Islam and the Antiwar Movement (part II of III)

What kind of force will bring justice and peace to the Middle East?

Immediate Withdrawal

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a debate raging within the resistance movements of the Middle East between different ideologies and generally between conservative and liberal. The particular history of movements like Arab Nationalism, the effect of Stalinism and the fight against Neo-Liberalism in Latin America, have all shaped the current terrain on which this resistance fights and this movement debates.

The main struggle that unites these competing segments is the drive to rid the Middle East of US troops and Western corporations. This undeniable fact overshadows all others. In fact, it is so overshadowing that debates about internal democracy, Arab monarchies, corruption, women’s rights, religious tolerance and issues like that, are hindered.

Put another way, genuine democracy will spread across the Middle East only when it shakes off the boot of occupation. Whether it be Israeli or US.

So I reiterate, the US Military is the chief problem in the Middle East, and it, and it alone is standing in the way of peace and real political debate among the Arab masses.

Imagine if the people of Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait, or Egypt, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Iran for that matter were allowed to form their movements for democracy without the interference of the US or Israel? Imagine if the Iraqi resistance saw a friend in US Antiwar coalitions, instead of a critic, about roadside bombs or beheadings? You might see the development of a secular left, you might see the kind of struggle the pundits anguish over, wishing the Iraqis or Palestinians would use instead of suicide bombing.

The US occupation poisons all of this and is the chief obstacle. It needs to be removed from Middle Eastern soil, the sooner the better. There are crazier people inside the US, one in control of the white house, to single out Islamic clerics and their sermons is to single out a people for another purpose.

The Lebanon War as Litmus Test

Here is an example of my point. During Israel’s war on Lebanon, the US media hemmed and hawed over the use of “human shields” and the firing of rockets into Northern Israel by Hezbollah. There was no shortage of commentators (usually male, usually white) talking about how Islam needs to modernize, treat women better and how Hezbollah was terrorizing the Lebanese people.

Yet the American Left was torn by this very same line of thinking. The “pox on both your houses” attitude. Neither Hezbollah nor Israel was the dominant line of thinking.

In fact, the majority of Lebanese supported Hezbollah’s resistance and condemned Israel’s state terrorism, its use of cluster munitions, bombing civilian infrastructure, causing an oil spill on the Lebanese coast, and targeting civilian convoys on the roads leading north.

Furthermore, virtually no one on the left has noticed that Hezbollah is rebuilding Southern Lebanon faster and more efficiently that the US Government is rebuilding New Orleans!

The American Left refuses to recognize these facts and it does so to its own detriment and the detriment of the people of the Middle East.

I argue the best way to support self-determination and democracy, here in the US and in the Middle East, is to link arms with the very people targeted by US Imperialism, so we can bring it to its knees in common cause.

Towards a stronger US Antiwar Movement

Terrorism as a tactic and theory of social change flourishes in an isolated, and embattled movement. The solution is to reach out to Arabs and Muslims and form an Antiwar movement that identifies with the struggles of Arabs and Muslims. A movement that makes Iraqi's feel like people inside the Empire care about what the US government is doing to them.

Imagine a day of action that happens simultaneously in Baghdad, Falljuah, Ramadi, Kirkuk, New York, Washington, LA, and Dallas. With the slogan, "Troops Out Now, Reparations for Iraqi's." If anything will marginalize terrorism it would be that scenario.

Iraqi's feel largely isolated from the American antiwar movement and it has a lot to do with Guantanamo, a lot to do with the larger movement refusing to even talk about Palestine, a lot to do with our past reliance on pro-war Democratic politicians. They were as confused about the 2004 elections result as many were here. These are unfortunate realities, but they are also real barriers that we can begin to take on and win.

More on this in Part III