View
266
Download
4
Category
Tags:
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
Globalia Magazine 8th Edition
Citation preview
GLOBALIAMagazineQuarterly | Issue 08 | August 2010EUR 4, USD 5.5, GBP 3.5, AED 20, MYR 20, ZAR 44
A new focus on the worldCover story: A global trend. The worldmoves to alternative currencies.
Africa: On the Western Sahara.When will the solution arrive?
Culture: The shores of Azania. Impressionsfrom a journey to the Swahili coast.
Imag
e: p
ictu
re-a
llian
ce.d
e (c
) dp
a-Re
port
Wealthy, poor Afghanistan. Massive reserves of natural resources discovered, page 16.
EDITORIALBy Abu Bakr Rieger.
COVER STORYA global trend. The world moves to alternative currencies.
Implementing the dinar and dirham. Role model: a casestudy in Indonesia.
ECONOMYWealthy, poor Afghanistan. Massive reservesof natural resources discovered.
Detrimental to the economy. Iraq: on the American exportof democracy.
Global“The runaway general”. Leading commandersacked for insubordination.
Interview“Liberal” versus “radical”. An interview with French authorOliver Roy.
AfricaReturn of colonial powers? China-EU rivalryin Africa sharpens.
On the Western Sahara. When will the solution arrive?
4
6
10
16
20
22
26
30
32
Ecology: the Muslims and the heir to the throne, page 45.
CONCEPT AND EDITORIAL
AsiaThere is no ‘Islamic Bomb’. An analysis of Pakistan’sstrategic nuclear assets.
EuropeSystematic opposition? Germany: the officialinteraction with Muslims.
Ecology“Guidance from the Qur’an”. Ecology: the Muslims and theheir to the throne.
Money growth: an ecological distaster.
NGOBeyond immigration. Skopje: cooperation betweenEuropean Muslims.
SocietyThe politics of fear. Globalisation: the middle class in crisis.
Winners in the crisis.
CultureThe shores of Azania. Impressions from a journey to theSwahili coast.
36
40
44
46
48
50
53
56
CHIEF EDITORAbu Bakr Rieger
PUBLISHERIZ Medien GmbHBeilsteinerstr. 12112681 BerlinGermany
ASSOCIATE EDITORSulaiman Wilms
DISTRIBUTIONIZ Medien GmbH
PRINTINGmsk marketingserviceköln
GLOBALIA Magazine reserves theright to shorten letters. Readers’letters, guest articles and quotationsdo not necessarily represent theopinions of the Editors, nor doarticles by named authors.
PHONE+49 (0)30 240 48974
MOBILE +49 (0)179 967 8018
FAX+49 (0)30 240 48975
E-mailinfo@globaliamagazine.com
WEBSITEwww.globaliamagazine.com
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
EDITORIAL
EDITORIALBY ABU BAKR RIEGER
Dear Globalia readers,
It is the question of the century, and it
is not a difficult one to ask: are the
Golden Years soon to be upon us again?
In this edition we will be looking at the
cataclysmic ‘financial crisis’ from various
angles. Muslims in Asia are especially
involved in models for a solution to the
situation. Malaysia’s former President
Dr. Mahathir recognised the financial
system’s innate st ructura l problems
way back in the Asian monetary crisis of
the 1990s.
The facts are now clear. The burden of debt
under which Europe’s nations are labouring
is gigantic, and the long-term economic
future of what were once the world’s richest
countries is now uncertain. Behind the
scenes, the new global players are busy
preparing for the future.
I was talking recently to a German property
broker who sells agricultural and forestry
estates. I asked him how business was going,
whether he was satisfied with the year so far.
The man smiled and responded drily, “I’ve
never sold so many properties and forests in
my life. If only I had more to sell.”
In other words, well-heeled Germans are
moving away from the hedge funds and the
old casino-capitalism and investing instead
in tangible assets. But why?
There is no doubt that more and more people
all over the world, rich and poor, are trying
to secure their welfare with tangible wealth.
But whole nations too are reconsidering their
gold stocks, especially those fortunate enough
not to have national debts.
Saudi Arabia, for example, has more than
twice as much gold stashed away as pre-
viously thought, according to World Gold
Council figures. According to them the
Saudi Arabian Central Bank (Sama) holds
gold reserves of 322.9 tonnes – more
than double the previously published
figure of 143 tonnes. Saudi Arabia is also
the world’s fourth largest owner of
foreign currency reserves.
4 5
EDITORIAL
Even the European Parliament itself now
considers democracy under threat in
Europe and issued an interesting appeal
for help just a few days ago. European
parliamentarians are being overwhelmed
by the power of lobbyists. “The disequi-
librium between the power of this lobby
and the lack of any counter-expertise is to
us a danger to democracy,” states a
parliamentarians’ circular helplessly. This
makes an absurdity of the primacy of
politics.
Explaining how the pressure on politicians
works, SPD Member of Parliament Udo
Bullmann tells how the banks intimidate
them with horror scenarios describing the
consequences of more stringent banking
regulations. “There is no neutral body that
checks banks’ figures. But there is a mass of
money available for lobbyists to talk trash to
no end,” said the politician in the Financial
Times.
We have come full circle. Sulaiman Wilms
reports in this edition on the role of fear in
modern politics. Fear of crisis, fear of social
relegation – and a fomented fear of Islam.
Fear is the common denominator which has
to hold modern societies together. Pessimism
reigns, together with the general view that
there is no alternative to the dominant
financial system.
Fear and a lack of alternatives – is this the
beginning of a new totalitarianism in Europe?
We hope not. Globalia, at least, will keep
discussing alternatives.
The reasons for this kind of silent monetary
policy are obvious. Endless endebtment
logically has to end in collapse. In France,
England and Spain, the first government
austerity packages are already threatening to
cause social unrest – but packages which
would reduce new borrowing by a mere
fraction.The dynamic of the problem remains
unstopped. Simple mathematics demonstra-
tes its insolubility.
Asset consultant Martin Mack said in an inter-
view with Das Handelsblatt: “Our financial
systems are now receiving emergency
injections of cheap money in the double-
figure billions. But what figures will we be
faced with tomorrow?”
People are famously inventive when the going
gets tough. And of course, people could opt
for a growing number of new means of
exchange in the face of looming monetary
collapse. But gold has a long tradition, and
has always kept its purchasing power through
the ages. Mack knows a good example: “At
the beginning of the 1920s, an ounce of gold
cost around 20 dollars, which would also buy
you a good men’s suit. Today you can still
get a good men’s suit for an ounce of gold,
but for 20 dollars you might only just get
the pocket handkerchief to go with it.”
Gold has another advantage as the anchor
of a rational economy. The paper money
system currently in use, which is covered
purely by people’s trust in it, can, as we now
know, be expanded simply by printing,
with the result that people now fear
inflation everywhere.
An expansive, boundless monetary policy is
of course impossible with gold. But the
ownership of gold can be banned by law, as
has happened in the past. Power over paper
money does of course equate with political
power.
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
COVER STORY
The question naturally arises as to what drives
the trend towards alternative currencies. The
answer is simple: the recent financial crisis (which
is certainly not over as the media like us to
believe) has brought the world closer to a post-
globalisation era which will be marked by
uncontrollable sovereign debt and, as a conse-
quence, a reversal of policy, away from globali-
sation towards regionalisation.
A GLOBAL TRENDTHE WORLD MOVES TO ALTERNATIVE CURRENCIES
The trend towards alternative currencies,
originally started on a ‘community’ level have
increasingly turned into local, state-spon-
sored, payment systems gaining broad global
appeal and acceptance.
The oldest and best known of these is the
“WIR” payment system, established in
Switzerland in 1934 in response to the severe
monetary shortages during the Great
Depression. A Wikipedia entry states:
“The WIR Bank, formerly known as the Swiss
Economic Circle or WIR, is an independent,
complementary currency system in Switzer-
land that serves small and medium-sized
businesses. It exists only as a bookkeeping
system to facilitate transactions. WIR was
founded in 1934 by the businessmen Werner
Zimmermann and Paul Enz as a result of
currency shortages after the stock market
crash of 1929. Both Zimmermann and Enz
had been influenced by German libertarian
economist Silvio Gesell. ‘WIR’ is both an
abbreviation of Wirtschaftsring and the word
for ‘we’ in German, reminding participants
that the economic circle is also a community.
According to the cooperative’s statutes, ‘Its
purpose is to encourage participating
members to put their buying power at each
other’s disposal and keep it circulating
within their ranks, thereby providing members
with additional sales volume. Although WIR
started with only 16 members, today it has
grown to include 62,000 – among whom is
traded approximately 1.65 billion Swiss francs
annually (as of 2004). The WIR bank is
a not-for-profit bank. It serves the interest of
the clients, not the bank itself. It is a very
stable system, not prone to failure as the
current banking system is. It remains fully
operational even in times of general economic
crisis. In this sense,WIR may have contributed
to the remarkable stability of the Swiss
economy, as it dampens downturns in the
business cycle.”
While the WIR complementary currency
system in Switzerland and other more recent
community-based payment systems such as
the Chiemgauer in Southern Germany remain
purely paper systems, we observe a growing
trend towards bi-metallic currency systems.
With our two companies e-dinar FZ LLC in
Dubai and Emirates Gold Europe GmbH in
Switzerland we are directly involved in the
production and coinage for some of the best
known of these complementary bi-metallic
currency systems: namely the Kelantan Dinar
and Dirham and the Ilmtaler Silber Thaler.
6 7
COVER STORY
The state of Kelantan (Malaysia) has
been in the national and international press
for their efforts to distribute the gold
dinar through their state-owned pawn-
brokers. Since 2007, when they first started
distribution, they have sold some 10,000
gold dinars to the public.
During the last one and a half years, we have
worked closely with the government of
Kelantan to issue a new bi-metallic series of
the Kelantan gold dinar and silver dirham
with the state emblem on the face of the new
medallions. We were finally been awarded
that contract in March 2010 and received the
funds for the first batch which went into
production during April 2010.
This new series of the dinar and dirham will
be broader in denominations and will
comprise both silver and gold pieces
rather than just gold pieces as in the past:
Kelantan dinar denominations1/2, 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10 (one dinar = 4.25grams of 22 ct gold)
Kelantan dirham denominations1, 5, 10, 20 (one dirham = 3 grams of.999 silver)
Kelantan’s past efforts were exclusively
focused on the gold dinar. As we know
however from history, silver coins have played
a more significant role in everyday life than
gold coins for the simple fact that gold
coins tend to be too valuable for everyday
purchases such as bread or groceries.
Having understood this, the state govern-
ment of Kelantan has now decided to issue
a bi-metallic series comprising both the gold
dinar and the silver dirham in a wide range
of denominations.
The new Kelantan series is already being
widely advertised; when leaving or entering
Kelantan airport, one cannot miss the large
billboards advertising the new medallions
with the state emblem on their face. The
purpose and aim of the Kelantan coins is to
pay zakat (the Islamic wealth tax) in hard
assets which have intrinsic value and not, as
is done today, in promissory notes which,
according to Islamic Law, are unlawful means
of zakat payment.
in February 2010, we were approached by a
German group who were planning to issue
an alternative community currency purely
based on silver medallions – the Ilmtaler
series. Face motives include historic figures
from the German renaissance, particularly
from the area of Erfurt and Weimar
(Ilmtaler denominations: 1/10, 1/4, 1/2 and 1
ounce silver pieces – .999 silver)
A related group had previously issued one of
the better-known paper-based alternative
currencies in Germany – the Rheingold. Over
the years, they came to realize that sound
money (i.e. gold and silver) is far superior
to paper receipts. It was for this reason that
they wanted to issue an alternative silver
‘currency’ in denominations comparable to the
silver dirham.
In early 2010, we submitted a competitive
offer for the production of the coins including
the artwork, die production and coinage. In
April 2010, we were awarded the contract and
are now in the stage of die production. Their
first order comprised of more than 40,000
silver medallions and we anticipate similar
sized orders every three to four months.
If however a single large country such as
Mexico coverted its paper pesos into silver
pesos, the current total of silver in storage
would not be sufficient to satisfy demand
(Mexico in fact has a long-standing project
to do just that). It is important to note that
in the not too distant past – actually only 30
years ago – the coins of several currencies,
including the Swiss franc were still made out
of silver. Only in 1980, when the Hunt
brothers drove silver to 50+ USD an ounce
and the silver content of these coins began
to exceed their nominal value, was the Swiss
government forced to replace its silver coins
with cheap nickel alternatives.
Should silver coinage become popular
again, the world would quickly use up its
depleted silver storage and run out of
available metal. Inevitably, this would push
the price of silver bullion sky high.
The question naturally arises as to what drives
the trend towards alternative currencies.The
answer is simple: the recent financial crisis
(which is certainly not over as the media would
like us to believe) has brought the world closer
to a post-globalisation era which will be
marked by uncontrollable sovereign debt and,
as a consequence, a reversal of policy, away
from globalisation towards regionalisation.
Why is the financial crisis not over? Because
governments have tried to treat the symptoms
by injecting massive amounts of paper money
into a structurally flawed financial system;
failing to address the root cause of the crisis
which is the parallel market of out-of-control
derivative products, amounting to no less
than 15 times the world GDP or roughly 600
trillion USD. It was a tiny fraction of this
parallel market (i.e. derivatives based on
subprime mortgages) which caused the
financial collapse in the first place.Yet policy
makers continue to close their eyes to the
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
ECONOMY
real problem hoping that somehow every-
thing will magically turn around. A danger-
ous illusion since the next crisis is just below
the surface and waiting to erupt; the differ-
ence being that next time around, the world
will have run out of options.
Modern economies could not survive another
financial meltdown of the kind we have just
faced for the simple fact that our govern-
ments have run out of options to buy more
time. The next financial crisis will result in
massive sovereign defaults, social unrest and
revolts leading to the eventual collapse of
democratic governance. For the people, the
outcome could at its worst become compa-
rable to the German situation at the end
of World War II.
The signs for the advent of a new post-
globalisation era are visible all around us.
First, the massively increased sovereign debt
levels which are quickly separating the bad
from the good and, secondly, the increasing
formation of regional power centers.
Let us first talk about debt. Governments all
over the world have tried to buy their way
out of the financial crisis, incurring debt of alar-
ming proportions.While economic conditions
in developed countries have not really
improved since the start of the crisis, the size
of government debt has increased drama-
tically. Before the crisis sovereign debt was
already staggering, today it is beyond repair.
Everyone is concerned about the debt crisis
in the PIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Greece
and Spain), but few dare to even think what
might happen if the US (where government
debt will soon be reaching 100 per cent of
GDP) or Japan (which has the highest
sovereign debt to GDP ratio worldwide)
default. While a sovereign default of the
PIGS countries would certainly be traumatic
for their citizens, Europe and the rest of the
world could survive such an event. If the US
however defaults on its sovereign debt, which
is definitely in the cards (a downgrade of US
sovereign debt is today openly discussed),
the economic world as we know it today
would cease to exist. Why? Because the US
dollar would in the event be devalued to close
to zero, thereby destroying more than half of
all monetary value in existence.
The BRIC countries on the other hand,
although they also have increased their debt
ceilings to combat the financial crisis, have
formidable foreign reserves and sovereign
wealth funds which insulate them to a signi-
ficant extend from the risk of sovereign
default.
Let us now turn to the issue of regionali-
sation. The disproportionate rate of sover-
eign debt levels and foreign currency reserves
has increased the rift between the well-to-do
countries in Asia, the Subcontinent and South
America (“the good”) and the not so well-
to-do countries in Europe and the US (“the
bad”). This is a fundamental shift of power
away from the developed countries to a new
economic power axis extending from China
through India, the Middle East, Africa and
South America - the so-called BRIC countries.
The results of this shift in economic power are
increased regionalisation and a reversal of
economic focus away from export at all costs
towards internal development and consump-
1tion (we can observe this new trend most
clearly in China and India).
What brought this shift in economic power
about? The answer is obvious: it has to do
with the ratio of sovereign debt to foreign
reserves and savings.While the BRIC countries
have accumulated high levels of foreign
reserves due to their singular focus on ‘export
at all costs’ and have managed their debt
fairly well, the developed countries continue
to spend beyond their means, amass un-
manageable debt levels while at the same
time facing decreasing levels of savings and
sovereign reserves.
In short, developed countries have for too long
lived too far beyond their means. As every-
one of us knows from experience, such a
situation will inevitably end in disaster.
One of the signs of regionalisation is the
widespread adoption of barter and alternative
currency systems in Europe,Asia and the US.
People feel increasingly betrayed by their
governments, have lost their faith in the
banking system and the financial elite and see
their only saving grace in resorting to their
own initiatives. Alternative currency systems
flourish in Germany, Asia and the US, while
barter systems grow like mushrooms in
Eastern Europe. While these initiatives are
admirable (and certainly on the right track),
while wishing them success, I would like to
caution that the only true and lasting alter-
native to paper-based banking is gold and
silver – the ultimate currency.
Such a world currency will have to be and
must be based on hard assets, namely gold
and silver. Gold and silver have served
us well since the beginning of civilisation
and will certainly serve us well until
the end of civilisation.
