Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi
"What's going on in Saudi Arabia? Is it an awakening? You seem to have lost your political conservatism, and decided, all of a sudden, to play the "young and bold", instead!," my Iraqi friend asked me.
"Don't take me wrong, brother. We are all proud, as we should, to see an Arab and Muslim country take the initiative and lead our ummah from being an obedient follower of the superpowers, to become a "game changer".
"In the game of nations, you could be comfortably reacting and responding to events and actions, where rules and regulations are made by others.
"Most nations, small and large, do so. It's the herd mentality. You follow the rhythm and dance to the tune.
"Powerful nations, however, have different ways. Those are the elite who are made to lead. They are the ones who explore, find the right path, and make the call for others to follow.
"Others can see their unstinted determination, feel their unique charisma, and appreciate their leadership qualities.
"Respect, admiration and conviction leads to either dealing positively with the new leadership or to trustingly follow it.
"The Arab and Muslim world seems to accept Saudi authority, vision and mission. We trustingly let them lead, and proudly follow. First it was the Storm of Decisiveness, now it's the Islamic Military Alliance.
"Still, there are some nagging questions haunting me: What has awakened the giant? Why now? Where are you taking us? Is it the beginning of a new dawn for our ummah, or just a response to certain events and solutions to particular problems? When solved will we go back to business as usual?"
I told Dr. Assad Sulaiman, president of Baghdad Center of Studies, in Istanbul, that he was right. Saudi Arabia has decided enough is enough. For too long, we have lost our unity. In the 1960s and 1970s, late Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz, had called for Islamic solidarity. He envisioned a return to the concept of a united Islamic nation that would stand up strong, educated, and productive — enlightened and enlightening.
Since the last caliphate, the Ottoman Sultanate, Muslims have lost their unifying force and fell to nationalism, socialism, and other foreign concepts.
Separated, they became weak and small, so they followed either Eastern or Western blocs. Independence was just a notion lost to cold global realities. Consolidating around nationalist, ethnic or geographical rallying flags, like Arabism, was not enough.
Together, with over a billion Muslims, in 57 nations, spread over three continents, we are much stronger and diversified. Following the call of a Prophet and the word of a holy book would be a much logical and applicable choice than a foreign theory, like Marxism or Nationalism.
Muslim peoples and governments instantly liked the Saudi vision. The mission, however, was harder. It took us half a century down the cooperation road and still is not even close to our goals. The Europeans went much further and achieved much more. They have now one giant market, one currency and powerful unifying institutions to decide their inner and foreign policies. Most are part of NATO, the world's dominating military alliance.
The idea Saudi Arabia was propagating then was for the creation of a Muslim alliance that includes every nation with a Muslim majority. Cooperation includes people to people and government to government. To serve the first sort of cooperation there was the Muslim World League. For the second we had the Organization of Islamic Conference (now the Organization of Islamic Cooperation).
The ultimate goals included a common market and an Islamic defense force. It's about time we have both. Today, the world has a common enemy — terrorism. Unfortunately, it was initiated in our lands and under our watch. It claims to represent our religion and aspires to achieve our ultimate goal — unity. So it's our duty to fight it, correct the message and reclaim the mission.
The goal of the Islamic Military Alliance against terrorism is not limited in scope to certain groups and organizations. Daesh (the so-called IS), Al-Qaeda, the Hezbollah franchise may be the obvious terrorists, today, but they are mere symptoms not the illness. The source of these ugly products lies with ancient histories and ideas that need to be revisited, explained and corrected.
Without confronting and drying up the intellectual sources of these illnesses, we cannot stop their effect on Muslims.
We also need to confront the use of religion to achieve political gains. Iran has been awakening religious differences, seeding sectarian hate, and exporting war, division and revolution in Muslim countries. Their purpose is imperialist. They are using holiness to achieve earthy gains — an unrelenting drive to restore the pre-Islam Farsi empire.
Then, we need to draw a practical road map to build Islamic cooperation on the EU model, which is striving to achieve development, justice, democracy, peace and prosperity for its peoples.
What do you think, dear readers? Can we realize this dream? How? Let's share thoughts and views.
Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at kbatarfi@gmail.com. Follow him at Twitter: @kbatarfi
