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Editorials

The Year 2022: The Past As Mirror To The Future

Editor

The world is in a constant state of flux. Since the rise of the collective west in the driving seat of history, the world has witnessed more wars of greater intensity than in any past century. Tens of millions of innocent people have been murdered.

While each country tries to maximize its own advantage, this is not done in a fair manner. Countries with greater military and economic power bully weaker ones to gain advantage for themselves.

As the year 2022 (of the Gregorian calendar) comes to an end, it is pertinent to consider some of the major events that occurred and are likely to shape future developments. Regrettably, most events have been negative: racism, shift to right-wing politics, wars and social and economic dislocations. Let us consider some of these developments and examine how they will impact the near-future.

Hindutva fascism

One of the most frightening developments is the rise of Hindutva fascism in India where calls for the genocide of Muslims have become normalized. Hindutva ideology’s call to turn India into an exclusivist Hindu state is nearly a century old, but it has become much more virulent since the rise of Narendra Modi to power in 2014. There are more than 200 million Muslims in India and wiping out all of them would not be easy but they are being marginalized economically and socially thereby undermining their capacity to resist the Hindutva onslaught. The threat of the genocide of Muslims is real.

Zionist racism

In parallel with Hindutva racism, its twin in Occupied Palestine—Zionist racism—has also become more entrenched. Zionist attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinians have become routine. Tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children languish in Israeli jails.

The November 1 election brought even more extremist elements into the Israeli Knesset signalling a marked shift toward greater oppression and suffering of the Palestinian people.

While the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank run by Mahmoud Abbas acts as a subcontractor for the zionist occupiers, the Palestinian masses have decided to take matters into their own hands. This is reflected in the rise of resistance groups in Jenin and the Lions’ Den in Nablus. They enjoy broad support among the Palestinians.

Even though the plight of Palestinians is grim, the fact that they have not given up resisting their occupiers gives rise to immense hope for the future. The zionists, on the other hand, are losing hope in the future of the colonial-settler entity. Not surprisingly, millions have dual nationality so at the first sign of trouble, they would flee abroad.

With time, the resistance will get stronger and more organized. Oppression cannot last forever. Zionist racism is heading for extinction, sooner rather than later, insha’Allah.

Pakistani turmoil

The other depressing news of 2022 was the engineered political crisis in Pakistan. While seldom stable, the country was doing reasonably well and was beginning to gradually stand on its feet when Imran Khan’s government was overthrown on orders from the US. A bunch of criminals and murderers was installed in power by the all-powerful military. Pakistan’s economy has been ruined and it will take decades to recover, if at all.

What is happening in Pakistan speaks to endless US meddling in the affairs of other countries. It also reflects Washington’s policy to not allow any country, especially a Muslim country, to become independent and pursue its own objectives and goals.

Operation target Iran

Together with Pakistan, Islamic Iran has been a special target of US and western destabilization attempts for decades. Iran’s sin is that it broke loose in 1979 from the western-crafted world order. This is seen as a threat to the west’s global hegemony even though the unipolar world order is dead and is being replaced by a multipolar global order.

For decades, Iran has been subjected to campaigns of sabotage, assassinations, a vicious war as well as economic sanctions. All these are aimed at undermining the Islamic Republic. None of them has succeeded. The US and its surrogates, however, have a large number tools at their disposal.

Their latest assault on Iran is through the cultural front, more specifically the hijab. It is quite revealing that in many western countries, Muslim women are not allowed to wear the niqab or hijab, but the same western regimes insist that women in Iran should be allow to go without it. This demand is made under the rubric of ‘freedom of choice’. So, why is there is no freedom of choice for Muslim women in the west to wear the hijab?

No Muslim country has ever demanded that women in the west should dress the way Muslims do. Nor has any Muslim country objected to men sleeping with multiple partners, having illegitimate children and then walking away. Alcohol consumption and the resultant social problems are also issues of concern but Muslims have not insisted that people in the west must follow them. So, what right does the west have to impose its social norms, that keep changing anyway, on Muslims?

The War in Ukraine

While wars have seldom solved any problems, the US is addicted to it. Russia’s war on Ukraine is the direct result of western goading that forced Moscow to react. Whether it was the right decision can be debated but Russia seemed to have been left with no choice. It either had to act or NATO forces would have arrived on its border despite the fact that in 1990, then US Secretary of State James Baker had promised to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move one inch eastward. This was in return for Gorbachev agreeing to abolish the Berlin wall to allow the city’s reunification as well as that of East and West Germany.

There are now even threats of the use of nuclear weapons from both sides. This is highly dangerous. It clearly shows deranged men with their fingers close to the nuclear button. One false move based on faulty information and the world could be destroyed in minutes.

Emergence of multipolarity

Amid all the doom and gloom, there is a glimmer of hope. Several countries, among them Islamic Iran, China and Russia have come together to challenge US unilateralism and overcome the negative impact of sanctions. Meetings at the highest level have taken place.

In January 2022, Iran’s President Ibrahim Raeisi visited Moscow and was warmly received. Beyond exchange of pleasantries, wide-ranging discussions took place covering almost all fields: political, economic, security, aerospace and regional security. Following their meeting, the two presidents tasked their respective foreign ministers to work out a roadmap for cooperation over the next two decades.

Iran already has a 10-year strategic partnership agreement with Russia that was signed in 2001. It has been renewed twice for two five-year terms. Now, a much broader agreement is being worked out. This took a major step forward on November 09 when the secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, former KGB counterintelligence officer and longstanding associate of President Putin travelled to Tehran for wide-ranging talks. President Ebrahim Raiesi announced that Tehran and Moscow are upgrading relations to a “strategic” level.

There is also the 25-year agreement between Iran and China whereby the Chinese would invest $400 billion in Iran’s oil and gas exploration as well as in infrastructure development. This heralds a tectonic shift in global politics as well as economic development of the region.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarqand (September 15-16) was another milestone in the consolidation of relations between the three regional giants. The SCO is a grouping of eight countries. By March 2023, Iran will become a full member. All steps towards this have been formalized.

While the US and its NATO puppets act as spoilers, the rest of the world is moving ahead to forge a more peaceful and collaborative future. The march of history cannot be stopped. The US is a spent force and is gradually but surely losing influence even among its former puppets such as those in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Despite much suffering inflicted on people worldwide, the future looks better than the past. This should give cause of hope.


Article from

Crescent International Vol. 52, No. 10

Jumada' al-Ula' 07, 14442022-12-01


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