The author is CEO of e-dinar FZ LLC and
Emirates Gold Europe GmbH.
Text By Dr. Zeno Dahinden
8 9
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
COVER STORY
Educating people as part of the programme: Umar Ibrahim Vadillo (front) and Pak Zaim (middle) are explaining the bi-metallic currency.
10 11
COVER STORY
History is alive with records showing that every
time a currency like the Indonesian rupiah has
been devalued, there is a massive transfer of
wealth. Indonesians have been reduced to humi-
liating poverty. In the past decade, the man
who has been calling the people of Indonesia
forward to a future of economic strength in
Indonesia, with ever growing response from
the people, is the founder of the ‘Wakala Induk
Nusantara’, Pak Zaim Saidi.
IMPLEMENTING THE DINAR AND DIRHAMROLE MODEL: A CASE STUDY IN INDONESIA
country in order to create an international
demand for the rupiah, restrict the powers of
the Central Bank etc, and the list goes on.The
government of Indonesia cannot solve the
problem of the rupiah; the problem of inflation
(which is more accurately an increase in the
money supply and not merely in prices) but
can only regulate it. This is all mathematics
while the solution to the problem of the rupiah
lies well outside such torturous calculations
emanating from air-conditioned bourgeois
office buildings. It is, on the contrary, to turn
away from all of that.
The mess that modern economic theory has
created in the 3,000, vast and rich inhabited
islands of Indonesia provides a stimulus to
seek a solution to the problem, and that
lies in a return to the original economic model
of the Nusantara Sultanate that people
practised for centuries before the introduction
of paper as currency in colonial times.
In the past decade, the man who has been
calling the people of Indonesia not merely
back to conventional economic practice but
forward to a future of economic strength in
Indonesia, with ever growing response from
the people, is the founder of the ‘Wakala
Induk Nusantara’, Pak Zaim Saidi.
Having established the Wakala Induk
Nusantara in 2008, Saidi inaugurated the use
of the gold dinar and silver dirham as currency
alongside the paper rupiah. He had already
established the first wakala of Indonesia in
the year 2003 and had been a proponent of
the function and role of the wakala and the
coins. This he based entirely on the history and
culture of Indonesia and the economic model
of the Nusantara Sultanate.
As the dinar and dirham are commodities per
Within ten years of the Bretton Woods accord,
the Indonesian rupiah stood at 415 to 1 US
dollar, in late 1986, 1000 to 1 and today it
stands at approximately 9000 to 1. What
happened in between was Indonesia’s blind
following of capitalism; an unquestioning
adherence to its dogmatic dictates. The
rupiah has been deliberately devalued time
and again for reasons never clearly stated.
History is alive with records showing that
every time a currency like the rupiah is
devalued, there is a massive transfer of
wealth from the hands of ordinary people to
the hands of those who control the
resources and the real wealth of the country;
a sleight of hand that amounts to theft,
always unknown and justified in ultra-tech-
nical language.
The people of Indonesia have been reduced
to humiliating poverty and destitution, yet
though on the whole they despise the
imposed currency – because the rupiah has
only been losing its purchasing power ever
since first issued – they are still unaware that
the problem of their economic condition lies
in the very paper money they despise.
In order to move the decimal point three
digits to the left, to make the exchange rate
at least 9 to 1 US dollar let alone make it
equal, the Central Bank has to reduce the
money supply in the country – including every
kind of central and private bank deposits
apart from the small portion of worthless
paper and coins in circulation – by a thousand
times; then create a new demand for the
rupiah.
This would mean a preposterous increase in
interest rates and taxation which would in
turn result in a dramatic reduction of the
average income with a rise in poverty and
destitution as a consequence. It would also
mean nationalising the resources of the
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
COVER STORY
se, firstly they are free from inflation and
secondly they can be used as a just means of
pricing. Pak Zaim often illustrates this by
saying that the price of a chicken 1400 years
ago in Madinah was 1 dirham and today, if
measured in dirhams, remains the same.
The Wakala Induk Nusantara, also known as
the Master Wakala, is responsible for minting
the coins – in several denominations as will
be shown later – with a direct relationship
with the Royal Mint of Indonesia (Loga Mulia),
and then sells them through the network of
wakalas functioning under it.
There are currently about 75 wakalas which
in turn sell the coins to the people who
ultimately choose to utilise them in a number
of ways as well as keeping them as collector’s
items, a choice however which does still
benefit the owner because gold and silver
serve as the best store of value.
The wakala is, in short, a private institution
that facilitates the exchange of paper money
into gold and silver coins. Very importantly,
it is not a business enterprise. It is profit-free.
The Master Wakala deals with the mint, the
wakalas deal with the Master Wakala and the
people deal with the wakalas.This is the basic
operational mode that has been established.
The coins – denominations and useThe basic denominations of both the gold
coin and the silver coin are 1 dinar and 1
dirham respectively.The dinar is 22 carat gold
(91.7 per cent purity), 23 mm in diameter
and is 4.25 grams in weight. The dirham is
99.99 per cent pure silver, 25 mm in diame-
ter and 2.975 grams in weight.The dinar has
been minted in two other denominations –
1/2 dinar and 2 dinars. The dirham is in three
other denominations – 2, 1/2 and 1/6 (the last
• As zakat payment according to theshari’ah; under which sub-heading arerulings by the imams of the differentmadhahib that zakat may not be paid inpaper money.
• As savings and value protection.
• As sadaqah.
• As dowry.
the coins have been minted according to the
culture and traditions of Indonesia and the
economic practice of the people of the
Nusantara Sultanate and since their use is
based on their being a partial payment system
alongside the paper rupiah, they are not in
any way opposed to state currency, which,
though imposed, will naturally, when used in
parallel with the dinar and the dirham
(themselves minted by the Royal Mint of
Indonesia), have its worthlessness revealed
over time. There is no reason why the coins
should not be used.
Pak Sufyan, a scholar of Islamic coinage and
the Islamic model of economics, quite clearly
mentioned in an interview with a Dutch
journalist that he is not in anyway opposing
the banking establishment but that he merely
wants the freedom to choose his medium of
exchange which, if saved, would also preserve
the value of his wealth. The Dutch journalist
included her study of Pak Zaim’s work in
Indonesia and her interview with both Pak
Zaim and Pak Sufyan in her internationally
acclaimed documentary on capitalism [Time
for Change, Bregtje van der Haak, VPRO
Backlight 2010].
Finally, the wakalas also allow the coins to
be redeemed with paper money but with a
reduction of 4 per cent of the price that not
only covers the minting and handling costs
but serves to deter such an action.
Pak Zaim’s tireless efforts to educate the
public on such matters of daily importance
as monetary economics and his actual work
on the ground in minting and distributing the
coins over the last eight years has now
resulted in the circulation of approximately
50,000 coins throughout Indonesia. At first
look, traders generally express mistrust and
of which is called the daniq). The daniq has
been minted very recently and may be
considered the most important coin for basic
and daily market transactions. Some signifi-
cant aspects of the recent launch of the daniq
will be discussed later.
The exchange value of the coins follows the
market price at the time of transaction. The
wakala keeps track of the daily fluctuations
in the exchange rate with the Master Wakala
– since the prices of gold and silver, in terms
of paper money, fluctuate daily. The minting
and distribution costs, which amount to about
4 per cent in total, are then added onto the
price of the coins.
In a terse brochure published by the Wakala
Induk Nusantara entitled, “Use Dinar and
Dirham – Daily Transactions, Hand to Hand,”
the various uses of the coins are seen as
follows:
The brochure states one of the strongest argu-
ments for the use of the coins as currency thus,
“Besides the obligation to use them to pay
zakat, etc, by using them your wealth will not
be affected by inflation. The value of all
paper-based currencies is always dropping,
but the values of the dirham and the dinar
always increase. Their values appreciate
by 20-25 per cent annually.”
Pak Zaim Saidi argues succinctly that since
12 13
COVER STORY
suspicion but on inspecting the small
certificate from the Royal Mint of Indonesia
that accompanies every coin in a plastic
cover, they accept them at once as payment,
often astonished that each silver dirham is
worth many times more than the ten thousand
rupiah note. This is because the only silver-
coloured coin they see every day is the 500
rupiah, which has no purchasing power at all
on its own.
Zakat and MarketsThe most significant element of Pak Zaim’s
Amirate of Indonesia is the collection of Zakat
and the organisation of markets to encourage
entrepreneurship and trading links amongst
Muslims that will break the barriers of
monopolies, oligopolies and the giant private
corporations of production in Indonesia.
Zakat is the fallen pillar of Islam. This is
because, unlike sadaqah, Zakat is taken –
clearly mentioned in the Quran (9:103) –
taken by an Amir who is then responsible for
its immediate distribution to eight categories
of people mentioned in another verse of the
Quran, a distribution which, according to
some scholars, has to be done before sunset
or, according to others, within three days.
Neither can Zakat be collected in paper money
but rather in real wealth, and in the case of
savings or businesses, it has to be collected
in dinars and dirhams.
Pak Zaim has taken on this task of collecting
Zakat via the coins that he has been minting
and then distributing them in the regular
markets he organises. He has set up the ‘Baitul
Mal Nusantara’ so that Zakat is collected and
distributed by zakat collectors, particularly in
markets.
This is because when the coins are distributed
to the poor, needy and those eligible to
receive them, the next question arises, ‘How
can they be utilised?’ Since Zakat is distributed
in parallel with the organisation of markets,
those receiving the money may immediately
spend it according to their needs. To date
seven Market Day Festivals have been orga-
nised based on the Islamic model of the free
market in the major cities of Indonesia.
Traders are not charged rent for a space in
the market, with anyone being able to trade
anything there and with those coming to the
market being given the freedom to use the
coins together with the rupiah. People have
freely exchanged their paper money for the
coins and have spent them in the markets with
pleasure.The Mayor of Depok has taken part
in two such markets which stimulated an
increasing confidence in the coins.
It is important to mention here that Pak
Sufyan, who lives in Cilincing, has achieved
tremendous success in convincing the traders
of his particular district to accept the dinar
and the dirham as a medium of exchange. A
pasar malam or night market operates every
evening in Cilincing, which has attracted the
attention of the mainstream media of Indo-
nesia as well as several international journa-
lists. Near to Cilincing, traders in a series of
shops beside a fishing village have begun
accepting the coins as currency as well.
Umar Ibrahim Vadillo, the Spanish Muslim
who pioneered the whole movement of the
dinar and the dirham and is the key to its
reintroduction in Asia, in 1992 in Spain
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
COVER STORY
minted the first gold dinar since the collapse
of the Ottoman Islamic Dawlah.
Vadillo once remarked in a lecture at the
International Islamic University of Malaysia
(IIUM) that there are only two steps to the
establishment of the dinar and the dirham as
currency: their minting and distribution, and
their being used. In Indonesia, with the
problem of the minting and the distribution
solved, the spread of their use now begins.
It is important to mention here that the
organisation of markets for the use of the
dinar and the dirham is the antidote to the
current capitalist procedure of establishing
shopping malls and giant supermarkets that
involve huge corporations supplying them
with commodities as well as requiring massive
investment, a procedure which has destroyed
entrepreneurship and raised too many barriers
for the man in the street to be able to engage
in trade. As such, the only possibility for the
trader is a bank loan, which contains, if
admitted, the very seeds of the destruction
of that business.
On the other hand, Pak Zaim’s efforts have
enabled any man in the street to be able to
trade. If someone desires to trade but has no
capital to start with, the person may get an
interest-free loan for the purpose from the
Wakala Induk Nusantara in dinars and dir-
hams.This is called ‘qirad’ or a profit-sharing
investment in trade. Many people have
successfully started trading through such
loans and have also begun repaying the loan.
Pak Zaim has recently begun another major
operation for the distribution of dirhams
through a non-commercial channel. He has
called it Garnissun Bangsa. It is an acronym
taken from parts of an Indonesian phrase
14 15
COVER STORY
that means, Nationwide Movement for
Dirham Spending and Sadaqah for National
Resilience.
It is a campaign for economic strength, to
encourage people to use dirhams in all
transactions and give dirhams as charity.
Besides the numerous activities organised
under Garnissun Bangsa, such as the business
loans, Pak Zaim has started the Million
Dirhams Give Away Campaign. It is to urge
people of means to give to people without
means doing so in Dirhams, which will help
in the distribution of the coins.
People may give via the mosque or any
charity organisation or straight to families
and individuals. When a million dirhams
enter into the economy, they start making a
difference because, as mentioned above, the
coins preserve purchasing power and are a
good store of value and therefore immune
from inflation.
The Daniq and the Nisfu Dirham On 18 April 2010, the daniq and the nisfu
dirham (half dirham) were officially launched
at the seventh Market Day Festival organised
by Amir Zaim. It was a historic event as the
daniq has never been minted as a coin in
Muslim history; it has only been used as
’odd-shaped clippings’ taken from existing
silver coins of the respective time.The weight
and value of the daniq has therefore been
determined now.
The festival was attended by a number of
significant government officials and leaders
of large organisations including the Mayor of
Depok, Bapak Dr Ir Nurmahmudi Isma’il, and
the Chief of Police, Kiyai Sanwari Ahmad.
Zakat was also distributed the previous
afternoon and that very morning. Both the
people who came to the market and the
officials received the launch of the two new
denominations of the coins appreciatively.
The nisfu dirham and especially the daniq,
solve the problem of using the dirham
in very basic transactions. Now for an angkot
(minibus) ride, which costs exactly one daniq,
the people may freely use the coins without
any need to expect any rupiah as change.
Secondly, for small transactions like a cup of
tea or coffee, even if paid with a dirham,
change may be given in a nisfu dirham and
daniqs.
This will help distribute the coins more widely
around Nusantara. In short, though the use
of the coins still functions together with the
use of the rupiah, the introduction of the
daniq and the nisfu dirham has potentially
freed Indonesians from dependence on the
rupiah. Moreover, now anyone can exchange
almost any amount of rupiahs for dirhams and
over time they in turn may be exchanged
for dinars. This may be the catalyst for the
people’s completely severing their links
with Bank Indonesia. Pak Zaim continues to
educate the public about the dinar and the
dirham as solutions to the problems created
by the fictions of both the electronic rupiah
and the paper rupiah. He has given numerous
television interviews, authored several books
on the subject and organised many seminars
and markets to expand the work. Ilusi
Demokrasi and Kembali ke Dinar are two of
his most important books. He has also trans-
lated Umar Ibrahim Vadillo’s book Heidegger
for Muslims from English into Bahasa
Indonesian.
His website www.wakalanusantara.com is
constantly updated with news of events and
developments with regard to his work. The
prices of the coins are also updated twice
daily according to world gold and silver prices
to avoid any loss due to daily fluctuations.
The very strength of the political estab-
lishment in the world today, including
Indonesia, lies in banking and imposed
currencies. Be it a secular, Islamic, capitalist
or communist state, regardless of the name,
the modern state has three foundational
elements: a constitution, a national debt and
an imposed currency.
The economic strength of those in power is
due to the latter two – the national debt
and the imposed currency. For this reason,
no state recognises gold and silver or any
other commodity as money.Therein lies both
their strength and their weakness since it is
in no way against the law to mint coins and
use them as a ‘barter currency’. The people
of Indonesia know them to be money. But
the government refuses to acknowledge
them and only recognises them as ‘barter
currency’ or means for a partial payment
system in buying and selling. In Indonesia there
is a model for any serious person in any part
of the world who has realised the fraudulence
of paper money, it having no intrinsic value
and consequently losing its purchasing power
irreversibly, and thus its incapacity to function
as a reliable medium of exchange.
As the US dollar falls, all currencies pegged
to it therefore fall with it. A close study of
the working monetary model of the
Indonesian Amirate is essential to avoid the
massive transfer of wealth from the poor
and ordinary people to the super wealthy
that always occurs every time the value of
paper-based money falls.
Text By Hasbullah Shafy’i
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
ECONOMY
It has been almost three decades since the
politically motivated war between Argentina and
Great Britain over the desolate Falkland Islands,
where it was well known that there were large,
undiscovered reserves of oil and gas. This gives
the present Afghan conflict a painful irony as a
similar message has been making the rounds
within the international community. According
to American geologists and the Pentagon, there
are large and diverse natural resources buried
under Afghan soil. According to the International
Monetary Fund, the war-torn country is one of
the poorest nations in the world. In 2008, the
country’s income stood at $425 per capita.
WEALTHY, POOR AFGHANISTANMASSIVE RESERVES OF NATURAL RESOURCES DISCOVERED
“This is perhaps the best news Afghanistan
has had in recent years”, said Waheed Omar,
spokesman for weak Afghan President, Hamid
Kharzai, in Kabul after the publication of
the astounding geological report. He was
careful to stress that it was conducted on
behalf of the government. It is hoped that in
the long-term, this discovery will unite the
Afghan people.
