Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/404410
12 THERE can be little doubt that we live in a time of great upheaval and uncertainty. Political realities that we used to think of as very strong – almost permanent, in fact – have dis- solved before our eyes in the space of a few years. The so-called 'Arab Spring' abruptly terminated the re- gimes of dictators such as Libya's Gaddafi, Egypt's Mubarak and Tuni- sia's Ben Ali. Elsewhere, Iraq's Sadd- am Hussein was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2003, while neighbouring Syria has been plunged into civil war. With the possible exception of Tu- nisia, the result seems to have been violence and chaos on a scale that has clearly both surprised and unset- tled the Western world. But what is the reaction at street level in the countries where all this is taking place? How representative of the local populations are movements such as the Islamic State, which aims to establish a caliphate stretching from Iran to Spain in the west of Eu- rope? University lecturer Arsalan Alshinawi is better positioned than most to answer such questions. A specialist in political and economic development in the Mulsim-Arab world, he was born and raised in Saddam Hussein-era Baghdad, and also spent 13 years working at the Maltese embassy in (among other countries) Libya. Unlike most European observers in recent years, the great changes that have taken place in this region did not unduly surprise him. "For people living in the Arab world, it certainly wasn't a surprise. It wasn't something that was not ex- pected. But there are differences in how we interpret things. In Tunisia, everybody [in the West] associated what happened with the case of that person who complained, in the mid- dle of the market-place, about lack of employment and opportunities… he doused himself with fuel and burnt himself alive." But that was only a symptom of a much deeper and more widespread malaise. "If you ask the people of that region what caused the uprisings, they will answer that the system in place until that time was not work- ing. The question is, what had kept that system in place?" Alshinawi argues that European perceptions of such issues are rooted partly in a misinterpretation of the systems that have just crumbled. "Let us talk of the three most con- fusing and most dramatic examples: Syria, Iraq and Libya. These three countries have something in com- mon which, within the Arab world, makes them different. All three were very heterogeneous societies, in comparison to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. There are different reli- gions, different ethnicities, differ- ent languages spoken, all under the banner of a single country. By way of contrast, one of the most homo- geneous societies of that region is Egypt. Egypt has had a concept of nation-building, of being a nation, for a good 4,000 years. That was not the case in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Af- ter the Second World War, and the end of colonialism, the only solution in those countries – which was not imposed from the outside; it was an outcome, an effect, you could almost say a necessity – was to have a dicta- tor. Only that could maintain power over all the conflicting religions, eth- nic groups, linguistic groups…" This heterogeneity – which in the case of Libya is more tribal than re- ligious or ethnic– is also the root cause of the problems facing those regions today… and which are on an altogether different scale from the problems facing Egypt and Tunisia. "If you take Iraq as an example: the reality is that there was no oth- er choice outside Saddam Hussein when he arose in the 1960s, after centuries of Ottoman and British rule. The only way forward was to have a centralised government that would not compromise, that would not allow different factions, based on religion, ethnicity and so on, to plunge the country into conflict. If there was any choice, it would have been another dictator who would have done more or less the same thing. Let us not forget that this is the Old World we are talking about here. If America and Canada are the New World, Iraq is the Old World. World religions such as Judaism, Christian- ity, etc., all trace their origins back to Mesopotamia. Unfortunately, the New World wanted to change the Old World… and that is at the heart of the drama." Alshinawi suggests that Western attitudes towards the political re- alities in those countries have always been predicated by Western ideals that have no real place in Arab socie- ties. "We can perhaps remind people that words like 'democracy' and 'de- mocratisation', as understood in the West, are the results of four or five centuries of conflict. If Europe ever achieved something we call 'stability', 'order in society' – people now call it 'democracy', but we all have our own views – it was achieved through violence. There were religious wars similar to what is now happening in Iraq. Look at what happened in Eng- land and France between Catholics and Protestants. There are records of brothers and cousins butchering each other. There were wars between France and Germany, in which Al- sace was taken and retaken countless times. We had the devastating First