Shia

The question of genocide and Cambodia’s Muslims

November 19, 2015 by Nasheman

As many 500,000 Muslim Cham were killed by the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s, but some question if it was genocide.

Estimates say as many as 500,000 Cham Muslims were killed during Khmer Rouge rule from 1975-79 [AP]

by Clothilde Le Coz, Al Jazeera

Phnom Penh: A debate on whether the Khmer Rouge committed genocide against Cambodian Muslims during the 1970s continues after a UN war crimes tribunal resumed this week.

A large number of ethnic Cham, mostly Shia Muslims, were killed during the horrific Khmer Rouge rule from 1975-79 with some death toll estimates ranging from 100,000 to as high as 500,000.

In total, at least 1.7 million people were killed or died during the period through execution, starvation, and disease.

In recent months, the UN tribunal has held hearings on genocide charges levelled against Khmer Rouge chief ideologist Nuon Chea – also known as “Brother Number 2” – and former head of state Khieu Samphan over the killings of the Cham and ethnic Vietnamese in the country.

The tribunal found both men guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced them to life imprisonment in August 2014. Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan have denied the genocide charges against them and appealed.

The legal defination of “genocide” refers to the intention of eliminating a group of people based on their race, religion, ethnicity or nationality.

Hearings held in September and October saw Cham witnesses give frightful testimonies of the persecution they endured under the Khmer Rouge.

The Muslim Cham were rounded up by Khmer Rouge forces, forced to eat pork, and banned from using their traditional language. Qurans were collected and burned.

During the trial, one witness, Sates No, 57, recalled Khmer Rouge soldiers separating Khmer and Cham people. One day, she testified, 300 women were tied up.

“[The soldiers] asked us if we were Cham or Khmer. If anybody answered she was Cham, she would be taken away… All those who said they were Cham were escorted and disappeared.”

Sates No lied to the Khmer Rouge soldiers to make them believe she was Khmer. “I said so for I was hopeless at that time and I did not want to be killed,” she said, recalling seeing corpses floating in circles in the river. “It was as if the souls of the dead did not want to vanish.”

Questions raised

Meanwhile, legal monitoring groups have levelled criticism against the Khmer Rouge Tribunal – the United Nations-backed court trying Cambodian leaders.

A recent report by legal monitors with the Asian International Justice Initiative, the East-West Center, and Stanford University’s WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice questioned the legal reasoning behind the cases.

The groups said the UN tribunal had failed to guarantee the most fundamental aspect of a criminal trial: a systematic application of the elements of crimes to a well-documented body of factual findings.

Victor Koppe, Nuon Chea’s defence lawyer, responded to the report’s release, saying: “It’s very satisfying to realise I’m not the only one thinking this institution is a complete farce.”

While the report did not make conclusions about the guilt of the accused, it said “the serious shortcomings of the judgment cannot be ignored”, and raised concern about the outcomes of subsequent trials held by the tribunal.

Koppe said the genocide charges “exist because I believe there has been a strong pressure on the tribunal to somehow adjudicate genocide charges. It is seen as ‘the crime of all crimes’.”

For its part, documents used by the prosecution include orders given by the Khmer Rouge government in 1979 that stated: “The Cham nation no longer exists on Kampuchean [Cambodian] soil belonging to the Khmer.

“Accordingly, Cham nationality, language, customs and religious beliefs must be immediately abolished. Those who fail to obey this order will suffer all the consequences for their acts of opposition to Angkar [the Khmer Rouge high command].”

Farina So, who heads the Cham Oral History project run by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, has recorded the experiences and coping strategies used by Cham Muslim survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime.

She said the regime did intend to eliminate the Cham. “Of course, the Chams were not the only group to suffer during the regime… But the motives seem to be quite different.”

Although the Khmer Rouge banned the practice of religion in general, So said the regime’s prohibiting the use of the Cham dialect, its destruction of mosques, and killing of the Grand Mufti, the leader of Cambodia’s Muslim community, showed that the Khmer Rouge regime branded Chams as their enemy.