According to Soviet geologists, the prepara-
tory work that contributed to the discovery
was carried out during the occupation in the
1980’s. After the Soviet withdrawal, Afghan
experts firstly hid the maps and data and
then returned them to the official document
archives after the fall of the Taliban in
2001. American geologists arrived in 2004
and made the records the basis of their own
research.
It was not until 2009 that a Pentagon bureau
on economic development was informed of
the discovery, that mining experts carried out
checks, and that finally U.S. Defence Secretary
Robert Gates and Afghan President Karzai
were briefed. It has been estimated that there
are natural resources worth just over a trillion
U.S. dollars.
Enormous reservesAccording to a senior U.S. government official
quoted in the “New York Times”, stockpiles
include large reserves of iron, copper, cobalt
and gold. The Times report was essentially
based on a Pentagon report. The mineral
reserves are enough to turn Afghanistan into
a “world-leading mining centre”, with mining
becoming the backbone of the Afghan
economy, according to Jalil Jumriany, adviser
to the Afghan ministry for mining. Notably,
Afghanistan was described in the Pentagon
report as the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”, the
Afghan Minister for Mines, Wahidullah Shahrani, during a press conference in Kabul.
Imag
e: A
PPh
oto/
Mus
adeq
Sad
eq
16 17
ECONOMY
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
ECONOMY
key metal component in the production of
computers and mobile phones.
Remarkable timingThere may be legal doubts as to whether the
delays in the disclosure of the reputedly,
enormous reserves of natural resources were
purely down to technical delays. After all,
President Obama has recently been forced to
oust his leading commander in Afghanistan
in the midst of ever-increasing admissions of
western failure in the Hindu Kush. Some
analysts have expressed the view that
headlines regarding the alleged discovery of
natural resources serve to counter the growing
public opinion as to the futility of continued
involvement.
“What better way to remind people about the
country’s potential bright future – and by
people I mean the Chinese, the Russians, the
Pakistanis, and the Americans – than by
publicising or re-publicising valid (but
already public) information about the region’s
potential wealth?” wrote Marc Ambinder,
political editor of the magazine “The
Atlantic”, in his blog.
Blake Hounshell, chief editor of “Foreign
Policy” recalls that the U.S. Geological Survey
(UGS) published an online report in 2007 on
mineral resources [excluding gas and oil] in
Afghanistan. It said, “Afghanistan has signi-
ficant amounts of undiscovered non-fuel
mineral resources.”The World Bank prepared
that, with their report on the extensive
economic potential of the Afghan mining
industry going back to 2004.
Natural resources andcounterinsurgencyThe optimistic Afghan and U.S. voices are
questionable. Increase in wealth is not the
only outcome to be expected from mining.
In Afghanistan, the various militant factions
now have – alongside the opium industry –
another crucial incentive to continue their
armed struggle.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, many
of the alleged natural resources are in
Taliban controlled areas [Ghazni, Kandahar
and Zabul], who could potentially free them
from a reliance on revenue generated by
opium, which essentially represents their only
source of income, that and the collection of
protection money.
Also, neighbouring countries such as resource-
hungry China – and their direct competitor
India – have an increased incentive to both
directly and indirectly interfere in Afghan
internal affairs.According to information from
think-tank “Stratfor”, the Chinese company
China Metallurgical Group Corporation, has
already committed 3 billion U.S. dollars in
advance and agreed to pay a further 400
million thereafter for the mining rights to
secure the copper deposits from Aynak in
Logar province. Last year verification drillings
were carried out and a temporary base is
now being prepared. A railway line, power
plant and copper smelter are in the pipeline.
In the months since the implementation of
counterinsurgency measures, which according
to experts are increasingly based on those
carried out by the French in Algeria, the losses
of U.S. and NATO troops have risen sharply.
A symbol of the de facto failure was the result
of the “battle” around Merja in Helmand
Province.A second planned campaign in and
around the key city of Kandahar has been
postponed for months.
“In that respect, the appearance of the Times
story looked to many observers like part of
an effort to strengthen the case for giving the
counterinsurgency effort more time,” agreed
political commentator, Jim Lobe.
Hostile geopoliticsThe geopolitical situation in Afghanistan and
relations with its neighbours – in addition to
technical, military and political issues – is
likely to be the biggest challenges needed
to be taken into consideration. How are
countless tons of valuable ore from a
country without access to the sea to be
transported to the region’s major ports?
It is the opposite problem to that with which
the NATO commanders are presently occu-
pied. They have spent years striving to find
secure supply routes into Afghanistan.
Pakistan would be an option, but the border
crossing points have proven to be dangerous.
In addition, Pakistani transportation is tradi-
tionally considered by western observers to
be in the hands of a corrupt group of brokers
– the so-called “transport mafia”.
Iran, located to the southwest would represent
a different route. But simmering unrest
currently plagues the southeastern regions.
Furthermore, it seems clear that faced with
new sanctions against Iran and the earlier
refusal to approve pipeline projects through
Iran, NATO and the US have no real interest
in this option.
A third option would be to transport the
Afghan ore through Central Asia and Russia.
But this, according to NATO, is a lengthy and
expensive journey – two and a half times as
long and as costly as going through Pakistan.
Experts dampen optimismOfficial US experts have already warned
infrastructure, awkward logistics, security
threats, and corrupt negotiations.”
The planners of “Stratfor” came to a para-
mount conclusion on the potential develop-
ment of Afghanistan’s natural resources:
“Over the next few years there will be little
meaningful impact on the ground in
Afghanistan in terms of investing in and
developing the country’s minerals. The key
question at this point is how Washington
will play this mineral-wealth story to serve
its interests in the region, especially as the
United States struggles to break a stalemate
in southwestern Afghanistan and force the
Taliban to the negotiating table.”
that extracting Afghan natural resources will
not be simple and that it could take years to
convert the recently discovered minerals into
actual revenue. “It’s not a quick win,” said
Jack Medlin from the U.S. Geological Survey
at a briefing at the Pentagon.
Representatives of the Pentagon and the U.S.
State Department acknowledged that there
was a general sense of optimism, in spite of
the fact that efforts to extract the raw minerals
were being hampered by remote locations,
weak infrastructure, a lack of powerful
equipment and a strong military resistance.
“Turning the potential of Afghanistan’s
mineral wealth into actual revenue will take
years”, said State Department spokesman
P.J. Crowley.“As you know, mineral extraction
faces numerous but not insurmountable
challenges.”
The extraction and transportation of the
coveted ore is a logistical challenge, even
with developed railway and road networks.
Even if Afghanistan had these means of
transportation, it would remain questionable
whether the mining of natural resources
would be economically viable.
Experiences with investments in Afghanistan,
such as the aforementioned Aynak copper
deposits show, according to “Stratfor”, that
typically slow development, is being further
hampered “by problems relating to poor
18 19
ECONOMY
Text By Sulaiman Wilms
China’s focus on Afghanistan’s resources: inaugaration of the Aynak copper project.
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
ECONOMY
20 21
ECONOMY
Before the US began to export its democracy
to Iraq, the country was one of Russia’s main
trade and economic partners in the Middle
East. At that time the attractiveness of the
Iraqi market for Russia was expressed by the
country’s high paying capacity, guaranteed
by its having the world’s second highest oil
reserves, and good export prospects.
On the one hand, under Saddam Hussein the
members of the Baath party occupied the key
ruling positions in all spheres of life of the
Iraqi society and it was a common practice
for them to distribute part of the oil
export profits amongst each other. Such
practice is known as the muhassa system
(“proportional distribution”) but from the
perspective of the Western economic model
it was the way to stagnation.
On the other hand it ensured a certain degree
of stability in Iraq where people had become
used to this system. As Evgeny Primakov, an
expert on Iraq, says, “Iraq is specifically
different. The economic development of the
country as a whole is ensured by the evolution
of traditional economic practices and not by
the planting of Western democracy.”
Before the much vaunted democratisation
began in Iraq, the representatives of the US
did a lot of talking about big oil deposits in
the country saying that hydrocarbons would
ensure the development of the Iraqi economy
and lead it towards modernisation. Did it
happen? At the end of 2009, the Iraqi govern-
ment tendered for the development of its ten
oil fields. Many foreign companies bid for
their development and, as expected, most of
the winners were international consortiums
including two Russian companies – Lukoil
and Gazpromneft. However when it came to
the distribution of the contracts aimed at
the quick economic restoration of Iraq, not
everything was transparent.
According to a Mr. Al Khafaji, an Iraqi citizen
who worked with the US State Department
before the war, the companies which received
contracts arranged six subcontracts with
At the beginning of US intervention in Iraq there
was talk that democratisation would lead to
prosperity. In practice it turned out to be wrong.
In 2005, when the constitution of Iraq was
approved, Iraq was proclaimed a democratic
state. From the results of the elections (2005 and
2010) new governments were formed, but, to put
it mildly, the development of the Iraqi economy
leaves much to be desired.
DETRIMENTAL TO THE ECONOMYIRAQ: ON THE AMERICAN EXPORT OF DEMOCRACY
other firms, with each of those firms receiving
its share. But in many cases some of those
firms started working under the contract.
For example, the private US company, Custer
Battles received contracts for 100 million US-
dollars over 13 months, signed subcontracts
and then produced fake documents with
“swollen” costs.The picture gets even worse
if, as according to experts’ estimates, we add
the fact that by now Iraq has lost 90 billion
US-dollar through illegal exports of oil and
oil products.
Besides that, annually, the country wastes
about 600 million cubic meters of gas and of
the 1,041 oil wells existing, only 441 are
being exploited. The country uses less than
half its export potential estimated at 4.2
million barrels.
Over the last seven years of the Iraqi demo-
cracy, not a single oil processing plant has
been built in the country despite proposals
from foreign companies. According to infor-
mation from the control department of the
US Congress, of the 2 million barrels of oil
produced in Iraq daily, 100 – 300,000 barrels
remain unregistered which amounts to
between 5 million and 15 million US-dollars
in monetary terms.
Comparing the economic state of Iraq under
Saddam Hussein to the situation now, we can
conclude that the export of US democracy
turned out to be detrimental to the Iraqi
economy.Western democratic models do not
work in the Arabic world. (Source:RIA Novosti)
The author is a Strategic Culture Foundationinvestments expert on the energy sector in theMiddle East and Africa.
Text By Eldar Kasayev
GLOBALIA | Issue 07 | January 2010
GLOBAL
22
President Obama came pretty close to having
a MacArthur moment and, following in the
footsteps of President Truman, swiftly dealt
with it. General McChrystal and his top aides
had disparaged civilian leaders, including
President Obama, in their conversations with
a freelance journalist, reported in an explosive
article captioned “The Runaway General” by
Rolling Stone magazine.
Taking shots at the president, according to the
article, McChrystal described his first meeting
with him as “disappointing”, saying that the
president came in “unprepared” when, shortly
after taking office, President Obama met
with senior military officers at the Pentagon.
A source familiar with the meeting said
McChrystal’s assessment of Obama was that
of a president who was “uncomfortable and
intimidated” in the presence of military top
brass.
According to McChrystal’s staff officer, the
magazine reports, their second encounter
four months later did not make a mark on
McChrystal either. This was when he met the
president briefly in the Oval office after being
selected for the job in Afghanistan. McChrystal
called this a photo-op and was said to have
been disappointed that the commander-in-
chief, quote, “didn’t seem very engaged.”
The article also contains a number of
disparaging remarks made by McChrystal and
his aides about vice-president Joe Biden,
national security advisor Jim Jones, special
envoy Richard Holbrooke and the US ambas-
sador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry.
The general’s aides were clearly dismissive of
the civilian misreading of the war, with the
general himself ridiculing the vice president
Biden in a one-liner when he asked:“Are you
asking about Vice President Biden?” then
adding,“Who’s that?”McChrystal held a grudge
against Biden ever since he had opposed the
surge that McChrystal had proposed in
support of a new counter-insurgency strategy
to rescue the failing war and to which Obama
had agreed over Biden’s objections.
President Obama lost no time in removing General
Stanley McChrystal from his command of US and
NATO forces in Afghanistan, appointing General
David Petraeus in his place. He moved quickly to
restore the unity of his administration’s war
effort by reiterating the chain of command
and reminding the military of the supremacy of
civilian authority.
“THE RUNAWAY GENERAL”LEADING COMMANDER SACKED FOR INSUBORDINATION
23
GLOBAL
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
GLOBAL
The article quotes McChrystal as calling
Richard Holbrooke a “wounded animal”
because he “keeps hearing rumours that he’s
going to be fired.” His aides derided Jim Jones
by calling him a “clown”.
The White House was furious, as was Obama.
This unbecoming conduct amounted to
insubordination by no less than a general
officer holding a very important command.
This called for a severe reprimand and
dismissal.The general was summoned, given
a hearing by the president and commander-
in-chief and, in a show of grace, asked to
resign.
There were concerns in Washington that
McChrystal’s departure in the middle of a
war could cause a major set back to its
execution and the timelines that Obama had
prescribed for the military in Afghanistan.
Some argued that after a presidential
scolding he should be allowed to return to
his post and finish the job.
But Obama had other concerns.The general’s
conduct had brought out into the open three
fault lines that now needed to be addressed
urgently.
Firstly, the friction between a civil and military
leadership over the conduct of the war with
the fundamental question as to who is in
control of a war effort that is de facto going
nowhere. This is despite Robert Gates being
in charge of the Pentagon, having been
retained from the Bush administration for the
very purpose of ensuring continuity of smooth
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Secondly, the Pentagon has been blaming the
administration for not understanding the war
with the government retorting that the
Pentagon did not appreciate political realities.
Out of sync with each other, they have conti-
nued to operate within their own spheres.
The military high command however having
initially agreed to the timelines set by Obama
when he gave them additional troops and
the funds to turn things around in Afghanistan
last autumn, not truly accepting them.
They argue that counter-insurgency operations
can not be realistically limited to a given
length of time. The political leadership has
accused the Pentagon of indirect insubor-
dination with the Pentagon responding by
saying that the administration is focused
more on withdrawal and less on winning
the war.
And thirdly, McChrystal was habitually
crossing a venerated line in openly criticizing
the civilian chain of command and manipu-
lating the leadership, which sent the wrong
signal down the line. Obama had had to give
him a dressing down during his visit to
Copenhagen last year after McChrystal had
criticized Vice President Biden in a speech in
London for advocating a scaled-down war
effort, in conflict with McChrystal’s own
strategy of increasing troop strength.
Earlier last autumn, McChrystal was suspected
of having leaked his Afghanistan strategy
document to the media arguing for an
additional 40,000 troops even before
President Obama could evaluate it and make
a judgment; calculated to put the president
in a box and make him concede to his
demands. An angry White House made muted
accusations of insubordination.
Being thus emboldened, believing himself
indispensable and enjoying the support of
McChrystal’s unfinished legacy: the unsuccessful campaign around the town of Marja.
Eikenberry and Richard Holbrooke.
The fallout over the McChrystal scandal will
affect Pakistan too; where the civilian and
military leadership has chosen to quietly
watch the drama unfold. McChrystal often
visited Pakistan in an effort to win support
for the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and deve-
loped close ties with military commanders,
starting with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan’s
army chief, with whom he held frequent
meetings. Effective cooperation and intelli-
gence sharing exists between the two sides.
There remains an uncertainty, however, as to
whether this cordial relationship will be
maintained by the new US and NATO
commander General Petraeus.Although he is
no stranger to this war and to the region,
having overseen both the war and General
McChrystal and fully familiar with the realities
on the ground, remaining in close contact
with Pakistan’s military commanders.
General Petraeus nevertheless remains an
unknown entity as a person physically
handling the operations. Pakistan will also
be closely watching the nature of his relation-
ships with other groups in Afghanistan,
particularly those that work to destabilize
Pakistan and the region.
A strong working relationship with Islamabad
is and should decisively remain a central part
of the US war strategy, not only because of
the sensitive common borders and the fact
that Pashtuns straddle both sides of the border
but also because the events in Afghanistan
directly impact Pakistan.That Pakistan is in a
position to play an important role in promo-
ting peace goes without saying.
24 25
GLOBAL
the Pentagon, particularly Robert Gates,
McChrystal committed the grave indiscretion
of publicly ridiculing the civilian authority to
whom he reported. But this time he forced
the president’s hand too far.
Fears that General McChrystal’s abrupt
departure from the theatre of war would
cause serious disruption are, in fact, unfoun-
ded. It is not uncommon for commanders to
be changed during the course of a war.
Pending the Senate approval of General
Petraeus for the new job, a British general
who was next in seniority had already taken
over to ensure there were no missed heart-
beats in the chain of command.
The entire military leadership, including
General Rodriguez, the US and NATO second-
in-command, continues to oversee day-to-
day operations as before. Subordinate com-
manders will also continue to follow the
strategy and orders that are already in place.
General Petraeus was in fact the architect of
the war strategy presented to President
Obama by McChrystal and approved for
implementation in Afghanistan, a strategy
that Petraeus had already put in place in
Iraq and where McChrystal also served. For
Petraeus, highly regarded for his performance
in Iraq, this war and the strategy are nothing
new.
