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Globalia Magazine 4th edition
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GLOBALIAMagazineQuarterly | Issue 04 | December 2008EUR 6, USD 9, GBP 4.50, AED 32, MYR 29, ZAR 60
A new focus on the worldCover story: Tilting the balance? Russia andits ties to the Muslim world.
Law: Following the lead. The Europeanscriticise Bush, but copy him.
Africa: A fair share in the wealth. On thefailure of democracy in South Africa.
Imag
e: d
pa/p
ictu
re-a
llian
ce.c
om
Moscow is also a city of Muslims, page 14.
EDITORIALBy Abu Bakr Rieger.
COVER STORYTilting the balance? Russia and itsties to the Muslim world.
Also a city of Muslims. The Russian capitalconnects East and West.
INTERVIEW“More and more difficult”. Zaim Saidi on thefinancial crisis and Indonesia.
BUSINESSGreen power for London. E.ON buildsthe world's biggest wind farm.
After Oil, your own private nuclear power plant?
FINANCETectonic shifts. The Muslims and the financial crisis.
Forgotten, but still relevant. Essay: Ezra Pound and thefinancial crisis.
4
6
14
16
20
21
22
28
Image: Aziat Sabri (Moscow, November 2008)
The forgotten conflict. Freedom is dying out in Kashmir, page 38.
CONCEPT AND EDITORIAL
LAWFollowing the lead. The Europeans criticiseBush, but copy him.
ASIAThe siege of Bombay. Capitalism breaths through Terrorism.
The forgotten conflict. Freedom is dying out in Kashmir.
AFRICAA fair share in the wealth. On the failureof democracy in South Africa.
EUROPEThe beginnings of a change. Potential ofthe Muslims for industrial cities.
THOUGHTThe Oligarchic Tendency. From Politea toThe Time of the Bedouin.
32
35
38
42
48
52
CHIEF EDITORAbu Bakr Rieger
PUBLISHERIZ Medien GmbHBeilsteinerstr. 12112681 BerlinGermany
ASSOCIATE EDITORSulaiman Wilms
DISTRIBUTIONIZ Medien GmbH
PRINTINGmsk marketingserviceköln
GLOBALIA Magazine reserves theright to shorten letters. Readers’letters, guest articles and quotationsdo not necessarily represent theopinions of the Editors, nor doarticles by named authors.
PHONE+49 (0)30 240 48974
MOBILE +49 (0)179 967 8018
FAX+49 (0)30 240 48975
E-mailinfo@globaliamagazine.com
WEBSITEwww.globaliamagazine.com
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
EDITORIAL
5
EDITORIAL
4
Dear Reader,
this is the fourth print edition of the Globaliamagazine.
In this edition we deal in particular with therelationship of the Islamic world to Russia. Evenbefore the onset of the finanial crisis a numberof observers had already recognized Russia asthe actual winner of the cold war. The conflictin Georgia clearly demonstrated that Russiadoes not consider its continental role as beingmerely a subservient of the transatlantic alliance.
Through its wealth in ressources - and alongsideTurkey, the other great connecting link on theEurasian continent – Russia will undoubtedlycontinue to play a prominent role after the crisisof the virtual currency system.
Prime Minister Putin has not only brokensystematically with the communist past of hiscountry but has also successfully curtailed thegrowing power of the Russian oligarchs whichemerged in the lawless period of upheaval.Russia’s strength – which Putin recognised andfostered – is certainly the sovereign control ofits ressources.
20 million Muslims now live in this multiethnicstate. Needless to say, Russia is aware that arelaxed and constructive relationship towardsthe Muslims of Eurasia can only increase itsown global political influence. The alternativewould be numerous, new and intractable terri-torial conflicts with yet further victims dyingpointless deaths.
The question today, of course, is whether theMuslims of Russia will find an authentic middleway; a way beyond any extremist ideology orbanale esotericism. Neither of these twoextremes, in the long term, will be able tointegrate or educate the Muslim masses ofRussia.
EDITORIALBY ABU BAKR RIEGER
It is time to resolve positively the tragic eventsin the Caucasus which still characterize Russia’srelationship with Islam. It should be rememberedonce more that the age of meaningful nationalconflicts and wars of liberation are a thing ofpast.
The Globalia project continues to grow.Alongside our strong internet presence and thefurther development of our print edition, weare also concentrating on the “Globalia ThinkTank”.
The aim of this feature – in addition to theformation and support of Muslim journalists –will be the ongoing development of the corethemes of our magazine: this will involveintensive analysis in the field of geopolitics,biopolitics, technology and culture.
Naturally, we want to continue to present thoseimportant minds and thinkers from all over theworld who think beyond the demarcations ofnational borders.
The jurist Carl Schmitt pointed out that all theconcepts of the state and politics prevalent inthe west today are in fact “secularisedtheological concepts”.
For an understanding of Islam and indeed alsoof the Muslims, it is of utmost importance towork out an independent and specific Islamicterminology. In order to interpret Islam cor-rectly, one must expose afresh European think-ing for what it actually is, and then analyse itsinfluence on the Muslims – not least becauseterrorism makes use of a modern ideologywhich is incompatible with Islamic thinking ofthe last centuries.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
COVER STORY
6 7
COVER STORY
The world is witnessing an unprecedented
decline of American hegemony and the rise
of Russia in parallel as a formidable energy
superpower. Russia, after the breakup of the
Soviet Union, which Putin termed the greatest
geopolitical catastrophe in her history, lay
ostensibly crippled for almost a decade
towards the end of which period a group of
oligarchs began dictating both the domestic
and foreign affairs of the country.
