Crusades, Jihadists And Conflict Resolution-Part I

Crusades, Jihadists and Conflict Resolution-Part I.
Prof. Hasan Yahya

Everywhere, in the aftermath of 9/11 waves of shock, grief, fear, and anxiety reverberated not just through New York and Washington but throughout the United States . Due to the unpredictability and massive scale of the violence of terrorism, the trauma symptoms it causes travel well. In his late book: The crusades: The Complete idiot's Guide to the Crusades,  Poul L. Williams wrote under the title: Ticket to Paradise: 

"Jerusalem," the pope says, "implores you to come to its aid. Undertake this journey eagerly for the remission of sins, and be assured of imperishable glory in the kingdom of Heaven." Yes, you heard it right. The pope is offering even the most grievous sins-to forgiveness of sins-to everyone who embarks on this crusade. The nobles who into battle against the Turks will be received in heaven to the acclaim of angels. They will receive glory, everlasting glory, in the court of the omnipotent Overlord who rules over all fiefdom".

People added "It's God's will, and the pope agreed. After minutes the pope again hold up the cross the cries subside and the other great crowd becomes silent as the Holy Father says:

"Yes, indeed, Yes, it is the will of God. You today see the accomplishment of the word of our Savior, who promised to be in the midst of the faithful when assembled in His name. It is He who dictated to you the words I have heard these words be your war cry. Let them announce everywhere the presence of  the God in his holy army."

Of course the pope Urban II Don't originate  this notion of a holy war. In fact, the doctrine was developed by St. Augustine at the time of the fall of Roman Empire. (410 C.E). St. Augustine said that

  "a defensive war is always just, as it is conducted to protect the people. An offensive war, he said, is just when it is waged against a state that refuses to make reparation for wrongs committed or fails to return seized property."

 Let me ask: Why Hamas was accused of terrorism while according to Augustine, Hamas has the right to wage war against Israel for two reasons. 1) it defends the people, and 2) take offensive just war against a state that refuses to make reparation for wrongs committed or fails to return seized property. On the same token, why Hizbullah was included in terrorist organizations list by those who deny their right to wage war against Israel, for the same two reasons raised by Augustine. According to Augustine, they have the right for defensive as well as offensive wars against Israel and those who stand supporting Israel in the last fifty years. Why they denied that right? A question deserves so much debate.

The Jihadists have also the right to defend their lands, and their religion. They claim that corrupted governments are accusing those who sought social justice call them terrorists too. The Jihadists war was to protect people who are not protected by their governments, to bring justice to people, Logically, they also have the right to wage offensive war because those who took too much property refuses to make reparation for wrongs committed in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq and Kashmir etc., (for innocent civilians at least like the Jews after their collapse and extermination from Europe). Who should pay for the sufferings of Palestinians, Lebanese, Kashmirians, while refugees have no right to go back to their homes and lands? Do they have God's curse to be denied self determination as someone might say? Of course, if the Jihadists, who believe that three quarters of Muslims around the world support them (at least emotionally) succeed, then all Muslims will be supporting their cause. But unfortunately, they are not succeeded , and their actions are full of terror, and terrorist attacks and  the opposition to their claims are mounting against them for such actions where the civilian pay . But what they will do, when national and religious dignity are lost? They do not have the power or the technology to win wars. What can they do? Stand still like most Muslims who abandon Heaven and follow Dunya (as they imagine). Muslims know very well that Jihadists have rights to rebel against injustices committed by tribal dynasties. Without Islam no one will sympathize with them. The obvious and clear deviations from Islamic teaching and legacy is wide open in all Muslim and Arab countries. I think,  their attacks will come to an end ONLY when justice is made and mutual respect become the rule to deal with Jihadist issues. I think one day, Jihadists will prevail, not for their terrorist acts, but by their claims for justice, respect and dignity. History  will tell. I guess.

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Crusades, Jihadists And Conflict Resolution-Part III.

Crusades, Jihadists and Conflict Resolution-Part III.

