Document Comentary of the Speech Delivered by HRH Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz - Literature review Example

Document Commentary Brief outline of Document content The document is the script of the speech delivered by HRH Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz during the 22nd Summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Muscat (Oman) on December 30, 2001. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) aims to strengthen the levels of cooperation amongst the Gulf nations while trying to forge a united alliance to face challenges from elsewhere. 2. Context in which the document originates For the past many years, the world is experiencing heightened activities of terrorist activities. Most of such terror acts find their base in the Islamic world. Jihad is the name given to such acts by the perpetrators of terror. Though people with such thinking are in absolute minority, but the fact that they are carrying out the bomb blasts, the killings and the hate campaign in the name of Jihad, has brought a bad name to the Islamic community. While often citing Allah and the Holy Quran, these anti-social elements have put the entire Islamic community on defensive. Though there are Muslim leaders, who have often expressed their opinions against the campaigns carried out by such groups, but it failed to have much impact as there were some others, who have also been assisting the terror elements. The lack of unity amongst the Islamic nations has further aggravated the problem. Many countries in the Gulf nations are economically well off and are the key suppliers of oil to the world community in general. But the fact that these countries are dependent on Europe or America for needs like defence and other strategic requirements. This has compelled Crown Prince Abdullah to come out with a call for unity amongst the Islamic world. The leader with a modern and broad outlook has been trying to emphasise that the Islamic world must use afflictions and catastrophes as opportunities and challenges for making a self scrutiny. 3. Analysis of document content with reference to objectives, audience, methods The key objective of the document is to seek unity amongst the Islamic nations, to review the happening that are taking place in the name of Islam to find out ways and means for repairing such errors. HRH Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz feels that such an introspection is a must for a broader unity amongst the Islamic nations in general and Gulf nations in particular. The audience includes members of GCC, opinion builders and the media persons attending the conference. While sending across a strong message of solidarity amongst the gulf nations, Prince Abdullah is candid enough to admit the weaker areas lapses being committed by some of the Islamic nation. This has provided covert or overt support to the anti-social elements. The method adopted by Prince Abdullah in calling upon the leaders of the Islamic community is to cite specific instances like the sufferings of Palestine people, fall in oil prices, lack of a dependable security set-up etc. Many verses of Holy Quran have also been cite to emphasise the point that the Muslim and Arab world should not tolerate such wrong doings and the Muslim world must try to forge a united face, so that the problems being faced by the Islamic world can be taken up in right earnest. Situation has become more worrisome, particularly after the 9/11 terror attacks on USA. September 11, 2001 has been one of the most tragic days not only in the history of America, but the Islamic world altogether, as it brought the entire community in focus. There were instances which resulted in difficulties for innocent Muslim people being suspected, interrogated and frisked around the world. The crown prince has been hard pressed to highlight such instances and pray to the influential leaders to come out openly against such tendencies and in a united voice. 4. Analysis of the actor relating the document to a wider range of sources Terrorism, the dreaded word, finds some of its threads attached to the ongoing conflicts around the world. Be it the Middle East conflict, the Kosovo issue, Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kashmir skirmishes etc. are some of the examples which bring the issues of terrorism to the fore. For example tracing back the history of Israel-Palestine conflict, we find that the situation got aggravated when no Islamic nation seriously used its influence to win over the conflicting parties. If we trace back the history of the way terrorism related activities in the region have gone up in the recent past, the Middle East region figures prominently as far as such disturbances are concerned. The conflict between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East region goes back to the establishment of modern state of Israel in 1947 by the UN. This decision was strongly contested by the Arab World and they refused to recognize Israel. Though the relations between the Arab world and Israel are not that acrimonious, but the situation remains grim for the people of Palestine. From the Zionist point of view, the Israeli’s came back to Palestine in the late 19th century to repossess their inherited homeland. They instead had to buy the same land where they constructed a Jewish community. The reception however, was rather unfriendly; the Palestinian Arabs were found to be intimidating towards the Jewish community. Gradually this intimidation led to serious situations and the Zionists rose up to defend themselves from the aggression of the Palestinian Arabs, which gradually transformed into a terrorism problem (Fishman, 2005). But the term ‘The War on Terrorism’ got associated with the military and diplomatic campaign launched by the United States and allies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stated goal of this campaign is to end international terrorism by preventing ‘terrorist’ groups from carrying out further attacks. 