By Mohamed Khodr • Jun 12th, 2009 at 19:36 • Category: Analysis, Culture and Heritage, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Religion, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, War, Zionism
Muhammad Asad’s comment on this verse: (M. Asad: “The Message of the Qur’an)
[This statement has both a positive and a negative connotation: i.e., God does not withdraw His blessings from men unless their inner selves become depraved, just as He does not bestow His blessings upon willful sinners until they change their inner disposition and become worthy of His grace. In its wider sense, this is an illustration of the divine law of cause and effect (sunnat Allah) which dominates the lives of both individuals and communities, and makes the rise and fall of civilizations dependent on people's moral qualities and the changes in "their inner selves".]
“So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel”:
–Quote from Movie: Lawrence of Arabia, 1962, spoken by T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole)
Forgotten or ignored throughout human history and across all geographies is that human nature is exactly the same. It must be, for it emanates from the same Creator of the Universe. The internal conflict of humanity has been whether to allow the arrogant self with its materialistic instincts that gratify the senses to prevail or to embody the humility that we are born out of the love and spirit of a Creator ordered to worship Him and live in peace with one another and our environment as His representative caretakers of this miraculously beautiful planet endowed with all the sustaining elements of life gifted to us by God.
From the outset of humanity as revealed in the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, mankind’s free will was tested and failed, a lesson for all time. Yet God’s love and mercy to his creation was grander than our failings, for He never left us without revelations, messengers and prophets, calling us back to His love and his promised eternity in paradise. From Adam to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael, from Moses, Jesus, to the final Prophet Muhammad (p) who was sent as a “mercy to all humanity”, we were given repeated guidance to return to the “straight path” of worship, salvation, internal peace and peace amongst all mankind so that we may find our final victory in the afterlife, not during our lifetime. Tragically the battle between Cain and Abel still rages both within and amongst ourselves.
We’ve perfected and funded instruments of death, propaganda, lies, racism and supremacy of one people/nation against another, while abandoning the spiritual elements of a peaceful survival in this fragile planet.
While in Christian Europe Nietzsche proclaimed God “dead”, Muslims in modern times have acquired their faith more by birth than by a knowledgeable, loving, action oriented embodiment of Islam. Muslims, whether they be political leaders, terrorists, or the masses that comprise about one fourth of the world’s population, share the same characteristics when it comes to Islam—ignorance, illiteracy, hypocrisy, corruption of soul, and a “massive failure in faith and intelligence.”
No region on earth has been simultaneously so blessed from heaven and yet so cursed as is the Arab world.
God blessed this center of the world with His greatest love—the Qur’an—the final comprehensive message to all of humanity, glorious in its language, meaning, rhyme, musicality, and scientific truths that undeniably affirm its heavenly revelation. He also sent the most exemplar of men, Prophet Muhammad (p), as His final messenger, a man history proclaims as the most moral of men, a role model for humanity who ended Arab tribalism, warfare, racism, ignorance, and illiteracy, replacing the “me” with the unity of the “we”. He ended what the Arabs termed the age of jahiliyah (ignorance) and brought forth from this one Arab Ummah the greatest learned and peaceful civilization in history.
It all began with the heavenly revelation of one word—READ—in the Quran; an activity long abandoned by the Arabs, and recently replaced by SHOW ME THE MONEY.
God also provided the Arab/Muslim world with the world’s driving energy, the fuel that sustains the world’s economies. The Arab/Muslim world sits on 60% of the world’s oil and 40% of its gas. A wealth beyond all imagination for a people He chose to carry His message to the world.
Forgive us God for we have failed You, the Prophet, and ourselves.
So why is the Arab world cursed?
For centuries the Arab world has known nothing but foreign colonialism, occupation, a steady death of its faith and glorious Arabic language. When the physical European occupation ended, the Arab world was cursed with the most incompetent, corrupt, dictatorial, uneducated, greedy, selfish, power hungry leaders the modern world has ever known. Monarchs and military officers known for ruthless assassinations, coups, massacres, mass imprisonments, torture, theft, expulsions, massive human rights abuses, tribalism, cronyism, with a narcissistic, paranoid, megalomania—a know it all who neither asks or accepts advice. Without questioning their personal faith they display no Islamic knowledge or action. They own the media and thus own the indoctrinating lies that keep an ignorant population applauding even as they starve. National treasures are their personal bank accounts. They depend on several layers of secret police to spy on the masses. Although idolatry is forbidden in Islam these leaders construct more statues, plaster posters and pictures of themselves on every corner, cars, buses, trains, and ensure their recorded words of “wisdom” are blasted from every television, radio, and speaker across the land.