Though Putin himself rose to power under
such dictates, he however, could see that any
sympathetic approach to such power would
only ruin the nation further. He not only saw
this; he also responded with calculated
precision. The Khodorkovsky affair, the
regulation of economic policies to curb
oligarchic power and, most importantly, the
nationalisation of a major part of the energy
industry, were the most significant steps that
he took to restore Russia’s capacity to act as
a major player on the international stage.
Today, after the events in Georgia, it has
become clear that Russia would no longer
tolerate a unilateral power in the world that
at any moment it deems fit, is not only ready
to denounce such dominance but is also ready
to respond boldly and appropriately. Russia
has been calling for a multi-polar world for
some years now with its new presence in
such an important a region to the USA as the
Middle East, actually reflects the steps Russia
is resolutely taking to transform this call into
action.
It is necessary, first of all, to bring to mind
that the Middle East as a whole consists of
the major OPEC countries with the largest oil
and gas reserves. While only strategic in
having influence over the Mediterranean, it
is a link to Europe,Africa and Asia and it has
a large percentage of the world’s Muslim
population.
When the world saw a shift from coal to oil
as the primary source of energy, Britain – and
later the US contrived and carefully prepared
the Middle East to be by far – the most
important land mass to serve this purpose.
The Sykes-Picot agreement, in the midst of the
“The balance of power is changing. The world is
changing. It is no longer a unipolar world. New
centres of power are emerging. Russia is one
pole. The Islamic world is another pole. If we join
these two poles then we would have a better
leverage on the world stage.” (Veniamin Popov,
director of the Russian Centre for Partnership of
Civilisations)
TILTING THE BALANCE?RUSSIA AND ITS TIES TO THE MUSLIM WORLD
Great War, most cleverly carved out the
countries of the Middle East to supply the
energy needs of the Anglo-American
hegemony. Thereafter, the Middle East has
been the most crucial energy supplier to them.
It continues to remain so today.
Even at present, the Iraq war and the
imminent Iran conflict are buttressing
evidence to this strategic importance of the
Middle East – chiefly as a region of energy
resource rather than anything else. For a newly
emerged energy-superpower such as Russia,
a strategic alignment – a subtly imposing,
pragmatic and influential presence – in the
Middle East is indispensable to counter any
unilateral political decision taken by a single
power in the world.This is not an entirely fresh
entré into the region. In fact, Russia has been
in the Middle East before.
The Soviet era saw the USSR allied to Algeria,
Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria. Generous
financial aids were given to these countries
for government spending, to build industrial
infrastructure, gas and oil pipelines, to
conduct nuclear research and build nuclear
power plants and for scientific research. The
former Sovietunion was a traditional arms
supplier to these Middle Eastern states. In
short, there was a budding economic,
diplomatic and military cooperation between
the two parties.
On the other hand, it is worthy of note that
the Soviet Union did not have any bilateral
relations with countries like Saudi Arabia,
Israel and Jordan, which were all part of the
Anglo-American alliance that was waging
war on Communism. Thus the bilateral
relations Soviet Russia had with a part of the
Arab world were, in large, propelled by
ideological impulse.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
COVER STORY
After 1991 however, with Yeltsin’s Presidency,
Russia ceased all Soviet relations with the
Middle East. For almost a decade, there was
no involvement in the region with the
exception of arms supplies and nuclear
relations with Iran, which Russia has
maintained to date despite all US-Israeli
opposition, thanks probably to the
Federation’s 10 billion US-Dollar investment
in Iran’s nuclear program besides any other
reasons. As for the, all ties ceased.
Thus, until Putin’s Presidency, an entr’acte
phase of withdrawal from the international
stage and concentration on internal affairs set
in on the history of Russia.The new Federation
of Russia, from the start of the new
millennium, washed its hands off all politics
and diplomacy based on any form of ideology.
This accounts for Russia’s good ties at present,
for example, with Israel as well as with Iran
and Syria.
The new focus, commencing from Putin’s term
of office, became energy (oil, gas and nuclear)
and the using of it as a political and econo-
mic tool to restore the nation’s independence
from international organisations (settling the
national debt for example), to bolster up the
economy, and to restore Russia’s international
superpower status. In fact, all of these, Putin
has now successfully executed.
In the course of this new phase in Russian
history, three dramatic events occurred,
indicating Russia’s return to the Middle East
after the Yeltsin entr’acte phase. They are as
follows:
• Putin’s April 2005 visits to Egypt, Israel and
the Palestinian territories
• Russia’s refusal to recognise Hamas and
Hizbullah as terrorist organizations and its
March 2006 invitation to the newly elected
Palestinian leadership, Hamas, to visit Moscow
• Putin’s February 2007 visit to Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and Jordan
Putin’s April 2005 tour is of great signifi-
cance, since it was the first time a
Russian/Soviet leader ever visited Israel as
well as being the first return to Egypt after
Khruschev’s last trip to the country in 1964.
