Note: We’ve been having on/off problems with the blog recently. Wordpress has been a little unfriendly. Anyone know if Movable Type is more stable? This post is 2 days late. Please read this post by Craig Murrey for good Q&A on the conflict.
Beginnings of a new cold war? How about talk of a World War III? Most people I’ve talked to about the current conflict in the Caucasus seem nonplussed about it all, vainly hoping that the dust has settled on the matter, thus allowing them to leave their brains at home, maybe in a jar….resting beside their body on a comfy sofa, watching in an amused stupor the end festivities of the Olympics.
Shame really. Though politics can be complex, and political thinking itself is highly demanding, it should be the hallmark of an elevated Ummah. And I mean Ummah here, not just individuals. Special individuals will always exist in the Ummah. But the realm of political thinking should be shared not just by individuals, but also by groups, and indeed the state itself.
Remember that the Ottoman Caliphate was not destroyed by military actions, but primarily though political means. The Europeans did not fire a single shot, before they had already fractured the political sanctity of the state via the establishment of the Young Turks and various other entities built on dividing the state along nationalistic lines. The political naivety of the Ottomans also lead them to supporting the Germans in WWI, which ended in disaster for the Muslims. How else would the French General Henri Gouroud even have the gall to kick the great Salahuddin Ayubi’s grave and leave us with this acrimonious statement “The Crusades have ended now! Awake Saladin, we have returned! My presence here consecrates the victory of the Cross over the Crescent.”?
Where politics is the looking after the affairs of the people, and political thinking is the adjudication of events that affects the affairs of the people, then in my personal view, we should be seriously bothered about the events in the Caucasus. In the context of the Muslim Ummah, let me try to elaborate with some simple viewpoints.
Gaining the Political High Ground
Public opinion isn’t a done deal. Governments and media are constantly assuaging the masses with a constant concoction of lies and weak facts. Pax Americana has been playing the world like a giant monopoly board, but then along came the Russians, who like to play the game of chess. In return, the US have lost out on the political high ground.
Constant talk by US and European politicians of protecting ‘Georgia’s territorial integrety’ and Russia acting like its in the 19th century have rung hollow with the Russians. The Russians have succeeded because the West built the political basis for invading other nations. It tooks years of engendering an international opinion that ‘pre-emptive strikes’ and the ‘war on terror’ are needed. The West then set the stage with the disentegration of the Balkans, and the outright destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Russians have handily now decided to follow the same script.
I’m not saying that the Russians have done a total coup de grâce on the West. Astute observers would recognise that the independence given to Abkhazia and South Ossetia hasn’t been afforded to Chechnya or Dagastan. In fact Europe, the US and Russia are no better than each other. However, in the least, recent events illustrate that it is easy to break the political dominance of one set of ideas over the other. In saying this, I would hope that alarm bells would be ringing the minds of the Muslim masses, that its time for them to start shaping the politics of the world. Political thinking about this crisis would go along way in healing the political sclerosis that has set in with the Ummah.
Ceasing to be Minor States
Implicit in the news that we have been hearing is that this isn’t a conflict between Russia and the Georgians, but between Russia and the US. Commentators are all the rage about the new Russia: flush with petro-roubles and vexed about NATO encirclement. Nor is there any shortage of play with the words ‘Russian bear’. Some commentators are even excitedly discussing a new Monroe Doctrine for the US, like it wasn’t obvious that the US now views the whole world as its ’sphere of influence’.
Isn’t it sad though to note what the Georgians are feeling like right now? That their country is just a big target board for Russian and NATO artillery. That the West only really loves them because of the nice oil and gas pipelines that travel through their idyllic hinterland. That they have a ruler who is admired by the US for clearly being its stooge.
If you feel sad for the Georgians, then you recognise the definition of being a minor state. Minor because you can only hold a semblance of sovereignty before a major state trumps its sovereignty over you. Hold your thoughts now, and start drawing parallels with the 50+ Muslims states that litter the global map. Is is it hard not to be cognizant of the similarities in our own minor states?
A single ruler that is unifying his lands once more, reinvigorating religion, battling corruption, using the vast resources at his disposal to the benefit of his people, strengthening his armies and making clear that his nation will not tolerate any bullying. Ahh, so you thought I was talking about a Khaleefah. No, thats just Putin. I have no love for Putin, and he is no example for us, may Allah azza wa jal curse him. But surely there is a lesson in it for us?
Allah knows best.
August 30th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Britain and especially mainland Europe were powerless to act against Russia because they are dependent on Russian natural gas. Time to build more nuclear power stations I think!
(And that dastardly traitor Gerhard Schroeder –who imposed a nuclear phaseout in Germany in order to get himself a cushy Gazprom job — should be brought to justice…)
August 31st, 2008 at 11:04 pm
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
I’ve been using MT since 2005 (actually since 2004, but there was a period of Wordpress usage in 2005 in between the releases of Strayhorn and MT 3.2. Basically, MT is great if you want to run more than one blog off the same CMS, which I do. It is also much more configurable, allowing the user to publish bits of the blog statically, i.e. as actual files, rather than serving them off the database with each access, as Wordpress does. On the downside, there are fewer themes available (unless you know someone who can do you a theme - there is an established CSS standard for MT themes) and there are features missing from recent editions, such as a blogroll manager. I am working on a replacement, which will be a drop-in bit of PHP which serves a blogroll out of an XML file which can be built with a separate app, but until then, you have to build blogrolls as lists of links. I presume you are using the self-hosted version of Wordpress, rather than wordpress.com? I have not used either much since MT 3.2 came out, but MT serves me well enough.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:11 am
Wasalaamu ‘Alaikum wr wb, and Ramadhan Kareem. Jzk bro. I realised that I don’t have a clue what that means though. I think something is wrong with our DB. I’m sure our resident tech whizz, Shk Rattle n Roll will nodd in approval
@GC
It was interesting to note that early on in the conflict, Russia tried bombing the BTC line. Reports say that bombs fell as close as 50m to the line. Russia is well aware of the reliance that Europe has on Russian gas, but it is also acutely aware that it needs European dependancy on its gas. If it did hit the line, then the Europeans would accerelate efforts to diversify. IMHO it was a warning shot that Russia still holds the cards, but can to extent be trusted.
I’m a renewables man myself.