In brief, these dictators don’t practice Islam as revealed and have no knowledge or respect for democracy or individual freedoms. Their main goal being self survival and they’ll deal with the devil to remain in power even if it means death to their own people or the genocide of Muslims elsewhere.
They are America’s puppets and dictators and thus America will never support true democracy in the Arab world knowing they’ll lose these political doormats.
Compare these ruthless dictators to the true democratic principles of Islam as showcased by the first successor to the Prophet after his death, Abu Bakr Al Siddiq (RA), who upon his election to that position spoke to the Muslims thus?
“I have been given the authority over you, and I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Sincere regard for truth is loyalty and disregard for truth is treachery. The weak amongst you shall be strong with me until I have secured his rights, if God wills; and the strong amongst you shall be weak with me until I have wrested from him the rights of others, if God wills. Obey me so long as I obey God and His Messenger. But if I disobey God and His Messenger, ye owe me no obedience. Arise for your prayer, God have mercy upon you.”
It’s been said that if you want to know a nation’s priorities look at its budget. Although I’ll be concentrating on the six Gulf Cooperation Council states (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia) given their enormous wealth, the same fundamental truth of Muslim wealth, whether from oil or cotton being stolen, wasted or mismanaged applies to all Arab/Muslim nations.
First, let’s look at the GDP/Capita income of the six G.C.C. nations.
CIA Factbook: World Ranking by GDP/Capita Income out of 230 Nations (Est. 2008): (1)
2. Qatar: $ 103,500
5. Kuwait: $ 57,400
19. United Arab Emirates: $ 40,000
29. Bahrain: $ 37,200
58. Saudi Arabia:$ 20,700
59. Oman: $ 20,200
Compare To the Ranking of:
[10. United States: $ 47,000 37. European Union: $33,400 49. Israel: $28, 200 103. World: $10, 400]
Next let’s look at the estimated oil income for the G.C.C. Nations:
The G.C.C. has enjoyed a six year boom in income due to soaring oil prices that reached as high as $147/barrel.
Most banks and economists put the oil income of the Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds at $1.5 Trillion. (2)
This estimate excludes Saudi Arabia that just launched its own Sovereign Wealth Fund (S.W.F.) last year with a meager $5.3 Billion: (Economist, May 1, 2008). A Sovereign Wealth Fund is a government owned investment fund.
Considering that the highest estimate of worldwide Muslim population is 1.5 billion, this wealth translates to $1000 for every Muslim man, woman, and child, a figure higher than the annual income of most Muslims.
According to a recent Fatwa issued by the Islamic Research Centre of Cairo's Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's highest authority, it is a sacred duty to pay 20 percent of oil, gas and mineral revenues in the form of alms to the poor known as Zakat (an Islamic obligation, one of the 5 pillars of Islam). [AFP, June 15, 2008).
By that calculation these Sovereign Funds need to pay $30 Billion annually to the Muslim poor. Imagine what that money can do to uplift every impoverished Muslim refugee across the globe. Only God knows what is in the hearts and pocket books of these lost men.
So where is this God given oil wealth for all Muslims being invested and spent?
Tragically, Muslim rulers neither trust their own governments, families, people, or the financial institutions in their own countries, and given that survival is their main goal, they invest Muslim wealth in the west, particularly in the United States, that Muslim friendly country whose bombs are shredding Muslim bodies across the Muslim world, but especially in the Occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, the Philippines, and elsewhere.
These traitors rule deserts with populations still steeped in Muslim rituals and tribal cultures. Thus domestically they don the appropriate Arab garments, dance, eat and mingle with the tribes after which they change into their expensive western suits, drive off in their luxurious cars, and take off in their personal flying palaces to enjoy the comforts and pleasures of Paris and Las Vegas.