The second event indicated beyond doubt
that Russia was defying all diplomatic bounds
laid down by the United States in the Middle
East and was not willing to adhere to US
unilateral decisions even in matters
pertaining to the War on Terror.
The invitation to Hamas had come only a year
after Putin’s visit to Israel and even though
it outraged them, the Israelis could not in
effect respond to that bold action since Hamas
had just won a democratic and completely
legal electoral process and therefore had to
be regarded as the official leadership of
Palestine.
It was a brilliant move of what can be termed
as a peace offensive that reflected Russia’s
intentions to pursue an independent course
in the Middle East.The third event marked an
important Soviet/Russian leader’s visit to the
region and hence the opening of a new
chapter in Russian-Arab relations.
In addition, Russia was one of the ‘quartet
nations’ – Russia, US, EU and UN – assem-
bled to effect the ‘road map’ for peace to
resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This
was in fact the beginning of Russia’s return
to her Soviet participation in the Middle East
peace process.The latest update on the matter
is that on the 9th of November, the quartet
mediators met at the Egyptian resort of Sharm
El-Sheikh and decided that the next quartet
meeting will be hosted in Moscow after the
new US administration comes to power to
discuss the realisation of an independent
Palestinian state. Palestinian leader, Mahmoud
Abbas, has visited Moscow four times to
prepare for peace negotiation meetings and
now it seems that such a meeting in Moscow
next spring is highly probable, and it will
better enable Russia to influence the peace
process of the region.
In order to put Russia’s pronounced presence
in the Middle East into perspective, the build
up of Russian-Arab relations in the past few
years to what it has become today, is
necessary to its aims.
Russia, Saudi Arabia and QatarIn September 2003, Crown Prince Abdullah
of Saudi Arabia visited the Russian capital
and signed a five-year oil and gas coopera-
tion agreement. Following that, Putin in his
high profile visit to the Kingdom in February
2007 was accompanied by heads of major
Russian state companies: Gazprom, Lukoil
and Russian Railways. It was clearly a business
delegation. Besides signing approximately
Today, after the Georgi-
an event, it has become
clear that Russia would
not tolerate a unilateral
power in the world
and at any moment it
deems fit, is not only
ready to denounce such
dominance but is also
ready to respond boldly
and appropriately.
8 9
COVER STORY
ten agreements on mutual investments and
economic cooperation, Putin also offered to
supply arms and nuclear reactors to the
Kingdom, encouraged and invited Saudi
businessmen to increase investments in Russia
and acknowledged the idea of establishing
a Russo-Saudi bank to facilitate this co-
operation.
Lukoil clinched a lucrative 40-year deal with
Saudi Arabia to develop the gas reserves in
the northern part of the Rub Al-Khali Desert.
The possibility of Russian Railways
constructing a railway line from Mecca to
Medinah was also discussed.
The following November, Prince Bandar visited
Moscow and signed the first Military
Cooperation agreement between the two
countries.A subsequent agreement on military
technical cooperation was signed on 14 July
2008 by another Saudi delegation to Moscow.
Indeed, what Putin had mentioned in his
address to Saudi business leaders in his
February 2007 visit to the Kingdom is worthy
of note: “We know all too well how fast the
world economy is developing and how much
energy it needs now and will need in the
future … and that means that (Russia and
Saudi Arabia) are not competitors but allies,
not competitors but partners in the develop-
ment of the world’s energy markets.”
In Putin’s visit to Qatar – which, bearing in
mind has the third largest gas reserves in the
world and the largest Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG) production and export facilities, and
which is one of the EU’s focus countries in
diversifying from dependence on Russian gas
– agreements were signed to form a Russian-
Qatar Gas council. Another memorandum
calling for mutual understanding and the
possibility for cooperation between Lukoil
and Qatar Petroleum was also signed. The
meeting also included discussions to establish
a gas cartel by Russia, Iran and Qatar.
Concerning Jordan, Putin’s visit was the first
time Russia had made agreements to
construct gas and oil pipelines, to protect
investments and to sell arms. King Abdullah
II, by attending the MVSV 2008 arms display
in Moscow, has shown interest in Russian
weapons. He has also sent humanitarian aid
to South Ossetia – food and medical equip-
ment – clearly to strengthen ties with Russia.
Jordan too, like Saudi Arabia, having been an
American-Israeli ally all this while, has now
shown itself willing to diversify from that
dependence.
Anouncing the cooperation agreement between the Russian Lukoil and Qatar Petroleum.
Image: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
COVER STORY
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran and Jordan
spell an energy alliance with ominous
implications for US primacy in the Middle
East.And while Saudi, Qatar and Jordan seek
to diversify from dependence on the US, Russia
and Iran have demonstrated continued
defiance and opposition to US interests.
Cementing Soviet-alliance withSyria, Egypt and LibyaSyria is to Israel what Georgia is to Russia.
The Georgian event that exposed Israel’s
hypocritical involvement in Russian affairs
has forced Russia’s return to her Soviet
alliance with Syria. A few days before the
MVSV 2008 arms display in Moscow, Syrian
President, Bashar Al-Assad, flew into the city
(this was immediately after the Georgian
event) and met with Medvedev and Putin. A
Syrian delegation attended the arms
exhibition. Israel is clearly irked by the new
alliance and it seems obvious that Russia’s
move was deliberately intended to respond
to Israel’s involvement in the training of the
Georgian military. Russia appears to be saying
that if Israel meddles in Ossetia, then there
is no reason why Russia should not meddle
in the Israeli-Syrian Golan Heights border
conflict and reap some profits thereby
through arms sales to the former Soviet ally.
