Smokers’ Corner: Petro games
Illustration by Abro
After thousands of Pakistanis turned up at the many sit-ins that took place across the country to protest against the brutal terrorist attack on the men, women and children of the Hazara Shia community in Quetta, something unprecedented emerged.
Perhaps for the first time in Pakistan, the media and many political parties openly began to ask angry questions that went beyond the usual criticism of the rather obvious incompetence of the PPP-led government and, of course, the now ubiquitous fist-waving anti-American rhetoric.
These questions contain nothing new. It’s just that most media personnel and politicians in Pakistan have found it hard to ask them. Mainly because they involve an awkward inquiry into the role of some rich, oil producing Arab monarchies in propping up and funding militant Sunni outfits and terror groups in Pakistan.
But today, as Pakistanis get down to understand and debate the recent spats of mass violence against the Shia, not only do they lambast and question the competence of civilian and military intelligence agencies, many can also be seen thumping desks on mainstream television, demanding an inquest into the role played by certain Arab monarchies in patronising violent sectarian organisations and extremists.
Experts (and I’m not one of them) have laid out a number of theories regarding the above-mentioned issue.
These talk about an ideological, sectarian and ‘geopolitical’ proxy war between countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait on the one side against the non-Arab and Shia Iran on the other. Also in the mix are the US, China and, of course, India.
All are explained to have been using Pakistani agencies, governments, terror outfits and most of all, Pakistani territory to fight these proxy wars.
Well, this is for the experts to elaborate and explain. To me more interesting is the nature of voices now emerging in Western academic circles that have only recently broken the shackles and questioned the deeds of the Arab ‘petro-dollar’ in the workings of various European and American universities and research facilities.
In other words, whereas countries like Saudi Arabia have often been accused of funding violent ‘Wahabi’ outfits in poorer Muslim countries and set up madressahs and mosques that propagate anti-Shia, anti-Barelvi and anti-liberal sentiments, some suggest that the same petro-dollar was also used to infiltrate and quietly ‘buy out’ various opinion-making circles in the West.
Right after the tragic 9/11 episode, a series of books and debates (on TV) appeared in the US and Europe trying to figure out exactly what had happened.
One of the most common expressions reflecting the bafflement was ‘why do they hate us’?
This is when a succession of authors and academics rose angrily to suggest that the answer to this question was always in front of their respective governments but they chose to ignore it.
And no, the answer had little to do with American foreign policy, as such.
To authors and intellectuals like Christopher Hitchins, Walid Phares, Sam Harris, Brigitte Gabriel and even well-known authorities on Islamic politics, Vali Nasr, Ziauddin Sardar and Madawi Al-Rasheed, the answer to the question lay in the West’s own self-imposed ignorance of what had been brewing and spawning right underneath its nose.
In a series of papers and books written after 9/11, these authors (and more) explained how in a two-pronged onslaught, oil-rich Arab monarchies bankrolled a destructive Islamist narrative that, on the one hand, gave birth to violent extremist and sectarian monsters in Muslim countries, and on the other hand, raised a stream of apologists within American and European intelligentsia.
Take for instance the reaction of some members of the Western academia to 9/11 and to the post-9/11 extremist violence witnessed in Muslim countries.
Established authors like Tariq Ali, Karen Armstrong, Tariq Ramadan, John Esposito, Akber S. Ahmed and a number of others were quick to link the 9/11 episode with the United State’s ‘pro-Israel’ foreign policies and ‘ imperialism’.
Such authors, especially to those Muslims living in lands that have become havens for murdering marauders and suicide bombers, should seem like ignoramuses and naïve (if not entirely dishonest).
Some of these authors have even gone on to explain extremist groups as being expressions of ‘anti-imperialist’ defiance!
The truth is, extremist violence that is explained away by such intellectuals as an expression of a Muslim uprising against Western imperial designs and injustices, has killed and maimed more Muslims than it has people of ‘enemy faiths’.
In the end, really, it’s just about hordes of fanatics out to attack humanity of any creed, colour and political disposition. And those who give such actions an apologetically analytical ring are simply sounding silly.
