Monday, April 21, 2008; Posted: 10:59 PM
Somewhere it also becomes a rallying slogan against Muslims. It has been condemned by all world leaders including the UN Secy-General but it will make Wilders better known also for a crude piece of propaganda. The opening contains a cartoon from the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard showing the Islamic Prophet with a bomb on his head, the cartoon which has caused so much acrimony in the world.
Geert Wilders, an MP, is part of the growing number of anti-Islamics in Europe who are also rooted in mainstream politics. A section of Danish politicians have been very active in this anti-Islam policy. Theo van Gough and Ayan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian refugee and MP, produced another film on Islam which led to the killing of Theo and serious problems for Ayan. She later had more problems with her migration process when it transpired she had lied and thus lost her parliamentary seat and even left the country to go to the US.
All are of course leading a police protected life but no question that all of them do represent an opinion bloc in their country in particular and Europe in general. The fact that Geert called it not against Muslims but Islam is significant because it argues that the problems of extremism are rooted in Islam itself and not a few 'bad Muslims'. His prescription, shut out the Muslims from Europe which means a much tougher anti-migration law. Much of the problem seems to be rooted there.
The same week the film was launched the House of Lords committee released a report on migration saying that the advantages of migration has been minimal to natural born Britons. It adds on that there is higher competition on low-end workers level and basically calls an end to migration from non-EU countries. It has been welcomed by anti migration groups while those fighting for the rights of migrants have opposed its findings in an ongoing debate.
A long history of conflict between Arabs and Europeans
Geography and history have both played a role in increased conflict as has the new economic environment as a result of competition from emerging economies. The conflict between the religions -Judaism, Christianity and Islam-is ancient and yet more than differences there are many similarities amongst them. All originated in the Middle East and all the three religions are dominated by cultural expressions based on the social contest at various times in history in their originating areas and other places and each claim to be the sole beholder of the truth.
One major difference is that Judaism was battered in its contest with the conquering Romans and subsequently, when Christianity emerged as an independent entity, there was another conflict and the Jews lost their physical location. Christianity's first serious rival for empire was Islam and the prize was of course first Jerusalem, everyone's holy land and then Europe. In effect, it does mean a contest between two entities with territorial ambitions in the name of the faith. To Europe there is some confusion between Arab imperialism and Islamic religion.
While Jews were thrown out of Jerusalem and became a minor factor in history for many centuries European and Turko-Arab powers fought it out for control of Europe for centuries too. Part of this is because Europe lies close to North Africa, the frontier land of Arabian Islam and now the principal supplier of legal and illegal migrants to Europe. Hence the contemporary historical identities have fused to become one leading to Europe's obsession with Muslims when they actually mean Arabs in most cases. Thus Arab nationalism is also not recognized either.
People of most North African countries whether Morocco or Alegria head for European shores. The terrorists who have plagued Europe are mostly from the same zone. In the US most militants are Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Pakistani etc, a wider variety of ethnicities are seen because it is not geographically or historically linked to imperial competitions of earlier times. Its construction of enmity with Islam is more recent and linked to their recent imperial projects.
Multiple migrations, internal conflicts and radicalism
Migration has come to mean several things now and going from one place to another is no longer simple because the number of migrants has increased, skill levels are uneven and the migrants bring their political baggage with them. A good example is Saudi Arabia which has high immigration though temporary, low democracy and an economy that is basically oil based. It had drawn in migrant workers from many parts of the world including the west though most are temporary but the militancy within hasn't come from them. The home of many al-Qaeda leaders, it's their own population that fights with its power source, the monarchy which is considered corrupt and one of the most backward looking in the world. Yet it has enjoyed the friendship of the US because of oil, its willingness to oppose militant anti-Israeli regimes and for allowing its facilities to be used against any anti-US forces in the Middle East. So although Saudi Arabia is also anti-Israeli, it's also US's best friend in the Middle East.
It is in Egypt, which has a long much richer cultural tradition as well as a social resistance movement that has often fomented a broader anti-imperial radicalism, something Saudis have not found palatable. Whether it's the legacy of the Pyramidal civilization or Al-Azhar University or the leftist trends of the Brotherhood, Egypt's politics is far wider and therefore able to influence the politics of other regions within the Arab world. Interestingly, once a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) because it was under its modern founder Gamal Abdul Nasser, and it was an anti-colonial state, the fight with Israel and its loss of land has forced it to go closer to the US and emerge as a reluctant friend of Israel. The result has been another ally for the US in the region. Jordan has been always loyal, so a lot of friends for the US there.
Radicalism and nationalism
Yet three of the top al-Qaeda leaders have come from these three countries. They are Osama bin-Laden (SA), Zawahiri (Egypt) and the late Zarqawi (Jordon) who turned the Iraq war into a US nightmare. Its governments are very friendly with the US but the people are not.
