UAE Role in Global War on 'political Islam'

The recent decision by the United Arab Emirates to include major Muslim American organisations such as CAIR and the Muslim American Society amongst the other 83 international organisations as terrorist groups is another desperate step towards fighting the Arab Spring, which promises to bring about freedom and independence from Western hegemony.

Since the inception of the Arab Spring, the majority of the Arab governments, fully backed by Western colonial powers, plotted to topple the popular uprisings by all means. One repeated mechanism was the demonisation of “political Islam”, namely the Muslim Brotherhood who has been on the forefront of the popular struggle against injustice since the early 1900s.

Beyond the obvious goal of weakening and eventually halting the uprisings, another important goal of demonising the Muslim Brotherhood is creating a religious vacuum that can be easily filled by tyrant-approved scholars, public figures and religious organisations that will assist in continuing the status quo through religious reasoning. With Al-Qaeda and similar groups being rejected by the masses, and with the vilification of the Muslim Brotherhood, the population will be forced to endorse the rhetoric of the tyrants’ scholars, resulting in the collapse of the revolutions. This mechanism was used and succeeded in Egypt.

For the purpose of maintaining its political domination and Western hegemony, the UAE has been a leading force of the counter-revolution in the Arab world since 2006 when it funded a militia led by Mohamed Dahlan to overthrow the elected Hamas government in Gaza. Besides funding, training and providing political support to the counter-revolution forces in the region, the UAE has adopted a strategy to advocate a passive, submissive, and colonised version of Islam. Capitalising on the extremism of Al-Qaeda and the bashing of the Muslim Brotherhood, the UAE coined that version a “moderate Islam”.

Ever since, the UAE has endorsed and funded some preachers in the region to paint Islam as an experience that doesn’t go beyond a personal relationship between man and the creator, one that is expressed through dogmas and rituals, turning Islam to a mere mysticism without any social, cultural or political aspects.

In an effort to battle the International Union for Muslim Scholars, a leading proponent of the Arab Spring, the UAE established the Muslim Council of Elders earlier this year. The membership of the new council ranges from “scholars” who issued fatwas to justify murdering thousands of innocent people in Egypt, to public figures who demanded the youth “sit home, learn the deen [religion], and obey their oppressors.” The role of this new council is indisputable: to promote colonised Islam.

The West’s colonial agenda and tactics are becoming more discernible than ever, and the recent step by the UAE to label Islamic organisations in the West as terrorists sheds a light on an undeniable fact: there is a global war on the “political Islam” that promotes justice as the essence of Islam.

Raja Abdulhaq is a Palestinian activist and community organiser. Follow him on Twitter @Raja48

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.