The Islamic Awakening in the West Asian and North African Regions and the Reactions of the United States in regards to that

The subject to be discussed includes three topics. At first, we shall discuss the ideology of the United States upon the world. Then we shall talk about the relationship between this ideology and the Islamic Awakening and the latest transitions in the West Asian and North African regions. Finally, we shall talk about the position and aims of the United States after the recent transitions.

1. The Ideology of the United States

As an imperialist country, the United States, which has always been seeking hegemony and executing world rule since 1945 by relying on the Western liberal democracy, has managed to dominate the world up to now. Of course, it considers this matter to be legitimate and takes pride in that. (Fukuyama, 1993: 8)

Nevertheless, by paying heed to the economic crisis and the global transitions and specifically in West Asia and North Africa, it is gradually losing its previous position. The speed of the political transitions in the world and the passivity of the American statesmen in finding solutions and dealing with them has limited the political control of the United States. This has gone to an extent that in some of the political scenes, the United States’ move is not only not considered a retreat, but a failure. In regards to this, we can point at the defeat of the United States in its survival in Iraq, and its failure to establish its previous foothold in this country despite resorting to every trick.

The amazing transitions in the world promise that new forces will emerge in politics in the future and that the polarity of the United States and its hegemony over the contemporary world will become a forgotten issue. The quick growth of transitions promises that there is a very higher probability of a bipolarity or multipolarity system in the world in the near future than at any other time. Based on this probability, as usual, the United States will remain as one of the most powerful countries in the global arena albeit with reduced power. According to the political pundits, the geostrategy of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan and the warfare has weakened their power and this matter will be instrumental in their collapse. Concerning this matter, the leader of the Islamic revolution of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “Today, the arrogant United States, the self-proclaimed commander of the region and the real supporter of the Zionist regime, is caught in the crossroads it has created in Afghanistan. It is in the process of being isolated due to all the crimes it has committed against the people of Iraq and they are more hated now in troubled Pakistan.”

the United States, whose golden era of its authority over the world began in 1945 (after the end of the second world war) managed to maintain its superiority until 1990. However, from that time onward, it has suffered several political, economic and military defeats. The job that the United States tried to accomplish is to focus its global governance on consolidating and redefining its relations with the new national forces within the West Asian and North African countries that emerged from these uprisings and revolutions. Presently, this matter is in the process of being accomplished in Egypt and indeed the Americans have plans regarding the coming governments in Libya, Bahrain, Syria and even Saudi Arabia. the United States is planning to establish its authority in West Asia and North Africa with a focus on Western liberalism. (Barzagar, 2013)

2. The American Ideology and the Islamic Awakening

In relation to the topics of the American political ideology in regards to the Islamic Awakening, it must be said that basically, the West and with the leadership of the United States, are afraid of the Islamic tendencies and what they call fundamentalism. There is undeniable evidence of open hostility from the United States and other hegemonies towards Islam, the Islamic Awakening and the re-emergence of the Islamic identity by the Muslims of the world. Over the course of the last decade, whether in the period of colonialism or the apparent independence of the countries in the region, not only did the West and the United States fail to help the popular movements. Rather, they also did not hesitate to suppress them and fully supported the authoritarian regimes in the region that supported the interests of the West. Today, the West has been compelled to support and verify the people’s demands for the sake of restraining the latest transitions in the Arab countries and the popular uprisings, otherwise, many similar cases had occurred in the history of those countries, but they were not approved by the West.

Another example was the intifada of the Iraqis against the Ba’athist regime of Iraq in 1991. Although the West and the United States were at war with Saddam’s regime, however, the popular intifada was suppressed in a barbaric manner by the West. This was due to the fear that there was a probability for Saddam’s regime to be overthrown, and the Islamists to come into power. This is a matter that was considered to be against the interests of the United States.

During the last decades, the United States considered the current situation in West Asian and North African regions to be in Washington’s interests and was fully pleased with its policies in the region. By cooperating and assisting their Arab allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Morocco, the United States attained most of its interest from the region. These interests were specifically; securing the oil supply, ensuring the security of the occupying Israeli regime, confrontation with the opposing states, the war against “terrorism”[1] and restraining the influence of the Soviet Union during the period of the cold war. Nonetheless, after the occurrence of the September 11^th incident in 2001, the hypothesis on which the American policy was based in the Middle East until that time was challenged.

Therefore, the policymakers decided to reconsider the existing hypotheses. In the meanwhile, the question arose as to whether the authoritarian regimes of the West Asian and North African countries are a source of stability or a source of hatred and extremism? After the September 11^th incident, with the aim of preparing the area and carrying out ideological and economic developments, a ten-year strategic plan under the title ‘war against terrorism’ was prepared. Around forty Muslim countries and sixty Islamist groups and movements were covered by this plan. At the top of the list and the beginning of this transition was the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

3. The Strategic Aims of the United States on Dealing with the Islamic Awakening in the Region

In conjunction with the strategic aims of the United States in the West Asian and North African regions, irrespective of the past periods or the period of the Islamic Awakening and the recent transitions in the Middle East that has been implemented by all the successive American administrations as its strategic policy until now, we must emphasize that this policy is based on three principles:

1. Wherever the oil resources are and how far they are from the American continent, they belong to the United States. According to the view of Henry Kissinger, they are the backbones of the country’s national security.
2. Preserving the American hegemony and its superiority over the other world countries based on the Western liberalism ideology and by utilizing its enormous military power and employing its seven hundred military bases in the other strategic areas all over the world. (Ghotbi, 2013)
3. Preserving the security of the Zionist regime and its superiority over the other countries in the West Asian and North African regions which is the main and strategic goal of the United States in the region.