Being caught in a conflict with Israel, Syria
has no other door to knock besides Russia’s
for arms support. China is another possibil-
ity but it is doubtful whether the purely
business-oriented China is ready to risk being
caught in a political conflict with the US and
Israel.
A number of economic agreements had
already been signed between Syria and
Russia during an earlier visit to Moscow by
President Bashar Assadin January 2005.
March 2005 saw the Russian company Tatneft
sign an agreement with Syria to explore and
develop new oil and gas deposits in the coun-
try. In December the same year, Stroytransgaz
signed contracts to construct a 200 million
US-Dollar gas processing plant in Syria and
160 million US-Dollars worth of gas pipelines.
Furthermore, a 2.7 billion US-Dollar prelim-
inary deal was settled to begin construction
in a future of oil-refining and petrochemical
complex in Syria. Assad, after the US
confirmed the installation of anti-ballistic
missiles in Poland, has now offered Medvedev
rights to deploy Russian missiles in Syrian
territory. If Moscow does that, the presence
of Russian arms in the Arab countries would
be increased – another threat to US primacy
in the region.
While Russia has possibly used Syria to check
and warn Israel in response to the Georgian
event, it has concentrated effectively in the
process of establishing more vital and
lucrative connections through energy
cooperation with the country. However, in
case Israel steps into Georgia again, Russia
could quite predictably take up its Iskander
missile sales to Syria, halted for the moment
in order to preserve its equally beneficial trade
relations with Israel.
The lesson drawn from this, is that Russia is
punctiliously avoiding being ideologically
motivated either way, maintaining friendly
ties with both Israel and Syria. It should be
stated in passing, that there is an enormous
Russian Jewish population in Israel which
brings a very significant financial inflow of
wealth into Russia.
During his November 2004 visit to Egypt, the
then Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Fradkov,
signed several economic agreements with
the former Soviet ally. Consequently, Putin’s
April 2005 visit to Egypt effected a number
of improvements in Russo-Egyptian relations.
Included was a business forum that took place
in which a civilian nuclear cooperation
between the two countries took place with
a declaration on bilateral relations signed
describing the two countries as “strategic
partners”. Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak,
visited Moscow in November 2006 and met
with Putin to discuss the construction of a
Russian industrial zone in Egypt. In April, the
following year, Russian industry and energy
minister,Viktor Khristenko went to Egypt and
signed a memorandum on establishing this
zone. Facilities were proposed to produce
equipments for power stations and the oil
industry. As far as arms sales are concerned,
Egypt has frankly conceded preference for
US weapons.
Russia has also shown considerable interest
in re-establishing ties with former Soviet allies,
Algeria and Libya, as well. The first Gazprom
office in Libya has already begun functioning.
After his last visit to Russia in 1985, Qaddafi,
on the 1st of November, accompanied by a
large delegation flew to Moscow and met
with Medvedev and Putin for the purpose of
increasing investment and business cooper-
ation in various spheres. He said, “The door
to enhancing cooperation in civilian spheres
is open to Russia.” He mentioned to Putin that
cooperation between Russia and Libya would
have a positive effect on the international
political situation and the geopolitical balance
of power.
This was a clear reference to the already
declining American hegemony, the rise of
Russia’s economic superpower status that is
based primarily on energy, and Libya’s
willingness to cooperate with Russia to
catalyse this. Qaddafi, like Bashar Al-Asad,
1110
GLOBALIAGLOBALIA || Issue 04 Issue 04 || December 2008December 2008
COVER STORY
has further discussed with the leaders of
Russia the possibility of a Russian naval base
in Libya to check American military invol-
vement there. President Qaddafi has also
accepted an invitation from the Chechen
President to visit the North Caucasus in 2010.
He is also making arrangements to buy
military equipment from Russia and the
former Soviet countries again.
It is evident now that Russia has successfully
re-established former Soviet ties with Syria,
Egypt and Libya.
Russian-Arab Business CouncilThe RABC is another trade organisation that
has to be taken into account in order to
understand Russian-Arab relations. Establi-
shed in the year 2002 as a joint venture for
business cooperation between the Russian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the
General Union of Chambers of Commerce,
Industry and Agriculture of 22 countries on
the Arab side, the RABC is a foundation to
facilitate and strengthen commercial ties
between the two sides.
Since most of the Arab
world is Muslim, advan-
cing Russian-Arab rela-
tions has great signifi-
cance to Russia for the
very reason that for it-
self has approximately
20 million Muslims.
between Russian and Arab businesses, and
stimulating innovative activity.”