Cham rebellions

However, Koppe argued that a genocide did not occur, and the Cham killings took place only at a local level after Cham resistance emerged in two villages in eastern Cambodia in September and October 1975.

The two rebellions were put down by Khmer Rouge fighters.

“This Cham rebellion was crushed pretty severely… and the ones responsible for it are, among others, Cambodia’s current prime minister and a senior senator [Ouk Bunchhoeun],” Koppe alleged.

The defence once again intends to ask Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Ouk Bunchhoeun to testify.

Attempts for comment from Hun Sen and Ouk Bunchhoeun were unsuccessful. The two have been repeatedly been asked to testify but they have not done so.

A Human Rights Watch report published earlier this yearnoted that Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge commander in parts of Cambodia where atrocities were committed against the Cham.

During the hearings, Khmer Rouge cadres testified there was “no plan to purge Cham people”, despite earlier testimonies.

The court resumed this week to rule on the appeals. Nuon Chea asked the court to invalidate the judgment, while Khieu Samphan demanded his sentence be reversed and he be released.

On Tuesday, however, proceedings at the tribunal were stalled following a statement from Nuon Chea read out by his co-lawyer Sun Arun.

“From day one, it was my strong impression that this tribunal was not at all interested in exploring the truth,” the former Khmer regime leader said. “Instead it seems to operate as though its mission was simply to indulge the instructions of a handful of officials in power, and tell a tale approved by the government before the tribunal was established.”

Following Nuon Chea’s statement, Sun Arun walked out of the courtroom.

Afghans protest decapitations of ethnic Hazara by ISIL

November 11, 2015 by Nasheman

Thousands demonstrate for security after seven people beheaded – including women and children – allegedly by ISIL.

The seven Hazara victims included three women and two children [Reuters]

by Shereena Qazi

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Afghanistan’s capital on Wednesday with coffins carrying the bodies of seven ethnic Hazara demanding justice after their beheadings.

The protests included women and men from Afghanistan’s different ethnic groups – Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara – as they marched on the Presidential Palace to urge the government to take action against rising violence against Afghan civilians.

According to Afghan officials, the Hazara hostages were captured by ISIL fighters more than a month ago and held in Arghandab district of Zabul province.

Three women, two children, and two men had been beheaded with razor wire, officials said. Their bodies were discovered by the Taliban who handed them over to tribal elders on Saturday in Ghazni province, from where they were abducted.

“We will continue to fight for the safety of our family,” civil rights activist Shahzaman Hashemi told Al Jazeera. “This is our right to feel safe. Whatever happened to those women and children can happen to us as well.”

The Afghan government announced a national day of mourning on Wednesday over the killings.

‘Had enough’

Maryam Jamal, who also took part in the march, said it was important to pressure the government to halt the escalating violence in the country. “They’ve now started killing women and children,” she said.

“It can be me tomorrow, can be my children. This protest is historic and we are adamant to not back off until something is done about this. We’ve had enough.”

Kabul Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told Al Jazeera security officers had taken control of the protest area and were making sure no one gets hurt during the demonstrations.

“There are thousands of people here and the number is expected to increase. People from far off places have come to Kabul to take part in the protest today,” Rahimi said. “We are making sure the protest doesn’t get violent. So far people are protesting peacefully.”

Demonstrators chanted “death to Islamic State” on Tuesday in Ghazni province as a van carried the coffins covered by Afghan flags. Ghazni police blamed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Afghanistan for the grisly killings.

“We want justice not just for them but for the thousands of other innocent people who are brutally killed this way, almost every day,” protester Ismail Khanjar told Al Jazeera.

“We don’t care if they were Shia Muslims or not. For us they are human and they were killed in the most brutal way. What was their fault?”

The bodies were then transported from Ghazni city to Kabul, 130km away, for Wednesday’s demonstration.

The Hazara have long suffered oppression and persecution in Afghanistan. During the 1990s, thousands were killed by al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Sayed Zafar Hashemi, deputy spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, told Al Jazeera security threats affect the entire nation, and not just specific communities.