The question must be asked: “Who do the Gulf nations cooperate with?”
They barely cooperate with each other, often having border, political, and economic disputes between them. They barely cooperate with other Arab regimes (example: Qatar vs. Egypt, Saudi Arabia vs. Syria), or other Muslim nations (import mainly non-Muslim laborers). They are all fearful of Iran, a Muslim nation. They are in opposition to the legitimate resistance movements against Israel--Hezbollah and Hamas. They fear their own Shiite minorities and any political movement or party with the words “Islamic”, or, “Muslim” in its name.
So who do they “cooperate” with? Their survival and wealth depends on their “cooperation” with the new sole superpower in the region: America, which indirectly means Israel.
Thus their existential political subservience to America means their policies and priorities are America’s. When America pushed Iraq to attack Iran, the G.C.C. gladly paid for most of the war expenses. When America fought Iraq in two Gulf Wars, again, the G.C.C. paid for most of the expenses. In effect, the G.C.C. serves as America’s Central Bank and military outpost in the region.
Bahrain hosts America’s Fifth Naval Fleet. Qatar is the headquarters for CENTCOM that directs the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kuwait, U.A.E., and Oman have American military bases as well as serving as military storage facilities. Saudi Arabia is host to the largest American population of expats as well as a continued military presence. When America demands they establish political and economic relationship with Israel, the G.C.C. obeys. All the G.C.C. nations have either direct or indirect trade relations with Israel (including Oil/Gas). Some have Israeli trade offices (symbolically closed in retaliation for 1,500 Palestinians massacred in Gaza by Israel---seems like a fair trade)
“As for those who take the deniers of the truth for their allies in preference to the believers - do they hope to be honored by them when, behold, all honor belongs to God [alone]?* (Qur’an 4:139)
Muhammad Asad’s Commentary on this Verse: (M. Asad: “The Message of the Qur’an)
[The term "allies" does not indicate, in this context, merely political alliances. More than anything else, it obviously alludes to a "moral alliance" with the deniers of the truth: that is to say, to an adoption of their way of life in preference to the way of life of the believers, in the hope of being "honored", or accepted as equals, by the former. Since an imitation of the way of life of confirmed unbelievers must obviously conflict with the moral principles demanded by true faith, it unavoidably leads to a gradual abandonment of those principles.]
Rather than placing their faith in God and holding firmly to the “bond” with God, the G.C.C. states are placing their faith in America and holding on tightly to America’s Treasury “Bonds”.
As you continue to read the lavish expenditures of hundreds of billions of dollars below that have no impact or benefit to the Muslim people around the world, please keep in mind the single United Nations agency created solely for the purpose to provide health, education, shelter, food, water, medicines, and all manners of aid to the millions of Palestinian refugees whose plight is to live as an occupied pawn at the feet of Israel’s military with America’s total unwavering “unshakeable” support—U.N.R.W.A.
Notice who are the Largest Donors to UNRWA in 2008: (UNRWA’s funding is primarily voluntary)
–The United States, the European Commission, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Norway and the Netherlands. (NOT the G.C.C., or the Arab/Muslim World: In fact those who do donate are shamefully lagging behind in paying their promised share)
UNRWA’S Total Budget for 2008: $541.8 Million (Thus far its Shortfall for 2008 is: $39.1 Million)
One Gulfie Royal Member can easily cover UNRWA’s total budget simply from interest on a single checking account. But they don’t.
Below are just a few of the many mind boggling corruptive examples of how the G.C.C. wastes Muslim Oil wealth to save the West as a means for self survival and protection and on lavish immoral and pleasurable self pursuits. These Disney Desert lands have truly made the desert bloom with all that is contrary to God’s teachings and destiny for the Muslim Ummah. They are the hypocrites of today.
I. “BAILOUT” of Western Governments during an Economic Crisis, while Palestinians starve and die.
–U.S. asks four G.C.C. states for close to $300 Billion to help it deal with its financial crisis—$120 Billion from Saudi Arabia, $70 Billion from U.A.E., $60 Billion from Qatar, and $40 Billion from Kuwait. (AFP, November 20, 2008)
–Additionally, Gordon Brown, P.M. of England, and his financial officers also visited the G.C.C. states to seek huge investments in British markets to alleviate their economic crisis as well as hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.). Naturally they obliged.
