What is happening in Gaza is one of the most gruesome examples of how ruthless human beings can become against fellow human beings. More than that, it is the worst example of how unjust mankind can be in dealing with its conflicts. What can be a bigger travesty of justice that hundreds of deaths in revenge are being justified for mere threat to life; hundreds of houses have been destroyed in revenge of a harmless rocket attacks. It has however unveiled many faces, the faces which try to look bright but are too dark to describe. These include the Muslim as well as non-Muslim faces. Who is standing where in the on-going massacre makes everything crystal clear. The only thing that seems encouraging is the near unanimity of the Muslim Ummah. They are praying day and night for the victims of the massacre, and for the defeat of the aggressors. Hopefully, their prayers in the month of Ramadan will not go unheard.

The Muslim intellectuals are again busy writing about the Zionist conspiracies. I am hearing this for decades. The truth which is being ignored is that Zionist conspiracy is nothing but a small part of the larger Western conspiracy of hegemonising the whole world. People do unnecessarily try to prove that Jews are geniuses, that they are hard-working and that it is through their manipulation that they control America. The truth is that European powers and America have made Jews what they are. They were nothing till the Second World War. The War had put an end to the imperialistic strategy of the West. Instead of ruling themselves, they now wanted to rule through their proxies. Israel was created as an extension of America in the Arab World. This would save Europe and America from direct confrontation with the Muslim World. Israel would fight their war in the region. If Jews became powerful within the US, it was simply because the US political masters and their financial backers allowed them to be. This suited their designs, and the Jews took advantage of it. What would be Israel without American support? Still, it cannot survive if the US stops backing it. But the US won’t stop because through Israel it controls the Arab World. An Israeli victory is the American victory, and an Israeli defeat will be its defeat.

By now hopefully, the fascination of Muslims for Obama might have evaporated, He has proved to be more American than any of the American presidents and surely shrewder. He is busy giving America whatever it wants without any major losses. He has successfully converted wars into civil wars and has used Sunni-Shia sectarian sentiments for the purpose. He understands Israel’s right of defense against the defenceless “aggressors” but does not understand the ghastliness of Israeli aggression. The Nobel Laureate for Peace is doing everything that the Western notion of peace demands. The UN is plying its usual role: helping the Western designs while crying for human tragedy. It is only busy in assessing the damage. India’s BJP government too has shown its true colours. It is widely believed in the country that Israeli companies played crucial role in running the Modi campaign. The Government’s refusal to condemn Israeli aggression has only proved the theory. With Modi preparing for American tour the government cannot afford to do anything contrary to American interests.

The time has now come when the unity of Ummah is reflected in the unity of Muslim governments. It is well known that Muslim world at large is tilted towards Western countries in its foreign policy. This is hardly understandable considering the role of the West in Muslims countries, which has largely been negative and destructive. The countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, almost all other Arab countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and most of the African Muslim countries have been allies of the West despite the fact that the people of these countries have deep rooted aversion for everything that West stands for. This dichotomy owes its existence to the fact that the governments in these countries are supported by the West, which uses its muscles to threaten them. West has continued to support regimes and change them at its own will without caring at all for the people of these countries. Within last few years, West has played direct or indirect role in the regime changes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. This is another matter that in each of the circumstances, with the change in regime, it has seen its influence getting reduced. The American influence in the Middle East has continued to diminish despite its repeated interventions.

The ugliest and the most unfortunate aspect of the Muslim governments has been their failure in realising the truth that friendship with the West has always been a one sided relationship, with West not doing anything substantial to help these nations. West has simply helped the rulers in maintaining the grip on the power. The countries that have maintained relative independence in their foreign policy matters have grown in strength. These include Malaysia, Indonesia and Iran.

The biggest stumbling block in the development of a cohesive foreign policy in the Muslim world has been the mistrust between Saudi Arabia, which wields massive influence in the Sunni World, and Iran, which is the most influential Shia country. Ayatollah Khomeini took several plausible steps to promote the Revolution as Islamic, not Shia, and took several steps to cement the Sunni Shia chasm. But Iran has not yet been able to remove the mistrust in the Arab world altogether. America has played and is still playing on the sectarian sensitivities of Sunnis and Shias. It has convinced the Arab regimes that the biggest threat to them comes not from Israel but from Iran. Iran should also be faulted for not doing enough to win the confidence of its neighbours, especially Saudi Arabia. If the Muslim World has to earn a respectable place in the future world, Iran and Saudi Arabia will have to bury their differences. If they come together, they will pave the way for a larger coalition. If they don’t, the Western world will keep destroying one country after the other.

Muslim World will have to realise that:

West is neither a dependable ally nor a big force it used to be in the past. America is a dying tiger and all its allies are nothing more than crying wolfs. America needs Muslims more than the Muslim World needs America. While the policy of avoiding confrontation with anyone should be the underlying philosophy, the time has come when Muslim World must stop looking westwards. What Muslims need, they can get from several alternative sources including China, Russia and India. What West needs (Oil), it can’t get from anywhere else, at least in a foreseeable future. The day Muslims realise this, they would make West look like seekers not masters. An ideological campaign against the Western model of socioeconomic development should be run without any delay. They must however learn to differentiate between Western people and Westernism. While they must not spare Westernism, they must avoid any feeling of aversion or hatred towards Western people who are like others, part of mankind. If Western governments learn their lessons, start behaving, learn respecting Islam and stop their political and military campaigns against the Islamic World, Muslims should always be ready to revise their strategies. If there are any attempts to bridge the ever widening gap between West and Muslim World, these must be welcome. But the care has to be taken that such negotiations are based on equal and just terms.

Muslim world must play a more proactive role in International Affairs. It should campaign for the Abolition of Veto, which makes countries unequal among equals, and must try to influence the policies of the major international organisations including WHO, International Court, WTO etc. If need be, it may give up the memberships of these organisations en bloc and form alternative organisations with the help of like minded and underprivileged countries.

Muslim countries need to develop a union that should have the mandate to intervene in the Muslim countries if there is large scale threat to peace there. No outside intervention should be allowed whatever the circumstances. If any country is attacked or invaded, it should be taken as an aggression against the whole Muslim world, which must be repulsed with all the power within in its command. Despite Muslims being the second largest majority of the world and despite their being a community of largest believers in any religion — a substantial percentage of “Christian World” is in fact non-believers- no Muslim country has emerged as a military power. One of the main reasons behind this is that most Muslim countries are small; those that are more populous happen to be poor countries. China and India automatically become big powers just on account of their sheer size, which allows them to allocate larger sums to spend for defence; even the US is a country of more than 320 millions. If Muslim countries — at least some of them — can form a federation with joint military, this weakness can be reduced.

Muslim countries must in general adopt a policy of avoiding military conflicts at every cost. They must not support any kind of violence but if the conditions leave no other option, they must also not hesitate to fight.

Muslim countries should develop good relations with as many countries as possible but without sacrificing their self esteem, sovereignty and their convictions.

The current Palestinian conflict gives them another opportunity to do what is needed. If they fail yet again, their plight will continue unabated.