We may remember the premature proclamation of Iraq’s freedom by President George W. Bush on May 2, 2003. At that time people like Wakim found their view excluded from public expression as they warned that the incursion into Iraq was just the beginning of a new threat caused by the anger of a people betrayed.
Wakim noted that the enormous challenge of keeping the lid on things in Iraq, which may have been the cause of the very barbarism Bush accused Saddam Hussein of perpetrating, was indeed planned and funded by the USA to protect its interests there. Worse, the al-Qaeda cells in Afghanistan, also funded by the USA to defeat the earlier Russian invasion, were reproducing a new “base” in Iraq.
The incursion into the Middle East and Afghanistan promoted as a just response to 9/11 turned out to be not only unjust but counterproductive if the aim was to destroy al-Qaeda.
Then, learning nothing from history, the US and its allies went on to destroy al-Qaeda in Iraq. For Wakim it was hard not to say, “I told you so”. He notes that “while meeting with Prime Minister John Howard on December 20, 2002, we explained the delicate demography of Iraq and cautioned against further fuelling the anger of a nation already crippled by sanctions: another injustice in Iraq will be another magnet for al-Qaeda.” And so al-Qaeda appears again now as ISIS.
Who is helping ISIS then? Wakim claims Western policy designed to protect Western interests of oil and influence will continue to fuel the fire of ever more radical revolt under whatever name. Western interference in the region funded the insurgents who are now “the enemy”. The current policy of destroying “enemies” and privileging “friends” can only raise the bar of resistance by those who are marginalised by this.
Western nations seem intent on finding an “evil empire” on which to blame this chaos. The West may blame a leader of a state with whom they have fallen out or may blame Islam, while never looking at itself for its complicity or considering alternative strategies that may allow space for something else to emerge. Islamic and state leaders are easy targets because the people in the West seem to consume easy answers. Unfortunately this tactic is creating more extreme enemies as we see today.
Wakim notes that “if western voices talk about what ‘we’ are going to do and who should ‘replace’ al-Maliki, then ‘we’ have learnt nothing. If western voices label the fighters as Islamists and blame Islam, then we have learnt nothing. The majority of Muslim scholars preach mercy and forgiveness, not crucifixions and genocide. If the central message of Islam is reclaimed, it could be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”
According to Wakim, Muslim leaders in Australia are exhausted not so much by their efforts assisting their communities to understand the issues around what is happening in their countries of origin, especially to their young people, but having to justify their actions and intent to the media and the public in the wake of accusations of lack of effort from some of the highest and loudest voices in the land.
Who indeed is helping ISIS?