II. Investments in Failing Western Banks and Stock Exchanges, while Arab Banks and Bourses struggle on their own.
A. Dubai & Qatar:
Buy Large Shares of U.S., U.K., and Swedish Stock Exchanges. (AFP, Sept. 27, 2007) (In the U.S. Media Dubai’s nickname is Du-Buy)
–Bourse Dubai: purchases stakes in the American Nasdaq and U.K. London Exchange
20% of Nasdaq28% of London Stock Exchange
–Qatar Investment Authority:
24% of London Stock Exchange
10% of Sweden's OMX
Dubai and Qatar between them hold almost 52% of the London Stock Exchange.
B. Qatar:
–Emir plans to help out German car maker Porsche to allow its takeover of Volkswagen, Europe’s largest auto maker.
– Announces joint $75 Million project to create five-star resort in Cuba.
C. Abu Dhabi and Qatar:
–Both royal families investing (bailout) up to £7.3 Billion in Britain’s second largest bank, Barclay’s, owning nearly a third of the bank to allow it to overcome its financial crisis and avoid burdening the British taxpayer. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan alone will provide up to £3.5 Billion and will become Barclays' largest shareholder.
D. Dubai:
- Government (Dubai World) and Property Fund Purchase property from Queen Elizabeth’s Real Estate portfolio—the Metropole Building and 10 Whitehall Place for $255 Million to be converted into a five star luxury hotel and luxury apartments.
–Dubai World invested $2.7 Billion for a 50 percent stake in the MGM CityCenter project, and invested another $2.4 Billion to buy MGM Mirage common stock, a Hotel/Casino Gambling company. CityCenter covers 76 acres and is an $8 Billion development that will include thousands of hotel rooms and luxury apartments in Las Vegas, Nevada.
–Builds World's First Motion Building, an 80 Story Tower with Revolving Floors Powered by Wind Turbines that will give it an ever-shifting shape. The costs of the apartments will range from $4 million to $38.7 million. The project is estimated to cost $700 million.
–Announces a $95 Billion new city development, Jumeirah Gardens. Nakheel, a Dubai developer, also announced it plans to build a tower 3,280 feet high, beating the city's own world record.
–Held an economic summit last year with U.S. investment executives, mostly Jewish, on how to best “bailout” American firms. Middle East investors bought $42 billion worth of U.S. assets last year and have spent $14 billion so far this year, data from Thomson Reuters shows. That vastly outweighs funds flowing the other way, with $1.4 billion invested last year by U.S. firms buying Middle East targets. (Reuters Oct. 12, 2008)
E. Abu Dhabi:
– Government purchases $1.35 Billion stake in America’s Carlyle Group. Carlyle was founded by David Rubenstein, Jewish, in 1987. Firm’s advisors include Arthur Levitt, Jewish, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, Louis Gerstner, Jewish, former Chair of IBM, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former President George H.W. Bush, a former advisor.
The Jewish company, Goldman Sachs, advised Abu Dhabi on this investment.
–Government invests $7.5 billion in Citigroup Inc. as a cash infusion to replenish capital after huge losses in its housing mortgage market becoming the bank’s largest shareholder. At the time, Robert Rubin, Jewish was the CEO.
–Paid $800 Million to purchase the famous Chrysler Building in New York City in partnership with the Jewish company Tishman Speyer Properties which Abu Dhabi has also partnered with in other investments around the world
–Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi investment agency, entered into an $8 Billion joint venture with General Electric to provide commercial financing in the Middle East and Africa. This helps G.E. shore up its revenue losses in the U.S. Within a short time they plan to invest $40 Billion in the region. G.E. owns NBC Universal (NBC TV Network) which is part of the powerful Pro Israel Jewish-run media conglomerates.
Two Jewish firms, Lehman Brothers (went bankrupt) and Goldman Sachs advised Mubadala on the G.E. deal
–Bails out the German company Daimler-Mercedes becoming its largest shareholder with a $2.59 Billion capital infusion.