Apart from the above-mentioned strategic aims, by appearing and playing a role in the region and endorsing the apparent support of the people’s uprisings and the recent transitions in the Arab world, the United States also pursued these goals:

1. Supporting the uprisings and directing the transitions as a precautionary measure to prevent the occurrence of real revolutions led by the fundamentalists.
2. Creating despair and hopelessness in the public about the possibility of taking any action to change the current situation in their country.
3. Attempts to conspire and use various factors to make new regimes dependent on them. This was aimed at depriving the Muslims of true independence and progress, and to bring them back to indifferences and a deep sleep of negligence.
4. Internal wars and conflicts have led to the destruction of the infrastructure in the countries of the region and their reconstruction will require years of work and huge costs, which is an excellent opportunity for the American and European companies.

The Origin of the Islamic Awakening and the Role of the United States in it

It is pretty obvious that what has pushed the Arab countries in the West Asian and North African regions towards transitions and unrest is a set of factors that have created the background for these unrests in the region. This set of factors includes different economic, political, social and cultural factors. According to some analysts, the bell of transitions in the region rang a long time ago; the increase in the level of unemployment and inflation, the spread of marginalization and widespread economic corruption were prominent features of these countries that provided the background for the recent events.

In regards to this, the root cause of the latest crises in the region must be sought in the economic factor and the spread of poverty and injustice. However, it must be taken into consideration that its scope has gone beyond purely economic demands, people’s hatred of political tyranny and corruption of the Western-backed figures and the need for social freedoms have exacerbated and deepened the protests. In reality, on one side, the overlap of traditional tyranny with the interests of colonialism in the Middle East is one of the main reasons for the current crises in the region. The lack of political cooperation or limiting the political cooperation by these tyrannical governments as an influential factor in the recent transitions led to a change in the people’s opposition to reform by the existing governments and thus demanding the fall of the political regimes. (Hajizadeh, 2013)

It seems that the wave of transitions that happened in the region did not just happen suddenly and without a foundation. There is a possibility that these transitions could have taken place at the same time as the transitions in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the totalitarian[2] regimes of Eastern Europe that took place after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s, and its waves reached the Arab world. Among the factors that delayed the occurrence of the transitions in the Arab world during that time, and made the United States take more time to conduct a comprehensive study and provide better conditions for transitions in the region, are as follows:

1. The presence of major oil resources in the region has led the United States –

which has interests and interactions with the regional regimes – to be cautious and sensitive to any changes in the region, taking into account the interests and security of the Zionist regime.

2. The presence of the Israeli regime in the region is in itself and will continue to be a stumbling block for any transitions in the region. Any changes must be accurately done by taking into consideration the interest and security of Israel.
3. Until before 1991, the collapse of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Eastern Bloc did not happen and this matter led to the longevity of some of the regimes in the region which were expected to collapse earlier than this.

There are three views in regards to the transitions and incidents in the region which are as follows:

1. The West had a direct role in carrying out these transitions and political reforms and had made a plan for that.
2. The West did not have a direct role in these transitions and political incidents. Nevertheless, with the inception of these incidents, they took action and tried to direct the transitions in their favour by influencing the wave of uprisings.
3. These transitions were completely internal and neither the West nor the United States had any role to play in their inceptions.

The Islamic Awakening outlines the following facts for us:

1. Even though the Muslims in the Arab countries of the region, remained silent during the last decades under the oppression of the tyrannical regimes, they are still alive and ready to sacrifice and are capable of changing their own situations in order to protect their national and religious values and restoring their dignity and establishing human justice.
2. Peaceful demonstrations and popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and even Yemen where most of the people in that country are armed and they have around sixty million weapons in their hands, reveals the determination of the people for political reforms and changes through peaceful and democratic means.
3. The train of democracy started its journey and despite the internal and external problems, stumbling blocks, conspiracies, it will reach its destination and the date hand will not go back.
4. High capability of young people to use technology and media in political activities and organizing the popular uprisings.

The Reactions of the United States in Relations to the Islamic Awakening

The reactions of the United States in relation to the Islamic Awakening in the Arab countries appeared in three categories or indicators which are as follows:

1. Applying Dual Policy

An example of the United States’ dual policy is their indifference to the crimes and statistics of the martyrs who were killed by the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen or the internal policies of Saudi Arabia.

2. Riding the Wave of Transition

In supporting the popular uprisings, Barack Obama, the former president of the United States, states that the term of office of Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar al-Qadhafi has come to an end and they resigned either voluntarily or under the pressure from the people. (Hamqeh, 2012: 153)

3. The Divide and Destroy Policy

In regards to the policy of creating division and indifferences amongst the people, Michael Brandt, the former CIA deputy – while talking about dealing with the Islamic Awakening – says:

“Instead of using the British policy of ‘divide and rule,’ we are using the policy of ‘divide and destroy.’ Appertaining to this, we have prepared extensive plans for our long-term policies. Supporting people who disagree with the Shi’ah denomination. Promoting the infidelity of the Shi’ahs in such a way that jihad is declared against them by other denominations at the appropriate time. Likewise, we must spread an extensive propagation against the Shi’ah jurisprudents and leaders. This is in order for these jurisprudents and leaders to lose their prominence and prestige amongst the people.”

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