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Originally published under the title, "Saudi Arabia Fools the West, Again."
Yet another war has broken out within Islam.
The richest nations of the Arab world are pummeling one of the poorest people on earth – the Yemenis.
As the deaths of helpless civilians mount, a lie of Goebellian scale is being perpetuated on the rest of us, who seem to have learned little from the propaganda that gave us Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction."
This time the bogeyman is Iran's tentacles choking the sea lanes of Bab-el-Mandeb that separate Yemen from the African coast.
While the vast majority of Islamic terror attacks on the West, Middle East and South Asia have been conducted by Sunni Muslim jihadis, Saudi Arabia has somehow convinced us it is Shiite Islam and Iran that are to blame.
Now the Saudis have taken on the task of restoring democracy in Yemen
by backing President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was ousted in a
popular insurgency by the Ansar Allah Party, better known as the
Houthis.
The only problem is that none of the countries in the Saudi-led coalition of oil-rich Gulf Arab sheikhdoms that purportedly seek to restore democracy in Yemen have ever faced their own electorates.
In addition, they are the very countries that have been the source of funding for the world's worst jihadi terrorist organizations, nations that have funded tens of thousands of Islamic madrassahs that churn out jihadis willing to die for Islam's victory over the kufaar, the hated non-Muslim infidel.
The lie that has been floated and gobbled up by western analysts and politicians is that the Yemeni Houthis are a product of Iranian intervention in Yemen and thus pose a threat to western interests as well as the security of Israel.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Finnish anthropologist Susanne Dahlgren, who has lived in Yemen, points out in MERIP this week that the Shiite and Iranian links being slapped on to the Houthis have little substance. She writes:
The Saudis have been very successful in convincing the West that it is not they who pose a threat to our liberties, but Iran.
This notwithstanding the fact that as early as November, 2013, the BBC's diplomatic editor, Mark Urban, broke the news that Saudi Arabia had invested in Pakistan's nuclear weapons projects for its own needs. Urban reported, "several nuclear weapons made in Pakistan for Saudi Arabia are sitting, waiting for delivery."
Canada should resist the temptations offered by Saudi Arabia, a regime accused of buying nukes off the shelf from a potentially hostile nuclear power – Pakistan, not Iran.
There is good reason to question the Saudi claim that Yemen's Houthi rebels are a regional threat.
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Yet another war has broken out within Islam.
The richest nations of the Arab world are pummeling one of the poorest people on earth – the Yemenis.
As the deaths of helpless civilians mount, a lie of Goebellian scale is being perpetuated on the rest of us, who seem to have learned little from the propaganda that gave us Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction."
This time the bogeyman is Iran's tentacles choking the sea lanes of Bab-el-Mandeb that separate Yemen from the African coast.
While the vast majority of Islamic terror attacks on the West, Middle East and South Asia have been conducted by Sunni Muslim jihadis, Saudi Arabia has somehow convinced us it is Shiite Islam and Iran that are to blame.
While the vast majority of global
terror attacks have been conducted by Sunni Muslims, Saudi Arabia has
convinced us that Shiite Islam and Iran are to blame.
|
The only problem is that none of the countries in the Saudi-led coalition of oil-rich Gulf Arab sheikhdoms that purportedly seek to restore democracy in Yemen have ever faced their own electorates.
In addition, they are the very countries that have been the source of funding for the world's worst jihadi terrorist organizations, nations that have funded tens of thousands of Islamic madrassahs that churn out jihadis willing to die for Islam's victory over the kufaar, the hated non-Muslim infidel.
The lie that has been floated and gobbled up by western analysts and politicians is that the Yemeni Houthis are a product of Iranian intervention in Yemen and thus pose a threat to western interests as well as the security of Israel.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Finnish anthropologist Susanne Dahlgren, who has lived in Yemen, points out in MERIP this week that the Shiite and Iranian links being slapped on to the Houthis have little substance. She writes:
The Western media shorthand designating the Houthis as 'Iran-backed' and 'Shiite' is misleading at best, since Houthi grievances are home grown and the Zaydi sect to which the Houthis belong is a distant cousin of the Twelver Shi'ism championed by the Islamic Republic in Tehran.Dahlgren goes on to say,
Much huffing and puffing by Gulf (Arab) media notwithstanding, there was little evidence that Iran aided the Houthis in the intermittent fighting of 2004-2010, certainly not to the extent of Saudi Arabia's military intervention against the Houthis in 2009.For the United States and, unfortunately, Canada to throw their weight behind this coalition of medieval dictators is not only unprincipled, but also suggests Middle East petro dollars and possible defence contacts are shaping Western foreign policy.
The Saudis have been very successful in convincing the West that it is not they who pose a threat to our liberties, but Iran.
This notwithstanding the fact that as early as November, 2013, the BBC's diplomatic editor, Mark Urban, broke the news that Saudi Arabia had invested in Pakistan's nuclear weapons projects for its own needs. Urban reported, "several nuclear weapons made in Pakistan for Saudi Arabia are sitting, waiting for delivery."
Canada should resist the temptations offered by Saudi Arabia, a regime accused of buying nukes off the shelf from a potentially hostile nuclear power – Pakistan, not Iran.
Tarek Fatah is a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, a columnist at the Toronto Sun, and a Robert J. and Abby B. Levine Fellow at the Middle East Forum. He is the author of two award-winning books: Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State and The Jew is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism.
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