and Second World Wars. What we call 'democracy' today, with all due respect, is only from 1945 onwards. The stability we now know has to do with the economic structure and history of this part of the world. It is something extremely particular to Western Europe. This democracy thing is something we don't talk about in Iraq. We don't talk about it in Libya, we don't talk about it in Syria." Another major factor in the West's troubled relations with the Arab world concerns a failure to under- stand Islam, and what it really rep- resents... not just to the millions of Arab Muslims who live (often along- side Arab Christians and Jews) in 22 countries from Iraq to Morocco… but also to the many European Mus- lims who now flock to Syria and Iraq to fight and die waving the IS flag. "Two things should be said here. The greatest mistake is when we compare Islam with Christianity. I think the problem with interpret- ing and understanding the situation in the Middle East starts with that. In the last 500 years, when Europe began to change vis-à-vis the rest of the world – the modernisation of Eu- rope, if you like – we can summarise it as a fight between society and the Church: a struggle to have a secular political and economic space, inde- pendent of religious control. This did not happen in the Muslim world. That's a big, big difference. Any conflict that took place inside the Muslim world was between tribes, between factions, between different governments. But it was always out- side Islam. Islam remained untouch- able. There was no view of secularisa- tion; no understanding of creating an independent, secular political space. Islam remained the source of hope for millions of people; it never be- came a private religion. It remained heavily part of public life. Unlike Eu- rope, where many questioned the au- thority of the Church, there was no questioning of the Mosque." The type of power associated with Islam was also dramatically different. "The Church in Europe was rich. It owned land. The Mosque, on the other hand, was always poor. It never owned land. Its power was ideo- logical: you can call it brainwashing people, or giving them direction, de- pending on your perspective. But Is- lam was always regarded as over and above political considerations…" Alshinawi argues that the rallying call of an Islamic Caliphate – or state by any other name – is neither new nor unique to IS. "Since the days of the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt, around the turn of the 20th century, there has been a revival of Islam. Islam became more prominent, especially after the Iranian revolution [1979]. For the first time in living memory, there was a state which raised the banner of Is- lam. It was extremely shocking at the time, but also extremely heartening: something to be celebrated by many people of the region. For the first time it was shown in reality that, yes, there could be a modern state that is ruled by Islam. I must stress how much the Iranian revolution, and the speeches of Ayatollah Khomeini, had created waves of change and turmoil in that part of the world…" This provided other nations with an ideal to aspire to, and provoked inevitable comparisons with their own political realities. "It must be seen in the context of the failure of local development plans. What happened in the Arab world in the last 50 years under various governments? Dictatorships provided political stability, yes… but the economic models did not func- tion. They had been imported from the west: either nationalism under Nasser, or some kind of capitalism, some kind of communism, some kind of socialism… all these models were originally Western concepts. After these governments failed for obvious reasons – you cannot bring in a system from outside and implant it in a different background – the only natural solution people turned to was Islam. This is fundamental for people to understand. It was com- mon for people to argue: everything else has failed, the only way forward is Islam…" But doesn't the emergence of IS contradict this slightly? It is not just Christians or other infidels who are targeted by IS: Muslims, too, are un- der attack. IS has even threatened to blow up the Kabala, the sacred site of the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. And where before we always spoke about a traditional rivalry between Sunni and Shia Muslims, it seems today there is a drive to eliminate all forms of Islam which do not conform with the IS views on orthodoxy… "As I said, throughout history Islam itself remained untouchable. But the question became: who can claim to have the legitimacy to promote and protect Islam? Of course, on that there were problems. Various groups Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 OCTOBER 2014 IS represents the tip CHRISTIANITY VERSUS ISLAM The history of Europe was a fight between society and the Church: a struggle to have a secular, political and economic space, independent of religious control. This did not happen in the Muslim world. That's a big, big difference OLD WORLD ORDER If America and Canada are the New World, Iraq is the Old World. Unfortunately, the New World wanted to change the Old World… and that is at the heart of the drama