Islam And The West

The usury inspired global recession is starting to hit parts of the world not usually associated with hard times. It seems that for the expat community in Dubai the party is most definitely well and truly over:

“For thousands of expatriates lured to Dubai by the promise of year-round sunshine and a tax-free lifestyle, the party is over. Corporate restructurings have arrived hard on the heels of steep falls in property prices and plummeting consumer confidence; El Dorado is fading back into desert. As the cutbacks spread from finance and real estate to sectors such as tourism, media and retail, many are packing up and heading home.

Dubai’s roads and restaurants are noticeably quieter and once-exorbitant rents are becoming more reasonable by the month. The government claims visa issuance is holding up and denies reports of mass cancellations. But a YouGov poll in the UAE found more than half of respondents knew a family member or close friend who had been made redundant, a figure that had risen sharply from the end of 2008….

…The end of this month is expected to accelerate the departures among two of the largest white-collar expat communities, Britons and Indians, as it signals the end of the Indian school year and British schools’ spring term. Many employers have aided sacked staff, especially those with children, by extending visas so they do not have to leave quickly. Britons have also been wary of tax liabilities caused by returning before April 1, the new UK tax year.” (Source: Financial Times)

I wonder how many of these western expats after enjoying the good times in Dubai will return to the “civilised world” only to bad mouth Muslims.

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A suspected suicide bomber attacked a Muslim procession in Sri Lanka earlier today. As a result 14 people are dead including the perpetrator and many wounded:

“A suicide bomber in Sri Lanka attacked a Muslim religious procession today, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than three dozen, including a government minister, officials said.

The army blamed the embattled Tamil Tiger separatist group, which for a quarter of a century has been fighting for a Tamil homeland in the northern part of the South Asia island nation…..

…In contrast to many attacks these days around the world carried out by Islamic militants, this one targeted a mostly Muslim crowd. The explosion occurred in the southern city of Mattawa during a celebration of Mawlid, marking the anniversary of the prophet Muhammad’s birth.

“With the LTTE, there’s no love lost for Muslims,” said R. Hariharan, a retired colonel who headed intelligence for the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990.

Some 100,000 Muslims, many of whom had lived there for generations, were given 48 hours to leave Sri Lanka’s northern Jafna peninsula area many years ago when the Tigers first occupied the area. Since they spoke Tamil, some then took jobs in army intelligence fighting against the separatists group.

The Tigers, listed as a terror group by the United States and the European Union, have pioneered many tactics, some of which were later adopted by other militant groups around the world…..

…Brigadier Nanayakkara said the military has expected more attacks of this nature and recently stepped up its use of road blocks, but this festival provided the group with a target of opportunity.

He said 13 civilians had been killed, in addition to the bomber. More than 200 militants and an unspecified number of soldiers have been killed in heavy fighting in the north since Thursday, the army said.”

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

For more on Muslims in Sri Lanka see:

• Muslims And The Terrorists That You Will Probably Never Have Heard About.
• Sinhalese Thugs Attack Muslim Shops.

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Back in the 1970′s Baghdad’s Abu Nawas Street was the place to go for a good time. It was home to a string of bars and night clubs. This all changed in 1994 when Saddam Hussein banned all such activity. Then came came the American invasion and subsequent Islamic insurgency, which left tens of thousands dead and lead to many artists fleeing the country.

Three months ago Nouri Al-Maliki the Prime Minister of Iraq allowed the opening of nightclubs and since then numerous establishments have opened in Baghdad as MSNBC reports:

“In the 1970s, Abu Nawas Street was the nexus of Iraq’s night life. Bars stayed open until the early morning. In 1994, Saddam Hussein, in an attempt to win the support of religiously conservative Iraqis, closed all the nightclubs.

After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents targeted alcohol sellers. They issued death threats to singers and dancers, forcing many to flee the country.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in an effort to portray himself as a secular nationalist, allowed the reopening of the nightspots three months ago, a move that has bolstered his popularity among many urban Iraqis. Still, most nightclubs have remained closed for much of the time since his order, a period that includes several Muslim holidays.

Threats from extremists remain, but the heavy security measures across the capital have brought confidence.

Nightclubs are starting to open up in other parts of Baghdad. Hotels are hosting dance parties for well-off Iraqis. Social clubs, where alcohol and gambling are part of the fare, are seeing more customers. Performers are returning from exile….

…And Abu Nawas Street is arguably the safest street in the capital. It runs along the Tigris River, ending at one entrance to the Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government buildings are situated. Hassan’s nightclub is on a stretch of street that is blocked off on either end by blast walls and checkpoints guarded by Iraqi private security contractors and police. Several American and European media organizations have fortresslike bureaus up the road, each with its own private force. American troops patrol on foot virtually every day.”

(Source: MSNBC)

It must be very hard spreading Jeffersonian democracy in the Muslim world. I am sure the American “guests” need all the alcohol and ugly prostitutes they can get.

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Recently Professor M. Shahid Alam submitted a post to Islam and the West entitled “Can America Win In Afghanistan ?” The article looked at some of the ongoing pitfalls that the United States faces in it’s war in Afghanistan.