It is also critical for Russia to align itself
strategically in the Middle East in order to
have influence over the Mediterranean, a
major trade route between the Middle East
and Southern Europe. In the region, Greece
and Cyprus are already considered Russia’s
Trojan Horses in the EU. Italy, France and
Spain have for the most part proved
themselves to be Russia’s strategic partners,
demonstrating willingness to cooperate, parti-
cularly in the production and transport of
energy. With this background, Russia’s
alignment with Egypt, Turkey (another vital
state that Russia has reinforced its ties
with), Syria, Israel, Algeria and Libya
demonstrates clearly that Russia’s influence
in the Mediterranean is bound to grow.This
implies greater opportunities for Russia to
enter with Qatar into LNG supply contracts
to Europe, with LNG demand growing and
Russia having for some time now, shown
signs of an intention to enter the trade. The
opportunity appears ripe now.
Though not an entirely political organisation,
the RABC has created opportunities for
Russian and Arab corporations to trade with
the two governments, thereby paving ways
for increased mutual investments.
The Council has so far set up three new off-
shoot committees: Russian-Syrian, Russian-
Egyptian and Russian-Lebanese, in order to
concentrate individually on these bilateral
ties. The Chairman of the RABC, Vladimir
Yevtushenkov stated,“The Council’s main job
is to create joint committees entrusted with
specific projects between Russia and Arab
member countries, establishing direct contacts
Russia’s new diplomacy: Prime minister Medvedev with the Syrian President Asad.
12 13
COVER STORY
Finally, since most of the Arab world is
Muslim, advancing Russian-Arab relations
has greater significance since Russia itself has
approximately 20 million Muslims. Putin’s
alliance with the Arab-Muslim countries and
his public denunciation and criticism of US
hegemony, has won the favour of a large
portion of Muslims in his country and around
the world.
Russia is now an observer in the OIC and
considers cooperation with the Muslim world
crucial. The following extract from a June
2006 speech by presidential adviser Aslambek
Aslakhanov sums up Russia’s position in the
Middle East:“The Middle East and the Islamic
world are important for us as partners in
trade and economic cooperation, a market for
military hardware, and in perspective, as a
partner in the energy sphere, and in high
industrial technologies. Russia wants to con-
solidate its role as a go-between in settling
political disputes between different countries
and civilizations … Russia and the US may
have different positions on international and
regional issues, and different attitudes to
Muslim nations. Russia and the US are cer-
tainly rivals in the Middle East and the rest
of the Muslim world. The question is what it
is based on and how far it may go. It is only
fair that Russia does not want to play the role
of a US junior partner in Middle East affairs
and in questions pertaining to the destinies
of the Muslim world. But Russia can and must
be a partner of the US and the West when its
national interests are not prejudiced.”
Russia, it can be seen now, has not only -
meticulously avoided its former ideological -
approach, but has subsequently returned to
its Soviet allies to form new partnerships.
Secondly, alignments with the Arab world so
far have been based, for the most part, on
energy cooperation. Thirdly, Russia’s military
presence with troop deployment and arms
supply to Arab countries has similarly
increased.
Resurgent Russia, as it has come to be
known, has entered the Middle East Peace
Process – Muslim support for Russia, in
contrast that for the US is gradually rising.
Since Russia is now popular for having used
energy as a political tool on numerous
occasions in Europe, its current presence in
the Middle East might possibly deliver a
similar potential for such power in this region
as well.
This much is clear as Russia’s national inte-
rests – mainly economic – have not been
unduly prejudiced with her leaders willing to
cooperate with the US, especially now that a
non-aggressive, potentially cooperative and
dialogue-compliant new administration under
Obama is coming to power in the US in the
new year. Otherwise, Russia remains the only
power capable of checking US primacy in the
world. In this regard, there are possibilities
that a New Cold War might well emerge,
since Kremlin sources are already indicating
that Medvedev might resign with Putin
becoming president again.
Text Hasbullah bin Hidayatullah
The russian energy wealth is one of the cornerstone of Moscows’ strategy.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
COVER STORY
Muslims in Russia: a contradictory thought to
many. State interference, religious oppression
under the Soviet Union, the ignominious
conflict of the northern Caucasus – yet all
these have produced a picture which only
partly reflects, if at all, the true state of affairs.
A look at the diverse Muslim community in
the Russian capital is an experience which
puts things into perspective.
The onion towers of the Kremlin, one of
Moscow’s trademarks and a significant tourist
magnet, are clue enough that the city’s history
is different from that of any comparable
western European capital. The unique archi-
tecture of the domes reminds us the centuries-
long relationship between the Russian
authorities and their Muslim subjects.
Despite all the obvious tensions, Islam and
Muslims are not considered as an immigrant
or foreign presence as they are in western
European cities, rather they constitute one of
the Russian population’s traditional ingre-
dients. Anyone who doubts this should see
some of the successful segments of Moscow’s
Muslim community. There are Muslim
restaurants on a par with those of Istanbul.
Personal encounters with Muslim Muscovites,
be they ethnic Russians or Tatars, reveal the
kind of self-confidence and intelligence which
is rare among western European migrants.
Moscow, which in the late Middle Ages came
under the sovereignty of the Golden Horde,
is now the European city with the largest
Muslim population after Istanbul. As many
as three million Muslims live in Moscow and
St. Petersburg combined. The Office of the
Grand Mufti estimated in 2006 that up to two
million Muslims live in Moscow. On Fridays
and holidays, the few large mosques are so
full that some of the congregation have to
pray outside on the street.
