Anti-Westernism and the Middle East - Report Example

ANTI-WESTERNISM AND THE MIDDLE EAST HALF-YEAR PROGRESS REPORT In the last 6 months, I have witnessed a change in my professional life. The change has been so immense that it has transformed my view of the world and has motivated me to proceed in quest for knowing more about the task that i have set out to accomplish as part of my research studies. As I have said earlier, my life has taken a turn for the better after I had joined the University of Paris. My research activity has been concentrating primarily on the topic of 'Anti westernism' that has been a trend since the last half century in the Islamic world that I concentrated primarily in the Middle East. One may assume that the topic that I have chosen for undertaking research studies is a pretty simple one and that anyone could simply refer a few editorials in the newspapers and journals and come up with the requisite dissertation. In fact, I strongly believed that this was a good way to conduct my research as I had access to excellent library and archive facilities in the University in addition to being under the able guidance of my supervisors, who have always been extremely supportive and understanding at all times and have acted as true guides at all times. But, as the rest of this report will go to show, I am of the firm belief that opinions and the actual facts will never be highlighted in either newspapers or journals. I have strongly understood over the years that the facts and information presented in the newspapers are merely the opinions of the writers, at least in a majority of whatever gets printed in the form of articles and that the real facts are largely subdued or remain unheard. Therefore, I felt the need that something concrete had to be done in order to get to the real facts and upon analysis, I came to the conclusion that rather than rely solely on literary sources, it would be better for me to get to the people who have been feeling this hatred against the west. I strongly believed that getting to know them, the conditions and events that have come to characterize their lives over these years and the reasons for them to blame the west for all this. The undertaking of any such activity in this regard, especially in the form of a public survey really seemed as if it would bolster the quality of my research even though I knew that I would have to travel to countries that are considered to be dangerous and unsafe especially for people from western countries. But, before I proceeded with any such activity, I needed to make sure that I was on the right path and this required me to do a lot of groundwork so as to allow myself to generate an action plan for my research activities. This, I felt could be done by attending seminars and conferences, which I had not done before due to personal reasons. Therefore, I made it a point to attend all such conferences that discussed about the topic of 'Anti westernism' in detail. Due to my inability to be able to shift to Paris owing to personal reasons, I had made arrangements with my supervisors to work on a part-time basis. But, even then, the thought of my new approach propelled me up and I have been on it over the last few months. Primarily, I began to attend the conferences and seminars that were conducted regularly at SOAS, which stands for- 'The School of Oriental and African Studies'. The various seminars and conferences that have helped me design a road plan for my research are listed below: "Attitudes towards Reform and Western Integration: Comparing Late 19th-Century lema and Early 21st-Century Kemalists" by Mr. Zafer Yoruk. "The Justice and Development Party: Still Searching for Security and Legitimacy" by Prof. Ihsan Dagi. 'Turkey's Accession Process' by Ambassador Michael Lake, Former EU Ambassador in Turkey (1991-98). "The Prospects for Cyprus post-Annan and Turkey's Accession Decisi' by Andrew Dismore, MP From the subjects of the seminars that have been listed above, I can say conclusively that I got a fair idea of the major countries that were opposed to the western world most notably. In fact, I had learnt a lot of the internal situation of countries ranging from Iran to Saudi Arabia to Egypt. I was surprised to find in one of the seminars that Turkey, which is considered to be a strong ally of the western powers, anti-western sentiments were present, even though they weren't very vibrant and visible as it was in other countries of the western world. In fact, all these seminars focus on the growing ati-western sentiments that have come to characterize the Middle East. Subsequent to this, I decided that my research activity would primarily concentrate on understanding anti-western sentiments in the following countries for most of my studies, though other countries in the region would be studied as well: Iran. Syria. Turkey. During the last 6 months, I managed to visit Turkey and Iran, and I have been in the constant process of gathering data from all possible sources. I have been meeting eminent academicians in these countries and have held protracted discussions with them on a multitude of topics, all of which relate to the central thee of anti-westernism. The libraries and archives, especially the ones in Iran, have vast treasures of knowledge, though almost all information had to be retrieved with the help of a translator as most of them including journals and newspaper articles were