“We are doing everything we can to help protect our people,” he said.

Afghanistan has several ethnic groups including Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and Turkmen – mainly in the north and west – as well as Pashtun, located primarily in the south and east.

ISIL emerged in Afghanistan last year.

A Taliban splinter group calling itself the High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate announced last week it had elected its own leader, defying new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.

Insecurity continues to grip Afghanistan after the withdrawal of international forces in recent years. Violent clashes between two armed groups in southern Afghanistan erupted on Sunday, resulting in the death of at least 50 fighters from both sides.

Thirty Shia Muslims kidnapped in Afghanistan

November 11, 2015 by Nasheman

Men from minority Hazara group were travelling by bus through central Afghanistan when masked gunmen took them away.

by Al Jazeera

Masked gunmen have abducted 30 Shia Muslim men who were travelling by bus through central Afghanistan, according to local authorities.

The men, members of the minority Hazara ethnic group, were taken on Monday evening in Zabul province, on the road between the western city of Herat and Kabul.

Hazara Shia Muslims are often the target of sectarian violence at the hands of Sunni Muslim groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“Our driver saw a group of masked men in Afghan army uniform signalling him and he thought they were soldiers so he stopped,” said Nasir Ahmad, an official with the Ghazni Paima bus company, told AFP news agency.

“The gunmen took 30 Hazaras away with them.”

Ahmad said the kidnappers took only the men on the two buses and released the women and children travelling with them.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the abductions, but kidnappings for ransom by bandits, local militias and the Taliban are common in Afghanistan.

Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the police were “doing everything to ensure their safe release”.

Yemen sinks deeper into chaos after Daesh claims mosque bombings

March 21, 2015 by Nasheman

Two mosques, both located in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, were hit with two suicide bombers each during midday prayers Friday in a string of attacks that was later claimed by Daesh. (AFP/File)

by The Daily Star

Multiple suicide bombings claimed by ISIS killed at least 142 people and wounded around 351 others Friday at Shiite mosques in Yemen’s capital in the deadliest violence to hit the fragile war-torn nation in decades.

A group claiming to be a Yemeni branch of ISIS said it carried out the bombings and warned of an “upcoming flood” of attacks against the Houthi rebels, who have taken over the capital and much of Yemen. The claim, posted online, could not immediately be independently confirmed and offered no proof of an ISIS role.

If true, Friday’s bombing would be the first major attack by ISIS supporters in Yemen and an ominous sign that the influence of the group that holds much of Iraq and Syria has spread to the chaotic nation. The claim was posted on the same Web bulletin board where the ISIS affiliate in Libya claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s deadly attack on a museum in Tunisia.

A significant presence of ISIS supporters would add an alarming new element to the turmoil in this fragmenting nation. Yemen is already home to the most powerful branch of the Al-Qaeda network, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. AQAP militants seized control Friday of a southern provincial capital, Al-Houta, in the most dramatic grab of territory by the group in years.

Meanwhile, the Houthi rebels’ capture of the capital and a large swath of the country – at least nine of its 21 provinces – has raised fears of a civil war tinged with sectarianism. The government of the internationally backed president, Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, has fled to the southern port city of Aden, where it battled Thursday with supporters of the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has allied with the Houthis.

AQAP has been battling for months against the Houthis in various parts of the country. But the group issued an official statement denying it carried out Friday’s bombings, pointing to earlier instructions from the terror network’s leader Ayman al-Zawahri not to strike mosques or markets.

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. had seen no indications of an operational link between ISIS and Friday’s attacks.

He said the U.S. was investigating to see whether the ISIS branch in Yemen has the command-and-control structure in place to substantiate its claim of responsibility.

Earnest said it was plausible that ISIS was falsely claiming responsibility for the incident. “It does appear that these kinds of claims are often made for a perception that it benefits their propaganda efforts,” Earnest said.