The problem that is somewhat invisible to many leaders and analysts is that the question of nationalism in various descriptions is greatly responsible for the global unrest. Arab nationalism is probably least understood because the people are trying to establish their identity while their leaders are trying to chart a very different course within the boiling pot of international politics and oil security. Depressed oil prices have contributed the most in the last century to western prosperity but the oil that has come from the Middle East made only a small number of people better off.
The ancient Arab-Jewish conflict has also played a part. The greatest perpetrators of crime against Jews were Christian Europe but they made a long-term peace deal with the Jews, essentially a non-European race after WW ll. This was done to ensure control over the area, at least the largest factor behind that being oil access. Israelis have therefore been co-opted into becoming a naturalized European state who can then participate in the fights, both ancient and modern in the area. Israel internally is far more democratic than any of the Arab states and while it treats Palestinians like non-humans, the Arab states often does the same to its own people.
Oil, Islam and terrorism
Islam and Muslim have therefore become multiplied into a variety of threats to Europe which is also the West's ally. The control over oil has become tenacious and even the military might of the US can no longer guarantee safety of availability and more importantly, price. This makes the ME, its states and people, to have become part of the contest. The Iraq war has shown that the age of unilateralism is ending and the consequences of actions that were simplified as short-term before is no longer so.
By invading Afghanistan, the Soviet Union, produced its own downfall and also shaped a new enemy for the West, the armed Muslim. As a multi-national entity with a perception of a long history of wrongs at Christian hands going back to the loss of the 'Empire' it has suffered a series of genuine injuries at western hands, the largest of them being, the Israel- Palestine question which is a constant source of anger even for people who are Muslims only in name. The defeat of Soviet Union not only created a sense of the potential of violence but also introduced politically militant Muslims to the huge reserve of angry belligerent young people ready to fight for a cause. Subsequent NATO actions in Iraq and Afghanistan have heightened this sense for them.
Fewer Europeans and many Arabs scare the West
The economic supremacy of the US and Europe is under serious threat. Emerging economies have leap-frogged to the centre stage and are consuming and producing more oil. More oil is in the hand of the old enemy, Soviet Russia who as Europe's principal energy supplier now has enormous clout and is comfortably contesting Europe in the Middle East. And in this, China has emerged as new 'oil for politics' player allowing Sudan to do what it wants in lieu for oil. Maybe it learnt the tricks from the US.
The population rise of the Arabian/Islamic world is where much of the concern is also attached because with a large population growth rate, the Afro-Arab state is bursting with people and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict that with declining economies and climate change affecting the poorer world and the richer world relatively shielded, the population is headed towards Europe. Its wealth itself is now a cause of its problem. And while the Africans are dispersed by their tribalism, the Arab Muslims can consider themselves a tribe of sorts and within them the militants certainly do.
Britain and the rest of the Europe will probably adopt separate strategies to counter the migration crisis. Britain has already started to revamp its economies and knows it may be a little late in the day to stop the flow from most of the Commonwealth countries. It will try to come to a middle point.
UK's PM Gordon Brown has said after publication of a report that stated immigration has not benefited them that "immigration is good for the UK" rejecting suggestions that an annual limit is needed. He said that the concerns raised are already being tackled by a new points-based system that will only allow highly skilled workers into the UK, adding that migration had added £6bn to the economy which is also a "substantial income".
Economies and emerging giants cause anxiety
As UK's colonialism was also more collaborative in nature, it saw the educated elite feel more at home within the Anglo world. The result has been a much more developed elite class amongst the Commonwealth Asian population including some of its richest and better educated members. India is also proving to be better economic managers as the western economy has displayed its lack of ability to adjust to globalization. Competition, shrinking capital markets, collapsing and greedy banks addicted to high profit and risk, impoverished borrowers and lenders all signal long term economic weakness. At least the economic sun is not at noon. Growth without end is no longer an endless possibility and it's this fear that is fuelling a paranoia which has ancient roots.
If western economies can't have unlimited growth and squeeze, falling into a sort of permanent recession and large-scale downsizing takes place, can it accommodate more migrants? Key to the West is access to oil and its low price volatility but an artificially robust system or lack of modern economic management is now beginning to show especially in the US. Prosperity is suddenly not a guarantee and the large number of working class people is facing a shutdown in the industrial sector and have to compete with harder working migrants as reports suggest. The North American economy is now more tied to China than even Canada and nothing seems to stem the tide of goods flowing from a determined East which doesn't need to cross the borders to conquer the West.
Fitna is therefore a reflection generated by the problems of poverty both in the Islamic and the western world. More than a film, it is about a civilization at bay built on looting of other economies and unable to develop a system of continuing it for ever. It appears other looters have arrived and continental Europe will have a hard time making it. Films like Fitna should be read as expressions of anxiety of the somewhat helpless people unable to cope with a changing world.
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