largely in Persian. Nevertheless, through tireless efforts, I managed to collect a lot of information on how people in these countries have come to look at the western world during the last few decades ever since the first seed for anti-westernism was sown by the Zionist movement. However, I had to make les efforts comparatively in Turkey, both for the purpose of gaining access to archives as well as being able to search and understand the literature. All along, I have come to many conclusions on the Islamic opinion on the west, the jist of which I shall explain in the following paragraphs. Thereupon, I began the process of going about and meeting all the common people I could in the streets and discussed with them on various issues, some of which are listed below: The nature of the political environment in the countries. Their personal opinions on the government of their countries. Opinion on the practices and attitude of the west. Reasons they believed, were the prime cause for the poverty in these countries. Whether they believed that the west alone was the sole culprit for the present situation in the Middle East. Whether they felt that the Middle East and the terrorist organizations that have been thriving in the region were justified in their cause and ideology. What they believed could be the best solution to ensure a return to peace and harmony. These two approaches, that were adopted by me in a parallel manner enabled me to collect a lot of information and allowed me to make a thorough analysis and come to some preliminary conclusions. Of course, I have plans to visit many more countries in the near future and plan to amass and analyze lot more information. I got many of my questions answered and made me believe that the answers that I would be getting in almost a part of west Asia would largely be similar. One of the major differences of opinion that I have found through articles and library references has been that economic conditions have come to be one of the most influencing factors that have helped militant organizations to come up and thrive. Such organizations, which have been in the forefront for spreading anti-western hate, have been found to have taken advantage of the poor economic conditions in most countries of the Middle East and have succeeded in recruiting people for Jihad (Holy war on the west). The use of ideology and religious motivation has enabled these organizations to further their cause and has resulted in the Middle east being branded as a hotbed for terrorist activities. My analysis of the relevant literature, both in France an in these countries has made me arrive at the conclusion that in spite of numerous articles being written on anti-westernism, none of them have made specific attempts towards pinpointing the actual causes of anti-westernism and have instead turned all such articles into mere blame games. This has propelled me to proceed with filling out all such deficiencies and I feel I am proceeding along the right path. It is in this perspective that the following pages will describe in short about the various conclusions that I have come to as part of my research studies on the topic under study i.e. anti-westernism and the middle east. It is hard to believe that the world that has just come out of the clutches of the cold war has to face another major crisis on a global scale and no one is sure as to who is to blame. If it was the United States versus the Soviet Union until the early 1990s, today it is a bloody conflict between the west and 'pockets' of the Islamic world. Many experts have expressed the fact that with the end of the cold war, the world heaved a sigh of relief though the Asian region, particularly the West-Asian domain has been in a state of constant strife and conflict. History is evidence to the fact that countries such as Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan etc. have always been at war with each other in the last half century ever since the birth of the Zionist regime. The gulf war and the recent operations by the United states in Afghanistan and Iraq have provided evidence to the fact that most of the times, tensions in these regions have been brought under control and efforts have been taken by the bigger powers of the world to prevent any of them from going put of hand and spreading into other regions. Most notable among them have been the two gulf war, with the first one happening in 1992 and the second one in 2003 that saw one of the major operations to overthrow the dictatorships in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was with these thoughts that I began my visit to Turkey and Iran in order to determine the root cause of these wars and to determine whether the seed for these conflicts had been lain by the wave of anti-westernism that has taken the Middle East by storm more so since the last decade. I have found during the course of my research that the answers to these questions depended on not any single source, but instead had to be collected from various sources and studied thoroughly in order to be able to arrive at possible conclusions. As I have stated clearly before, my focus and intentions as far as the research was concerned has not been to entirely determine the extent of hatred that exists in the Middle East towards the west nor has it been my prime intention to find out as to who the real culprits are but instead has been to identify the root causes