In taking this decision, President Obama
ignored the plea made by President Karzai
who cautioned Obama against McChrystal’s
removal, expressing fears that it would derail
the war. For Karzai, McChrystal was also
important as he got the full backing of the
general, who also served as his channel of
communication with Washington. Karzai is
not on speaking terms with ambassador Text By Shahid R. Siddiq Stanley McChrystal
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 20Issue 08 | August 201100
INTERVIEW
“The debate in Europe has shifted in the last 25
years (effectively a whole generation) from
immigration to the visible symbols of Islam, which
has created a paradox: even people who were
opposed to immigration now acknowledge that
the second and third generation of migrants
are here to stay and that Islam has rooted itself
within Europe. So now the debate is about the
status of Islam.”
“LIBERAL” VERSUS “RADICAL”AN INTERVIEW WITH FRENCH AUTHOR OLIVIER ROY
The debate about Islam in the West, principally
in Western Europe, has been developed along
ideological lines. Hitherto, it quite often came
to a rare – given the former political dialectic
of “left” and “right” in the European
landscape – fusion of anti-Muslim and anti-
Islamic rhetoric.
But too often, religions and their practices
have been confused with ideologies and their
proponents. These days, it is mostly the
”talking heads” or “pundits” of mainstream
TV or the press who dominate the ”discourse”.
within Europe. So now the debate is about
the status of Islam. And here we have a
strange phenomenon: while anti-immi-
gration feeling is mainly associated with the
conservative right, anti-Islamic sentiment is
to be found on both the left and the right,
but for two very different reasons.
For the right, Europe is Christian and Islam
should be treated as a tolerated, albeit inferior,
religion.There is (unfortunately) no way to ban
it (because of the principle of “freedom of
religion”, inscribed in our constitutions,
international treaties and UN charters), but
there are means to limit its visibility without
necessarily going against the principle of
freedom of religion (for instance the European
Court of Human Rights did not condemn the
banning of the scarf in French schools).
For the left, the issue is more generally
secularism, women’s rights and fundamen-
talism: it opposes the veil, not so much
because it is Islamic, but rather because it
seems to contradict women’s rights. Hence
the debate on Islam disguises a far more
complicated issue: what is a European identity,
and what is the role of religions in Europe;
and of course, on these two issues the left and
the right take very different positions. But we
are witnessing the rise of new populist
movements (like Geert Wilder’s In Holland)
mixing both approaches, basically siding with
the right but using leftist arguments.
Question: In your book, you say that
fundamentalists like Al-Qaida have
nothing to do with the tradition of Islam.
But for the people of Europe, they appear
very traditional.Are Al-Qaida and similar
organisations and movements a modern
phenomenon? How do you explain this
matter?
Independent experts and authors like the
French author Olivier Roy are helping to paint
a different picture. For Roy, extremist groups
like Al-Qaida (AQ) have more in common with
the political-terrorist movements of the
European past than with Islam.
Question: In Switzerland, a majority voted
for a ban on minarets; in France and in
Belgium, the Islamic headscarf is under
serious debate; in Italy the crucifix is
coming under fire. And also here, in
Germany, the debate surrounding Mus-
lims is often hysterical.Why do Europeans
fear religious symbols or ”foreign” reli-
gions so much?
Olivier Roy: The debate in Europe has shift-
ed in the last 25 years (effectively a whole
generation) from one of immigration to the
visible symbols of Islam, which has created
a paradox: even people who were opposed
to immigration acknowledge now that the
second and third generation of migrants are
here to stay and that Islam has rooted itself
26 27
INTERVIEW
Olivier Roy: The kind of terrorism perpetrat-
ed by AQ is unknown in Muslim history, as
well as in “Christian” history. So in any case
it is a recent phenomenon. If we consider
some of its main characteristics: suicide
attacks, execution of hostages, targeting civil-
ians; these are all tactics that have been put
into practice recently by other organisations
before AQ: The Tamil Tigers used suicide
attacks, the Italian extreme right (Bologna
bombings in August 1980), the Italian Red
brigades: if you look at the video of the exe-
cution of foreign hostages by AQ in Iraq, it
follows precisely the “staging” of the exe-
cution of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades
(banner and logo of the organisation, hostage
hand-cuffed and blindfolded, a group of “mil-
itants” staging a mock trial, the pronounce-
ment of a “sentence” followed by the exe-
cution).
By its modus operandi; its form of organi-
sation, its targets (US imperialism), and
recruitment (young western educated
Muslims or converts to Islam), it is obvious
that AQ is not the expression of a traditional
Islam (even fundamentalist) but of a recasting
of Islam under the cloak of western revolu-
tionary ideology.
Question: Are there similar Christian
organisations? Can we find a similar
development in Christianity?
Olivier Roy: It depends what you call
“Christian” (and that is the same issue for
Islam) and whether violence is motivated
by faith or by political ideology? I argue that
in both cases the motivation is driven far
more by ideology (even claiming a religious
legitimacy) than by faith. There has certainly
been “white” western terrorism (the Okla-
homa bombing in 1995, for example). But in
fact, there is no real parallel: the present
struggle looks more like asymmetric warfare,
with Islamic radicals having no air force or
aircraft carriers.
A radical Christian crusader who wants to
fight Muslims does not need to enter into a
terrorist organisation: he can just enlist into
the US air force and become a fighter-
bomber pilot. It is well documented in the US
media that the Colorado Springs US Air force
Academy is a hotbed of Christian evan-
gelicalism (at the expense, by the way, of
Jewish or atheist cadets, note: Air Force
Removes Chaplain From Post: Officer Decried
Evangelicals’ Influence, By T.R. Reid,
Washington Post Friday, May 13, 2005)
Question: How do you explain the success
of such radical movements or ideologies?
Are poverty and exclusion really the
reasons for it?
Olivier Roy: No, all the research shows that
there is no correlation between poverty and
radicalisation: there are far more Saudis than
Bangladeshis (in fact almost no Bangladeshis)
among the radicals. I think that the present
struggle is a continuation of the old fault-line
of anti-imperialist, third-worldist movements
against the West and specifically the USA.
Bin Laden says little about religion, but
mentions Che Guevara, colonialism, climate
change etc. It is also clearly a generational
movement: AQ is a “youth” movement of
young people who have split with their
families, their social milieus and are not even
interested in the family’s country of origin.
There are an astonishing number of converts
within AQ, which is now acknowledged
but not taken into account. The converts are
rebels without a cause who would have
joined the Red Army Faction (RAF) or the Red
Brigades of thirty years ago, but have now
joined the most successful movement on the
anti-imperialist market.We are still witnessing
the continuity of a mostly western, revolutio-
nary millenarianism that has turned away
from the concept of establishing a new and
just society. The new movements are pro-
foundly sceptical about building a good
society, hence their suicidal dimension (also
to be found with the RAF).
Question: Today, some Europeans main-
tain that European culture is essentially
a Christian culture, and hence that
everything Islamic is problematic and
alien for Europe.What do you think of this
position?
Olivier Roy: They say that at the same time
as the Popes (Benedict and John Paul) have
said that Europe is rejecting and ignoring its
Christian roots: the debate on sexual freedom,
abortion, gay rights is not setting in opposi-
tion Europeans and the Muslims, but secula-
rists on one hand (there are some Muslim
secularists) and conservative believers on the
other hand (whether they be Muslim, Catholic
or orthodox Jews). In fact Europe is highly
divided on the topic of its own culture,
between secularists who consider that the
Enlightenment (alongside Human rights, free-
dom, democracy) to be the real birth certifi-
cate of Europe, and the “Christian cultural-
ists” who consider that the Enligthment also
led to communism, atheism and even Nazism.
Question: Is there a real risk of
Islamophobia in Europe?
Olivier Roy: The problem is how we define
Islamophobia: is it simply another term for
racism, and specifically racism against
consider religions as “mere religions”,
whatever they say about themselves.
The issue is not what Islam says or what the
Pope says, but under which conditions a faith
community can freely exercise its rights.
Governments should contribute to the de-lin-
king between religion and culture, but at the
same time reject the multi-culturalist app-
roach of religion in favour of a neutral and
strict freedom of religion within the frame-
work of existing laws.
Question: In the media we often have
the dialectic of “liberal” vs. “radical”
Islam. Is there a “liberal” or “radical”
Islam? If we look at the five pillars of
Islam, is it possible to do the prayer
”liberally” or “radically”? Is this termino-
logy actually applicable on this matter?
Olivier Roy: No, I think the mistake is to
consider that in order to be a good citizen, a
believer has to choose a “liberal” theology.
The debate on the “reformation” of Islam is
irrelevant. People who advocate a Muslim
Luther never read Luther: he was not a liberal
and quite anti-Semitic incidentally.
The ”formatting” of Muslims into a Western
environment has nothing to do with theology.
It is done by the individual practices and
endeavours of the Muslims themselves by
attempting to try to reconcile their practices
within a western environment, in which they
find tools to do that (rethinking norms in
terms of values, for instance). In the long
run these changes will certainly translate
into a theological rethinking, but it does not
make sense to associate modernity with
theological liberalism: to think like that
means either distorting history or relying on
wishful thinking.
people with a Muslim name, whatever their
real degree of belonging to a faith community
may be, or is it the rejection of a religion?
There are anti-racist militants who cannot
stand the veil (as is the case with feminists),
while there are racist people who do not
oppose the veil (because they already think
that these people are too different from us
anyway). The issue is complex because we
haven’t tried to disentangle two issues:
ethnicity and religion.
Of course in Europe most Muslims have a
foreign ethnic background, but the distinction
between ethnicity and religion is increasing:
there are converts both ways; there are atheist
“Arabs” and “Turks”, and more and more
Muslims want to be acknowledged as
believers belonging to a faith community, but
not necessarily as members of a different
cultural community; we need to distinguish
between “ethnic communities” on the one
hand and “faith communities” on the other,
because both require a different approach,
and since “ethnicity” is less and less mean-
ingful in terms of culture, it is becoming more
and more linked with skin colour.
Question: During an interview, you said,
for example, that the biggest campaign
against Darwin in Europe was being
conducted by a Turkish Muslim using
translations of books written by evange-
lical Americans, with a consequent con-
vergence of values and norms, and even
the manner in which those religious
groups translate their convictions into
political action and intervention. How
can the political world find a way to deal
with this “drifting, deculturalized and
globalized religion”?
Olivier Roy: I think that today, the ”successful”
religions are the global and deculturalised
religions (evangelicalism, salafism, cults, etc)
not the traditional churches (the Catholic
Church, in particular). This trend is dominant
now. It does not make sense to fight
against it, particularly in countries where
constitutions prevent the State from inter-
fering with beliefs. On the contrary I think we
should accentuate the separation of church
and state by implementing full equality
between religions, but not on a basis of
“multi-culturalism”; rather we should
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
INTERVIEW
A new phenomon: Terror was unknown in Islamic history.
28 29
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
AFRICA
In times of an obvious shift of economical and
political influence from the Western hemisphere
to the East of Asia, Africa has become to the
staging-ground of a new competition. In order
to counter Chinese influence, France’s president
Sarkozy invited African leaders to an African-
French summit in the town of Nice. Bejing has
– in terms of hotly debated political issues –
proven itself as less demanding to the African
governments then its Western counterparts. So
it is less than sure they will return into the
political fold of its former colonial masters.
RETURN OF COLONIAL POWERS?CHINA-EU RIVALRY IN AFRICA SHARPENS
If China needed another prompt that the
European powers have finally woken up to
the fact they were losing the competition for
the Africa pie, it came with France’s bid to
recapture lost ground in May this year. French
President Nicolas Sarkozy presided over the
25th Africa-France summit in Nice where for
the first time he tacitly acknowledged the
success of China’s expansion in Africa by
calling on French businesses to emulate it.
Without mentioning China by name, Sarkozy
declared it was time for Europe to use
infrastructure investment along with
development aid and fight to increase its
influence in Africa once again. “Africa is our
future... the African continent is asserting
itself more and more as a major player in
international life,” said Sarkozy. “We cannot
govern a 21st century world with a 20th
century institution.”
The two-day summit, which ended June 1,
underscored Europe’s new drive to step up
its investment in Africa and imitate China’s
successful formula of undertaking infra-
structure projects and supporting private
investment to win hearts and minds.To make
his message heard Sarkozy had invited
executives of some of France’s leading
companies:Areva, the country’s nuclear giant,
oil giant Total, France Telecom, Veolia, the
world’s largest water supply company and
others.
“This summit is meant to bring policy and
reality closer and facilitate French businesses
to expand in Africa,” says Anna Stahl,
researcher with the Institute for European
Studies of Vrije Universiteit in Brussels.
“European Union (EU) businesses have been
reluctant to engage in Africa and Chinese
companies that enjoy the backing of the
The new ‘Big Brother’? African children waving Chinese flags.
Chinese mining companies in Zambia and
other African countries that have been found
to use obsolete and highly-polluting equip-
ment that has been banned inside China by
the country’s new stringent environmental
policies.
Calls were heard too about the need to rethink
China’s quest to control energy assets in Africa
that is fuelling anti-Chinese perceptions.
China’s re-examination of its practices in
Africa comes at a time when the EU is
wrestling to clarify its own position towards
China’s expansion on the continent.
Two years ago the EU approached Beijing
with a trilateral initiative on Africa, suggesting
China and the EU should work on a partner-
ship basis that involved Africa as an equal
partner. But the response from Beijing has
been lukewarm.“They don’t see the trilateral
initiative as their own,” says Stahl. “They
worry that agreeing to it could be interpreted
by the Africans as if China and the EU are
negotiating over their heads.” (IPS)
“China’s behaviour in Africa plays by the rules
set by western powers themselves,” said an
article in the Chinese edition of Global Times.
“While no western government can speak
out publicly against China’s investment in
the continent they have mobilised the media
and various non-governmental organisations
to find faults with China.”
‘The 21st Century China-Africa Investment
and Cooperation Forum’, held in Beijing on
May 28, revealed China was shifting gears to
engage more players in its dealings with
African countries, courting relations with
commercial associations and social groups
beyond the immediate ruling elites.
“The Chinese media needs to ‘go out’ too
and explain to African people what China’s
development model is all about,” Xie Boyang,
vice-chairman of the China-Africa Business
Council, was quoted as saying at the forum.
Xie claimed the absence of Chinese media in
Africa meant that its investment there was
being misrepresented by western media as
“the return of colonialism”. But some of the
participants in the forum also spoke about the
30
AFRICA
31
state have had the advantage. Now France
wants to lend support to its companies and
redress the situation.” While EU policy
towards Africa has always featured an econo-
mic aspect, the model of preferential trade
combined with aid was dominant, according
to Stahl. “Now the discourse has become
more pragmatic,” she says.
The change is dictated by the staggering
figures of China’s expansion in Africa.A recent
report in China’s ‘21st Century Business
Herald’ newspaper said China’s direct
investment in Africa has increased more than
ten-fold, jumping from a modest 80 million
US dollars in 2003 to 1.36 billion dollars in
2009. At the 2009 Forum on China-Africa
Cooperation (FOCAC) held in the resort town
of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, Beijing com-
mitted to 10 billion dollars in low-cost loans
and an additional one billion dollars in loans
to support the growth of small and medium
African enterprises.
At about the same time that President Sarkozy
was meeting African leaders in Nice, China
was holding its own seminar on how to
counter negative perceptions about its rise in
Africa. Recent official media reports have
been full of headlines like “the West envies
China’s sway in Africa” (the Global Times)
and “China and the West spar over diplomatic
ethics in Africa” (Xinhua news agency’s
website).
Chinese companies have encountered upsets
in several African countries where they have
invested to gain valuable assets – being
accused of turning a blind eye to corruption
and violating local laws. All this has fuelled
a climate of suspicion in China that the West
is waging a covert war to frustrate China’s
expansion in Africa.
Text By Antoaneta Becker
Now a usual sight: Chinese business in the streets of Khartoum, Sudan.
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
AFRICA
The question of the status of the Western Sahara
is seldom heard in the Western media, or at least
not since the 1980s. But in Morocco, which since
1975’s legendary ‘Green March’ has considered
the Western Sahara part of its own country, all
the issues relating to that disputed territory are
as current as they ever have been. Indeed they
are explosive geopolitical issues. And yet political
progress remains extremely sluggish. Many ex-
perts agree that the most promising prospect for
solving the Western Sahara question remains the
Autonomy Plan proposed by Morocco in 2007.
ON THE WESTERN SAHARAWHEN WILL THE SOLUTION ARRIVE?
To understand the conflict it is necessary to
look back a little. The area known today as
the Western Sahara was appropriated by
Spain in the course of Morocco’s colonial
occupation.The Western Sahara is extremely
sparsely populated, with an estimated
500,000 people living there.Traditionally these
have been nomadic tribes of mixed Berber and
Arab descent, known as the Hassani, to which
are added a large number of settlers from the
Moroccan heartland. The Western Sahara is
largely desertified.The most important natural
resource is phosphate, while others such as
oil and uranium are thought to exist.