Prof. Hasan Yahya

Coming back to Hamas and Hizbullah and Kashmiris militants, and their legitimate causes (but not their practices against civilians). Every person with mind stands against terrorist acts against civilians (Jews or Christians or else), but in the same time their argument is logical as oppressed people in a world does not recognize their rights. In a world did not respect rights and appreciate power. When dignity is lost, every body may have to pay to regain such dignity in any way possible. The United States to regain its dignity loss in 911, strived and brought all its alliance friends to stand with her, (including some Arab states: Egypt, and Syria etc.,) in order to regain American dignity. If we blame America for its wars in the Middle East, Jihadists in Hamas and Hizbullah must be blamed for fighting for their dignity. Both are wrong by using the only method to regain dignity, undermining other solutions for conflicts which should be on the table to solve them, even in terms of retaining dignity to save civilians rights in the free world. The question remains: Who causes all the recent miss in the Middle East, the Jihadists, or the Western poppet, Democratic Israel in the Middle East? Invading Iraq was an attempt to save Israel, which occupied Palestine, that was the main cause I invite any one to find the causes, no one may miss them. Because in logic and reasoning, we learned, the true consequences followed mostly by the true causes.

Conflict Management in this case, should take religion as encouraging factor to solve disputes. For several reasons: 1) more than two thirds of the world population belong to a religion. Where according to data ten years ago, 29.2% of the religious constituency was Christian; 17.9% Muslim; 13% Hindu; 5.7% Buddhist/Shintoist; 0.7% Confucianism/Taoist. Together, all those religious organizations have a huge infrastructure with a communication network reaching to all corners of the world. They have a great responsibility and leadership is expected from them. 2) Religious organizations can rely on a set of soft power sources to influence the peace process. Scientists on conflict resolution developed a useful taxonomy for understanding the different bases of power. It asserts that six different sources of power exist for influencing another's behavior: reward, coercion, expertise, legitimacy, reference, and information. (Raven and Rubin, 1983). Only rewards and coercion are used by the United States, rewards to governments, and coercion of these governments to abide with rules of War on terrorism instead of rewarding Jihadists by understanding their requests, and solving injustices historically made earlier, the United States is using power to give them illegitimacy and coercion.

I believe that religious organizations have a major impact on inter-communal and international conflicts including the Jihadists. During the Cold War, religious as well as ethnic and nationalist conflicts were relatively neglected in the study of international relations and peace research. After the defeat  of the communist block, the escalation of nationalist and religious conflicts were observed. The religious dimension of conflicts,  remains an under-researched field. There is no useful typology of religious conflicts; it is also observed, that no serious study of the impact of religious organizations on conflict behavior; no comparative research of peace-making and peace-building efforts of different religious organizations. Generalizing terrorism to Islam as a religion,  (As atheists and others claim) will deteriorate the situation and block peaceful solutions.

In conclusion I would agree with Luc Reychler, in his article: Introduction: Towards a Religion of World Politics. that the world cannot survive in the same way with persisting problems without a new global ethic, and religions play a major role, as parties in violent conflicts, as passive bystanders and as active peace-makers and peace-builders. I think, representing two thirds of the world population, religions have a major responsibility in creating a constructive conflict culture. Scientist have to stop being passive bystanders and organize themselves to provide more effective peace services. Religions and religious organizations have an untapped and under-used integrative power potential. At least  to understand which factors enhance or inhibit joint peace ventures between the Christian religions, but also between the prophetic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), the Indian religions (Hinduism and Buddhism) and the Chinese wisdom religions, is an urgent research challenge. Jihadists after all represent a large number of people  who feels injustices made against their religion and nations intentionally or otherwise, They have to be sharing the blame as well as the solution for conflicts worldwide. Because terrorism and wars are devastating in their consequences on all. We have to bring here Bertrand Russell (the American-British philosopher) who  provided certain methods to close the gap of hostility among cultures, namely, using education as a tool for reciprocal understanding, and mutual respect, and dignity,  he wrote:

"I would have the schools in India teach the virtues of Muhammadans, and the schools in Pakistan teach virtues of Hindus, I would have Zionists taught the merits of Arabs, and the Arabs taught the merits of Jews. I would have the West taught that even Russians are human beings, and the Russians taught that not all Westerners are lackeys of capitalism." Russell (1961:71)(From Crescentology, Theory C. of conflict Management and Cultural Normalization, 2008)

** Dr. Hasan Yahya is a professor of sociology and a culumnist at worldfutures, Malaysia, and TINA International News Agency, Chicago, USA.

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The Big, Bloody Business of Big, Bloody Oil

“Mark my words.  It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama, like they did John Kennedy.  The world is looking.  We’re about to elect a brilliant 47 year old senator president of the United States of America.  Remember I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said.  Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
Joe Biden, October 2008, at a Seattle fundraiser.

