Roberto Savio
ROME—The recent Brussels massacre has created a short-term reaction, which ignores a long-term projection. All the debate is now about security, police reinforcement, new military strategies, as if terrorism can be solved just as a matter of public order.
It is of critical importance to take a more global and comprehensive approach, and accept that we are facing a problem that needs to be approached from various angles. Given the usual restrictions on length of articles in media outlets, a real analytical piece must wait for another occasion. I, therefore, request readers to refer to the links to some of my previous, in order to have detailed information on points that I am not able to address adequately in this article.
- Lack of a political debate. We see the European political leadership mobilized after every incident, making rhetorical declaration of solidarity and expression of horror, but without any effort for a unified, specific response. It is astonishing to see that the French and Belgian authorities have not even tried to link the actions of the terrorists with their backgrounds and previous actions, when clearly a sociological and cultural analysis is fundamental beyond just police’s measures. While this is of critical importance, it is nowhere in the political debate.
- No effort is made to explain that Muslim terrorism is, before anything, an internal battle in the Muslim world, and Europe is just conveniently used as the playground. Some 88 percent of Muslims are Sunnis, the main branch of Islam. But no terrorist has been found beside the so-called Wahabism or Salafite branch, born in Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh has constructed more than 1,600 mosques, staffing them with Salafist Imams, and every year more than $80 million is spent to support Sunnis. For Salafis, the other groups in Islam are infidels, like Sufi or Yadhzites. And the Shias are the main enemy. So Iran, where the majority of Shias live, is the main enemy of Saudi Arabia, and they fight each other through proxy’s wars, from Syria to Yemen, with the number of victims much larger than all the Europeans victims of attentates. To make Islam as the promoter of all terrorism, is, therefore, a dramatic mistake.
- The fight between Saudi Arabia and Iran, until and unless controlled by Russia and the United States, will continue, until the time when Saudi Arabia enters into a serious crisis, due to the fact that its present level of expenditure is not any longer supported by the price of petrol. The International Monetary Fund has already indicated to Riyadh that bankruptcy is imminent within a decade, unless expenditure levels are brought down. Until now, Saudi Arabia has been supported by all the Western powers, especially the US, for its position of importance as the main oil exporter.
The United Nations panel of experts on Yemen has documented “119 coalition sorties relating to violations of the laws of war,” reported Human Rights Watch, which along with the Amnesty International and other organizations are asking for an arm’s embargo. But Saudi Arabia is the world’s second-largest arms importer of the world.
Anyhow, it is very unlikely that Saudi Arabia and its allies from the Gulf countries will be able to take on the leadership of the Sunni world, because of its intolerance of a branch of Islam, and in the long run, compete with a much larger and developed Iran. But for the moment, everybody has been turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia’s role in spreading Salafism.
- Salafism brings us to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which follows this branch of Islam as the official religion, even radicalizing it more. However, there is a growing consensus that ISIS is using religion as a tool for enrolment, and pull together all those who are frustrated by secularism and modernization. ISIS, as a tangible entity, according to military experts, could be defeated in a couple of weeks, by two mechanized brigades. But it would affect the 600,000 people, which are in its territory, and escalate the theory propagated by them that Muslims have always been subjected to the Christian crusaders, who installed the monarchs and Emirs on their thrones, and have effectively run the Arab world in their own interest. The crusaders will never allow a real Arab entity, and will continue to govern through their puppets. This vision and the call for a holy war against the invaders and the Arab governments will continue after the death of ISIS as a territorial entity, and get a responsive chord in the entire Arab world, because it is based on historical facts. So the ISIS call will survive the Caliphate.
- Europe’s reaction has been not to intervene seriously against ISIS (and Russia even less), but continue supporting factions in the Syrian war. The continent’s responsibilities in the wave of refugees fleeing Syria and Libya are clear, but of no consequence. Besides, by taking a totally illegal decision on how to deal with refugees, Europe entered in a Faustian pact with Turkey, a country which has turned a blind eye to ISIS, and is clearly against the principles of democracy that Europe advances. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees and Doctors without Borders have withdrawn from Greece, declaring the plan illegal. Of course, in the Arab world, this does not go unnoticed, and the gap with the West is steadily increasing. In the rhetoric of the right-wing countries of Europe (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia), and of the right-wing parties, refugees have become the bearer of terrorism in Europe. Europe has not even been able to implement
obvious measures of coordination on terrorism because of the growing jealousy of the governments, and there is no strategy on this issue, beside rhetoric which plays well into the hands of ISIS.
Roberto Savio is founder and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service (news agency and publisher of Other News).