world or between Muslims of the nature we see today till the US interfered in or invaded some of the Muslim countries. In fact a deeper look would reveal that some of the seeds of discontent in the Muslim countries were sown when their fate was in the hands of the western nations during the period of West's colonisation and in the neo-colonial period thereafter. The British and the US were responsible for the present religious/political tensions in Pakistan. Similarly, US invasion has triggered the Shia-Sunni conflict in Iraq which has created the present hell-like predicament in the country.
Professor Samuel Huntington had stated in his infamous book Clash of Civilisations in 1996 that unless the West was prepared, it would lose its dominance to the so-called Islamic civilisation in the new world order that was emerging following the end of the Cold War. His theory inspired the neo-cons that controlled the administration of President GW Bush that took the US to the Afghan and Iraq wars. The Professor's warning against the so-called Islamic civilisation also inspired the neo-cons to encourage the internecine conflicts in the Muslim countries in an attempt to weaken these countries from within. And the major bonus of all these in the plan laid out by Professor Huntington and understood and interpreted by the neo-cons was to project Islam as a violent religion to destroy West's moral and ethical contents; that was the main reason why Professor Huntington had feared that Islam would, unless stopped, some day dominate the world.
Serious scholars of history and politics had shredded the Professor's theory. Professor Edward Said, a Palestinian Christian, led the scholars who teared downed the theory of clash of civilisations. They exposed the Huntington's ignorance about Islam and state of affairs among the Muslims. He did not seem to be aware that Muslims couldn't even agree on trivial matters related to their common destiny as a religious group like, for instance, agreeing to streamline the sighting of the moon to determine the start of the fasting month or the Eid-ul-Fitr. If Huntington knew of such realities, he could not have stated that the Muslim countries were a monolith civilisation which was eager to strike the West to dominate the world!
Nevertheless, the theory of Professor Huntington encouraged generally the US inspired and/or conspired turmoil in the Muslim world which is now too obvious and dangerous to ignore. The ISIS, for instance, is both destroying Iraq and giving Islam the name that the Professor/neo-cons would want. Therefore, it is high time for the Muslims themselves to see the writings on the wall about their countries and their religion and how they are being systematically subjected to a conspiracy in reverse to what Professor Samuel Huntington had predicted - that it is the West which is conspiring against Islam and Muslims instead and succeeding. If they need inspiration to understand and deal with what is happening in the Muslim countries, there is enough of it in the Koran and in the life of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) to help them.
Islam is in danger from within, as Professor Samuel Huntington and the neo-cons would have wanted. Unlike Christianity, though, Islam has never passed through reformation. It is time that Muslims focused on reform in Islam. They would not need to look beyond what is there in front of them, in the life of the Prophet for the long-awaited reformation. Even a casual study of the life the Prophet would reveal that that ISIS and those who commit violence in the name of Islam are the descendants of Abdullah Ibn Ubayy. As the starting point of reformation, therefore, Muslims worldwide should come together and denounce organisations such as ISIS as the anti-thesis of Islam.
The writer is a retired Ambassador. The article has been abridged.
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