Academics and intellectuals, who’ve risen to challenge such apologias, sight the year 1973 as the starting point of the creation of the modern-day ‘Islamist apologist’.
As the 1973 Arab-Israel War ended in a stalemate, oil-producing Arab countries slowed down oil production triggering an unprecedented price hike in oil products. This move began to fill the coffers of these countries like never before (the petro-dollars).
Petro-dollars began being pumped into Western educational institutions to influence the creation of a narrative within the West’s prime academic circles.
The narrative was not only critical of Israel but also of secular democratic movements taking shape in the largely dictatorial Arab countries. Ironically, all the while most of these rich Arab monarchies remained in the ‘American camp’.
Authors like Walid Phares suggest that the narrative was largely anti-democracy but in the guise of being anti-Israel.
Petro-dollars also erected puritanical madressahs and ‘Islamic Research Centres’ in developing Muslim countries. This eventually began moulding a mindset that was not only repulsed by the West and the US, but also by those Muslims who didn’t fall into the category of ‘true faith’.
The funding in this respect grew two-fold after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Seen as a ‘Shia uprising’, the Arab monarchies became more aggressive in their ‘educational ventures’ when Iran’s Islamist regime began to fund the proliferation of its own version of political Islam.
In this war of funded narratives the truth got seriously muddled. Posing to safeguard Islam from the influence of atheistic communism and Jewish hostility, the truth was that the petro-dollar was being used more to safeguard the dictatorships and monarchies in the Arab world from concepts such as democracy and socialism.
In the US, the petro-dollar rolled out apologists from prestigious universities who (both consciously and at times otherwise), ignored the atrocities of Arab dictatorships and monarchies against political dissent, but went on to explain Islamist violence as some kind of a liberation movement against ‘Western/US imperialism’!
A decade after 9/11 and with the emergence of phenomenon like the Arab Spring, the Western governments have now finally become aware of the intellectual charade exercised by the apologists present within the Western intelligentsia.
This intelligentsia has begun to start sounding mighty daft for calling violent and anarchic Islamist militancy as an expression of Muslim reaction to ‘US imperialism.’
Especially in the wake of the democratic uprisings in the Arab world that have largely held their own dictators, ulema and kings as being the real culprits behind their long-standing humiliations and economic and political miseries.
Why such complaint of export of Arabian money after so many years ? Arabs are exporting violent ideology for ages.
Mr. Paracha has hit the nail on the head. Or, as Jeeves once said to Bertie Wooster in one of P. G. Wodehouse classics: “Rem, Acu, tetigisti”.
I hope I live long enough to see the day when the world no longer needs to rely on oil for its energy needs. What a sight it would be to see these arrogant Arabs, their main product worthless, melting back into the desert.
Dawn, I’m surprised by the moderation and some of the comments let in. I do not understand how my previous comments with any critical mention of the sectarian majority, done respectfully and factually and relevant to most articles, do not get through (I had to incredibly self-censor and water-down my last 2 posted comments) as compared to the twisted conspiracies or biased religious or sectarian beliefs made by other commentators here. This is why I’m a regular reader and commentator at Express Tribune now.
Good Article, we have mature and start calling a spade a spade. Simply because we got some action from Prime Mininster we should not stop talking about Saudi Radical Islam and its larger impact on the world and muslims…. this is a existential issue of our time. Further government action is inadequate as the caught LEJ culprits and their leader are held under a benign charge of civil disturbance. They should all be caught under cold blooded premeditated murder and try all them them who have accepted responsibility of murdering the innocent. Whey are we pussy footing the issue
A huge can of worms!
Western academics ( Tariq Ali, Karen Armstrong, Tariq Ramadan, John Esposito, Akber S. Ahmed) received petro dollars that influenced their work…. what a joke!!! I expected better from you NFP.
Pakistan is an unnatural country under the strong influence of the retarded beduins of saudi and other gulf tyrannies who have strong influences on pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies.
pakistan and its people are naturally a part of Hind.