In the post the Professor also looked at examples of earlier foreign interventions in Afghanistan from the British to the Russians.

Image by John Burke, Anglo-Afghan meeting, 1879

In an excellent back ground article in today’s Daily Telegraph, Ben Farmer relates how the Royal Air Force evacuated British personal from Kabul in 1929 in the face of an impending massacre:

“Eighty years ago today, a distinguished-looking man, wrapped up against the cold, climbed down from a biplane with a Union flag folded neatly beneath his arm.

That same flag had just hours earlier been lowered from the British legation in Kabul as the city fell into fiery chaos.

The arrival of the British minister to Afghanistan at Peshawar airfield marked the end of a little known, but extraordinary tale of rescue….

…Using only fragile biplanes the RAF saved Kabul’s entire diplomatic community from the jaws of a violent tribal revolt.

Held aloft by little more than canvas, wood and wire, pilots braved freezing temperatures and snowy 10,000ft mountains that offered nowhere for a forced landing.

And over two months they rescued nearly 600 civilians and flew the equivalent of twice around the world without losing, or taking, a single life.

The evacuation began with King Amanullah’s ill-advised attempts to reform his deeply conservative subjects.

Impressed with the capitals he had seen on a tour of Europe, he instigated a series of Western-style reforms which infuriated the mullahs.

Anger soon turned to open rebellion among the Shinwari, one of eastern Afghanistan’s main tribes.

Seizing the city of Jalalabad, they cut traffic and communication across the Khyber Pass, and as unrest raced across the south, the international community was isolated from India.

Things worsened when on December 14, 1929, Habibullah Khan, marched on Kabul with up to 1,000 men and took high positions to the northwest of the city.

The British legation, in spacious grounds two-and-a-half miles from the city, was right in the path of his advance.

Cut off from the city, the British found themselves perilously caught in No Man’s Land, with stray bullets falling into their compound.

By December 17, Sir Francis Humphrys, the British minister in Kabul, had decided it was time to evacuate all women and children.

As he asked for an aeroplane the last wireless connection with the Legation went dead.

In India, Kabul’s worsening situation caused deep worry.

However, with communication cut, it was not known if aeroplanes could land near the legation or what reception would be waiting.

At 8am on December 18, Flying Officer Claude William Leighton Trusk took off from Peshawar to Kabul to find out.

Expecting help for the air, those in the legation had been busy. Under the direction of Lady Humphrys, bedsheets had been torn into strips to lay out messages for pilots high above.

As FO Trusk reached the city, he saw a message laid out telling him to fly high and not land.

Anxious to drop a message and a signalling kit within the legation walls however, he ignored the warning and swooped down – prompting a volley of gunfire.

Fourteen bullets pierced his two-seater de Havilland DH9A biplane, damaging a radiator and oil pump and forcing it down.

Landing uninjured at Sherpur aerodrome and unable to reach the legation, FO Trusk instead checked into the comfortable Café Wali hotel until he could get through.

A second flight the same day was again riddled with rifle fire, but delivered the signalling kit and was told by strips of bed linen: “Do not land”, “Fly high” and “All’s well”.

Flight by flight, arrangements for the evacuation were finalised with messages relayed through pilots.

But the RAF was short of planes and needed reinforcements to speed up the airlift. The nearest heavy planes were Vickers Victoria and Handley Page Hinaidi troop carriers stationed in Iraq, which were diverted from Baghdad.

As fighting washed back and forth between the city and legation, a chance to begin the evacuation appeared as King Amanullah drove back the rebels.

On December 23, the first planes landed at Sherpur, then a dusty plain and now hidden beneath the poppy palaces of Afghan warlords.

Twenty one women and children were crammed into a Victoria for the freezing cold journey, while trunks and cases were packed into smaller planes…

…In the following week, the RAF returned daily and by New Year’s Day 1929, 153 women and 163 children had been ferried to safety.

Hopes of a lull in the fighting were dashed when on January 14 when Habibullah entered Kabul and the king abdicated in favour of his brother.

Sir Francis feared “a horrible massacre” would ensue and agreed to evacuate the royal household.

It was now clear a total evacuation was inevitable and the situation could not be salvaged.

The offer of a ticket out was extended to other embassies and one British flight a day was given permission to land…..

….On January 27, two hours into his flight the pilot of one Victoria lost all power when air and water in his petrol filters froze up and had to make a forced landing near Sarobi.

“From the air, the surrounding countryside had looked entirely deserted,” wrote Flt Lt Ronald Ivelaw-Chapman in his official account of the mission.

“But within a few minutes of landing we were surrounded by a seething mass of wildly shouting, heavily armed, excitable Afghans, who surged around and in the machine and were raising a veritable Babel in their highly-pitched Pashtu.”

Taken under the protection of a royalist officer the British airmen were driven in style by Chevrolet to the British Consulate near Charbagh.

When weather permitted, the airlift continued and elephants and camels were drafted in to clear the runway when heavy snow fell.

