As I journeyed around the region I slowly began to realise the truth, and genuinely struggled for a long while making excuses for bad, cowardly behaviour. Honourable men and women are few and far between within the Arab world’s ruling classes and so-called nobility.
Frankly, the Arab leaders I have met fell far short of the ideals of the legends who had inspired me. There are no Salahuddin Ayyoubis, Khalid Bin Walids, Sulaymān Al-Ḥakīms or real “Lions of the Desert” like Omar Al-Mukhṭār or Emir Abdelkader (1808-1883), the military and religious leader who founded Algeria and launched the19th-century struggle against French occupation and colonialism.
More contemporary courageous and intellectual revolutionaries such as Yasser Arafat, Said Qutb and Hassan Al-Banna were also rarities. It would be fair to say that most of the corridors of power are inhabited by slack Muslims who are more likely to knock back a glass of Black Label whisky than a sobia or fizzy Vimto.
The so-called Westoxification of the Arab world saw the former colonised people inevitably aspire to imitate their colonisers. The result is that Westernised Arabs have embraced the corrosive habits and addictions on offer. Westoxification was a phrase coined by Iranian intellectual Jalal al-e Ahmad to describe a fascination with the West that can lead to the destruction of traditional cultural ties to Islam and the Islamic world.
I look at these Arab rulers with dismay.
They are indeed strangers to their ancestors, their own people and even themselves. As a convert to Islam I can barely recognise my faith in the actions of those who rule the Arab world with an iron fist.
The heroic figures I mentioned above commanded respect and earned the trust of their people who rewarded them with unstinting loyalty. Sadly, those in charge of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, for example, have frittered away trust, respect and loyalty on the altar of power, greed and wealth.
I was reminded of this the other day when Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Riyadh to discuss the ongoing military escalation in Gaza and the wider region. What is there to discuss other than to call for a ceasefire? Disgracefully, these two treacherous Arabs can’t do that because their strings are being pulled by puppet masters in Tel Aviv and Washington in a grotesque theatre of horrors that has already cost the lives of more than 40,500 Palestinians in Gaza.
According to the tame Saudi media, Bin Salman reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s commitment to engaging with international and regional parties to help de-escalate the situation. Does anyone actually believe such hogwash? Without an ounce of shame, he “emphasised” the Kingdom’s support for the Palestinian people in their pursuit of legitimate rights, a dignified life and a just and lasting peace.
Just out of sight of the photographer’s lens was Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan plus the General Intelligence Chief Khalid Bin Ali Al-Humaidan, as well as the Saudi Ambassador to Jordan and non-resident Ambassador to Palestine, Naif Bin Bandar Al-Sudairi. On the Palestinian side, the junket included the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Hussein Al-Sheikh (touted as the successor to Abbas, so we know where he’s coming from), General Intelligence Head Majid Faraj (who has “close relations” with his Israeli counterparts), Diplomatic Advisor Dr Majdi Al-Khalidi, and the Palestinian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Bassem Al-Agha.
I’m unable to say how many bottles of Johnny Walker Black were smuggled in diplomatic bags but it is a favourite tipple in Ramallah at the Palestinian Authority HQ, I am reliably informed.
All of these men have it within their grasp to stop the madness and genocide in Gaza if only they had the guts, courage and leadership to do so. Abbas could give a blistering press conference exposing the treachery of Tel Aviv and Washington, for example, and lead a mass resignation along with the rest of the PA. Bin Salman could grow a spine and cancel all further Saudi arms deals with America, Britain and the rest of Europe and tell Israel — politely, of course — to “go away”. He could also put on a united front with the UAE Crown Prince instead of trying to rival him over tall buildings and vanity international sporting events.
These rootless Arab men are morally bereft. They are nothing more than grave diggers in the pay of Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Sunday, a rally is being held outside the Saudi Embassy in London’s Curzon Street at 2pm. Protestors are urged to join health workers and supporters and “bring drums, placards, noise makers.” The intention is to “apply pressure on these hypocrites who have sold out their own kin, aid and abet the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and are allies with Israel for many years against Yemen and Iran.”
The protest will highlight the plight of detained and tortured Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza. I suspect that it will also expose the myth of Arab unity and the deeply dark place where the West has dragged us. Event organisers from Health Workers for Palestine and Amnesty UK point out that 30 August is the International Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
Bin Salman, Abbas and his motley crew are probably mystified by the solidarity that total strangers have for each other from East to West. I also doubt if a single person would turn up and campaign for the release of any one of these despicable Arab rulers who have sold their souls and their faith to the imperialist, colonial devils.
As a Muslim, my heart aches to write this because I am reminded of the saying reported by Al-Bayhaqi, that Ja’far ibn Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “If you hear something from your brother that you reject, make an excuse for him up to seventy excuses. If you cannot do it, then say: Perhaps he has an excuse I do not know.”
I have run out of excuses for this miserable cabal of Arab rulers. The blessed people of Gaza have endured more than 327 days of pure, unadulterated hell bolted on to 76 years of pain and suffering inflicted by a brutal occupier and its Western allies, all of whom are closely aligned to the Crown Princes in the region because of their mutual addiction to oil and gas. We must never forgive and never forget that these privileged, miserable wretches have sat back in their palaces and done absolutely nothing to bring about peace and justice for the Palestinians.
The whole world now knows that any talk about a ceasefire is just that — talk and nothing else.
The likes of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a dementia-hit US president have also played their part through prevarication and obfuscation, as well as supplying arms and ammunition to enable Israel to commit genocide. Nero fiddled as Rome burned, and these Western parasites have done the 21st Century equivalent in Gaza as thousands of innocent Palestinian babies and their mothers have perished in the most unjust war most of us have ever seen, so bad that it has prompted investigations into war crimes and genocide.
Millions of us have protested, marched and petitioned, but we have still not done enough. We must do so much more for the sake of peace or accept that we are already living in a black world run by whisky-sodden leaders who have collectively lost their moral compasses leaving them incapable of finding their true selves.
It is said that true evil is easy to recognise, such as killing innocent children or assigning entire populations to death through gassing, napalm or aerial bombing. If philosophers can see Israel for what it is — truly evil — then why can’t our politicians and rulers?
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