–With a $1 Billion investment, Plans to become a world film producer in Hollywood and Bollywood
–The World’s First Ferrari theme park. It invested $114 Million in the Italian Ferrari Car Company
–A Warner Brothers Theme Park (Warner Brothers is part of Time Warner and is a movie studio begun by two Jewish brothers). Time Warner’s CEO is Jewish.
–A Universal Studio Theme Park at a cost of $2 Billion (Equals total aid package from the Arab League to starving Gaza. Unlike the Americans, Gazans still await their funds to survive, not play). Universal Studios is part of NBC Universal (owned by General Electric) and headed by Jeff Zucker, Jewish.
–A Satellite Louvre Museum at a cost of $1 Billion, plus a replica of the French City of Lyon complete with housing and a soccer club
–Buys a Fifth of the circus troupe Cirque du Soleil that will perform on an artificial man made island off Dubai.
F. Saudi Arabia:
–Massive Building Projects: Worth $500 Billion that will include new cities.
–Purchase of the Plastics Division of G.E. for $11.6 Billion.
–Pending: a $20 Billion arms purchase of U.S. weapons.
—Like other Gulf nations, provided “bailout” funds of billions of dollars to losing American Banks, like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
III. How Wealthy Gulf Princes Spend their Muslim Wealth:
A. Saudi Arabian Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal:
The World’s thirteenth richest man ($20 Billion) and his thirst for western goods and extravagant luxury
–Purchase of an Airbus A380, the first VIP order for such a super jumbo, a “Flying Palace” for $310 Million that seats 650 people.
–Investor in Citigroup, News Corporation (owned by the Zionist Rupert Murdoch), Time Warner (Jewish CEO.
Jeffrey L. Bewkes), AOL, Motorola, Apple, Euro Disney theme park, and owner of vast hotels and real estate investments.
– Plans for a $10 billion construction of world’s tallest skyscraper, one mile high Burj Al-Meel ((Arabic for "the Tower of One Mile") in Saudi Arabia.
B. Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum
–Buys a female camel for a record $2.72 million during a Camel Beauty Contest.
C. Qatar
–A Rich Qatari Sheikh flies his “Dark Knight” Batman movie like Lamborghini 6,500 miles to London aboard Qatar Airways for a simple Oil Change. The total cost for the trip and oil change was more than £23,000 for the £190,000 car
D. Abu Dhabi
–Sheikh Sulaiman Al-Fahim purchases British soccer club, Manchester City, on behalf of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nihyan, brother of Abu Dhabi’s ruler for £210 million. He’s now purchased an Italian soccer team, Pompey.
IV. Military Expenditures: G.C.C., The Primary Market for U.S. Weapons
For over a decade the Middle East region has had the distinction of being the largest importer and spender on military weapons in the world; i.e. Guns, not Butter.
According to the CIA World Fact Book, the top three nations in the world with the highest military expenditures as percent of GDP (data 2005) are in rank order: Oman—Qatar—Saudi Arabia. (3)
For the year 2009, according to Market Watch, June 8, 2009:
“As a percentage of a country's gross domestic product, Saudi Arabia outranks every other government on spending. The Mideast nation's 2008 military budget — which also included money for public order and safety — represented about 9% (9.3%) of its GDP at $38.2 billion.” (4)
[Incredibly, Yemen, one of the poorest nations on earth spends more on its military as percent of its GDP than the United States. (SIPRI 2007: 5.1% vs. 4.0% respectively]
United Arab Emirates:
– The World’s THIRD Largest Recipient of Military Weapons (after China, and India) for period 2003-2007, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research 2008 Yearbook.
–Purchases a $7 Billion missile-defense system from U.S., primarily to defend against Iran, not Israel.
–Signed a Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with France, a first step toward building a Nuclear Reactor worth $6 Billion. (The U.S. questions need of nuclear energy for oil rich Iran, but not here, because U.A.E. is a “moderate”, i.e. American compliant state)
–Plans to sign a similar nuclear deal with the U.S.
–Purchases American Patriot Missiles at cost of $3.3 Billion.
Is the purpose of these massive expenditures on Weapons of Mass Dust-gathering to fight the Arab/Muslim world’s enemy—Israel? NO. The purpose is to squash internal dissent, deter greedy Arab countries, and most of all, to deter Iran from its alleged design on the Gulf. Thus, billions spent to fight Muslims, not to fight Israel and liberate Haram Al Sharif or Al Quds.