During his speech at the now famous Seattle fundraiser, Mr. Biden named the Middle East and Russia as the possible (likely) generators of the crisis.  As his words became widespread, he received lots of criticism from his fellow democrats, who warned him that by saying those things in public he was jeopardizing Senator’s Obama’s chances at the Presidency.  Mr. Biden’s comments were the target of jokes from late night comedians, and parodied in a skit on Saturday Night Life.  What most people seemed to forget, or wanted to forget, was that Mr. Biden‘s words were the result of his many years of experience in international affairs.  As a seasoned politician, he could foresee the results of this election.  He knew we would have a generated crisis, and he knew it would generate in the Middle East or Russia.

Mr. Biden was accurate in predicting which countries would generate the crisis, but he could have been even more specific:  The crisis would be generated by the oil producers, the only beneficiaries of all the geopolitical turmoil around the world.  It makes no difference whether it’s the Middle East, Russia or Venezuela.  They all act together in unison as one bloc, with one objective in mind: to keep the price of oil high.

Fast forward to the end of December 2008, and Mr. Biden‘s prescient words came to pass.  Now, at the beginning of January 2009, the crisis generated by the oil producers is in full swing.  Russia, the Middle East and Venezuela are having a field day, rubbing their hands in glee at the results.  They finally managed to reverse the steep drop in the price of oil that started in July 2008.  At that time, oil reached an all-time high of around US$150.00 a barrel, enriching the coffers of the oil producing nations and wrecking the rest of the world’s economies.  Since then, the price of oil dropped to below US$40.00 a barrel.  That meant both a respite for the rest of the world, and a serious problem for the oil producers, who need oil to be priced above US$80.00 a barrel.  Anything lower than that and they cannot sustain their dictatorships.  OPEC scheduled emergency meetings to prop the price of oil.  First, they tried cutting down production.  That didn’t help much this time, because high priced oil already caused the deepest recession around the world since the Great Depression.  The world had curtailed their use of oil and the cuts in production were barely felt.  Another emergency meeting, another production cut.  The price of oil kept going down.  By then, it was obvious that no amount of production cuts would raise the price of oil.  They had to resort to the one tried and true marketing/public relations device that never fails in raising the price of oil.

Terrorism.

First, they attacked India.  As the sole terrorist survivor of the Mumbai massacres revealed, the original planned date for the attacks was September 27.  That was changed to November 27, after the US election.  A major terror attack like the one in Mumbai coming a month before the Presidential election would have had an impact on the result, and not the oil producers’ desired impact.

Oil did go up slightly, but that was only the beginning.  Attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq went barely noticed.  The continuous barrage of rockets from Gaza targeting the civilian population of Israel hardly made the news.  However, that was were they concentrated their attacks.  Creating geopolitical turmoil increases the price of oil, and attacking Israel is what delivers the most bang for their buck.  Always.  Iran contacts its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, green lights the attacks, and waits for the oil profits to roll in.  It’s a cost efficient method, too.  The UN and the WITOTs (Willing Idiots Targets Of Terror) condemn Israel, give money and aid to Iran’s proxies, and conveniently forget why the geological turmoil was generated in the first place and by whom.

To condemn Israel for defending its civilian population from terror attacks is the political equivalent of condemning a rape victim to death because she had sex outside the marriage.

Had the oil producers not attacked Israel, today oil would be below US$20.00 a barrel.  US$20.00 a barrel is not a comfortable price for Russia, Iran and Venezuela, the generators of the current crisis.  At US$20.00 a barrel, their economies crumble like dust in the wind.

Hamas and Hezbollah are called “proxies” of Iran.  However, because terrorism is about oil business, and to attack Israel was a business decision, it’s more accurate to call them “subcontractors“.

Joe Biden knew we would have a generated international crisis, and knew where it would come from.  Looking at the correlation of the price of oil and terror attacks,  we can all notice a pattern repeating itself.  What comes next after attacking Israel, and getting the UN, WITOTs and oil producers to condemn Israel‘s response, is a major terror attack somewhere in the world.  Somewhere where they can use extreme cruelty against defenseless people, and claim they did it because they were “angry” at Israel.

Watch the price of oil skyrocket. 

I’m concerned this major terror attack is imminent upon us.  It’s part of the script, scheduled after attacking Israel.
US$80.00 a barrel, here it comes.
All in the name of oil.
Never ever let anybody convince you that terrorism is about something other than raising the price of oil.
It’s not.

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