In past months, there have been several online statements by individual Yemeni militants declaring allegiance to ISIS. The ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, formally accepted their oaths and declared a “province” of ISIS in Yemen in November. Baghdadi and his deputies in Iraq have vowed to strike against the Houthis in Yemen. That has raised questions whether direct operational links have also arisen. For example, In Libya, where ISIS also declared official “provinces,” fighters and officials are known to have been sent from the group’s core to build the local branch.

Friday’s bombings left scenes of bloody devastation in the Badr and Al-Hashoush mosques, located across town from each other in Sanaa. Both mosques are controlled by the Shiite Houthis, but they are also frequented by Sunni worshippers. Footage from the Al-Hashoush mosque, showed screaming volunteers using bloodied blankets to carry away victims, with a small child among the dead lined up on the mosque floor.

Two bombers hit each mosque during midday Friday prayers, when large crowds turn out to attend weekly sermons. Nashwan al-Atab, a member of the Health Ministry’s operations committee, told AFP 142 people were killed and at least 351 wounded.

A prominent Shiite Imam, Al-Murtada al-Mansouri, and two senior Houthi leaders were among the dead, the rebel-owned Al-Masirah TV reported.

It also reported that a fifth suicide bomb attack on another mosque was foiled in the northern city of Saada, a Houthi stronghold.

In the Badr mosque, the first bomber was caught by guards searching worshippers at the gate, where he detonated his device. In the ensuing panic, a second bomber entered the mosque and blew himself up amid the crowd, according to the official news agency SABA.

“I fell on the ground and when I regained consciousness I found myself lying in a lake of blood,” one survivor, Ahmad al-Gabri, told the AP. Two worshippers next to him were killed in the explosions, then another died when one of the mosque’s large glass chandeliers fell on him, Gabri said.

Another survivor, Sadek al-Harithi, said the explosions were like “an earthquake where I felt the ground split and swallow everyone.”

In the Al-Hashoush mosque, one witness said he was thrown two meters away by one of the blasts and found the floor strewn with body parts.

“Blood was running like a river,” Mohammed al-Ansi said.

In an online statement, a group calling itself the media office of ISIS “Sanaa Province” claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that the four Sanaa suicide bombers blew themselves up among crowds of Houthis.

“This operation is just a glimpse of an upcoming flood, God willing,” the group said in the statement. “We swear to avenge the blood of Muslims and the toppling of houses of God.”

“The soldiers of ISIS … will not rest until we have uprooted [the Houthis], repelled their aggression, and cut off the arm of the Iranian project in Yemen,” it said, referring to claims that Shiite powerhouse Iran is backing the rebels.

In a further sign of the country’s chaos, AQAP took control of the southern city of Al-Houta Friday, Yemeni security officials said. Al-Qaeda militants driving pickup trucks and flying black flags swept through the city, which is the capital of Lahj province. They took over the main security barracks, the governor’s office, and the intelligence headquarters, which houses prisons with Al-Qaeda detainees, the officials said.

Most of the security forces in the city surrendered to the militants without resistance. The militants killed 21 members of the security forces who resisted at the governor’s office, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

19 killed in gun and bomb attack on Peshawar Shia mosque

February 13, 2015 by Nasheman

At least 19 people killed, more than 50 injured, in attack on Shia mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan medical sources say.

by Al Jazeera

An attack on a Shia mosque in Peshawar has killed at least 19 people and injured more than 50 others, hospital sources said.

At least four suicide bombers, wearing uniforms of security forces, hit the Imamia mosque during Friday prayers, officials said.

Three of them succeeded in exploding their vests, while one was unable to do so. His unexploded vest was defused by Peshawar’s bomb disposal unit.

Senior police official Rana Umer Hayat said several gunmen threw grenades before storming the mosque.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said: “The police and military forces that surrounded the area have now cleared the area, and are combing nearby areas for any attackers that may have escaped.”

Helicopters were visible overhead, as security forces combed the streets around the blast site in a bid to find one of the attackers.

At least four suicide bombers hit the mosque during Friday prayers. Three of them succeeded in exploding their vests, while one was unable to do so.

Several unexploded grenades were also recovered from the site, Shafqat Malik, senior police officer and head of bomb disposal unit, said.