According to the Israeli paper, Haaretz, July 7, 2008 (“Arab state tells Israel it won't oppose Iran strike”)
“Official representatives of an Arab country have hinted in meetings with Israeli officials that they would not oppose an Israeli military operation against Iran…The representatives told the Israeli officials that other Arab countries are also troubled by Iran's policy. Some Arab states are afraid that Iran's growing power will create a rift between Sunnis and Shi'ites. That concern is especially rife in Arab countries with a Shi'ite minority.”
Bahrain: A Jewish Gesture to Buy Israeli-American Good Will
–Emir appoints a Jewish woman as Ambassador to the U.S. According to the Jerusalem Post (5/29/08) there are only between 30 to50 Jewish Bahraini citizens among half a million population.
Israel’s Pre Planned (with U.S.) Genocide in Lebanon, 2006, and Gaza, 2008
The G.C.C., Egypt, and Jordan not only did not lift their voices to oppose Israel’s Genocides in Lebanon and Gaza, but on the contrary, they actually supported Israel’s massacre of Muslim children and had the Chutzpah to blame Hezbollah and Hamas for the carnage. These are the same rulers who honored the murderer Bush (and Rice) with their highest civilian awards while presenting them with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of extravagant gifts for their holocaust upon Iraq. No wonder, Robert Fisk, the Mideast’s most knowledgeable and respected journalist working for the British paper, The Independent, shamed the Arab world for not protesting Bush’s war crimes in Iraq while millions in Europe took to the streets, by stating—“Arabs Are Like Mice”. (Independent, February 18, 2003).
Promised Aid or Promised Lies for Palestinian Refugees:
In 2008, out of 22 Arab nations that made pledges to support the financially ruined Palestinian Authority (excluding Gaza), only three — Algeria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — have contributed funds, while oil rich nations such as Libya, Kuwait and Qatar have sent nothing while still owing over $700 Million in past due pledges, according to the Washington Post, July 27, 2008.
More than 70 percent of Gazans are destitute living in severe poverty on a $1.20 a day or less, according to the U.N., with families and thousands of children suffering from malnutrition. A two year blockade plus this recent Israeli genocide has turned Gaza into a sickly prison aided by none other than Egypt that ensures its Rafah gate is closed to even emergency aid for this tragic Muslim population, besieged by the U.S., Europe, Israel, and their Muslim “brothers”
According to Reuters, September 10, 2008: Egyptian police stop convoys heading to Gaza
Egyptian police stopped three convoys of buses heading towards Gaza on Wednesday in what organizers called an attempt to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.
During their recent “Arab Summit” in Kuwait (Jan. 16-19, 2009—incredibly the first ever economic summit), the Arab League grudgingly pledged $2 Billion for Gaza reconstruction. Given the fact that these despots don’t trust each other or any Arab institution they fought as to who should handle the funds (lest it be stolen– unheard of among these “honest” rulers), so they settled on the United Nations, the World Bank, and NGO’s; anybody but an Arab. Still Gazans are starving without food, shelter, water, medicines, fuel, oxygen, or sewage free streets. But there is good news, the G.C.C. Bailout of American Banks is beginning to work since some banks began to make profits and repay their loans to the U.S. government.
The Majority of Impoverished Suffering Refugees Worldwide are MUSLIMS: (5)
According to the U.N. Refugee Agency the 57 member nations of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (O.I.C.) are host to an estimated 9.4 million of the 20.8 million refugees and others of concern to UNHCR worldwide. This figure excludes the Palestinian refugees in the Near East who fall under the Mandate of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
From the UNCHR Website:
“While providing protection and assistance to refugees, many OIC states are not party to international refugee instruments and lack refugee legislation or refugee-related institutions and structures. Moreover, many refugee situations in OIC countries are of a protracted nature, requiring more resolute action to address root causes and more robust multilateral cooperation to find durable solutions.”
As is customary of the Arab/Muslim world it takes foreign leaders, organizations, and activists to “urge, plead, and beg” them to take action on behalf of their own people.
