01 November 2012 By Bilal
Hussain [An Unedited Version] The proposal of Iran to Muslim
countries for having a military alliance might sound
unrealistic to most, however, the way global politics
is shaping it won't be far before we see Islamic
nations working together to make it a reality. "Military alliance of Muslim
countries can be created to prevent any attack on the
Muslim countries, besides protecting the Palestinian
people," a news agency quoted Iranian Defence Minister
Ahmad Vahidi saying it. The proposal strained my grey
matter and consequently stimulated me to carry out
research on Muslim nations around the globe. And all I
found was that approximately 23 per cent of the
world's population is Muslim. According to The
Future of the Global Muslim Population by Pew
Research Center currently the number of Muslims in the
world is around 1.6 billion. Muslims are in majority
in 49 countries, they speak about 60 languages and
come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Looking at these stats through a
quantum prism -- where numbers are important--
presents a rosy picture of Muslims at global level.
However, a deeper analysis shows the Muslims aren't
concentrated in one particular block rather these
countries are concentrated in the Middle East, North
Africa, Europe, South and East Asia, and sub-Saharan
Africa, which actually is not so healthy as far as
formulating a military block is concerned. Muslim
Arabs constitute about 25 percent of the world's 1.2
billion Muslims that is a silver lining in the dark
cloud. On other fronts too the Muslim
world presents a gloomy picture like: In the list of
underdeveloped countries, it is the majority of Muslim
countries that find their names. Apart from economics
most Muslim countries have a very sorry political
state. Political instability and disturbances find
themselves translated into socio-economic problems of
these states. Political differences and problems prove
to be a major obstacle in stabilizing a country
economically. The countries with political and social
difficulties fail to reap the benefits of the booms
that economy has witnessed all over the world.
Unfortunately, most Muslim countries have so many
intriguing internal issues to solve and look into.
Cashing on the international development and economic
is a far cry. To add, ideological divide in Muslim
world --divisions among sects in Islam, divide between
ethnic groups and various tribes-- weakens the states
internally and keeps them away from each other. Political instabilities in
Islamic nations aggravates internal and external
violence hence rise in usage of arms and ammunition
which is a win-win situation for the West as US is the
major exporter of weapons. According to Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute, United States had
the highest defence budgets for the year 2011 of 711
billion USD, while for the same year Saudi Arabia
spent 48.5 billion USD. Similarly, United States
exported arms worth 8641 millions USD, followed by
Russia 6039 millions USD, Germany 2340 millions USD,
France 1834 millions USD, and United Kingdom 1054
millions USD in 2010. And these exports are imported
to Muslim countries and the largest arms importers
among them are: Saudi Arabia 2580 millions USD, United
Arab Emirates 493 millions USD, Pakistan 787 millions
USD, Turkey 468 millions USD, and Malaysia 411
millions USD during 2010. These huge spending of
Muslim countries on their military might doesn't go
well with overall developments and takes heavy toll on
their budgets. At global level on an average the
Muslim nations are poorer compared to the West.
According to a report by Bureau for Policy and
Program Coordination in, June 2004, Muslim
countries tend to be poorer than non-Muslim countries.
In 2000, average per capita income in 70 non-Muslim
countries in five geographic regions was $5,987. This
was nearly twice as high as the $3,375 in 37 Muslim
nations. Of-course, these averages mask substantial
differences across regions. With all these unfavorables the
West takes on Muslim nations and without any
inhibitions attacks them indiscriminately and is
continuing doing that. A peep into the past should be
enough to reveal the policy of West towards Muslim
nations. During Bill Clinton's presidency, U.S. bombed
Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan. While in the time of
George Bush, U.S. bombed Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq,
Pakistan, and Somalia. Under Barack Obama, U.S. is
currently bombing Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen,
Somalia, and Libya. Thanks to American arms and
funding, "stalwart ally" Israel has bombed every
single one of its neighbours, including Palestine,
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Israel has also
bombed Tunisia and Iraq. The total number of Muslim
countries that America and Israel have bombed comes to
fourteen: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia,
Libya, Iran, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan,
Egypt, and Tunisia. Meanwhile, U.S. has military bases
in several countries in the Greater Middle East,
including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,
Turkey, Pakistan, UAE, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Turkmenistan,
Tajikistan, and Chad. U.S. also used to have a base in
Eritrea and demanded another one in 2010. I wonder organizations like
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) established
on September 25th, 1969 (as a result of criminal arson
of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem) has
membership of 57 states spread over four continents
works on multiple fronts of Muslim states and their
developments has no mandate in its charter for
military cooperation. May be that was not the need
that time but I think time is ripe enough for OIC to
include military development of its member states in
its charter. However, in case OIC finds it difficult
to take concrete measures in this direction what I
think Muslim nations should do is establish an
alliance: MAIC (Military Alliance of Islamic
Countries). Despite all odds onus is on the
rich Muslim countries and those having at least some
capacities like Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey,
Malaysia and others to come forward and get all
Muslims together and form a military alliance that
could at least act as a deterrent to the West. The
military cooperation could include training of
military, technologically advancements, purchase of
weapons from those having capacities, pooling of
Muslim human capital from developed state, joint
venture, and lots more. If Muslim nations come
together, assist and build capacities of each other at
much cheaper cost it would reduce their defence
budget. I know it is not going to be easy
for any of the Muslim countries to come forward, yet
a beginning has to be made and someone has to take
the lead, and only time will tell us who takes the
lead in formulating this alliance. [Bilal Hussain, a financial
journalist based in Kashmir. He can be reached at ibilalhussain@gmail.com] Comments 💬 التعليقات |
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