Region of Hate: Allah Bent Over for Islamic Fascism
In Islam, Hadith plays a fundamental role in defining what Islam is, because the Quran itself is so limited and ambiguous on “what should be done” that, without oral tradition, it’s impossible to determine the accepted course of action according to Islam. For centuries, this has been an opportunity both for governments and those who seek to change society. Because tradition can be created both collectively and individually. This is why we find contradictory Hadiths, produced by a tradition-making factory with different outputs across time and place. For example, one Hadith has the Imam, or the religious leader of the time, stating that one should not assist the illegitimate government, even to the extent of writing a single word on paper for them (since any government other than their own, based on their interpretation of Sharia law, was considered illegitimate). However, another Hadith advises that if your service within the government alleviates the suffering of ordinary people, then even helping an illegitimate government is acceptable! It’s obvious that these narratives stem from times when two competing forces were each pushing their own narrative: one aimed at politically boycotting the government, and the other sought to win over those who had previously been persuaded to boycott it.
These contradictions reveal more about the people of the Middle East than they do about Islam itself or the differences between Shia and Sunni beliefs. With the rationale that serving an illegitimate government could be beneficial for the ordinary people, one could justify working for any government, even one that places its people in the worst conditions.
The Hadiths on the apocalypse or the end of times reveal even more. The Hadiths set a detailed agenda for the Twelfth Imam, or the savior expected to appear like the Messiah, outlining what he will do. According to these Hadiths, aside from killing all Jews, one of his main tasks will be to kill and eliminate all haram animals. This reveals less about the savior and more about the people who crafted these narratives and embedded them into their faith. The Quran merely prohibits the consumption of certain animals, without offering reasons for these prohibitions or making any statements against the animals themselves. Yet, the Muslim who constructed this narrative holds such intense hatred for these animals that they wish for their extinction, expecting the end-of-times superman Imam to fully eradicate the poor animals. Their belief doesn’t only suggest that humans who eat pork are enemies of Islam; it extends to the belief that the pig itself is an enemy of Islam!
Naturally, a person with such animosity toward an animal will develop animosity towards humans as well. Their worldview centers around a hatred of living beings—of things that want to live. Obviously, this leads to hatred not only of Jews but of Christians and Muslims from other sects and others as well. It also reveals the roots of Islamic fascism.
The Quran’s ambiguity puts the burden on the Muslim to be mindful of their choices. But the Muslim fascist wants to remove all choice, so there is no need for anyone to be mindful. In an ideal ecosystem for them, only sheep would remain, so no one could consume forbidden meat, even if they wanted to. Clearly, the people intoxicated with this mentality will never embrace democracy, regardless of what the U.S. State Department or think tanks in Washington, D.C., might wish for them. – Afshin Azad and Yusof RuyanFar
American Brain Rot and Middle Eastern Degeneracy
Brexit and the 2016 U.S. election were both disappointing and somewhat hopeful for an Iranian observer like me.
Disappointing, because there was no longer any hope that Westerners would understand what the Middle East really is, considering they don’t even understand their own countries. The average American didn’t know there were rural areas, small towns, and suburbs in the U.S. populated by people who were no longer Bush-era Republicans—and then was shocked by Trump’s election. The average Brit had no idea how easily the democratic system in their own country could change course without the people understanding the consequences and was stunned when their fellow citizens voted out of outrage instead of careful consideration. How can we expect these people to understand the current affairs of the Middle East?
And yet, there was a small glimmer of hope—if Westerners now realized their huge blind spots and gaps in understanding, maybe they would start to learn and address these weaknesses next time.
But the academic creature never learns, or helps its society to learn. Eight years later, there’s still no sign that the Westerners have learned anything. If it had, we wouldn’t be seeing the same close race between a woman and that same Trump. How can you explain to such a thoughtless society what the Shias in the Middle East actually want, or what Turkey’s motives are? Even Western elites, who are supposed to be more informed and inform the public, are disconnected from reality. Just 24 hours after they claim Israel is trapped in a quagmire, Israel pulls off decisive operations against Hezbollah that Hollywood wouldn’t dare to imagine. And just 24 hours after they write that Iran is “contained,” the Islamic Republic launches hundreds of missiles at Israel.
