What started as a showdown between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin soon turned into an issue of "intervention in Syria," that included Western powers such as Britain, France and Germany in the quarrel, which culminated in the U.S. missile attack on April 14. The U.S. once again rained death on Syrian lands, as has been the case for years now, using dictator Assad's use of chemical weapons as a pretext.
There’s not the slightest hope that this will be the last of the massacres committed in Muslims lands by Western powers, Russia, Israel, and even Iran. As the Muslim world suffers social and political unrest, leaving stable Muslim countries such as Turkey alone to work toward restoring balance, you will find that things are being run exactly at the whim of said forces.
The real tragedy in this situation is that some Muslims, even though their numbers are few, are praising world powers that bring so-called “order and justice” to other Muslim countries, when in fact they have no other purpose than exploitation and massacring.
It is necessary to seriously consider what the gains of an attack on a Muslim country by imperialist powers will really be, even though it is based on an apparently valid reason such as “punishing Assad for using chemical weapons.”
The past is filled with such examples. The U.S. presented the invasion of Iraq to the world as “toppling the dictator Saddam, destroying chemical weapons and liberating the people of Iraq.”
When the dust settled what was left was a politically divided Muslim country that had its petrol resources seized, its cultural heritage looted and had become a playground for terror organizations.
It was said for Muammar Gaddafi that “when he goes everything will be better,” however Libya has been in such a turmoil of chaos since then that it is looking longingly on the days past.
The situation in Afghanistan, where an operation was launched on the pretext of “the fight against the Taliban,” is deplorable; almost every week reports of civilians who were accidentally killed surface.
Thus, as we stop and look at the few painful examples we have in front of us, why do some Muslims still applaud the interventions of the imperialist powers or Muslim countries that are run by the former, saying, "We don’t have power anyway, let justice come at their hands at the very least"? What’s the reason behind this obliviousness on the part of Muslims, despite the fact that throughout history, there has not been a single example of non-Muslims rescuing Muslims from persecution; on the contrary fairly wealthy Muslim countries have been exploited for centuries by non-Muslims. How moral is it to applaud American missiles striking Muslim territories?
Various writers and specialists spoke to Gerçek Hayat Magazine and evaluated the sitation.
“First of all, I have to say that we’re still struggling to interpret all the conflicting interests and the play, along with it recurring repercussions, that is being put on in the stage of Syria. It is also strange and doubtful that Assad, in the position he is in right now after seizing almost the entirety of the region, would resort to using chemical weapons. Of course, we do not know how much of the forces we assume are fighting for Assad are actually under his control,” said poet and writer Ali Ayçil.
“However, we know one thing: America continues to support Israel while thousands of civilians are being massacred in Israeli attacks against Gaza. So it would be naive to say that the U.S. thinks of the well-being of civilians in any Muslims country. The United States, Britain and France want to increase their influence in Syria. At any rate, we’re not in a position where we have to support one or the other. It’s not a question of choice whether to support the U.S. or oppose it. We cannot be "Americans" in any sense of the word; this is our historical and civil awareness,” he continued.
Mustafa Özel, an academician at İstanbul Şehir University at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences in his turn said, “We can never rejoice in the bombing of Muslim lands.”
“Why? 1- Those who carried it out are not doing it for our well-being, or the good of our region. 2- They are fooling the world by pretending to punish an oppressor. 3- These are the ones who are capable of producing every kind of weapon that can destroy the world many times over. So they are not sincere in what they do. 4- If they had to do one thing, it would have to target the manufacturers of WMDs and chemical weapons! 5. The only thing we can be glad of is if colonial powers pull out of our lands,” he continued.
“When did murderers ever bring about justice for it to be the case here!” concluded Özel.
“It’s most dangerous to have to pick between the global hegemonic powers such as the U.S., France and the United Kingdom, or regional powers such as Assad and Iran and Russia, which have been raining death over the Syrian people for years,” says theologist and writer Talha Hakan Alp.
“Adopting a favorable attitude towards either, since both sides do not take into account the security and prosperity of the Syrian people, as they carry out their attacks based on their own hegemonic accounts rather than the salvation of Syria wouldn’t be a just stance,” he concluded.
Erol Göka, writer and academician, said, “Following the collapse of the bipolar world, the Muslim world was selected as the "other" of the modern capitalist world. They have been attacking everywhere from that day onward. They’re setting up plans and traps.”
Göka stated that the damage in the consciences of Muslims is the reason they are delighted when foreign forces rain down bombs on the region, saying: “Islamophobia, Daesh, the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), and waves of strife come to the fore as part of these attacks. The great upheaval in the Muslim world has, unfortunately, caused great damage to Muslims’ Ummah conscience. While the U.S., France, and British forces are bombing the Muslim region, this delight is a direct symptom of this process. Our only solace is that even those who look favorably on this admit that they are also shedding tears of blood on the inside.”