Since the decolonialisation of Morocco, the
status of the Western Sahara has been the
subject of constant dispute. Negotiations with
Spain on how the area would be returned
began in 1965, with the UN supporting
Morocco. What was at issue was the future
status of the region. A trend soon emerged,
apparently instigated by Spain and later
Algeria, amounting to equating self-deter-
mination with independence – in other words,
a movement towards the independence of
the Western Sahara. The Moroccans, on the
other hand, stuck by the position that what
was at stake was a territorial, legal conflict
between them and Spain, not a matter of
self-determination.
The Spanish position was based on the claim
that the Western Sahara before Spanish
occupation was kind of no-man’s land, a terra
nullius, while Morocco and also Mauretania
33
AFRICA
32
made legal claims to the country – claims
which in Morocco’s case were basically
recognised by the UN.
In 1975, following a unilateral attempt by
Spain to hold a referendum, Morocco
mobilised everything in its power against
what it called the “Spanish-Algerian project
of a puppet state”. Morocco cited the position
of the International Court that it held a
legitimate legal claim to the area, and called
on Spain to enter new negotiations.
The ‘Green March’, which was announced on
16 October 1975 and involved the peaceful
occupation of the area by Moroccan civilians,
was designed to force these negotiations into
play; and negotiations indeed began – but
failed. There then followed a legendary
phase of conflict over the country. On 6
November 1975, the ‘Green March’ began
with around 350,000 volunteers, an event
still deeply ingrained in the collective memory
of the Moroccan populace.
The conflict threatened to escalate. Algeria
began to arm the Polisario movement, sta-
tioned some of its own troops in parts of the
Western Sahara, and created what was known
as the SADR, a kind of Polisario government-
in-exile, in the border town of Tindouf.
Morocco managed to keep the Polisario at bay
militarily throughout the 1980s, partially by
the construction of massive protective walls
along the cease-fire line to prevent the
Polisario from penetrating. Armed conflict
dragged on from 1975 to 1991. But in political
terms the situation is still today one of dead-
lock, with a large number of Sahrawis still
living in refugee camps around Tindouf.
Since the end of the armed conflict, every
effort to hold a referendum on independence
has failed through disagreement as to the
way voters would be identified.
British author Toby Shelley has criticised the
UN Security Council’s overall lack of
determination to find a solution to the
problem. Nevertheless, Shelley believes that
many presently want stability in the region
(especially the USA), which could be one
reason why the matter has begun to move
again lately.
Morocco proposed its autonomy solution in
April 2007, which was presented to the UN
Security Council. The UN then requested the
parties involved to enter into direct,
unconditional negotiation.Also in April 2007,
the UN Security Council passed Resolution
1754, which called on Morocco and the
Polisario to negotiate; this was extended to
October 2007 by the UN peace mission
MINURSO.As a result, a total of four meetings
between the two sides were held under
United Nations patronage at Manhasset near
New York, but results were not forthcoming.
Furthermore, the mission of the UN General
Secretary’s Personal Envoy, Peter van Walsum,
ended on 21 August 2008, with a successor
yet to be named.
The UN mission was most recently extended
up until 30 April 2010. Morocco has proposed
far-reaching autonomy while preserving
Moroccan sovereignty, while the Polisario
insist on a completely independent state and
accuse the UN mediator of being partisan to
Morocco.While the situation remains difficult,
the Moroccan Autonomy Plan still seems the
best solution to the conflict.
Abdel Hamid El Ouali, a professor at
Casablanca University’s Faculty of Law, in
his highly recommended book ‘Saharan
GLOBALIA | Edition 01 | December 2007
AFRICA
Conflict. Towards territorial autonomy as a
right to democratic self-determination’ has
produced a convincing portrayal of the way
the conflict developed and the great oppor-
tunity represented by the 2007 Moroccan
Autonomy Plan. El Ouali basically sees three
reasons why the Autonomy Plan was received
positively, including by the UN.
Firstly, he says, there is a general paradigm-
shift away from concepts of total state inde-
pendence for regions with ethnic minorities
within existing states, since states formed
that way often cause instability, not only
internally but also in respect to other
countries, with them usually struggling or
failing to sustain their independent existence.
More realistic and preferable, he says – and
he includes the case of the Western Sahara
in this – is territorial autonomy as opposed
to independence or complete integration into
the Moroccan state.
Secondly, he continues, independence has
always been the wrong approach to the
Western Sahara, since Morocco does indeed
have legitimate legal claims to the territory.
And thirdly, the highly developed Moroccan
Autonomy Plan was, he claims, very convin-
cing for a variety of reasons. El Ouali speaks
of “the end of the paradigm that self-
determination means independence.”
However, the so-called freedom-movement
Polisario, which is supported by Algeria and
headquartered in the Algerian town of
Tindouf, still clings to the goal of complete
independence. The Polisario was sceptical
about Morocco’s autonomy offer from the
outset, since it did not include a referendum
on the possibility of independence. What is
needed now is a new vision. El Ouali even sug-
gests the development of a more cooperative,
regionalised Maghrib similar to the European
Union, a kind of ‘Maghrib of Regions’.
Abdel Hamid El Ouali represents the view
that the Moroccan autonomy offer goes even
further than the Lund Recommendations
regarding the regulating of autonomy pub-
lished by the OSCE in 1998, and other appli-
cable standards, and that an Autonomous
Region of the Sahara would enjoy powers
that even the most advanced autonomous
regions do not have, like Greenland, the Faroe
Islands, the Aland Islands and Catalonia.
According to the Moroccan plan, the popula-
tion of what would become known as the
Autonomous Region of the Sahara would
govern themselves on democratic principles,
with legislative, executive, and legal bodies.
The powers of the autonomous region would
lie principally in the following areas: local
administration of the region, local police
forces and jurisdictions; in the economic
sector overseeing the fields of economic
development, regional planning, promotion
of investment, trade, industry, tourism and
agriculture; the region’s budgetary and tax
affairs; infrastructure (such as water, hydraulic
plants, electricity, public services and trans-
port; in the social sector things like housing
construction, education, health, work, sports,
social welfare and social security; the environ-
ment sector; and cultural life on issues such
as the promotion of the Saharan cultural
heritage of the Hassani.
The above represent altogether a larger scope
than that proposed by the OSCE’s Lund
recommendations, which, for instance, did
not encompass jurisdiction or taxes. The
Muhammad VI, King of Morocco, during his first visit in the Western Sahara.
Image: AP Images
35
AFRICA
34
exclusive jurisdiction of the Moroccan state
would however remain in the following areas:
symbols of sovereignty, in particular the flag,
national anthem and currency; symbols of
the King’s constitutional and religious
authority as Commander of the Faithful and
guarantor of freedom of worship as well as
individual and collective freedoms together
with foreign relations and the juridical order
of the Kingdom.
And yet even in its foreign relations, the
autonomous region would be included in
issues that affect it directly. Moreover, the
Sahara would even be given the possibility,
with the approval of the government, of
entering into cooperation with foreign regions
in order to further international exchange
and collaboration. Any powers not clearly
defined would be regulated according to the
‘subsidiary principle’ – in other words, with
preference for the autonomous region over
central government, something in which the
Autonomy Plan once again exceeds the Lund
recommendations. The Sahara would also
have its own financial sources from regional
taxes, income from the exploitation of natural
resources, funds from internal settlements,
and income from regional productive invest-
ments. It is these fiscal aspects that reveal the
true extent of the Moroccan Autonomy Plan.
A parliament, a government and jurisdictional
bodies are envisaged for the Autonomous
Sahara. The parliament would consist of
members from the various Sahrawi tribes as
well as members from the regional popula-
tion as a whole, and an appropriate represen-
tation of women on the parliament would
also be ensured. So the body would be chosen
by means of free, democratic elections while
taking into account the differentiated tribal
mosaic of the Region. The executive would
lie with a Head of Government, who would
represent the Moroccan state in the region
and would be answerable to the King. He
would form the region’s cabinet and nominate
the ministers, and would be responsible for
answering questions from the regional
parliament and populace.
The Head of Government would be elected
by the local parliament. His relationship to the
central government and King would be of a
somewhat symbolic nature and would aim to
demonstrate the unity of the Moroccan state;
but his influence on the actual work of the
autonomous government would be minimal.
The Autonomous Sahara would also have its
own courts to rule on disputes relating to
autonomous government decisions – again
something that goes beyond the Lund recom-
mendations. The laws, ordinances and court
rulings issued by the Autonomous Sahara
would have to comply with the region’s
autonomy statutes and the Moroccan
constitution. And finally, the population of
the Sahara would be represented in Morocco’s
parliament and other institutions, and take
part in national elections.
Abdel Hamid El Ouali sees the new Moroccan
understanding of self-determination, as
expressed in the Autonomy Plan, as post-
modern, while considering the Algerian
approach as backward and outdated since
aimed solely at state independence,
something which, as explained, often leads
to instability and is contrary to the general
trend towards globalisation.
According to El Ouali, there are now doubts
as to whether Algeria is interested in any sort
of solution at all, it perhaps preferring to keep
the conflict open as a lever to be used against
Morocco at opportune moments.Algeria, says
El Ouali, should rather show more under-
standing for the maintenance of stability in
the region, in the interests of its own internal
identity issues and ethnic regionalism.
He claims that the Moroccan Autonomy Plan
is an effective way of taking regional identities
into account without encouraging the
separatist tendencies that would be
destructive to the region.“That is the greatest
danger to threaten Maghribi territoriality,
with ethno-nationalism having become a
distraction to and an outlet for the serious
problems affecting modern societies, aiming
not for the take-over of power, but for the
disintegration of the state with a view to
creating new state entities. The country that
seems best armed to face this eventuality is
Morocco,” El Ouali sums up.
This is so, he says, firstly because of Morocco’s
strong national cohesion in spite of the diver-
sity of its population, and secondly because
of advances in its democratisation, which
have amounted to more codetermination for
local and cultural communities. Finally there
is the culture of consensus, developed over
centuries in Morocco. Strong national integra-
tion is important for the strength of a state,
and essential if the region is not to slide into
ethnic chaos. El Ouali also calls for an end to
the conflict between Morocco and Algeria,
and for closer cooperation between the
Maghribi nations. One possible approach to
that would be a five-year moratorium on a
solution to the Sahara question, aiming at
identifying a common policy for regionali-
sation within an Arab/Maghrib Union.This in
turn could lead to the stabilisation of the
whole region and its diverse ethnicities.
Text By Yasin Alder
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
ASIA
When India went nuclear soon after playing a
crucial role in dismembering Pakistan in 1971 and
after having enjoyed an overwhelming conven-
tional military superiority, Pakistan was left with
no other choice but to develop a nuclear deterrent
to ward off future Indian threats. The US invasion
of Afghanistan provided another opening for the
Indo-Israeli nexus to target Pakistan’s strategic
assets. This time the strategy used was to present
it as unstable and incapable of defending itself
against extremist religious insurgents, creating
the spectre of both Islamabad and its nuclear
assets falling into enemy hands.
THERE IS NO ‘ISLAMIC BOMB’AN ANALYSIS OF PAKISTAN’S STRATEGIC NUCLEAR ASSETS
The Indian detonation of a nuclear device in
1974 drew only a customary “show of
concern” from the Western powers. But
Pakistan’s nuclear programme, initiated in
response to the Indian acquisition of
nuclear weapons, evoked immediate and
“serious concern” from the same quarters.
Ever since, Pakistan has been under immense
pressure to scrap its programme while the
Indians remain relatively uncensored.
That the Western attitude was discriminatory
can be seen by the religious colouring it gave
to Pakistan’s bomb in the calling it an ‘Islamic
bomb’. One has never heard of the Israeli
bomb being called a ‘Jewish Bomb’, the Indian
bomb a ‘Hindu Bomb’, the American and
British bomb a ‘Christian Bomb’ or the Soviet
bomb a ‘Communist’ [or an Atheist] Bomb’.
The West simply used Pakistan’s bomb to
make Islam synonymous with aggression and
make its nuclear programme a legitimate
target, knowing full well that it merely served
a defensive purpose and was not even
remotely associated with Islam.
With India going nuclear soon after playing
a crucial role in the dismemberment of
Pakistan in 1971 and after having enjoyed
an overwhelming conventional military
superiority over Pakistan to the ratio of 4:1,
a resource-strapped Pakistan was left with
no other choice but to develop a nuclear
deterrent to ward off future Indian threats.
Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto vowed to
make a nuclear bomb.
Soon however, both he and the nuclear
programme were to become non-grata. Amid
intense pressure, sanctions and vilification
campaigns, Henry Kissinger personally
delivered to a defiant Bhutto the American
threat: “Give up your nuclear programme or
else we will make a horrible example of you.”
Indeed a horrible example was made of
Bhutto for his defiance. But he had enabled
Pakistan to become the 7th nuclear power in
36 37
ASIA
Text By Shahid R. Siddiqi
the world. This served Pakistan well. India
was kept at bay despite temptations for
military adventurism. Although there has
never been real peace in South Asia, at least
there has been no war since 1971.
Ignoring its security perspective, Pakistan’s
Western ‘friends’ refused to admit the country
to their exclusive nuclear club, though expe-
diency led them to ignore its ‘crime’ when it
suited their purposes. However, prompted by
identical geo-strategic interests in their
respective regions and seeing Pakistan as an
obstacle to their designs, Israel and India
missed no opportunity to malign or subvert
Pakistan’s programme.
Israel’s apprehension of Pakistan’s military
prowess is rooted in the weight Pakistan
indirectly provides to Arab states with whom
Israel has remained in a state of conflict.
Conscious that several Arab states look up
to Pakistan for military support in the event
of threat to their security from Israel, it is
unsettling for Israel to see a nuclear-armed
Pakistan.
Israel neither can overlook the fact that
Pakistan’s military is a match to its own.The
PAF pilots surprised Israeli Air Force, when
flying mostly Russian aircraft they shot down
several relatively superior Israeli aircraft in
air combat in the 1973 Arab-Israel war,
shattering the invincibility myth of Israeli
pilots who believed themselves to be far
superior in skill and technology.The Pakistanis
happened to be assigned to the Jordanian,
Syrian and Iraqi air forces on training missions
when the war broke out and, unknown to the
Israelis then, they undertook combat missions
incognito.
After successfully destroying the Iraqi nuclear
reactor in 1981, Israelis planned a similar
attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities at
Kahuta in collusion with India. Using satellite
pictures and intelligence information, Israel
reportedly built a full-scale mock-up of the
Kahuta facility in the Negev Desert where
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
ASIA
pilots of F-16 and F-15 squadrons practiced
mock attacks.
According to ‘The Asian Age’, London
journalists Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-
Clark stated in their book ‘Deception:
Pakistan, the US and the Global Weapons
Conspiracy’, that the Israeli Air Force was to
launch an air attack on Kahuta in the mid
1980s from Jamnagar airfield in Gujarat
(India). The book claims, “In March 1984,
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed off the
Israeli-led operation bringing India, Pakistan
and Israel to within a hair’s breadth of
nuclear conflagration.”
Another report claims that Israel also
planned an air strike directly out of Israel.
After mid-way and mid-air refueling, Israeli
warplanes were to shoot down a commercial
airline flight over the Indian Ocean that
would arrive into Islamabad in the early
morning, then by flying in a tight formation
to appear as one large aircraft on radar
screens to prevent detection, and using the
downed airliner’s call sign to enter
Islamabad air space, intended to knock out
Kahuta and fly out to Jammu to refuel and
exit.
According to reliable reports this mission
was actually launched one night. But the
Israelis were in for a big surprise. They
discovered that the Pakistan Air Force had
already sounded the alert and had taken to
the skies in anticipation of this attack. The
mission had to be hurriedly aborted.
Pakistan reminded the Israelis that Pakistan
was no Iraq and that the PAF was not the Iraqi
Air Force. Pakistan is reported to have
conveyed that an attack on Kahuta would
force Pakistan to lay waste to Dimona, Israel’s
nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert. India
was also warned that Islamabad would
attack Trombay if Kahuta facilities were hit.
The above quoted book also claims that,
“Prime Minister Indira Gandhi eventually
aborted the operation despite protests from
military planners in New Delhi and
Jerusalem.”
McNair’s paper No 41, published by the USAF
Air University (“India Thwarts Israeli Destruc-
tion of Pakistan’s “Islamic Bomb”), confirmed
this plan. It said,“Israeli interest in destroying
Pakistan’s Kahuta reactor to scuttle the
“Islamic bomb” was blocked by India’s
refusal to grant landing and refuelling
rights to Israeli warplanes in 1982.”
Clearly India wanted to see Kahuta gone but
did not want to face retaliation at the hands
of the PAF. Israel, for its part wanted this to
be a joint Indo-Israeli strike to avoid being
held solely responsible.
The Reagan administration also hesitated to
support the plan because Pakistan’s dis-
traction at that juncture would have hurt
American interests in Afghanistan, at a time
when Pakistan was steering the Afghan
resistance against the Soviets.
Although plans to hit Kahuta were shelved,
the diatribe against Pakistan’s nuclear pro-
gramme continued unabated. Israel used its
control over the American political establish-
ment and western media to create hysteria.