The attackers appeared to gain access to the mosque, which is under tight security, from an under-construction building next door.

“They cut razor wire on the boundary wall to gain access,” provincial police chief Nasir Durrani said.

Asked whether there was a specific threat against this mosque, Durrani said: “The operation in Zarb-e-Azb and in Khyber agency [against the Taliban] is ongoing. We are in a war state.”

This is the third attack against a Shia mosque since the attack on a Peshawar school killed more than 141 people on December 16.

The last attack took place two weeks ago, also during Friday prayers, at a Shia mosque in the town of Shikarpur, killing at least 60 people.

Wadi Al-Salaam: The Largest Cemetery in The World

February 9, 2015 by Nasheman

Sprawling: Graves stretch away into the horizon at the Wadi Al-Salaam or Valley of Peace graveyard in the Iraqi holy Shiite city of Najaf.

Wadi Al-Salaam, which literally means the Valley of Peace, is an Islamic cemetery located in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq. The cemetery covers an area of 1485.5 acres and contains some five millions bodies, making it the world’s biggest cemetery.

With gravestones stretching out as far as the eye can see, the site is located close to the shrine of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet Muhammad’s (SAWS) cousin and son-in-law and the fourth Caliph of Islam.

An estimated 500,000 additional bodies are buried at Wadi Al-Salaam every year, however in recent times the figure has been even higher due to victims of the country’s bitter civil war.

At least 20 killed in blast at Shia mosque in Pakistan

January 30, 2015 by Nasheman

by Ubaidullah Shaikh, Dawn

Shikarpur: At least 20 people were killed and 55 others were injured in an explosion inside a central imambargah (mosque affiliated with Shia Muslims) in Sindh province’s Shikarpur district on Friday.

The imambargah is located in Shikarpur’s Lakhi Dar area and the explosion occurred just after Friday prayers.

A number of victims were trapped under debris after the roof of the imambargah collapsed due to the intensive blast.

Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) central leader Allama Mohammed Amin Shaheedi announced three days mourning, describing the incident a failure of the government.

He told Dawn that the party’s further course of action would be announced in a press conference later in the evening.

The Jafria Disaster Cell (JDC) demanded that the critically wouinded victims be immediately shifted to Karachi for treatment.

Civil Hospital Shikarpur Superintendent Shaukat Memon confirmed that at least 20 people were killed and 55 others injured. The casualties included many children.

The condition of the wounded is said to be critical.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon told Dawn that an emergency had been imposed at all hospitals in Shikarpur and surrounding talukas and cities.

He added that provincial Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Sindh Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar have taken strong notice of the incident.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, President Mamnoon Hussain, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain issued condemnation messages against the incident.

A bomb disposal squad team has been dispatched to the area from Sukkur and rescue teams have reached Imam Bargah Maula Karbala where the explosion took place.

Speculation prevails that the explosion may have been carried out by a suicide bomber.

The incident comes as Pakistan is attempting to implement the National Action Plan to combat and root out terrorism from the country, an initiative that was set in motion after the Dec 16 attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School in December 2014.

It was the second major attack on an imambargah in the country since the beginning of 2015; the first being an attack on Rawalpindi’s Imambargah Aun Mohammad Rizvi in the garrison city’s Chatian Hatian area.

At the same time, Pakistani security forces are engaged in the North Waziristan and Khyber tribal regions — with the operation in Waziristan starting soon after a terrorist attack on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport and the theatre of war expanding into Khyber.

Saudi Arabia sentences Shia leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr to death

October 17, 2014 by Nasheman

A protester holds up a picture of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a rally at the coastal town of Qatif, against Sheikh Nimr’s arrest in this 8 July 2012 file photo. (Photo: Reuters – STR)

– by Deutsche Welle

A Saudi court has sentenced prominent Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr to death for sedition. The verdict is likely to escalate further the tensions between the kingdom’s Shia minority and the Sunni-led authorities.

Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who is 54 years old, was found guilty of “disobeying” the kingdom’s rulers and of seeking “foreign meddling” in the country’s affairs, a thinly veiled reference to Iran, whose regime is dominated by Shias.

Al-Nimr had denied ever carrying weapons or calling for violence. He can appeal the sentence.

The well-known cleric was accused of being a driving force behind protests against Saudi Arabia’s Sunni authorities in the Eastern province that began in 2011. This followed an outbreak of violence between Shia pilgrims and religious police in Medina, the Muslim holy city.

He was shot in the leg and arrested by security forces in 2012, leading to more protests.

Shias feel marginalized

Al-Nimr’s family said the verdict set a “dangerous precedent for decades to come.”

Saudi Arabia’s roughly two million Shias live mainly in the east of the country, where the majority of oil reserves are located. Despite the region’s wealth, Shias in Saudi Arabia say they feel marginalized and discriminated against.

Protests, which are banned in Saudi Arabia, escalated after the Saudi regime intervened in neighboring Bahrain to support its Sunni monarchy.

In June this year, a Saudi court sentenced two people to death for “taking part in forming a terrorist group” and other crimes linked to the protests by Shias. Several others have received multi-year jail sentences.

Public beheadings

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 1,040 people were detained in Shia protests between February 2011 and August 2014. There are at least 280 still imprisoned.

Last year the conservative Islamic kingdom executed more people than any other country except China and Iran, most of them by public beheading.

(AFP, Reuters)

Bomb Everyone

October 1, 2014 by Nasheman

Humanitarian arguments, if consistently applied, could be used to flatten the entire Middle East.

– by George Monbiot, The Guardian

Let’s bomb the Muslim world – all of it – to save the lives of its people. Surely this is the only consistent moral course? Why stop at blowing up Islamic State, when the Syrian government has murdered and tortured so many? This, after all, was last year’s moral imperative. What’s changed?

How about blasting the Shia militias in Iraq? One of them selected 40 people from the streets of Baghdad in June and murdered them for being Sunnis(1). Another massacred 68 people at a mosque in August(2). They now talk openly of “cleansing” and “erasure”(3), once Islamic State has been defeated. As a senior Shia politician warns, “we are in the process of creating Shia al-Qaida radical groups equal in their radicalisation to the Sunni Qaida.”(4)

What humanitarian principle instructs you to stop there? In Gaza this year, 2,100 Palestinians were massacred: including people taking shelter in schools and hospitals. Surely these atrocities demand an air war against Israel? And what’s the moral basis for refusing to liquidate Iran? Mohsen Amir-Aslani was hanged there last week for making “innovations in the religion” (suggesting that the story of Jonah in the Qu’ran was symbolic rather than literal)(5). Surely that should inspire humanitarian action from above? Pakistan is crying out for friendly bombs: an elderly British man, Mohammed Asghar, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, is, like other blasphemers, awaiting execution there after claiming to be a holy prophet(6). One of his prison guards has already shot him in the back.

Is there not an urgent duty to blow up Saudi Arabia? It has beheaded 59 people so far this year, for offences that include adultery, sorcery and witchcraft(7). It has long presented a far greater threat to the west than Isis now poses. In 2009 Hillary Clinton warned in a secret memo that “Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa’ida, the Taliban … and other terrorist groups.”(8) In July, the former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, revealed that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, until recently the head of Saudi intelligence, told him: “The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally ‘God help the Shia’. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them.”(9) Saudi support for extreme Sunni militias in Syria during Bandar’s tenure is widely blamed for the rapid rise of Isis(10,11). Why take out the subsidiary and spare the headquarters?

The humanitarian arguments aired in parliament last week(12), if consistently applied, could be used to flatten the entire Middle East and West Asia. By this means you could end all human suffering, liberating the people of these regions from the vale of tears in which they live.

Perhaps this is the plan: Barack Obama has now bombed seven largely-Muslim countries(13), in each case citing a moral imperative. The result, as you can see in Libya, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan,Yemen, Somalia and Syria, has been the eradication of jihadi groups, of conflict, chaos, murder, oppression and torture. Evil has been driven from the face of the earth by the destroying angels of the west.