However, even though Islam is one of Russia’s
autochthonous religions, the relationship
between Muslims and official politics is often
an ambivalent one. While politicians on a
national level are open to Muslims and strive
to build up stable links with the Muslim
world, attitudes towards Muslims can also
be marred by racist attacks and nationalist
rhetoric in the public arena.
In the future, communities in Moscow will play
a much more active role within Islam in Europe.
Unlike many of the communities in Western
Europe, Russian Muslims do not suffer from an
identity split due to a past history of migration.
Islam is considered – even though there have been
tense moments – part of Russia’s identity.
ALSO A CITY OF MUSLIMSTHE RUSSIAN CAPITAL CONNECTS EAST AND WEST
At the same time, Muslims in the Russian
capital enjoy freedoms that their brethren in
other parts of the continent do not have. As
the capital of the Eurasian Russian ‘empire’,
Moscow is also the locus of the nation’s
Muslim activities. Among the key Muslim
figures are Ravil Gainutdin (Director of the
‘Spiritual Administration’ of Russia), Abdul-
vahid Niyazov (Director of the Islamic Cultural
Centre, which is allied to Gainutdin’s
organisation), Marat Saifutdinov, and Harun
Sidorov, who heads a national association of
Russian Muslims.
In conversation with Globalia Magazine,Amir
Hamdani, a Muslim of Russian extraction,
spoke about the situation of the Muslims in
the capital. A practising lawyer in his twen-
ties, Hamdani claims that the religious life of
Moscow’s Muslims is determined by the
“bureaucratic structures” of the official
Muslim religious institutions. Known as the
Spiritual Administration, these function as
official points of liaison with the government.
“Some groups have organised themselves in
political opposition to these bodies, and
propagate, what you might call, a ‘political
Islam’, but without constituting any kind of
real, living community.” In contrast to the
ethnically defined institutions set up by majo-
rity Tatar or Caucasian groups, the National
Organisation of Russian Muslims (NORM) is
fast developing a Muslim community itself
and to which Hamdani himself belongs.
As has been said, Muslims are not an alien
element in Moscow’s historical make-up. In
the 16th century, a period of Czarist expansion
to the East, Muslims began to settle in the
capital in the quarter which became known
as ‘Tatarskaya Sloboda’. Under the commu-
nist Soviet Union the Muslims, like adher-
ents to other religions, were oppressed and
14 15
COVER STORY
prevented from practising their way of life.
But after Perestroika many more born-
Muslims began to settle in the capital, and,
according to Amir Hamdani, “thousands of
Russians also began to enter Islam.”
In theory, Muslims enjoy full rights and
opportunities in Moscow. But in fact they see
themselves confronted with difficulties in
their daily live, for two reasons. The un-
resolved conflict in the Caucasus, in which
“separatists and terrorists have appropriated
the name of Islam for themselves,” had a
negative effect on public opinion, says
Hamdani. Then there is also the problem of
illegal immigration. Both of these things
have produced something of a negative
public atmosphere.
Amir Hamdani is nevertheless highly
optimistic.“Despite these setbacks, if you are
a recognised Russian citizen then you have
every opportunity to live in Moscow and
practise your religion.” There are, he points
out, many successful or rich Muslim business-
people in Moscow, and there is also a growing
interest in Islamic knowledge among the
Muslim youth.
As in other European cities, mosques are one
of the visible elements of Islam in Moscow.
There are currently five official mosques,
which are managed by the “Spiritual Admi-
nistration” of Russia’s Muslims. Apart from
those, many Muslims meet to pray together
in Jamat Khanas and private apartments.
When it comes to building mosques there are
also parallels with the rest of Europe; with
construction projects meeting with approval
in some political quarters and resistance in
others. In 2004 Moscow’s mayor, Yuri
Luzhkov, supported the erection of a new
mosque in the capital, whereas at the end
of 2007, there was a heated debate about
the construction of new mosques between
the Muslim community and the governor of
the Moscow region, Boris Granov.
Political issues aside, the Muslims of the city
are involved in a wide range of other activities,
and among the most dynamic are the Muslim
women.According to Aysha Ivanova, a young
Muslim academic, Muslim women do
occasionally have to deal with discrimination
in the workplace; nevertheless, she claims,
they make an important contribution to
Islamic life in Moscow. “Many of them are
very active. They have founded a number of
associations, and run organisations for women
and children.”
2007 saw another example of how Moscow’s
Muslims have organised themselves civil
projects; the opening of a Muslim clinic.
Grand Mufti Shaykh Ravil Gainutdin,
described the opening of the clinic as a
“historic event”. Situated in the south-east
of Moscow, the establishment is part of a
private healthcare centre and currently em-
ploys 50 doctors and nurses. According to
Gainutdin, the institution satisfies “the right
of every Russian citizen to receive treatment
in accordance with their own traditions.” If
the model is successful, then it is intended
to set up other similar institutions in other
parts of Russia.
While in western Europe the image of Islam
is sadly still based in many people’s eyes on
the conflicts and contradictions of the era of
migration, in Moscow, a dynamic Muslim
community has emerged. Forward-thinking
European Muslims believe that in the future,
with the capabilities and connections that
the community possesses, it could play a
stabilising and constructive role for Muslims
in Europe generally.