India too worked extensively to promote
paranoia, branding Pakistan’s programme as
unsafe, insecure and a threat to peace.
The fact is otherwise. It is technically sounder,
safer and more secure than that of India and
has ensured absence of war in the region.
The US invasion of Afghanistan provided
another opening for the Indo-Israeli nexus to
target Pakistan’s strategic assets.This time the
strategy was to present Pakistan as an
unstable state, incapable of defending itself
against extremist religious insurgents, creating
the spectre of Islamabad and its nuclear
assets falling into their hands. Suggestions
are being floated that Pakistan, being at risk
of succumbing to extremists should have
its nuclear assets disabled, seized or forcibly
taken out by the US. Alternatively, an inter-
national agency should take them over for
safe-keeping.
Pakistan has determinedly thwarted the
terrorist threat and foiled this grand
conspiracy. The terrorists have either been
eliminated or are on the run. Pakistan has
made it clear that it would act decisively
against any attempt from any quarter to harm
its nuclear assets. But if the game is taken to
another level, the consequences will be
disastrous for the region.
The Indo-Israeli nexus is losing initiative, but
as long as the American umbrella is available
Afghanistan will remain a playground for
mischief mongers. It is now up to the US to
walk its talk and prove its claim that it wants
to see a secure and stable Pakistan. It must
pull the plug on conspiracies to destabilize
Pakistan.
Shahid Siddiqi served in the Pakistan Air Force
and later held senior positions in the corporate
sector in Pakistan, USA and South Africa. He
also worked as a journalist and had a long
association with radio and television. He is
now a freelance columnist and writes on
political and geopolitical issues.
38 39
ASIA
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
EUROPE
Text By Abu Bakr Rieger
Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s leading socialist politician, visiting a Muslim Community.
It always pays to revisit the declared fringes and
examine the true situation of the minorities
there. Germany is witnessing the re-emergence
of a new racism, one which seeks to deny
Muslims the description of being “German” – not
least those born in Germany.
SYSTEMATIC OPPOSITION?GERMANY: THE OFFICIAL INTERACTION WITH MUSLIMS
Is Germany systematically opposed to
Islam? Of course Germany is a consti-
tutional state under the rule of law, or
Rechtsstaat as the Germans call it, with
a functional system for the protection
of minorities, with a free press and all
the concomitant possibilities for the free
formation of opinion.
And yet to understand the true state of a
society it always pays to revisit its declared
fringes and examine the true situation of
the minorities. Since Germany is very partial
to lecturing the rest of the world on human
rights and the protection of minorities,
there should in principal be no objection to
a bit of critical self-reflection.
The Muslims living in Germany are perhaps
its most important minority. Many of these
citizens now have German citizenship, or were
even born in Germany. Furthermore there is
also a considerable number of German
converts to Islam, but ever since the 11th of
September 2001, the Muslims in Germany
have been the subject of serious controversy.
Considered objectively, Muslims in Germany
carry very little political weight in the
capital Berlin and from the Muslim perspective
the current governing party, the CDU/CSU,
has little to recommend it.
The issues that motivate those disturbed by
this significant minority could not be more
different, ranging from a general animosity
towards religion by radical secularists, all the
way to a genuine concern in some sectors of
government that millions of Muslims could
some day form a kind of parallel society.
And, sad to say, Germany is also witnessing
40 41
EUROPE
the re-emergence of a new racism, which
seeks to deny these Muslims the description
of being “German”, even those born in
Germany. One should bear in mind that
the subject of Ausländerfeindlichkeit, or
xenophobia, widely discussed prior to
11.09.01, has now mysteriously disappeared
from the public discourse.
The way these new citizens are dealt with is
of course determined to a large extent by
political parties, media, the intelligence
services, and the spectrum of NGOs. An
poignant question on how minorities are dealt
with in practical terms is to ask whether
institutions and societal forces possess the
minimum level of fairness and neutrality.
This is crucial since the interplay between
these societal forces can potentially bring
about a kind of systemic approach which
effectively dismantles a nation’s very
protection of its minorities – even if it is not
what was originally intended.
Political PartiesConsidered objectively, Muslims in Germany
carry very little political weight in Berlin. As
mentioned, from the Muslim point of view
there are reservations, especially with the
current governing party, the CDU/CSU.
Practising Muslims have hardly ever been
promoted within the structures of other
parties either, nor have any prominent
Muslims so far been able to secure relevant
seats in parliament. On a local and national
level, the conservative party also profiles itself
against “Muslim” Turkey gaining the EU
membership. In this respect critics acknow-
ledge that the CDU, itself undergoing an
identity crisis, is attempting to reclaim its own
conservative profile by adopting a rhetoric
against Islam. On the other hand, Wolfgang
Schäuble, the former CDU Minister of Home
Affairs, did organise the Islam Conference, a
consultative body aimed at improving
relations between the government and
Muslims.
MediaOf course the mass media has a key effect in
shaping public opinion about a minority. The
generality of Muslims inside Germany are
regularly associated with extreme misfits
(‘honour’-killers, terrorists), and sometimes
with bizarre criminal acts.These associations
have a devastating public impact. The
contradictory term “Islamic” terrorism has
been effectively established by majority
media, and has never been corrected by the
publication of surveys that prove that
terrorism today has the greatest impact of all
on the Muslims themselves.
Furthermore, the mass media offers a broad
and regular forum for vehement and some-
times polemical critics of Islam, whereas
Muslim or pro-Islamic authors nowhere gain
anywhere near the same regular access to
mass media. In the mass media, the clear
balance of power between majority and
minority enables the domination of terms
and definitions, made through the evaluation
of the the nature of beliefs as either ”modern”
or “conservative” or applying the problem-
atic differentiation between Muslims and
Islamists, and forming politically powerful
terms such as “Islamism”.
The VerfassungsschutzLike other citizens in Germany, Muslims also
fear attacks and support the investigation of
such intentions. As well as having national
intelligence authorities, Germany also has a
security branch for each federal state. The
security apparatus which deals with the
“Islamist” threat has grown enormously over
recent years.The so-called Verfassungsschutz
offices, which define themselves as protecting
the constitution, liken Islamism to left and
right-wing ideologies. In doing this the
authorities barely differentiate between
modernist, traditional or orthodox Islamic
positions, although they do recognise such
differentiating aspects when assessing
Judaism or Christianity, expressing few
objections to their orthodoxy or fundamen-
talism and subjecting them to scant public
scrutiny.
The “broad” and “controversial” term
‘Islamism’ is differentiated in terms of how
willing certain groups are to resort, if at all,
to violence, and yet committed Muslims who
do not see themselves as Islamists find
themselves easily falling into dossiers that
overlap with mass murderers and criminals.
Publications of these details amount to a de
facto expulsion of Muslim communities and
individuals from the relevant sectors of
public life in Germany. Of course, Muslims
are also disadvantaged in Germany from
other angles, encapsulated in the following
problematic topics.:
The Terrorism DebateOf course, the discovery of terrorist plans by
Muslim extremists has caused quite a
sensation in Germany. It is regularly suggested
that the “Islamist scene”, defined publicly in
the vaguest of terms, could descend at any
time into terrorism and extremism. The state
of Lower Saxony has been criticised for
monitoring mosques about which no
suspicions exist, something they declare to be
a precautionary measure against potential
terrorists. Civil liberty campaigners are now
worried that the population will gradually
become accustomed to a process leading up
to a permanent state of emergency. Dozens
43
EUROPE
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
of warnings of possible attacks also influenced
the latest parliamentary elections. In fact,
undercover informers operating on behalf of
Western security services have been involved
in numerous terrorist conspiracies. What is
contentious in this respect is not the logical
necessity to investigate conspiracies using
undercover agents, it is the extent to which
advanced conspiracies are only possible given
the actions of undercover elements.
The Logic of ImmigrationMany active and widely promoted critics of
Islam in Germany insist that Islam is foreign
and backward-looking, and negate the
possibility that Muslim positions might
develop and adapt in accordance with the
changes of a technologically defined world.
German Muslims, especially those Germans
who have entered Islam, are described in
public discourse not only as “confused
misfits” or discredited as “radicals”, they are
more and more frequently made responsible
for a series of grievances in the Islamic world
as a whole. In this way, the idea that
most Muslims are merely guests in Germany
is reinforced in public. Sometimes it is even
claimed that German Muslims ought not to
be accommodated until minorities are given
similar rights in all Islamic countries.
The public confusion between culture and
Islam is almost systematically propagated,
despite the fact that a large number of
Europeans are themselves Muslims. Simi-
larly, the fate of Muslims who have been
murdered in Europe or the existence of
significant Muslim societies on the
continent, are barely mentioned and
sometimes even denied. One well-known
German sociologist was recently attacked
as an anti-Semite because he compared
stereotypes of Germany’s current public
debate with the anti-Semitism of the 19th
century.
Organisational SovereigntyOf course, government parties possess an
organisational sovereignty legitimised by
elections. However, when it comes to the way
Muslims are dealt with in Germany, this right
of the majority has certain difficult aspects.
Muslims and their organisations have had to
date barely any say in the composition of
important consultative gatherings such as
the Islam Conference. In the training of Imams,
teaching posts have been awarded to Muslims
who are proven outsiders, so that the minority
is effectively represented by a minority within
the minority. Many important German
organisational bodies such as Rundfunkrat
(Broadcasting Council), one of whose tasks
is to ensure that minority rights are protected
in the media, contain no Muslim represen-
tatives at all.
DialecticPerhaps the most alarming intellectual
phenomenon to impact on the way Muslims
are accommodated in Germany is the active
polarisation of the Muslim community.
Muslims are by nature obliged to avoid
extremes and not to gather on extreme
positions. Today in Germany, idealised
concepts of “especially good” and ”especially
bad” Muslims are widely promoted. “Bad”
Muslims are what justify the burgeoning
security apparatus and the latent mistrust of
all Muslims, while “good” Muslims, beyond
all suspicion, are required to make constant
statements exposing their quasi-secular
position. Under the pressure of extremism,
more and more ordinary Muslims are avoiding
the public eye. There is a danger that in
Germany, in the long term, public debate, as
well as academia, will only accept those who
42
actively relativise that claim to truth which
defines every religion.We must not underes-
timate the danger of a majority society
creating an Islam which it finds “pleasant”.
The public debate has led not only to a
growing level of discrimination in everyday
life, but also to a de facto professional ban
on Muslim woman who wear a headscarf.
There are also growing fears that the German
public could be stirred up to a new kind of
friend-or-foe way of thinking about the
Muslim minority in the country.
There are many reasons to defend our nation
against indiscriminate attacks – a nation
which we, like all other citizens, acknowledge.
But there are also good reasons to criticise
loudly the way Germany treats its Muslim
minority before an unintentional systemic
approach mutates into a full-blown system.
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
ECOLOGY
Under ideal circumstances, profound existential
challenges bring people together – whatever their
backgrounds. And there can be few crises to
match the ecological one, with all its implications,
that fit that description so aptly, since we are all
affected by it whatever our personal convictions.
More and more people, including pioneering
thinkers in the field of ecology, are recognising
the perhaps life-saving potential of right action
by Muslims in this regard.
“GUIDANCE FROM THE QUR’AN”ECOLOGY: THE MUSLIMS AND THE HEIR TO THE THRONE
were destroying the coral reefs. But when
the guidance came from the Qur’an, there
was a notable change in behaviour. Or in
Indonesia and in Malaysia, where former
poachers are being deterred in the same way
from destroying the last remaining tigers,”
said the future British monarch, who in recent
years has made substantial contributions to
ecological thinking in his country.
The royal heirand the ecological questionPrince Charles, whose quest for alternatives
to ecological annihilation has made him
critical of modernist ideologies and their
destructive consequences, has quite naturally
examined Islam in his search for answers.
HRH Prince Charles is the heir to the British
throne and therefore potentially the future
king of Great Britain.
English Muslim veteran activist Fazlun Khalid
is the founder of the internationally acclaimed
Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environ-
mental Sciences (IFEES). In recent years he has
made a name for himself as a pioneering
Muslim thinker in the field of environmental
protection, giving talks at prestigious events
all around the world.
Fazlun Khalid is a primary contact for
international institutions and professional
NGOs when it comes to a Muslim response
to ecological challenges. His core thesis is
that there is a relationship between the
ecological crisis and a globally unsustainable
monetary architecture.
Success in Zanzibar“The impulse for our Zanzibar project was the
fact that the fisherman there were dyna-
miting the coral reefs because they were
not getting enough fish. As a result the
44 45
ECOLOGY
“These are all very real problems and
they are facts – all of them, the obvious
results of the comprehensive industria-
lisation of life. But what is less obvious
is the attitude and general outlook which
perpetuate this dangerously destructive
approach. It is an approach that acts
contrary to the teachings of each and
every one of the world’s sacred traditions,
including Islam.”
(HRH, Prince Charles of Wales)
Recently the heir to the British throne gave
a keynote speech on ‘the relationship
between Islam and the environment’ at the
Sheldonian Theatre in the famous British
university city of Oxford. In this talk, the son
of the reigning monarch mentioned a specific
Muslim eco-project run by the Islamic
Foundation for Ecology and Environmental
Sciences (IFEES) on the island of Zanzibar
east of the African coast.
Its organisers are also busy in other Muslim
countries raising awareness of ecological
issues among Muslim populations.The project
on Zanzibar, which has received world-wide
acclaim, was the first ever in which environ-
mental ethics derived from the Qur’an were
used.
The Zanzibari fishermen stopped dynamiting
coral reefs soon after they participated in the
first workshop on Islam and Conservation in
1998. Before that they had been decimating
fish and coral stocks by using dynamite to
secure their means of living.
“Working in Muslim countries, the World
Wildlife Fund has found that trying to convey
the importance of conservation is much easier
if it is transmitted by religious leaders whose
reference is Qur’anic teaching. In Zanzibar,
they had had little success trying to reduce
spear-fishing and the use of dragnets, which
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
ECOLOGY
Rising global wealth spells disaster for the
planet, with environmental impacts growing
roughly 80 percent with a doubling of income,
so reports the first comprehensive study of
consumption. It adds to the mountain of evi-
dence that the gospel of economic growth
must be urgently transformed into the new
gospel of resource-efficient green economies,
a U.N. panel of experts panel concluded in
Berlin.
What are the biggest planetary criminals?
Fossil fuel use and agriculture, the study found.
Ironically, these are also the two most heavily
subsidised sectors, noted Ernst von Weizsaecker
of Norwegian University of Science and Tech-
nology, and co-chair of the International Panel
for Sustainable Resource Management. “In
the case of CO2, a doubling of wealth typically
increases environmental pressure 60 to 80 per
cent, sometimes more in emerging economies,”
von Weizsaecker said in an interview.
Rising affluence has also triggered a shift in
diets towards meat and dairy products so that
livestock now consumes much of the world’s
crops and indirectly consumes 70 per cent of
the fresh water and produce contributes to
much of the fertiliser pollution, von Weizsaecker
said from Brussels.The report “Environmental
Impacts of Consumption and Production:
Priority Products and Materials”, was released
by the European Commission in Brussels.
The study also found that rich countries are
now “exporting” most or a large part or most
of their true environmental impacts to deve-
Money growth: anecological disaster
loped countries by through the import ofing
goods and food from those countries. In a
spiral of destructive co-dependency, China’s
rising CO2 emissions and deforestation in
Malaysia are in part a direct result of North
American and European consumption of the
goods made there.“International trade clearly
shows rich countries are outsourcing their
impacts,” von Weizsaecker said.
At the household level, it is the goods and
services consumed, not the fossil fuel used for
cars or homes, that accounts for most the bulk
of the environmental impacts. This is despite
energy and material efficiency gains over the
past two decades. Efficiency, which has
improved on a per dollar expenditure basis, but
people are consuming more, which drowns
out any efficiency gains, said panel expert
Sangwon Suh of the University of California,
Santa Barbara.“Policy makers cannot just look
at direct emissions, they need to look at the
full life cycle of their consumption patterns
and incorporate those their impacts into their
decision making,” said Suh.
“Setting priorities would seem prudent and
sensible in order to fast track a low-carbon,
resource-efficient green economy,” said Achim
Steiner, UNEP’s executive director, which
hosted the panel. “Decoupling growth from
environmental degradation is the number one
challenge facing governments,” Steiner said in
a statement. However, this decoupling is not
happening, the report shows. And it will not
happen in the future without strong policy
interventions, said von Weizsaecker.
Politicians and economists have to abandon
their obsession with economic growth as the
solution to all problems, wrote Clive Hamilton
in his book “Requiem for a Species”. Growth
has become a powerful symbol of modernity
even though it is neither, says Hamilton, a
writer and academic at the Australian National
University. If someone is murdered, about one
million dollars to the GDP of rich countries
when costs of police, courts, and prisons are
factored in, according to his research.“Murder
is good for the economy. So is environmental
destruction,” he writes. (By Stephen Leahy)
46 47
ECOLOGY
breeding grounds of the fish were being
destroyed. Other NGOs like Care International,
which is an American organisation, could not
stop the fisherman from dynamiting the coral
reefs. They called us to organise a workshop
and training materials based on the Qur’an.