Now we have a new target, and a new reason to dispense mercy from the sky, with similar prospects of success. Yes, the agenda and practices of Isis are disgusting. It murders and tortures, terrorises and threatens. As Obama says, it is a “network of death”(14). But it’s one of many networks of death. Worse still, a western crusade appears to be exactly what it wants(15).

Already Obama’s bombings have brought Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, a rival militia affiliated to Al Qaeda, together(16). More than 6,000 fighters have joined Isis since the bombardment began(17). They dangled the heads of their victims in front of the cameras as bait for war planes. And our governments were stupid enough to take it.

And if the bombing succeeds? If – and it’s a big if – it manages to tilt the balance against Isis, what then? Then we’ll start hearing once more about Shia death squads and the moral imperative to destroy them too – and any civilians who happen to get in the way. The targets change; the policy doesn’t. Never mind the question, the answer is bombs. In the name of peace and the preservation of life, our governments wage perpetual war.

While the bombs fall, our states befriend and defend other networks of death. The US government still refuses – despite Obama’s promise – to release the 28 redacted pages from the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, which document Saudi Arabian complicity in the attack on America(18). In the UK, in 2004 the Serious Fraud Office began investigating allegations of massive bribes paid by the British weapons company BAE to Saudi ministers and middlemen. Just as the crucial evidence was about to be released, Tony Blair intervened to stop the investigation(19). The biggest alleged beneficiary was Prince Bandar, mentioned above. The Serious Fraud Office was investigating a claim that, with the approval of the British government, he received £1bn in secret payments from BAE(20).

And still it goes on. Last week’s Private Eye, drawing on a dossier of recordings and emails, alleges that a British company has paid £300m in bribes to facilitate weapons sales to the Saudi National Guard(21). When a whistleblower in the company reported these payments to the British ministry of defence, instead of taking action it alerted his bosses. He had to flee the country to avoid being thrown into a Saudi jail. Smirking, lying, two-faced bastards – this scarcely begins to touch it.

There are no good solutions that military intervention by the UK or the US can engineer. There are political solutions in which our governments could play a minor role: supporting the development of effective states that don’t rely on murder and militias, building civic institutions that don’t depend on terror, helping to create safe passage and aid for people at risk. Oh, and ceasing to protect and sponsor and arm selected networks of death. Whenever our armed forces have bombed or invaded Muslims nations, they have made life worse for those who live there. The regions in which our governments have intervened most are those which suffer most from terrorism and war. That is neither coincidental nor surprising.

Yet our politicians affect to learn nothing. Insisting that more killing will magically resolve deep-rooted conflicts, they scatter bombs like fairy dust.

References:

http://www.theguardian.com/guardianweekly/story/0,,1818778,00.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/22/shia-attack-sunni-mosque-iraq
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/24/iraq-frontline-shia-fighters-war-isis
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/24/iraq-frontline-shia-fighters-war-isis
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/iran-executes-man-heresy-mohsen-amir-aslani
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/29/stand-up-for-blasphemers-like-mohammed-asghar-frankie-boyle
Click to access 52302414.pdf
http://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/242073
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/iraq-crisis-how-saudi-arabia-helped-isis-take-over-the-north-of-the-country-9602312.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-saudi-arabia-iraq-syria-bandar/373181/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/islamic-state-us-failure-to-look-into-saudi-role-in-911-has-helped-isis-9731563.html
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm140926/debtext/140926-0001.htm#1409266000001
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/23/nobel-peace-prize-fact-day-syria-7th-country-bombed-obama/
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm140926/debtext/140926-0001.htm#1409266000001
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/26/west-isis-crusade-britain-iraq-syria
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/28/isis-al-qaida-air-strikes-syria
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.616730
http://nypost.com/2013/12/15/inside-the-saudi-911-coverup/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/bae
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/05/bae-saudi-yamamah-deal-background
Richard Brooks and Andrew Bousfield, 19th September 2014. Shady Arabia and the Desert Fix. Private Eye.

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