Unlike Obama who quoted from the Quran, not one Arab leader has ever given a speech referencing Quranic verses or Prophetic teachings lest he be labeled in the West as an “IslamoFascist.”
The Arab/Muslim world is financially wealthy, but morally bankrupt, politically incompetent, and religiously ignorant and apathetic. They are physically and psychologically paralyzed awaiting direction, guidance, and assistance from the outside world to help them help themselves. One and a half billion Muslims are missing in action, absent without leadership, intellectually impotent, financially corrupt but the Gulfies are able to build tall buildings in a single bound but cannot raise one healthy, educated, faithful Muslim child to serve God, his Ummah, or this world. In such a vacuum, ignorance, terrorism and martyrdom become the lifestyle of meaning and choice.
“Being here with you I feel compelled to issue an appeal. An appeal to the Muslim world, and in particular the Arab world, to play a greater role in the discussion, formulation and implementation of international refugee policy. Today, the majority of refugees worldwide is Muslim, a fact that occurs at a time of rising intolerance….Let us be perfectly clear: refugees are not terrorists; they are the first victims of terror.”
–Mr. António Guterres, High Commissioner of United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR
Surely some G.C.C. or Arab nation will step up and take some of the 2,300 Palestinians stranded at the Iraqi border for two years. But of course they’re not. Some of these Palestinian refugees found compassion in Non-Muslim countries like Iceland, Sweden, and Latin American nations. (AFP, August 5, 2008)
But, there is Divine Justice for Avarice Greed and Subservience to Others Against Your Own Ummah.
AFP Arabs lost 2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS from credit crunch: Kuwait (January 16, 2009)
“According to the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabbah Arab investors have lost $2.5 Trillion dollars just in the past four month from the recent economic crisis and credit crunch. He added that about 60 percent of development projects "have either been postponed or cancelled" by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states because of the global meltdown….The biggest loss was an estimated 40 percent drop in the value of Arab investments abroad, which previously totaled around $2.5 Trillion.… Falls on stock markets contributed more than 600 billion dollars to the losses, while Arab investors were further affected by a sharp decline in oil revenues, the declining value of property investments and other repercussions of the global downturn.”
So Much Wealth, So Much Impotence
Given that American policy lives and dies by monetary influence one would’ve assumed that the massive trillion plus dollars of investment (bailout) by the G.C.C. in American government bonds, banks, and corporations, that the G.C.C. would have used this wealth to influence the U.S. toward a more just and balanced policy for the Palestinians. Perhaps they could’ve spent a fraction of these investments to purchase all the failing and bankrupt media outlets across America to influence public opinion. Perhaps they could’ve established a strong public relations presence in America to educate the populace on Islam and the injustice of America’s tilt toward Israel with its deadly consequences for Muslims and Americans alike.
Perhaps….Perhaps…. But of course we’re dealing with crazed wealth mingled with ignorance and apathy toward Islam, Muslims, and justice.
Israel offers America nothing but wars yet a few hundred million dollars spent strategically on Congressional candidates and media propaganda guarantees the continued occupation, suffering and massacres of Palestinians.
Tragically, not even a trillion dollars in America’s pockets can open one Israeli border crossing to allow baby formulas for malnourished Palestinian infants.
This tragedy prompted Patrick Seale, a renowned Mideast expert to write in the Gulf Daily News, May 15, 2008, his must read article; “Wealth But No Political Power.” He writes.
“Arab oil producers are awash in wealth. They have never been so rich. But the paradox is that, in spite of their great and growing wealth, their political weight in the world remains small, even derisory…. Why, one wonders, have the Arabs not been able to resolve the grave crises in Iraq and Lebanon, which are tearing their region apart? Why have they allowed the US to neglect Arab interests in the festering Arab-Israeli conflict, and tilt so decisively in Israel's favor? Why have the Arabs not intervened to defuse the dangerous confrontation between the West and Iran which, if it were to escalate into a military clash, would be utterly disastrous for the Gulf?
Why do the Arabs seem to focus all their attention and all their energies on business - on getting rich and richer still - while leaving their political and strategic destinies very largely in the hands of foreigners?
Whatever the reasons - and they are undoubtedly many and deep-seated - the Arab world projects an image of impotence, even where its own vital interests are concerned.”