We did this workshop and it proved an
immediate success. What the mainstream
NGOs could not do over years we achieved
in 24 hours. Within one day they stopped
dynamiting the coral reefs,” he says in a
summary of the IFEES project in Zanzibar. “If
was for the simple reason that the people
realised that we are Allah’s khalifa; with the
given responsibility to look after His nature
– from which we benefit. Therefore they
stopped.”
“We have to learn this lesson. Unfortunately,
the modern situation is that we have a model
of the capitalistic nation-state whose primary
objective is to increase the living-standard
of its people.” The people want more and
more, and the only way to do it is by exploiting
the earth. “This cannot go on because the
resources are finite.”
Ecology and the Muslim worldSadly, and in spite of all the debates
throughout the Muslim world, little attention
is paid to ecology. “In ‘the Islamic paradigm
of submission’ and in the example of the
Prophetic model,” says Fazlun Khalid, “there
are none of these environmental problems.”
According to the Muslim eco-activist, Islam
is very intensively conservationist but does not
speak the ecological language because it
does not need to.
“We need to realise that the environmental
and ecological language mainly emerged in
this civilisation in the last century as a reaction
to what human beings were doing.”
“The root of environmental issues is the
financial issue,” says Fazlun Khalid.“The point
I am getting at here is a very important one.
Money can be created today – as it has been
created for the past 200 years – in an infinite
way. It can be created out of nothing. Then
this created money is addressed to the
earth which is finite. This arithmetic is lop-
sided; it doesn’t make sense. If you continue
to create money in an infinite way and then
apply it to resources which Allah has created
as being finite then the only scenario to be
expected in the long-term is environmental
destruction.”
Beyond the fetish of ‘growth’In his view, the real solution does not lie in
the implementation of ‘green megaprojects’,
but rather in a fundamental change of aware-
ness at a grass-roots level; “To train the
‘ulama, to change the school curricula and to
change attitudes.” But Khalid also has some
advice for contemporary consumers.
Even if the fundamental solution to ecological
problems lies in the renunciation of the
ideology of growth – and ‘sustainability’ –
every one of us can do many little things to
help in our everyday lives. This includes, as
shown by our Prophet, the saving of water,
and also our own reduction of the amount of
CO2 emissions we are responsible for.
Side by side?“If Muslims have the answer, they have to give
it to other people. That can only begin from
a practical demonstration of what they think
is right. If it works, other people will take it
on.” This is the bottom line according to the
Muslim eco-veteran. The combining of
Islamic principles in our dealings with the
creation, with the function of man within
that as Allah’s representative [khalifa], not
only opens up new ways of solving ecolo-
gical issues, it also allows the joining of
elements otherwise considered alien to
one another.
Numerous times over the past decades, Prince
Charles has spoken to support both Muslims
and Islam. In 1993, speaking at Oxford
University, he said, “Our judgment of Islam
has been grossly distorted by taking the
extremes as the norm.The truth is, of course,
different and always more complex. My own
understanding is that extremes, like the
cutting off of hands, are rarely practiced.The
guiding principle and spirit of Islamic law,
taken straight from the Qur’an, should be
those of equity and compassion. Islam can
teach us today a way of understanding and
living in the world which Christianity itself is
poorer for having lost.”
In a speech at the Foreign Office Conference
Centre on 13 December 1996 he referred to
Islam to help young Britons develop a
healthier view of the world. “There is much
we can learn from the Islamic world-
v iew in this respect. Everywhere in the
world people want to learn English. But
in the West, in turn, we need to be
taught by Islamic teachers how to learn
with our hearts, as well as our heads.”
“The upholding and support Prince Charles
continues to give to Islam and the Muslims
protects the status of British Muslim citizens.
When he does become king of Britain, today’s
British Muslims will be in a similar political
and spiritual position to the Muslims who
made the first migration (Hijra) to Abyssinia,”
says Muhammad Zulfiqar Awan, Director and
Lead Lecturer at Offa Consultants, London.
Text By Sulaiman Wilms
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
NGO
in Europe is on the rise, the majority of
European Muslims having been born in
Europe and speaking European languages.
EMU is a European foundation which main-
tains an organisational and communications
office in Strasbourg, Europe’s second capital
after Brussels. Like all EMU meetings, the
Skopje event from 28 to 30 May included a
social aspect alongside discussions on content
and organisation. On the evening of 28 May,
the EMU and its Macedonian partner-
organisation El-Halal invited more than 120
guests to the Bridge Hotel, where people
became acquainted in a relaxed and con-
vivial atmosphere.
The EMU’s Honorary President, Professor
Nevzat Yalcintas, gave an opening address
entitled “The Significance of the Balkans for
the European Muslims” to kick off the event
on the Friday evening. Yalcintas discussed
the historical continuity of Islam in South-
East Europe and recollected the highs and
lows of Islamic history in the Balkans.
Every year the European Muslim Union (EMU)
organises gatherings of European Muslims. This
year’s was in Skopje, and the organisers hailed
it as an important step towards the coordination
of Muslim activities in Europe. The EMU considers
itself especially connected with the region.
BEYOND IMMIGRATIONSKOPJE: COOPERATION BETWEEN EUROPEAN MUSLIMS
Panel during the annual gathering of the European Muslim Union in Skopje, Macedonia.
The backdrop for this annual gathering of
European Muslims could not have been better.
Skopje, the historical capital of Macedonia,
boasts not only magnificent architectural
treasures from the Osmanli period, but also
and more importantly a large, vibrant Islamic
community. For a period of three days, dozens
of representatives of different Muslim commu-
nities visited the old city.
Under a banner of “Beyond Immigration”
Muslims from all over Europe discussed
mutual objectives on the invitation of the
European Muslim Union (EMU). “Because,”
explained EMU President Abu Bakr Rieger in
the event’s invitation,“we are not foreigners,
we are European citizens and have always
been part of Europe.” And this situation is a
dynamic one too, since the number of Muslims
48
NGO
49
townscape today. The EMU Foundation is
especially concerned with the role of mosques
in European countries and is committed to
facilitating excellence in management,
services, accounting, education and social
programmes in the mosques of Europe, thus
addressing not only the Muslim community
but also the surrounding society.
All of the talks touched on how Muslims
could respond to the challenges of our times
on the basis of Islam. Sunday’s numerous
workgroups were about implementation in
activities such as joint media projects, the
organisation of Islamic markets, and youth
exchanges. Representatives of NGOs and
other associations also presented their work
in their home countries.“The EMU is not just
about theoretical foundations,” explained its
General Secretary Malik Sezgin, “it is about
identifying and defining practical common-
alities and activities that Muslims can under-
take together.”
In the closing address the assembly then
re-stated the closeness of the EMU and the
Balkan Muslims, and expressed the vision of
close future collaboration with the men and
women of the region. In the medium term the
organisation intends to establish a regional
office there in order to coordinate the
activities of the various member organisations
on location, and to give the European youth
an opportunity to discover authentic places
of Islam in Europe.
“The Skopje conference,” summed up co-or-
ganiser Abdulhasib Castineira, “was an
important milestone in the path towards
better and more effective cooperation
between the Muslims of Europe.”
His observations on recent history included
the Balkan Wars and the terrible crimes
perpetrated against European Muslims in the
region.
On Saturday morning the Ambassador of
the Turkish Republic in Skopje, H.E. Hakan
Okcal, gave a speech of welcome. Okcal
voiced his approval of cooperation between
European Muslims, and reminded delegates
about the city’s important role in the Islamic
world. The Balkans are still connected to
Turkey through innumerable economic and
social projects, he said, adding that “Turkey
remains strongly committed to a positive and
peaceful future in the region.”
EMU President Abu Bakr Rieger then presen-
ted the main theme of the conference. “The
European Muslims do not have an identity
crisis and are themselves a proof that there
is no contradiction in being both European
and Muslim,” he said. “Islam is not in itself
a culture, but rather filters existing cultures
and produces new, positive cultural relations
and connections. The Muslims who speak
European languages today represent a cons-
tantly growing potential from Kazan to
Granada,” Rieger added.
Other talks on the same day discussed the
difficulty the Western mind has in its percep-
tion of Islam, the new role of mosques in
Europe, and the Muslim response to the
current financial crisis.The collection of zakat
naturally connects the Muslims to the
fundamental economic issues of our age.
The President of El-Hilal, Benjahudin Shehabi,
who helped organise the conference, illustra-
ted in his lecture the basic components of
Islamic architecture that remain alive today
in Skopje. Mosque and market – the two
pillars of Islamic civilisation – still shape the
Text By Malik Özkan
Part of the European identity: young, Pomak Muslims in a Bulgarian mosque.
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
SOCIETY
Sometimes it can be helpful to transfer words
from one language – and their conceptual
meanings – to another cultural zone. But
what does it mean to me, as a German, that
one of the best-known words to come from
our language in recent times is Germany’s
notorious Angst? In the wider European and
Anglo-Saxon contexts, the term is used not
to describe a specific fear, rather a more dif-
fuse, vague sort of anxiety.
There is good reason to examine the anxiety
of the Germans; their country is after all a
microcosm of Western society. Long-standing
downward pressure on the once crisis-proof
middle class, the new phenomenon of the
Prekariat (precarious proletariat) among the
well-off, and a steadily widening income gap
have stoked fears around the global financial
system and, more broadly, around globalisa-
tion itself.
A people as barometerIt is not just an individual problem or the
pointless worry of the over-pampered
consumer classes, it is an existential
phenomenon that can display all the traits
of a clinical case. Sociologists are concerned
that widespread anxiety stemming from the
crisis and its repercussions might present a
very real danger to Europe’s social and
political fabric.
On 7 June the German public opinion
research association GFK – the fourth largest
of its kind in the world – published a study
entitled “Challenges for Europe 2010”.
According to the study, Germans are the most
worried of all Europeans.“The biggest worry
for Germans in 2010 remains unemployment.
That is how it’s been for the last 20 years.”
With a 5 per cent fall in GDP in 2009 the
German economy experienced its sharpest
A spectre is haunting the Western world – the
spectre of crisis. And the European Union’s soft
underbelly – Greece and Spain, Portugal and Italy
– is nervous. Greece and Spain were saved at the
last minute. According to some commentators,
Europe’s single currency, once celebrated as a
milestone, may now face demise. This crisis breeds
fear, easily abused for political ends – with poten-
tially dangerous side-effects. At the centre of
this fear are the middle classes, with Germany a
clear case in point.
THE POLITICS OF FEARGLOBALISATION: THE MIDDLE CLASS IN CRISIS
contraction since the inception of the Federal
Republic.
“Overall, Germans are worrying more than
ever. What is striking this year is that the
number of worries that are identified has
practically exploded. I mean, I can’t remember
us ever experiencing a jump like this, at least
not in the past 20 years. Most recently it was
2.8 worries, and now it’s 3.2 on average.
That’s a massive jump,” adds Raimund
Wildner,Vice President of the GFK, commen-
ting on the study’s results.
A new fearThese new fears should not be mistaken for
the acute worries that face the poor and
jobless in their daily struggle for subsistence.
Rather there is a dread, one that permeates
even into the political class. It affects precisely
those classes that were regarded as the
backbone of the political system in Western
Europe.
Now, into the third millennium, the unrest is
not coming from the poverty belt of otherwise
affluent Western Europe, where for decades,
anaesthesia from consumption and TV have
long isolated people from any real social life.
According to German journalist Markus
Sievers, it manifests instead, “on the front
lawns of the well-off neighbourhoods.”
The workplace that was guaranteed, the
shot at the highly remunerated position, the
house and the pension – all this threatens
to get sucked into the whirlpool of crisis –
whether in reality or in fancy. The middle
classes who, according to Sievers, up until
1989 were able to count on their share of
economic growth, are becoming fewer and
are increasingly denied access to the nation’s
wealth.
50 51
SOCIETY
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
SOCIETY
What do sociologists say?Holger Lengfeld and Jochen Hirschle from the
Hagen Institute for Sociology conducted a
survey to investigate ‘Middle-class fear of
social climb-down’. Since the inception of the
Federal Republic, the German middle classes
were considered the cornerstone of society,
protected from economic instability, indus-
trial change and failings in the education
system. But the crisis afflicting this truly
“state-supporting” class has, since the early
years of the new millennium, featured
regularly in German mass media reporting
and has now become an object of study
among academics.
According to sociologists, the German middle
classes that had profited from economic
growth have not been able to maintain their
positions long-term – whether through real
recession or just the fear of one – a pheno-
menon previously unknown in Germany. The
researchers discovered a ‘spill-over effect’ in
which the experience of loss in the lower
middle classes is felt as a fear of possible
social relegation: hence the coining of
’precariat’. “Whoever believes their own
livelihood to be fundamentally threatened
experiences Abstiegsangst,” – fear of social
relegation – says the study.
It is important to establish that this is not just
individual or mass psychosis. By 2006, the
proportion of middle income earners had
shrunk to just 54 percent of the overall
population, and the edges of the income
spectrum have widened accordingly. By
2006, 14 percent of those who were consid-
ered middle class in 2002 no longer enjoyed
middle income.
On top of that and of particular relevance in
Germany’s case, income and purchasing
power have declined in real terms.That means
that even with the same income, many
individuals and families have less means to
meet their daily needs.
Then there is the fear of losing one’s social
and professional position. Some of the middle
class, according to Hirschle and Lengfeld,
transfer the poverty they witness in the classes
below them onto themselves. Despite the fact
that they are not actually affected, say the
researchers, anxiety about their own material
future washes off on the more qualified
middle classes,“although this insecurity does
not actually reflect any objective deteriora-
tion in their own situation.”
Globalisation is the cause, anxietyis the diseaseAccording to a survey conducted in 1998 and
corroborated in May 2004 by the prestigious
Robert Koch Institute, 14 percent of those
surveyed between the ages of 18 and 65
suffered from a “clinically relevant anxiety
disorder”. After depression, anxiety is the
second most common psychological disorder
treated by general practitioners in Germany.
Many see the phenomenon of globalisation
as the major cause of widespread anxiety
disorders in the industrialised world. In France,
people have been talking for some time about
a new, massive, millennial anxiety wave.
Global pressure across borders is a significant
feature of most anxiety symptoms.According
to the website of Germany’s Economy and
Employment Ministry, “fear of being among
the losers creates insecurity and makes many
sceptical of the globalisation process.”
A comparative study by the German Marshall
Fund in Germany, France, the USA and Great
Britain, showed that the Germans and the
French are for the most part very negative
or fairly negative about globalisation, while
only 29 and 35 percent of people are wor-
ried about it in the USA and Great Britain
respectively.
After the French and Belgians, the Germans
are the next most critical of globalisation.
They consider it profoundly fraudulent and
believe it to be a condition of constraint,
which politics and economics are powerless
to overcome.
A comparison between continental Europe
and the Anglo-Saxon world - in which neo-
liberalism is more entrenched and the income
disparity much greater - reveals that stress
levels are much higher in the latter. A survey
performed by the WHO in English-speaking
societies between 2001 and 2003 showed
that a third of those questioned had suffered
from stress at some point.
Even if Germany was once ranked at the lower
end in this respect, eight years of unfettered
neo-liberal policy and declining real income
is sure to have pushed the numbers up. Since
1998, psychological disorders have risen by
almost 40 percent and are now ranked fourth
amongst diagnosis groups. As part of its
‘Living in Germany’ series, the well-known
weekly Die Zeit states that the very fear of
illness is making Germans ill. On average 19
percent of people are afraid of illness in
Germany, compared with 11 percent in other
countries.
Dangerous consequences?Michael Grabka of the German Institute for
Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin believes
that middle-class woes are not purely
imaginary.According to his theory, the middle
is crumbling. If income groups were previously
52 53
SOCIETY
While a considerable section of the West’s
middle classes – not to mention the steadily
growing Prekariat – are trembling at the
prospects of the ongoing financial crisis, others
have clearly profited.Their assets have suffered
no significant losses, despite the many
bankruptcies and collapses across the board.
Notwithstanding the crisis and general loss of
income, earnings for Germany’s well-off rose
during 2009, the crisis year, according to a
study by the German Institute for Economy
(DIW). In 2008, 19 per cent of the population
belonged to this category. “The income gap
between low and high earners has opened up
wide,” says the study. The wealthier are, “not
just increasing in number, but also on average
getting richer.” In parallel, the poor are “not
just increasing in number, but are getting
steadily poorer.”
The German experience reflects the global
trend.According to a survey by the consulting
firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG), global
assets in 2009 were valued the same as in
2007 – the year before the outbreak of the
crisis. In total the dizzying sum of 111.5 trillion
US dollars were under management, meaning
that the losses of around 10 percent suffered
in 2008 have been made up for. With 37.1
trillion US dollars in administered wealth,
Europe remains the “richest region in the
world”. The volume of assets has risen by 8
per cent. The highest growth was achieved in
the Asia-Pacific region (not including Japan),
where the figure of 22 percent is almost double
the global average.