5. Critical development of the commentary Terrorism is simply the destruction of the environment and private or public facilities as well as endangering national resources. Therefore, having a look at the developments thus far, it is more than apparent that violent activities leading to terrorist acts have not done anything constructive for the society. This includes all activities of antagonism unreasonably dedicated by personalities, assemblages or positions in opposition to individual persons including attacks on their religion, existence, mental power possessions or honour. All of these actions have been termed as mischief on earth. The revered Allah warned all his followers against such mischief only. According to Islam, Allah has promulgated severe and deterrent consequences for the acts of terrorism, profligacy, and waywardness including putting to death, crucifixion, the cutting off of hands and feet and exile from the land. But the way Middle East and several other campaigns are moving ahead, resulting in death and destruction, an unfortunate tag of terrorism has come to be associated with Islam, thus placing the hapless followers of Islam in an awkward position amongst their own colleagues, friends, community and the Western world in particular. In his address to the GCC conference, Prince Abdullah also says, “Our Arab and Muslim community has suffered severe harm as a result of the actions of murderers who have invoked the name of Islam, when Islam is totally innocent of their deeds. They claimed to support the Arab and Muslim community, but that community was the first victim of their evil actions”. The situation today has come to such a pass the leaders like Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz are forced to remind the Islamic nations about how wasteful the trend help of seeking foreign countries and international organisations has been for the Islamic community. He is of the view that so far the condemnation of acts of terror has apparently been nothing more than ‘lip service’. Such mild criticism of terror acts by the Arab world has not been able to deter the terrorists. He calls for effective steps being taken by the entire Muslim community so that, they are able to make an impact on the supply lines and logistics being provided to the terror groups by some of the people from the Islamic world. His frustration is quite apparent in the opening sentence of his address when he states, “We had hoped to meet today under better circumstances than those currently experienced by our Islamic and Arab community”. Prince Abdullah appears to be genuinely concerned by the futility of the summits and conferences that they have held in the past, which did not result in any significant impact on improving the social conditions of the Muslims the world over. Though the Gulf nations are rich in oil and gas resources, but the disunity amongst them has not made any significant difference in the existing positions. Prince Abdullah calls upon the community not just to issue rhetorical and emotional statements, but to analyse and probe in a rational and realistic manner how best to put such statements into practice. He is of the opinion that the GCC too has not been able to accomplish the stated objectives. For all its defence needs the Gulf region dependent upon western world, which raises doubts on the very concept of sovereignty and raises question marks about the unity of Gulf region countries. The fact that most of the terrorism related activities find relation with one or the other Islamic group or persons has not helped the cause of Islam. Some anti-social elements considering themselves as ardent followers of Islam, have been waging war on particular communities, countries or societies with the stated objective of ‘saving Islam’, but in essence they are not doing a big favour to their fellow Islamists. This realisation is fully reflected the candid views expressed by Prince Abdullah. He says, “It is the duty of all Muslims today to forcefully and unequivocally condemn all acts of terror without hesitation, and to denounce whoever supports terrorists in word or deed. It is also their duty to point out the vast difference between the claims of terrorists, and the legitimate struggles of any people for self-determination”. Lael B.et.al (2004) feel that the inadequacy in implementing of justice, in deciphering human divergences while pursuing a policy of haughtiness and power in international relations is one of the causes behind many wars and conflicts evident between Israel and Palestine and the Middle East collectively. But the fact that the task of delivering justice has been taken by a few anti-social elements by killing the innocent people and bombing civil installations has given rise to an exceptional situation. Though the major portion of Prince Abdullah is towards reigning in the terrorist forces, but another important equally crucial important issue that has been highlighted is the crisis like situation that Oil prices have come into. His contention is, the lack of unity amongst the Gulf nations is a major factor resulting in the sharp decline of oil prices, which in turn affects the welfare of the people and societies. That is why Prince Abdullah states, “Exceptional circumstances of today require exceptional actions in order to deal with them”. References: 1. Fishman. T (2005). ‘The Rising Superpower and how it poses grave challenges on the superpower’. Oxford University Press. 2. Lael B.et.al (2004). The Other War: Global poverty and the Millennium Challenge Account. Harvard School of Humanities. 3. Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia (2001). ‘Crown Prince Abdullahs address to 22nd GCC Summit, Muscat’. Available online at http://www.saudiembassy.net/2001News/Statements/SpeechDetail.asp?cIndex=245 (Jan 12, 2009) Read More