Behind Muslim unrest are many factors, one of which is external intervention. The recent effort in the West to rearrange the Muslim world is but one example of where imposing values and will has led to more clashes and hatred.
France - which had won some credibility for its nuanced stance on the Middle East - seems to be forfeiting a goodly portion of it by barring Muslim girls from wearing hijab in school.
Where intervention was required it did not materialize. When the Hutus were killing Tutsis in Rwanda, the West stood by and watched. The response was inaction and, in effect, appeasement. But interventions were encouraged in Lebanon to satisfy the imperial ambitions of a regional power. In Srebrenica nine years back, a UN contingent of Dutch soldiers melted away when Bosnians were slaughtered by Serbs. Instead of intervening, the Dutch soldiers ran for cover. The Indian-abetted split of Pakistan’s eastern wing in 1971 was given the label of “humanitarian intervention” though it had more to do with settling scores of Partition.
Intervention per se is not entirely devoid of merit. The Jews of Hitler’s Germany could have done with some. When it mattered, they were left stranded.
When there was intervention in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, it was said that it was in aid of a freedom struggle. But in Kashmir, it has been smeared as “cross-border terrorism”.
Intervention can be a form of neo-colonialism in that it abridges sovereignty and dilutes dignity. On the nuclear issue, the programs of Muslim nations are under the hammer while India and Israel are exempted from scrutiny.
The intervention in Iran in 1953, which ousted popular nationalist leader Dr. Mossadeq and brought back the shah who had fled to Rome, was one of the triggering devices behind the Revolution of 1978-9 and possibly beyond. New York Times correspondent, Stephen Kinzer, in his book, ALL THE SHAH’S MEN, offered his own analysis:
“In Iran, almost everyone has for decades known that the United States was responsible for putting an end to democratic rule in 1953 and installing what became the long dictatorship of Mohammad Reza Shah. His dictatorship produced the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which brought to power a passionately anti-American theocracy that embraced terrorism as a tool of statecraft. Its radicalism inspired anti-Western fanatics in many countries, most notably Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda and other terror groups found homes and bases. These events serve as a stark warning to the United States and to any country that ever seeks to impose its will on a foreign land. Governments that sponsor coups, revolutions, or armed invasions usually act with the conviction that they will win, and often they do. Their victories, however, can come back to haunt them, sometimes in devastating and tragic ways. This is especially true in today’s complex and volatile Middle East, where tradition, history, and religion shape political life in ways that many outsiders do not understand.”
The interventions at the dawn of the 21st century in the post-9/11 era have yet to play themselves out. They do promise, however, to cast a long shadow through this century.