Text By Sulaiman Wilms
Image: AP Photo/ Sergei Ponomarev
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
INTERVIEW
Indonesia has already been hit hard by the Asia
crisis in 1997. Its impacts – especially in the field
of economic and monetary stability – are still
being felt by most of the population. There are
no estimates yet as to what the current crisis will
bring for the impoverished population.
“MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT”ZAIM SAIDI ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND INDONESIA
Indonesia was hit hard by the financial
crisis in 1997, so much so, that its people
are still feeling its effects over ten years
later. Nowadays, the biggest Muslim
country in the world is not just faced
with the impact of the recent crisis, but
is also entangled in the economic power
struggle between Western interests and
a growing Chinese influence. Indonesia’s
economy, as in other so-called ‘Third
World’, countries, suffers from the
in short, the cost of living generally is
increasing. As far as most Indonesians are
concerned, regardless of the economic crisis
in the US, the situation in Indonesia has been
worsening for the last ten years. The main
thing is that the cost of living is still very
high. In other words, despite the govern-
ment’s claim that the poverty rate is in decline,
in fact, life for people is becoming more and
more difficult.There must be something more
fundamental that we have to look at in order
for people to see what the real cost of the
crisis is so that we can have a better
perspective on, and better cures for the
disease of the economy.
Globalia: So the effects of the 1997 crisis
impacted Indonesia more than the
current financial crisis so far?
Zaim Saidi: Yes, because it directly impacted
on the local financial industry. Even so, what
is happening right now will probably have a
more noticeable impact in the near future,
given, as we can see, there may well be a
domino effect with the financial crisis
affecting other parts of the world, because,
as we know, that the current financial system
is an integrated world network. So what is
happening in the US or in European countries,
will affect Indonesia, for instance.
Globalia: How does Indonesia see itself
economically between the US, on the one
side, and China, on the other?
Zaim Saidi: China is having an ever-increasing
influence on the economy. We can see this
from people’s daily experience, as people buy
more and more Chinese products. You can
see it in food, machinery, clothes, toys;
anything.The thing is that Chinese products,
on the one hand, are cheap compared to
problems of foreign sweatshops, strip-
mining and de-forestation.
In order to find out more about the
situation in the Archipelago, we spoke
with Zaim Saidi, a professional journalist
and counselor living in the capital,
Jakarta. He is also an expert on the socio-
economical activities of non-governmen-
tal organisations (NGOs) and educates
personnel on matters relating to public
relations and fund-raising. In addition,
Zaid Saimi is the director of a project
promoting the introduction of a bi-metal-
lic currency system, the gold Dinar and
the silver Dirham. For this purpose he
heads up and operates a wakala in the
Indonesian capital.
Globalia: Concerning the economic
situation in Indonesia, how has it been
affected by the current crisis?
Zaim Saidi: The impact appears not much
better than, when compared to the similar
crisis of 1997, the effects of which Indonesians
are still feeling. That impact can still be seen
in the food prices, energy prices and clothing,
16 17
INTERVIEW
other products, even though on the other,
quality-wise, they are not always very good.
Because people’s purchasing power is
weakening and the cost of living is rising
higher and higher, Chinese products are
becoming more popular. On another level,
the influence of China is also strong, for
instance, in the energy sector because
Indonesia now exports quite a lot of liquid
gas to China.
Globalia: Do you expect Indonesia to be
taken over by China economically?
Zaim Saidi: The one thing that has become
clear with the entrance of China into the
Indonesian economy, is that the economic
capacity of the country is shrinking; the
production capacity and, I guess, also the
know-how. In other words, what is happening
right now is that Indonesia is becoming a
consumer zone. The capacity of the country
in terms of producing and manufacturing
goods has been reduced with knowledge
slowly being lost due to the influx of Chinese
products. So I would expect that if nothing is
really changed, and that the government and
the people of Indonesia fail to respond in a
proper way, we will see China as the dominant
force in the country.
In fact, despite mainland China in the
Indonesian context, we must understand that
in Indonesia we see the dominant economic
actors as the so-called overseas Chinese,
Indonesian-born Chinese. They have a very
strong link, of course, with their families or
their kin on the mainland. So, the business
network, I am sure, although I have no hard
facts to hand, is very strong. A lot of Indo
nesian-born Chinese have investments in
China, because the other problem in Indonesia
right now is that most foreign investors see
Indonesia as unstable, which is why there
has been quite a big flight of capital from In
donesia to China, mainly through these
Indonesian-born Chinese. If you look at the
figures, they are only 3 per cent of the
Indonesian population but they control 95
per cent of the Indonesian economy – so you
can see how strong they are. All the manu-
facturing, industry, distribution, market places;
basically, the outlets of almost all products
are under the control of the Indonesian-
Chinese.
Globalia: How would you compare Indo-
nesia and Malaysia in economic terms?
Zaim Saidi: Malaysia seems to be in a better
position. If you look at the 1997 event, the
Malaysian government took a stronger stance
by rejecting the intervention of the IMF and
the World Bank. We can see that the impact
of the crisis was not as bad for Malaysia as
it has been for Indonesia. Secondly, we can
see the flow of Indonesian labourers going
to Malaysia as another indication; thousands
of Indonesian workers are trying to make a
living in neighbouring countries.
Globalia: How do you see the existence
of so-called sweatshops in Indonesia,
manufacturing goods for international
companies, such as Nike?