It’s almost as if their response to events is just a series of polished “wow” statements. But ordinary people are capable of making “wow” statements too. The so-called elites fail to understand that Iran hasn’t been capable of waging a real war in a long time. A country without the required technology and with over 80 percent of its population living in absolute poverty cannot wage war. But that doesn’t mean they cannot cause harm. A country that can’t fight still knows how to menace, just like a six-year-old with a gun may not be able to use that gun to rob a bank, but he can still use it to kill his own mother.
It was exactly this lack of understanding that led to underestimating the Houthis, whether by media, political, or military elites. They don’t realize that Middle Eastern troublemakers are not comparable with troublemakers in other parts of the world. Elsewhere, if someone is causing trouble but isn’t able to fight a war, then they’re probably doing it for some minimal material gain. But in the Middle East, troublemakers keep at it, endlessly, without gaining a thing.
And when I say “endlessly,” I’m not exaggerating. It’s a historic fact. The Middle East has been the land of pointless actions for thousands of years. Denying this fact is nothing but self-deception. If a Canadian diplomat fails to understand this fact, he harms his own country; if a Japanese tourist doesn’t understand it, he puts himself at risk. Two hundred years ago, Iran’s monarchy couldn’t stand up to marauding tribes from Central Asia, and lost control over large regions. Yet a few decades later, that same Iranian society, following the lead of its clergy and elites, beat the drums of war against Russia! No one stopped to ask, “If we were helpless against a handful of raiders, how are we supposed to withstand the Tsar’s army?” The Middle East is the land of not asking questions. And because of that, Iran marched into war with Russia only to surrender more territory before even stepping onto the battlefield. That defeat wasn’t just a loss of land; it marked the start of Russian political and commercial influence in Iran. And yet, here we are again: the same Iran, taking pride in its missiles, even after tasting mass death and destruction in the war with Iraq just forty years ago. The Iranian society complains about their tax money being spent on these missiles, resents the war-like state that their government has imposed on them, and knows full well that their economy can’t even handle a minor civil conflict, let alone an all-out war with a modern army. But their refusal to ask any of these questions overrides everything else.
And Western elites fail to grasp any of this, so they proceed with more polished “wow” statements – Afshin Azad
Land of Incompetent Bullies
Some Israelis have correctly come to understand this about the Middle East: Here, there’s no good or bad, no right or wrong—there is only strong and weak. The strong decide what’s “right” and what’s “acceptable.” People here only recognize good and bad when it comes from someone they respect, and they respect only the strong. Acceptance is not the same as agreement; they might not agree with what the strong define as “right,” but because they respect power, they accept it. The only way to survive here is to speak the language of power, so even if they disagree with you, they’ll still respect you. Violence, especially the kind that shocks, works in line with this approach, because strength is defined by the ability to shock.
Some Americans, after September 11, also designed the Iraq invasion with this thinking. Humiliating the region’s biggest bully, which was Iraq at the time, along with a shocking display of violence, established who was strong. Muslims in the Middle East, after 9/11, had started to believe that America was no longer powerful. How this invasion played out or ended has no bearing on the fact that it succeeded in this goal. Everyone saw that the “lion” of the region was a mouse, and this left a strong psychological and political impact.
Middle Easterners either fail to understand or deliberately avoid the fact that this very culture of bully-worship has become their weakness. This bullyarchy can coexist with openly cursing the bully, because insults still respect and accept the hierarchy of power. In Russia, for instance, people curse Putin, asking why the enemy is able to easily destroy their ammunition. They aren’t asking about what they might be doing wrong, or why they entered the war, or any of the other obvious questions. Their only question is, “Why aren’t you [Putin] the competent bully we thought you were?”
Once this bully-worshiping culture is revealed as your weakness, they’ll seize it, clutch it in their fist, press harder and harder, and squeeze until your pain is on full display.
Middle Easterners have fundamental intellectual and cultural flaws that breed their conflict with Israel. But because of these flaws, Israel’s approach of using violence is the only thing that works on them – Afshin Azad