of anti-westernism in the middle east. As the last half year of my research goes to show, my findings can only be compared to a famous Indian proverb that goes this way: "You cannot clap with a single hand" The meaning of this moral is that one's both hands are truly responsible for producing a clap, which goes to show that the present state of the world is due to the mistakes and wrongdoings of both parties (the west as well as the Middle East). During the course of my interactions with academicians in Turkey, many expressed the fact that the reason for this hatred has been due to the fact that world through its most powerful nations has not been serious enough to curb the tensions that have always been synonymous with the Middle East. This huge gap in the attitude of the world towards this region and the region's constant negligence except for the quest for oil has allowed the real trouble makers to remain active and has acted as a breeding ground for newer and more powerful organizations to take root and has helped spread the message of anti-westernism with rapid acceleration. The west had until the turn of the century turned a deaf ear to this situation and I have found this attitude to be the most prolific and concrete reason for the rise of militancy and its use to strengthen anti-western sentiments within the western world. The chain of destructive events that have taken place right from the September 11 attacks in New York to the London bombing last year are all the outcomes of this negligence and lack of seriousness to resolve the issue on the part of the western powers. But, in addition to these shortcomings on the part of the western world, the Middle East region and the governments in the area equally are to blame. The points that I have mentioned have found support from most of them with whom I have been interacting during the past six months. The major countries where anti-western sentiments have been found to be most intense are Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt. Over the last few months, I have been to countries such as Turkey and Iran and have been surprised to find that though turkey is a major ally of the west, similar feelings are largely absent within the general population. Almost all these countries barring Turkey are perceived as major threats by the United States and Great Britain. Another major point that needs to be highlighted in this aspect is that almost all these countries are sworn enemies of Israel. In fact, Israel is not recognized as a state by most of these countries. The reasons have been two fold. The first is that the predominant religion in the area happens to be Islam, by virtue of which the western region is an extremely conservative region. The presence of a country such as Israel where people are known to lead more of a western kind of lifestyle does not fin support among many people with whom I have conversed over this topic. another major reasons has been the fact that Israel has been an extensive supporter of the western powers and as such has been known to use this influence to it own advantage. In this context, I therefore feel that it would be better to discuss about each country in detail. Predominantly, the discussion will focus on the extent of anti-westernism in Iran, Turkey and Syria. Since the late 1970s, Iran has been a foe of the western allied nations. Under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini during the 1980s, the country has been transformed from a liberal monarchy to a nation that is governed by the sharia or Islamic law that imposes several restrictions on everyday life. Initially, I felt that the people, who had been so use to a free and unrestricted way of life, would have felt it suffocating to be able to live in such a situation, but it seems that the people are happy to be leading the present way of life. Women are happy to move in public in their veiled clothes while the Iranian society has adjusted well to the ban on interaction between the sexes in public. Therefore, any kind of inclination towards leading a western way of life is totally absent and anyone found to have such tastes is ostracized from the community. Iran, which is comprised predominantly of Shiite Muslims, has been known support militant groups like the Hezbollah, along with neighboring countries such as Syria. The group has been one of the worst nightmares of the Israel army and is attributed to countless bombings and suicide attacks in Israel. Iran argues that it is justified in helping out such groups on the pretext that Israel is supplied with arms and economic aid from the United states, which it uses to quell the Palestinian movement as also its adjoining regions, the most popular one being Lebanon. My interaction with people and an extensive search of excerpts from existing literature has led me to the conclusion there is a conflict of ideas and religious beliefs that have fuelled anti-westernism. Things that are perceived to be liberal such as the free intermixing of men and women and open discussions on religious beliefs and teachings in the west are seen as gross insult of god and religious sentiments in the Middle East. Add to this a belief among the people that the west is solely interested in occupying countries and regions for oil and nothing else, and you have the perfect recipe for the creation of a terrorist organization. Another major reason that I have come to conclude