OPINION
By Antonio M. Acosta Jan 10, 2017
Why Saudi Arabia and Iran’s push for Jihad will lead to their decline.
First, I have to make the mandatory disclosures.
I’m not a racist, by my own nature, I can’t be. I don’t hate or fear any religion. I however, don’t like some aspects of certain religions because of what they preach, how they view women in society and for their intolerance of other faiths.
This article discusses how the policies of Saudi Arabia, its satellite Sunni countries in the Persian Gulf, Egypt and Iran, have the ability to make themselves more irrelevant if they continue to support and promote jihad.
Make no mistake about it, this article is critical of Islam and Muslims who promote jihad as the way to spread Islam. Many people will label me as an Islamophobe, as an ignorant person who doesn’t understand the essence of Islam and the teaching of Muhammad. People will critique and insult me, heck I might even get threats against my life. I write this with the hope that reasonable open minded people read this and see this for what it really is, a different point of view of where we might be if the current state of affairs continues.
As the faster-growing religion in the world, Islam is clashing with other religions and local beliefs in every corner of Earth. Naturally, this clash has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and if the trend continues, millions more will die.
Muslims have been waging jihad since the inception of the religion by Muhammad and his followers. Like The Holy Roman Catholic Church and certain sects of Christianity did in years past, many Muslims believe that “the way of the sword,” is the only way to force people to abandon their religions and convert to Islam.
Like the Catholic Church, the governing institutions of Islam have to sanction (albeit, silently) the processes, methods and manners of execution in which conversions and the spread of the religion get executed. And just like the Catholic Church, the overseers and guardians of Islam play an active role in the process.
Unlike Catholicism, with its Pope as the head of the Church, Islam doesn’t have a central figure and governing body that dictates policies and other matters in the religion. The two main sects of Islam have slightly different views on who should be in charge, essentially there is a power struggle between Shi’a and Sunnis. But they have one thing in common, the spread of Islam through jihad.
Even though there is not a central agency that governs Islam, it’s prudent to say that Sunni Islam is most influenced and supported by the Royal Saudi Family and the Clerics of the Wahhabi Sect of Islam and by other Persian Gulf states.
It’s also prudent to say that Shi’a Islam is highly influenced by the theocratic government in Iran. Even though most holy Shi’a sites are in Iraq, Iranian Mullahs and Clerics have been able to impose more influence on the sect, than the Shi’a in Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s brutal oppression of the Shi’a in Iraq is one of the biggest factors why Shi’a influence shifted to Iran. Many influential and prominent Shi’a Clerics escaped to Iran after Saddam Hussein took power in the late 1970s.
So, why do I think Saudi Arabia and Iran stand to lose for supporting Jihad?
The brand of Islam Saudi Arabia is exporting is Wahhabism. Wahhabism is a very conservative and intolerant form of Islam. Muslim women don’t have the same rights as men. Muslims are literally reducing half of their intellectual power to baby making machines. Islam also brings its own form of justice and laws called Sharia. Many Muslims view Sharia as the principal guiding force for their constitutions and law of the land.
Sharia Law is an aspect of Islam that is not compatible with democratic and Western-style societies. These laws are based on strict religious teachings in the Quran and do not allow for flexibility based on circumstances and degree of offenses. Sharia Law limits freedoms of speech, religion, expression, sexual expression and calls for a justice system based on religious beliefs and teachings of the Quran. By limiting freedoms, societies become closed in. They reject influences that might promulgate social, technological and personal growth. It stifles innovation and technological development. Sharia Law is the opposite of democracy.
How many Muslim countries are true democracies? Turkey, Indonesia, maybe a couple of others. That’s it. How many true democracies are in the Middle East? Two, Israel and Turkey, and Turkey is a bit shaky right now. I know some people will bark for saying that Turkey is in the Middle East, but a large part of it is.
One major factor hindering Muslim countries is the lack of freedoms and technological innovation. When we take a closer look at major societal and technological contributions made by Muslims, we have to go back hundreds of years. Some of them are: Algebra and advanced maths and the model for modern hospitals, are two major contributions that we should be thankful for. Medical and surgical procedures from the Ottomans and Abu Al Hasan in Spain also had an enormous impact in the world of medicine. I’m sure there have been others, but my point is that these innovations happened hundreds of years ago. I can’t think of any modern innovations from Muslim countries in the last few hundred years. Why is that? Ask yourself, why aren’t Muslim universities sought after by international students. Why aren’t Muslim universities hotbeds for innovation?
It could be argued that Sharia Law and lack of freedoms hinder Muslim societies from developing the openness needed to implement cultural and gender cooperation that leads to innovation. It’s also safe to argue that since Muslim countries do not create new technologies, they depend on Western technology to implement modernization programs and increase their quality of life.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other oil-producing nations in the Middle East don’t have a sustainable industrial complex. Their main export is oil. Saudi Arabia would not be able to support its population without the production of oil. If the demand for oil were to be reduced by a significant percentage, most Middle East economies would collapse. Only the UAE whose 70% of its GDP comes from non-oil sectors might be able to survive. The UAE have invested heavily in developing their financial sector and making Dubai the financial capital of the Middle East.
The Saudi Kingdom is also taking steps to diversify its economy by building several cities whose main purpose is to provide opportunities for its growing youth population. This effort by the Saudis however, will most likely fail. Their culture won’t support the social norms needed to create an environment conducive for collaboration and innovation amongst non-Muslims and women. They need cultural reforms and judging by the way things are going in Saudi Arabia, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Not without a civil war.
Why are non-Muslim countries more technology advanced than Muslim nations?
The answer is simple, freedoms to innovate. What spurs this innovation? Is it cultural norms, equality of the sexes, the structure of the family and individual value? Is it tolerance for different points of view, respect for the opposite sex, respect and appreciation for life, the ability to consume alcohol? It could be many of these factors, but that’s a conversation for a different day. What is clear is that non-Muslim countries are more technologically advanced than Muslim countries.
So what does all this have to do with jihad and the eventual doom of Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia spends billions of dollars promoting Wahhabi Islam and supporting extremist groups like ISIS and other Sunni extremist groups. They spend millions more supporting madrassas that teach extreme forms of Islam. Iran spends millions supporting Shi’a extremists in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and now Iraq. Iran is also one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism.
By supporting theology and policies that encourage the spread of Islam in a forceful manner, either by jihad, interbreeding with local populations or by any other form, the Saudis and Iranians are pursuing the destruction of the political, social and cultural structure and systems that led to the development of non-Muslim countries. These structures and systems directly led to the innovations that allowed nations like the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, France, Italy and lately China and South Korea to become economic juggernauts.
If these systems and social structures are eliminated and replaced with Islam and Sharia Law, so will innovation and wealth will eventually diminish. Muslims, in the current state of Islam, will not be able to emulate the successes of non-Muslim countries because the culture will not permit it.
Saudi Arabia, Iran and most of the Middle Eastern and North African Muslim countries depend on non-Muslim countries for their economic prosperity. Without them, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and many others will fail as states and eventually implode into more civil and regional wars.
Democracy can’t co-exist with Sharia Law, it’s not going to happen. Muslims need to reform Islam to be more tolerable. They need to stop supporting the ideology that non-Muslims are Kafir and that we all need to convert to Islam or we get the sword. This is the best time for moderate Muslims to speak up and raise their voices, to renounce extremism and all other forms of subjugation and to stop silently supporting jihad.
Antonio M. Acosta
OneAmericana.com