Winners inthe crisis
The most important factors keeping the
financial bubble growing are stated as “the
attraction of the financial market” and ”higher
savings”. Particularly in Europe and Asia-
Pacific, higher savings rates had an effect on
growth. According to the consultancy firm,
global assets are set to rise by 6 percent a year
up to 2014.A global power-shift reveals itself
in the expectation that global growth will be
twice as high in East Asia than in the rest of
the world, a trend which becomes even clearer
when we look at it country by country: in
Singapore the number of millionaire house-
holds rose by 35 percent, followed by Malaysia
(33 percent) and China (31 percent).
Where and exactly how these extra earnings
come about – except on the nameless, abstract
“markets’ – remains obscure. Alongside con-
tinued speculation on the essential commodity
futures exchange, profiteers surely benefit also
from Western government debt.The greater the
national debt in Western nations, the greater
creditors’ profits become. Some time ago the
German sociologist Hans Jürgen Krysmanski
spoke about the silence on the matter: “The
identity of the creditors of debtor states is
hardly ever talked about.The Republic has one
trillion euros of debt. Next year’s budget puts
aside 40.4 billion for interest payments alone,
the second largest spending item of the Federal
government list after welfare (147 billion
Euros). So who are the creditors who, year
after year, receive a guaranteed 40 billion in
interest from that safest of debtors, the state?
It is only to a small extent the banks them-
selves, whose primary function is to act as
facilitators. In reality, the interest ends up lin-
ing the pockets of wealthy individuals: the
rich. This is one of the safest ways to redistri-
bute wealth and accumulate super-wealth. It
existed – along with the Fuggers, the Welsers,
etc – at the beginning of capitalism, it has
crept through its history, and it will probably
exist at the end of capitalism in its current
incarnation.”
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
SOCIETY
layered like an onion they now resemble
something more like an hourglass.The bottom
layer is growing and – ironically given the
crisis – so too is the upper layer. “We can
see that in the mid 1980s and 1990s the
middle class was relatively stable, making up
just over 60 percent of the total population,”
said Grabka on the nationally broadcast
Deutschlandradio.
Since the new millennium we have witnessed
a clear shrinkage of the middle class, “by
around five million people – in other words,
from 49 down to 44 million.” Equally alarming
is the fact that it is now practically impossible
for the poor to make it up to the middle.
Today it is truer than ever that, “once on the
bottom rung, always on the bottom rung.”
According to Grabka’s assessment, the
gradual disappearance of the nuclear family
is speeding up the shrinkage of the middle
class. “The fewer conventional households
there are, the smaller the middle class
becomes, as young people, single parents and
divorcees struggle to move upward or simply
maintain their social position.”
Does middle-class shrinkage present a danger
to the political model of the societies
involved? As well as providing the backbone
of the economic order, the German middle
classes also represent the ‘middle way’,
holding the ground between extremes.
“Democracy needs the median,” they carry
the weight, says political scientist Frank
Becker.
Willhelm Heitmeyer, the well-known conflict
researcher, would probably agree. His
conclusion is clear: as anxiety about social
decline among the middle classes increases,
so too does discrimination against those
considered different. Most striking, according
to Heitmeyer, is an increase in hostility to
foreigners among the middle classes. But this
hostility is no longer limited to traditional
right-wing racism; it has gradually acquired
a certain middle-class acceptability, especially
since 11 September 2001, in the more con-
temporary guise of Islamophobia. Heitmeyer
talks of a specific type of xenophobia, one
based on competition – in other words,
”competition for scarce resources, etc.”
With the financial crisis, society’s much-
vaunted values have begun to lose their social
credibility, according to Heitmeyer. Some time
ago Heitmeyer’s team published their findings
in a document entitled German Conditions.
The researchers interpret the data as a type
of ‘democracy-fatigue’ and expect a surge in
prejudice against weak groups. The financial
crisis has unleashed wholesale fear in society,
they say. Of those questioned, 92 percent fear
that the future will bring more loss of position,
and 94 percent expect more poverty.
Nevertheless, Decker sees no direct threat to
the current order, “so long as the elites keep
a firm hold on their democratic outlook.” But
it is the political class themselves that are
most prone to populism - “when strategies
of symbol-politics start to take hold […]
all the way to all-out populism.” The trend is
clearly visible, as politicians such as
Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi amply
demonstrate.
Both politicians – compromised absolutely
by corruption scandals and the influence of
their nation’s wealthy classes – have long
been running campaigns that can only be
described as just that: symbol-politics. An
example of this is the French initiative to ban
the full body covering worn by a tiny minority
of Muslim women. Although the problem
A reality in times of crisis: Germany is witnessing the return of public soup kitchens.
54 55
SOCIETY
has no actual social reality, it takes up a dis-
proportionate amount of public debate.
The Swiss social historian Jakob Tanner
similarly warns: “There are no innocent
concerns when it comes to the state of society.
There are always powers that will bundle
fears together, concentrate their intensity and
turn them to political imperatives.”
The dangerous middleFear and the politics it drives have long been
part of social debate in the West. This is
evident in the torrent of legislative measures
that have been pushed through across
Western Europe and in the USA under the
auspices of the ‘War on Terror’. In Germany
and elsewhere, it isn’t just the real danger that
counts, but most crucially the perceived one
as well, one which appears to justify the kind
of infringements in civil society that have not
been seen here since 1945.
But is it really the political extremes (not to
mention ‘Islamic terror’) that threaten the
very foundations of Western democracy? In
his analysis of the armed rampage of a
student in the small German town of
Winnenden, the political commentator Jürgen
Elsässer goes much further than any of the
aforementioned social researchers. On 11
March 2009, fifteen people were shot by a
rampaging youngster at a school in this
tranquil community in Germany’s south-west,
after which the 17-year-old attacker ended
his own life.
For Elsässer, the “killing fields of Winnenden”
are an example of the inner decay of the
middle class. “All these trigger-happy indi-
viduals are products of the USA and Western
Europe, from the metropolises of late-
capitalism. This society is breeding killers at
its core. This society means the Western one
and at its core means not on the edges,”
wrote Elsässer in the Islamische Zeitung after
the killings, adding that it is about time
security experts focused on the new dangers
rather than invoking those of the past. “The
frustrated young men from the middle
classes who would have followed Adolf
[Hitler] in the 30s are hardly susceptible to
fascism nowadays, they’re much more likely
to be nihilists. It is no longer hate of ‘the
other’ that drives them, but hate of everyone.”
Elsässer doesn’t rest with this gloomy outlook,
he sees real ways of confronting the break-
down of the middle, and he sees them in a
section of society that has not yet been
addressed in that way.“How can it be preven-
ted? Community and family are essential.
[…] the best prevention against the dehuma-
nisation of our youth is to be human with one
another. It seems to me that we Germans
could learn a lot from our Muslim fellow
citizens with respect to rescuing our youth.
Family unity, love of children, respect for par-
ents and grandparents are all integral parts
of their culture, and are much more cherished
than by Christians, let alone atheists.”
The trail of blood through the schools, he
says, shows that it is not collectivism and
control that lead to mass murder, rather isola-
tion and disinhibition. The new barbarism
does not emanate from ideological, racial or
religious mass delusion as in days gone by,
but rather from serial killers devoid of ideology
who, stranded in the desert of consumerism,
have lost their minds.
Text By Sulaiman Wilms
Violence in the middle classes: a German SWAT team while operating during a killing spree.
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
CULTURE
Walking through the streets of old Mombasa
is not an exercise in romanticism.The narrow
alleyways have not absorbed the throngs of
new humanity easily and I have one hand
entrenched in my pocket, over my wallet, in
a less than subtle gesture of alertness.
Concrete buildings with an improvised air
tower over the great stone houses that once
stood in their full splendour, and which now
shyly give way to a boisterous modernity.
But there is a certain grace to the whole affair.
Through the heat and congestion, there
exudes an age-old ease that even the Somali
merchants who clog the narrow arteries of
the town with their miscellaneous wares
cannot repress. The women walk with the
movement of a cool breeze. The old men sit
pensively observing their surrounds and a
pack of children kick a tennis ball down an
alley and give chase with the shrill clamour
of youth. I find the door that I am looking for
and walk towards it, greeting along the way
an ancient man who smiles warmly back at
me. My hand now moves beside me, no longer
perched in my pocket, as I walk with the calm
cadence of the town.
The ‘old town’ of Mombasa is the ancient
nucleus around which the present teeming
settlement has grown. As with other ancient
coastal towns, there is a marked cosmo-
politan character of both the people and the
culture. The people are of a golden hue, the
inheritors of African, Arab and Indian genes
and there remains a constant alchemy
between these golden people and those who
fall in love with the place. This is one of the
main reasons why Swahili culture and its
people have survived even though the times
hurtle forward.
Along the East African coast lie other famous
coastal settlements that gave birth both
collectively and antagonistically to this
civilisation, such as the islands of Zanzibar and
Lamu; part of what was known in antiquity
as Azania. In fact, the birth and strength of
The Muslim Swahili civilisation of the East
African coast and its islands is both long-lasting
and dynamic. One of its main features has been
to keep its identity by constantly adapting
itself to the given political circumstances. In
Mombasa’s old town one gets a glimpse into this
fascinating mix of African, Arab and Indian mix
– all under the umbrella of Islam.
THE SHORES OF AZANIAIMPRESSIONS FROM A JOURNEY TO THE SWAHILI COAST
56 57
CULTURE
Swahili culture lies in two paradoxes: it is
assimalitive while being distinct and the great
city-states that it gave birth to were both
fiercely independent and competitive with
one another and yet ultimately bound by a
common political interdependence.
“Two days’ sail beyond there lies the very last
market-town of the continent of Azania [East
Africa], which is called Raphta; which takes
its name from the sewn boats already men-
tioned; in which there is ivory in great
quantity, and tortoise-shell. Along this coast
live men of piratical habits, very tall, and
under separate chiefs for each place. The
Mapharitic chief governs it under some
ancient right that subjects it to the sover-
eignty of the state that has become the first
in Arabia. And the people of Muza now hold
it under his authority, and send thither many
large ships; using Arab captains and agents,
who are familiar with the natives and inter-
marry with them, and who know the whole
coast and the language...” 1 (From the Greek
guide for sailors Periplous Thalássos
Eruthraoas, the first century AD.)
The first antecedents that allowed for the
story of the Swahili lie in the Bantu Migra-
tions. Some of the tribes that exploded out
of the Congo at the time established villages
along the fertile eastern coast of Africa,
eventually adopting the independent
identity of Mijikenda. From here, access to the
Indian Ocean and the interior of Africa, as well
as the fertile soils of the coast, provided the
setting for a rich interaction between the
Africa hinterland and the already mythical
trade routes of the Indian Ocean.
As the volume of trade increased, so did the
influence of the foreign traders who even-
tually brought with them Islam and it was in
GLOBALIA | Issue 08 | August 2010
CULTURE
this context that the villages grew into towns
and from towns into city-states. Islam was the
‘filter’ that allowed for the hybridisation of
Mijikenda culture and the influence of the
Arab, Indian, Persian and Chinese civilisations,
leaving behind those practices that came into
conflict with the Shariah while embracing
those that did not. It would be in the twelfth
century when the first mention of these areas
as being ‘Swahili’ was first made.
It was this flourishing coast that Vasco de
Gama, the ambitious Portuguese explorer en
route to India, would encounter and see in it
a vital territory in which to establish Portu-
guese influence in the Indian Ocean and its
trade routes. On landing in Mombasa in 1498,
he received a hostile reception. Owing to the
competition between the Swahili city-states,
Mombasa’s rival, Malindi, welcomed him
warmly and in the process sowed the seeds
of an alliance that would eventually allow the
Portuguese to wrest power from Arabia over
the Swahili coast, and Mombasa in particular,
a century later. The Portuguese first returned
to Mombasa in 1500, plundering the city.
After three such attacks against the Sultan
of Mombasa, they finally succeeded in
establishing their control over the city in 1593
thanks to their support from the Sultan of
Malindi.
Portugal’s influence on the Swahili coast
survived the constant provocations by Omani
Arabs until 1698, and after a century of
confrontation the city had earned the name
Kisiwa Cha Mvita, ‘The Island of War’. From
that time until the advent of British power in
the region, it was the Omani Sultans who
ruled the Swahili coast through the appoint-
ment of governors who administered in their
name (although eventually, the Mazr’ui clan
would break from Oman with British support).
After recapturing Mombasa, the Omanis
established their power base on the island of
Zanzibar in order to bolster the coast against
foreign threats. The only occasion that the
Portuguese managed to regain their lost
territory was during the brief period between
1728 and 1729, after which they were once
again supplanted by Oman.
Footbridges in the airAnd yet life continued throughout these
constant political changes with the city-states
flourishing along the coast, giving rise to a
deeply politically-nuanced Swahili culture.
The succession of rulers and shifts in political
alliances did not affect the Swahili identity
but rather built on it. The Swahili language
itself is a good indication of the nature of this
and while it has taken from Arabic, Portuguese
and Indian, it has retained a predominantly
Bantu form linguistically2.
It was the form of governance, compatible
with that of the original Mijikenda of the
region and the ancient political orientation
towards the Arabian Peninsular that allowed
A living tradition: celebrating the Mawlid on the shores of the island of Lamu.
Footnotes:
1 Taken from: Ostler Nicholas, Empires of theWord: A Language History of the World.London: Harper Perennial, 2006.pg1022 ibid
Bibliography:
All background information is taken froman interview with Mr. Kassim M. Omar,Director, The Research Institute of SwahiliStudies of Eastern Africa on the 15th ofJanuary, 2010; Mombasa, Kenya.
58 59
CULTURE
for these great city-states to maintain their
cultural and, to a large extent, domestic,
political independence from the overt -
influences of their political overlords whose
interests were mainly focussed on the control
of the trade.The use of the Liwali or governors
allied to Oman or Portugal allowed for these
external political powers to exert sufficient
control over the region without overtly
manipulating the social and political dynamics
of the region.
Life in Mombasa in particular centred primarily
on the family and its extensions that
constituted larger clans. Even the archi-
tecture revolved around clan dynamics.
Houses were built according to the families
who lived in them and footbridges linking
one household to the other allowed the
women of the families, who were highly
protected members, to visit one another
without having to dirty their feet on the
bustling streets below. On a broader pers-
pective, the families that made up the city
shared cultural practices that reinforced their
sense of political interdependence.
“A man from Paté [a city on the Swahili Coast]
was lamenting that some of the cultural
practices he knew as a child had been
completely forgotten. He then gave me the
example of the sacrifice that included the
whole community; each family being involved
in the process. They would come together
and one family would donate the cow, others
would involve themselves in the other details
of the procession which would go around the
whole city boundary, offering supplications at
each city gate.” (Kassim M. Omar)
Such a custom served two purposes.The first
was to strengthen the community’s sense of
‘brotherhood’ and the second was a subtle
yet potent manner in which to re-state the
bounds of the community’s political boun-
daries. Such was the nature of the Swahili
culture up until the coming of the British,
first in 1824 to support the Mazr’ui clans
break with Oman as a British Protectorate and
then finally to incorporate the city and much
of the Swahili Coast into its East Africa
Association in 1887.
The Crown and its TrappingsAs they proceeded to do when they attained
the Indian sub-continent, the British began to
solidify and filter the once fluid cultural and
socio-political aspects of the Swahili culture
as a means to cement their hold on the coast.
Practices that would come into conflict with
their aim to incorporate the once fiercely
independent city-states into a larger econo-
mic and political block with its political centre
in Nairobi, as opposed to Oman, were
suppressed – the politically symbolic sacrifice
being an example.
The fluid social strata of the Wanguama (the
nobility) and the Watwana (free men) were
solidified through the use of economic discri-
mination and the census. But it would be the
abolition of the slave trade on which the
caravans into the interior and the agriculture
along the coast depended that would deal the
heaviest blow to the economic and political
strength of the city-states along the Swahili
Coast. Without the trade that had been the
lifeblood of the Swahili Civilisation since
antiquity, the Swahili culture slowly had to do
what it had done for almost a millennium
and adapt yet again to its surroundings.
However, this adaptation was unprece-
dented in that it was no longer a natural
hybridisation of cultures coming into contact
primarily through trade but the direct and
conscious enforcement of foreign values and
views using the cultural elements available,
all the while eroding the political indepen-
dence that gave rise to such a cosmopolitan
culture.
Swahili culture, however altered by British
policy and influence, did adapt and still
survives. The remnants of the ancient bonds
that held together the Swahili Coast of Kenya
in the past once again came to the fore during
the election violence of 2008 that engulfed
the entire country except for its coastal areas.
The anarchy of the interior forced the people
of the coast to lean on their historical socio-
political form, however diluted, in order to
avert the chaos; and it worked. The commu-
nity came together and formed itself into a
naturally governed island in a sea of anarchy.
It is this ability to adapt and at the same time
retain its very core that has allowed Swahili
culture to survive and it ensures that it
remains a blueprint of civilisation as long as
it holds on to that core that has its founda-
tion firmly rooted on Islam and trade.
Text By Parvez Asad Sheikh
Recommended