for the rise of anti-western sentiments among the Muslim nations happen to be due to the economic disparity between these two entities. The countries in this region believe that they are being exploited and are of the view that they have been left on tatters and their populations impoverished due to the actions of the west. Therefore, a largely poor society is driven to take towards unlawful activities and it is in this context that Islamic militancy can be considered to occupy the position of numero uno. The other important fact that I would like to mention here is the fact that the countries of the middle east and the leader of militant organizations such as the Al Qaeda have been justifying their cause by claiming that they are in the process of cleansing the world of all its ills and that their efforts are directed towards the creation of a supreme Islamic state that unites the Muslim population of the world. Though this may seem logical as an attempt towards establishing unity, the claim that terrorist attacks are mere parts of such cleansing acts are just pretexts that can be said to have been well used by all such entities to promote their individual cause. Thus, in this context, it can be said that to some extent, anti-westernism is largely the result of false propaganda of all such countries rather than something that has fuelled up over the years. Though some people have voiced their opinions in this regard, so far they have proved to be mere bubbles that have either gone unheard or have been quelled by the use of force. I was expecting Turkey, which is seen by the world as a major ally of the United stated (in fact, the only Islamic state known to be so), and its people to have a different opinion when compared to the other countries in the middle east, which is why I paid a visit to that country. I interacted with a number of academicians and people from other walks of life in an effort to get an overview of the general sentiments that were prevailing within the common man in Turkey. I was surprised to find that the feeling of being an ally of the United States was largely restricted to economic domains alone and that the Turkish people have similar anti-western feelings in tune with the sentiments prevailing in the region. The only difference between is that such feelings are not so fierce as the others and I have come to understand that this is due to two reasons. The first reason is that the economic situation in turkey is much better placed when compared to other nations in the Middle East. In fact, many locals were of the view that the Turkish government continues to support the western allies given the fact that it receives vast economic aid from them in return for using Turkish territory to carry out military operations. In any case, the people are also happy with the present set up. Another section added that the turkey has no alternatives left as it has to gain admission into the European Union at any cost and that they couldn't do anything even if they wanted to in this regard. The Turkish society is pretty similar to the one found in the middle east as similar restrictions exist in the society and there are restrictions on voicing opinions publicly. But from my visits, I have come to see the kind of influence the economic situation of a region has on the feelings and opinion of people and the manner in which such sentiments take shape. Therefore, it can be concluded that though turkey continues to be a major ally of the United States, similar opinions does not exist among the Turkish populace. Syria, a much smaller country than either Iran or turkey has for long been one of the most prominent enemies of the western world especially the United States. It has been supporting militant organizations such as the Hezbollah in a sinister way by supplying sophisticated arms to inflict damage upon Israel. The real fact is that Syria continues to maintain a low presence despite these events and this has been pretty much evident in my discussions with people where either Iraq or Iran continues to occupy center stage. I was planning to visit Syria, but the recent escalation of tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border has made me postpone my plans. I intend to visit Syria once the situation normalizes and make progress in my research efforts in the appropriate direction. Though I have identified a lot of hard facts concerning the theory of anti-westernism, I can only say that whatever I have achieved during the last 6 months can only be described as a start to something phenomenal that I can visualize as something useful that is slated to come out in the near future. Many more questions need to be answered while some can never be answered and only need to be understood as they exist within the entities. There have been cases where an answer to a question raises many ore questions in return, for which I am always on the lookout for answers from all credible forms of sources. As part of my research, I intend to undertake many more tours to the Middle East region and be able to interact with many more experts and common. All along, I intend to gain access to more literature and ensure that something concrete and useful comes out as a result of my research. In short, I can only say that though the last 6 months has seen me do some painstaking work, it definitely has been one of the best, motivating and enjoyable periods of my life Read More