We all belong to Hind
NFP’s scholarly analysis of Radical Muslim wahabi thinking through petro dollars has been suspected and studied and confirmed in various countries around the globe promoting violence against shia,mohmadiya, buharis, Sufi and other smaller sects in Islam and of course other religions.we are all homo sapiens and originated from Africa it is tragic that we kill each other because we believe in different faiths.as famous philosopher jk said human mind divides even one concept in to sects such as Islam, Hinduism,Christianity, Buddhism etc also..so religion is not cure to humanity it is a curse as it breeds intolerance.
Generally, Muslim countries are socially and politically backward with no solid institutions to rely on. Arab societies are yet to evolve from their tribal way of life in spite of petro-dollars in Saudi Arab, Libya, and Gulf States. Tribal systems prevail in Afghanistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkwha and Balochistan provinces in Pakistan (Punjab is basically feudal).
The recent attempt by the US to impose democracy in Afghanistan has failed because the Americans naively thought that they could repeat their success in Europe, Japan, and South Korea. Democracy in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran is a joke. Malaysia is an exception (thanks to a large Chinese population).
Historical grievances from the colonial period, economic disenfranchisement felt by the general population, and overwhelming technological domination by the West has all contributed to the angst, anger, and frustrations, which resulted in violent extremism and anarchism. They are called Islamic insurgents in the Muslim world, Naxalites in Hindu India, and Shining Path guerillas in Catholic Peru.
While shining path and naxalism are communist movements, the so called resistance in islamic nations is filled with rabid fundamentalists. I’d rather not include Bangladesh in the list as democracy is working fine there at present and the population is by and large secular.
It is a reality that US influences politics in Pakistan – wikileaks proves that. The new phenomenon of mid-east bashing in Pakistan is a great diversionary technique that our politicians have started recently.
It is strange that in Pakistan we need an outsider influence to blame our own incompetence. This is success of the feudals and bureaucrats – even people like NFP are now dilly-dallying on outside influence in everything that is happening.
My question is simple: the situation we have geo-politically is not something that has changed overnight, how come all the Arabian-Persian issue has brought focal point to Pakistan? Why Saudi is not dishing out money to large Islamic countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia to ensure Wahabism thrives there?
At times we externalize our problem and also influence the minds of people in Pakistan with such blatant lies.
Saudis throw more and more petro-dollars based on the best returns. Deobandi Islam is the direct cousin of Wahhabi/Salafis, so it is very amenable to their influence. Hence the best return on investment in the Indian sub-continent. In Indonesia, Malaysia, India and even Bangladesh there are many control factors at play keeping regressive Salafi/Wahhabi doctrine in check like democracy, tolerance, Sufism, Barelvi culture etc. Those exist in Pakistan and Afghanistan too, but Islamisation drives, repeated power plays by the elite and establishment, appeasement by democrat civilians, distortion of history clouding the thoughts of entire generations etc. present potent opportunities of rich dividends for the Saudis to play havoc with those regions.
You and your ilk will of course find this illogical, but the above is not a response for you per se.
Saudis throw more and more petro-dollars based on the best returns. Deobandi Islam is the direct cousin of Wahhabi/Salafis, so it is very amenable to Saudi influence. Hence the best return on investment has always been in the Indian sub-continent. In Indonesia, Malaysia, India and even Bangladesh there are many control factors at play keeping regressive Salafi/Wahhabi doctrine in check like democracy, tolerance, Sufism, Barelvi culture etc. Those exist in Pakistan and Afghanistan too, but Islamisation drives, repeated power plays by the elite and establishment, appeasement by democrat civilians, distortion of history clouding the thoughts of entire generations etc. present potent opportunities of rich dividends – in terms of spreading Wahhabi doctrine – for the Saudis to play havoc with those regions.
You and your ilk will of course find this illogical, but the above is not a response for you per se.