Indeed the prime question for the Arab/Muslim soul is WHY?
The answer is quite simple. Muslims abandoned God and thus we’ve been abandoned by Him. No amount of pseudo-intellectual analysis apart from Islam and faith will ever bring peace and victory to the Muslim world. Yet part of the Arab/Muslim imitation of the West is that we’ve adopted their “modern” ideology of life as simply a materialistic human endeavor devoid of faith and spiritual living. We see western societies crumble into an immoral abyss yet in our inferiority and lust to appear “modern” we follow their example rather than the example of our Prophet.
Return, O Rulers of deserts; return O Arabs and Muslims, to the “straight path”, bond with God and with each other and victory over evil is assured. Liberate your minds and hearts from western degeneration. Turn off the Video Clips and turn open the Quran. The West and Israel’s greatest fear is a true Islamic renaissance that will reject their immorality and stop buying their weapons, their cultural addiction to, violence, drugs, alcohol, and wars.
“If God succours you, none can ever overcome you; but if He should forsake you, who could succour you thereafter? In God, then, let the believers place their trust! (Quran 3:160)
As Muslims we are instructed to never lose hope in God’s mercy no matter our sins. A new generation will surely arise to lift the torch of Islam high above Muslim lands and light the passion of a dormant Ummah to truly hear the call of the Prayer, the Azan, which promises if we “come to prayer”, we shall “come to success”.
“[MANY] WAYS of life have passed away before your time. Go, then, about the earth and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth: this [should be] a clear lesson unto all men, and a guidance and an admonition unto the God-conscious. Be not, then, faint of heart, and grieve not: for you are bound to rise high if you are [truly] believers.” (Qur’an 137 – 139)
Ameen.
Sources:
1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html
2. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-34813379_ITM
3. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html
4. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/global-military-spending-hits-a-record-in-2008
5. http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=448e91722b
“Conference On Refugees in the Muslim World”
http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSTRE49C0CU20081013
“Buyout bosses gather in Dubai as crisis continues”; Oct 12, 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-a-million-march-in-london-but-faced-with-disaster-the-arabs-are-like-mice-598001.html
Robert Fisk: “A million march in London but, faced with disaster, the Arabs are like mice”, Independent, February 18, 2003 (MUST READ)
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20090119.htm
Noam Chomsky: “Exterminate All the Brutes”, Gaza 2009: (Revised June 6, 2009) GREAT ANALYSIS On Gaza, Israel-US Policy in Palestine. MUST READ
http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson06232008.html
“How Should the Middle East Invest Its Oil Profits?”; Dr. Michael Hudson, June 23, 2008
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/global-military-spending-hits-a-record-in-2008
“Global Military Spending Hits a Record in 2008”, June 8, 2009: Saudi Arabia Ranks No. ONE
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html
CIA World Ranking of Military Expenditure as Percent of GDP
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-new-gulf-war-which-state-can-spend-its-oil-trillions-faster-920829.html
“The New Gulf War: Which State Can Spend its Oil Trillions Faster?”, September 6, 2008
http://www.un.org/unrwa/
UNRWA: Lead U.N. Agency on Palestinian Refugees
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
United Nations Refugee Agency
http://arabstates.undp.org/subpage.php?spid=14
U.N.D.P. “Arab Human Development Report”: A Sad commentary on a Failing Region
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate
World Rankings of Nations by Literacy Rates
http://www.who.int/countries/en/
World Health Organization Data: Country Profiles on Health
http://yearbook2008.sipri.org/07
U.A.E. Third Largest Recipient of Military Weapons.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/world/middleeast/22dubai.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
“Young and Arab in Land of MOSQUES and BARS”, NYT, September 22, 2008
http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080408034338
“Who's who on the Arab rich list”; According to Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/25/alwaleed-skyscraper-jeddah-biz-cx_af_0225alwaleed.html
Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Starts the Mile High Building Club
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1846200,00.html
“A New City in the Saudi Desert”, October 2, 2008
Tagged as: Arab World, Gulf States, Islam, Israel, Palestine, UNRWA, US foreign policy
Mohamed Khodr is a political activist who frequently writes on the plight of Palestinians living under the brutal occupation of Israel, U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam, and Arab politics
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