Oil pipes were lagged against the cold, and petrol filtered to remove water, as planes crisscrossed the mountains, carrying French, Italians, Germans, Turks and Iranians.

Sir Francis insisted on being last to leave but on the morning of February 25, his turn had come.

Eight planes roared over the legation and one by one landed on the cleared runway.

By now, Habibullah had lost control of his men and the city could descend into chaos at any moment.

Anne Baker and the then Air Chief Marshal Sir Ronald Ivelaw-Chapman later described the anxious embarkation in ‘Wings over Kabul’.

“In only a few moments Sir Francis appeared again on the steps, carrying under his arm the Union Jack which had flown so long and so bravely over the legation.

“The gates were opened for the last time, and the small party, led by Sir Francis, walked to the aerodrome. They were only just in time. As Donaldson looked back, he saw the city engulfed in flames.”

(Source: Daily Telegraph)

As you can see historical themes repeat themselves. From social and political reform to military intervention, the Muslim world has seen it all before.

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Guest writer M. Shahid Alam of Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, looks at some of the pitfalls awaiting America in what he terms the coming Afghan quagmire.

As the United States prepares to escalate its eight-year war against the Taliban, it might be useful to weigh its chances of success.

Consider, first, the fate of three previous invasions of Afghanistan by two great European powers, Britain and Soviet Union, since the nineteenth century.

These invasions ended in defeat – for the Europeans.

The first British occupation of Kabul lasted for four years. When the British garrison retreated from Kabul in 1842, it was picked off by Ghilzai warriors as they trudged through the snow. Only one British officer, William Brydon, survived this harrowing retreat. This solitary survivor was memorialized in a haunting painting by Elizabeth Butler, titled, Remnants of an Army.

The British occupied Kabul a second time in 1878, withdrew a year later, leaving behind a British resident to keep an eye on the Afghans. They returned the same year, when their resident in Kabul was killed in an uprising. When the British withdrew in 1880, discretely, they did not insist on leaving behind a British resident.

Nearly a hundred years later, 30,000 Soviet troops, invading from the north, occupied Kabul in December 1979. In order to oppose the growing Afghan resistance, the Russians soon raised their troop strength to 100,000 but never con-trolled any areas beyond the limits of a few cities. With 15,000 deaths, and unable to sustain growing casualties, the Soviets retreated in February 1989.

Will the United States fare better than Britain or the Soviet Union?

In terms of logistics, British India and Soviet Union were better placed than the United States. Afghanistan was next-door neighbor to both. It is half a world away from the United States, which, as a result, depends on long rail and road transit through Pakistan to supply and re-supply its troops. Moreover, the supply routes – from Karachi to Kabul – are vulnerable to attacks by the Taliban and their allies in Pakistan.

image by berd

Alternative land supply routes would have to pass through Russia or Iran. Russia might make these routes available, at a steep cost, and keep raising the cost as US troop concentration in Afghanistan rises. Dependence on the Russians may turn out to be trap. Almost certainly, the Iranians will refuse, since, to do so, would badly tarnish its image with Sunni Islam.

The Soviet and British invaders primarily had to deal with Afghan fighters. The Americans are fighting the Taliban on both sides of the Afghan border, who, besides the Pushtuns, also have help from several Jihadi groups based in Punjab and Pakistani Kashmir.

Pakistan, America’s indispensable ally in the war against the Taliban, is an unwilling partner at best; it is also unreliable. Pakistan army has been gang-pressed and bribed into fighting the Taliban, and, as a result, the war is not popular with the junior officers and soldiers. In a rising spiral, Pakistan’s war against the Taliban has provoked them to carry their war deeper into Pakistan. At some point, this could split the Pakistan army, intensify Taliban attacks on Islamabad and Lahore, or force Islamist and nationalist officers to take over and end Pakistan’s collaboration with the United States.

Under pressure, the Taliban could launch another attack inside India. After the attacks on Mumbai last November, India was threatening ‘surgical strikes’ against Pakistan, forcing Pakistan to divert its troops to the eastern front. Another Mumbai, followed by Indian surgical strikes against Pakistan, could produce consequences too horrendous to contemplate.

Are US objectives in Afghanistan so vital as to bring two nuclear powers to the brink of a war?

Iran was not much of a factor when British India and Soviet Union were fighting in Afghanistan. It is now. In Iraq, Iran favored the defeat of the Sunni insurgency once it had denied the United States a victory. In Afghanistan, Iran prefers to create a quagmire for the Americans, ensuring a long stalemate be-tween them and the Taliban.

In light of the consequences that have flowed from the US presence in Afghanistan, who would advise an escalation? President Obama still has time to put on hold his plans to send more troops to Afghanistan. Instead, the best political minds around the world should be examining the least costly exit from a war that promises to become a quagmire, at best, and, at worst, a disaster, which no US objective in the region can justify.

Unless, dismantling the world’s only Islamicate country with the bomb is an objective worthy of such horrendous costs.

M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern University. He is author of Challenging the New Orientalism (2007).

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