VERY INSIGHTFUL ARTICLE. THE REASONS FOR THE ANTI-US AND ANTI-WESTERN SENTIMENTS ARE MULTI-FACTORIAL. THE PETRO-DOLLARS TO PRODUCE A BIASED NARRATIVE IS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR. BLIND WESTERN SUPPORT OF MONARCHIES AND DICTATORS IS ANOTHER. THE RELIGIOUS, MILITARY AND POLITICAL ELITES HAD UNITED TO CONTROL THE PEOPLE FOR THEIR OWN BENEFITS. THIS WAS WHERE THE WEST COUNTRIES WERE 150 YEARS AGO. THE ARAB/MUSLIM WORLD MAY BE SLOWING COMING OUT OF THEIR OWN DARK AGES.
off topic… dont post in capital letters. in internet/sms, letters in capital generally means shouting.
NFP you ignored the fact that Arab spring happened in countries like Egypt and Tunisia which were running a western supported fake democracratic system. The Gulf monarchies never pretended to be democratic and people in these countries know the system and didn’t see the need to revolt.
NFP! If shias of Iran were not instigated by Arabs then why Israel and Iran have daggers drawn. Put your facts and conspiracy theory straight.
The moment oil runs out in these desert ‘gas stations’ is the moment funding will stop and beards and niqabs take a back seat in otherwise far more serious social issues in Muslim societies. These monarchs and their religious stooges have hijacked the Islamic narrative.
The Saudis (with US backing) are the biggest terror sponsors in the guise of Islamic aid to most if not all the poor Islamic countries! The 9/11 attacks were carried out mostly by (Saudi) Arab suicider’s why the US not took action against S.Arabia?
@ Tariq To my knowledge Saudi Arabia has one of the most successful de- radicalization program of AlQaeda influenced youth. They achieved success without having to resort to violent measures against it own people. Americans know that and so didn’t feel the need to take any action. We need to take a lesson from the Saudis rather than raising issues with them.
Yep, they pickup these ‘radicals’ in the middle of the night and dump them by choppers in the middle of nowhere…
@Rafi, I do not think the present day Arabs can teach anyone anything! However I take your point they perhaps have good control within their own borders but it’s how they export Whabism with the aid of petrodollars to the the poorer Islamic countries where they use the “Islamic Aid” to influence the mullah brigades to carry our their missionary work!
In defense of my post a link.http://www.cfr.org/terrorism/saudi-deradicalization-experiment/p21292
yes, lets bring all the Madressahs under a monitoring system and whoever resist against the state just cut their head apart.
Million (petro) dollar question there. And questions like these are what are going to be raised in future. Especially when the finite oil reserves run out in about thirty years time. The world will be very different from what we live in now, of course.
Please stop blaming others for our own problem. Bhutto, Zardari, Nawaz, Bibi all ran after these Arab monarchs and left no stone unturned to get their slightest of attention. Our leaders should be blamed for state of affairs in Pakistan. India used to be the bogey man now its Arab Monarchs. Our intellectuals should encourage people to elect honest and educated politicians not waste their time in conspiracy theories.
And where will you find these “honest and educated politicians”, and with honesty do you mean monetary honesty or ideological honesty?? Dude what I am getting at is there is no silver bullet, I agree with passing the blame, and that everyone will need to change themselves, it is better though to identify all your enemies not just some, especially who are in guise of friends.
The reason we get these petro dollars is because our politician make a bee line holding a begging bowl. These funds end in offshore swiss accounts. Policticians are eager to please their benfectors and allow some funds to be spent on madrasses. If we have honest politician this cycle will stop. Availability of good education in government schools will enable parents to stop sending kids to Madrassas. Identifying the enemy doesn’t help providing solution does. Cheers.
Arif Jones of San Jose is correct. NFP have discovered another source to blame for all the ills in the Muslim world: Arab monarchs.
Islamic insurgencies stem from a sense of impotence and lack of will to compete with the technologically advanced West. It takes a lot of hard work to uplift individuals, communities, societies, and nations. It is easier to resort to violence, murder, and bombings with or without the aid of petro-dollars.
Emulate China, yaar!
Excellent article. Lesson is countries like India are doing better than Europe and USA in tackling radical Islam.
yep kill them all