The Conflict Has Just Begun
M.J. Akbar

When in February 1258 the killing had stopped and the looting had paused,
Hulagu, grandson of the creator of the world’s prevailing superpower Chengiz
Khan, and the destroyer of the Abbassid dynasty, asked the Iraqi ulema a
simple question: “Which man is better as a sovereign? An unbeliever who is
just, or a Muslim who is unjust?”

The question is not substantially different from the one posed to the people
of Iraq by George Bush. The 13th century clerics were silent until one of
the sages in their midst, Radiuddin Ali, accepted new realities and wrote
down the collective answer: “The unbeliever who is just should be preferred
to the unjust believer.”

It would be convenient to report that this is where the matter ended. But
there was more than one answer given by the Arabs, and delivered over time.
Not one of these responses ever suggested that the deposed and killed last
Abbassid Caliph Mo’tasim be restored to the palaces of Baghdad. That era was
dead, killed by its own excesses and buried by the Mongol avalanche, and the
Arabs recognized it. But to reject the Abbassids was not synonymous with
accepting the Mongols.

The Mongols promised that the new regime in Baghdad would be run by Iraqis,
not them. They too established the difference between control and
administration. The former lay with Hulagu and his generals. The latter was
left to the Iraqis. Hulagu retained Ibn Alkamiya as the vizier, or the prime
minister, who had served the last caliph. Till today Arab schoolchildren are
taught the sentence: “Cursed by God be he who curses not Ibn Alkamiya.”

Hulagu’s armies were not without Muslims in their ranks when he marched on
Baghdad, although they were not too many. His few Muslim supporters were
Shiites, not Kurds: Kurds then had total empathy with the fellow Sunni
Arabs, for the ruling dynasty of Saladin was indeed Kurdish. Some of the
Muslim support for Hulagu was destroyed by guilt, as was the case of Teghel
Argun who slipped away from the Mongol ranks after witnessing the
destruction of Baghdad. He was later captured by the Mongols and put to deal
in the marketplace of Tabriz.

Many of the regional Muslim lords became submissive to the new power.
Azizuddin Kavus offered Hulagu a magnificent pair of leather boots as a
gift. He also had his own portrait drawn on the boots so that Hulagu could
have him permanently at his feet.

Yet others tried craft. The old and wily Badruddin Lulu of Mosul, on being
summoned to Hulagu’s presence, promised his terrified followers that he
would emerge with his honor intact. In fact, he suggested, he would not
return before he had gone so far as to tweak Hulagu’s ears! He lived up to
his promise. He offered Hulagu a magnificent pair of rare pearls and then
asked for the honor of placing them on the conqueror’s ears. He was granted
permission to do so. He tweaked Hulagu’s ears when putting on the earrings,
and glanced at his entourage while doing so to indicate that he had kept his
promise.

But there were also those who responded to the deepest crisis in the history
of Islam by discovering conviction, and then the courage to stand up against
a power that since Chengiz Khan had never been defeated between the eastern
shores of China to the doors of Western Europe beyond Russia, and now to the
heart of the Muslim world in Baghdad.

Then, as now, the fall of Baghdad opened the way to Damascus and Syria.
Then, as now, the temptation seemed irresistible. History, of course does
not repeat itself. There may be parallels, but nothing is ever a replica.
Saddam is far less than the last of the Abbassids, and the Arabs do not seem
to be in any condition to find a Baibers, let alone a Berkai.

What the Mongol intervention did was throw the Arab world once again into a
cauldron, and in that great heat and churning history began to be rewritten.

It would be a mistake to romanticize the decline and disappearance of Saddam
Hussein. He was more clever than powerful. He exploited Arab anger against
neocolonialism. But Saddam, being a tyrant, was a problem rather than a
solution. to compare him with Saladin is a joke. He, like the last of the
Abbassids, created the confusion which a foreign power could exploit.

The consequences are familiar to those who read history. A crisis has
eliminated the pretender, and the future waits to see who will fill this
vacuum.

The Americans want this space to be occupied by a favorite like Ahmed
Chalabi. But all they will succeed in doing is setting up an administration.

There is a difference between administration and control. A figurehead may
sit in Baghdad, but George Bush will be in power. This was precisely the
situation after World War I, when a British-Indian Army “liberated” Iraq
from the Ottomans and imposed first direct, and then indirect rule. The
British foreign secretary in 1918, Sir Arthur Balfour, was not concerned
about niceties. He said: “I do not care under what system we keep the oil.
But I am quite clear that it is all-important for us that this oil should be
available.”

Iraqi nationalism, supported by Arab anger, will also seek to fill that
vacuum.

A second mistake is also being made by the victors. Attempts to divide and
rule have begun. In India it was Hindus and Muslims; in Iraq it will be
Shiites and Sunnis and Kurds. The Kurds want this division because they have
been offered the dream of independence; but a Shiite-Sunni divide will not
be equally simple.

The story of Sheikh Abdel Majid Al-Khoei may not be definitive, but it is a
marker. The 50-year-old Shiite cleric, head of the London-based Khoei
Foundation and well respected in his community, was despatched by the
British to Najaf to generate the support for the invasion that seemed to be
strangely missing in Basra and Karbala and Najaf and Umm Qasr. On Monday,
April 7, Sheikh Majid called upon Shiites to support the Americans and the
British. On Tuesday he suggested neutrality. On Thursday he was killed in
the Imam Ali Mosque. Tony Blair sent a message of condolence.

Some of the omens are not good for the victors. The Pentagon has awarded,
judging by American media reports, contracts worth $7 billion stretching
over the next two years to Halliburton to put out the oil fires in Iraq.
Dick Cheney’s old company will be making a profit of something like a
million dollars a day. Who will pay the bill? Iraq. This is clearly not the
way to end suicide missions.

When arms speak, goes an old Roman proverb, the law falls silent. On April 1
a Pentagon official was quoted in the Washington Post as saying: “Everyone
is now seen as combatant until proven otherwise.”

How many jihadis, in how many secret cells, in how many nations across the
Arab world, are saying precisely the same thing today about the Americans
and the British?

The war might be over. The conflict may have just begun.

Arab News Opinion 13 April 2003


With the very best of good wishes,
Musa Amadu Pembo
Glasgow,
Scotland
UK.
[log in to unmask]
Da’wah is to convey the message with wisdom and with good words. We should
give the noble and positive message of Islam. We should try to emphasize
more commonalities and explain the difference without getting into
theological arguments and without claiming the superiority of one position
over the other. There is a great interest among the people to know about
Islam and we should do our best to give the right message.
May Allah,Subhana Wa Ta'Ala,guide us all to His Sirat Al-Mustaqim (Righteous
Path).May He protect us from the evils of this life and the hereafter.May
Allah,Subhana Wa Ta'Ala,grant us entrance to paradise .
We ask Allaah the Most High, the All-Powerful, to teach us that which will
benefit us, and to benefit us by that which we learn. May Allaah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala grant blessings and peace to our Prophet Muhammad and his family
and
companions..Amen.




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