Zaim Saidi: That’s another matter. Since the
eighties, many multi-national companies have
been operating in Indonesia thanks to friendly
government policy towards large corpora-
tions.There are a lot of electronics companies,
clothing companies, food producers and now
even computer companies. They’ve also
created these so-called ‘free-zone’ areas.
However, in the last few years, quite a few of
these companies have closed down.
This has happened because they have seen
that there are better places; they are moving
to Vietnam or China, even Thailand. They are
footloose investments, so they can go anytime,
anywhere they like; anywhere they can make
a bigger profit. In general though, the
presence of these multi-national companies
does not necessarily make the country’s
economy or the people’s situation better.They
are looking for cheap raw materials, cheap
labour and high number of consumers. We
have 220 million people living in Indonesia,
so for them, Indonesia is very important
because they can get what they want: raw
materials, cheap labour and a market.
Globalia:You are working on a project to
reintroduce a bi-metallic currency,
specifically the gold Dinar and the silver
Dirham. Could you tell us a bit about
your project and the intentions behind it?
Zaim Saidi: Before answering that question,
let me add one more factor, which is the
financial sector itself.After the crisis in 1997,
the dependency of the Indonesian finance
sector on foreign investors increased.
Ironically, in the name of monetary
independence, the strength of this foreign
financial industry in the country has
strengthened. One of the indications is that
in 1999, a law was passed giving indepen-
dence to the Central Bank, making the
Governor of the Central Bank quite separate
from the cabinet of the Republic of Indonesia,
so he is, therefore, not actually answerable
to the Indonesian President.
Today, if you look at the ownership of the
finance industry, foreign bankers own almost
fifty per cent of it.This therefore is one of the
causes for the economic difficulties in the
finance industry.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
INTERVIEW
One of the basic indicators of poverty, in the
real sense, is people’s purchasing power.
However, if you look at the mainstream
indicators of poverty, as defined by the World
Bank for instance, you will find misleading
figures.They will be stated in terms of income
per capital, or in terms of income per day, for
instance, $2 USD a day is the lowest level of
poverty. But, in reality, it doesn’t mean
anything, because what really makes people
poor or better off is their ability to buy things,
in other words, their purchasing power. Now,
if you look at the purchasing power – let’s
use gold as our standard – in 1947,
immediately after the independence of the
Republic of Indonesia, when the central bank
produced the so called paper ‘Rupiah’, the
price of gold was 2 Rupiah per gram.
Now let’s jump to the early 60’s; from 1945
to 1965 was the period known as the Old
Order under President Surkarno, but in 1967
there was a dramatic change when
Surkarno’s regime was ended because it was
considered too leftist; too close to the
communist and socialist ideologies. So
Suharto came in as the second president who
was in fact fully supported by the
international banking system; the IMF,World
Bank and many other international banks, so
bringing him lots of investment.
From that period on, the Republic of Indonesia
embraced a capitalist economic system. I
want to use the gold price as an indicator, so
in 1965, the gold price had already jumped
by about 100 fold to 200 Rupiah per gram,
during the time of the so named New Order.
Because of the influence of international
banking, you can see from time to time, that
at various moments, the government was
forced to devalue the Rupiah. If I remember
correctly, five times during a thirty-year period,
the New Order government was forced to
devalue the currency. As I said, in 1965, the
gold price was 200 Rupiah per gram, so it was
already 100 times the price it was when the
Central Bank was first established in 1947.
Now let’s jump to 1997, thirty years after the
The sweatshops are a by-product of the economic sell-out of Indonesia.
New Order government took power, in other
words, after thirty years of capitalism and
oppression in the country, the gold price at
the time had reached 20 thousand Rupiah per
gram. So, from 2 Rupiah, to 200 Rupiah and
thirty years later, to 20 thousand Rupiah,
about 100 times higher again. Then, imme-
diately after the crisis, the gold price jumped
to an astonishing 100 thousand Rupiah.Today,
2008, the gold price is about 280 thousand
Rupiah per gram! In just over sixty years,
from 1967 to 2008, from the beginning of the
Republic of Indonesia until today, the
purchasing power of Indonesians has been
reduced about 140 thousand fold. Money is
nothing but numbers. It is for this reason that
we should use gold as the standard, because
gold is, and has been money. It’s very clear
that the only currency that can bear so-called
inflation, is either gold or silver. So, what I am
saying is that had the people in government
still kept, let’s say, a gram of gold in their
pocket, now they would have no problem. A
gram of gold in 1947 is worth a gram of gold
in 2007.
Globalia: So, what do you feel is a viable
solution to the current crises?
The bi-metallic currency is the best solution
to the current and recurring monetary crises.
There is no other way than to embrace the
bi-metallic system than in the shape of the
Gold Dinar and the Silver Dirham.The question
is how do we start? The task of Muslims,
wherever they are, is to do it on a practical
level, just to implement it. As our experience
in Indonesia has shown, the first thing to do
is to return to the collection of the Zakat,
because it is clearly defined that the Zakat
on monetary wealth can only be paid in either
the Gold Dinar or Silver Dirham.That’s the first
thing.
18 19
INTERVIEW
Globalia: What are you actually doing in
Indonesia by way of implementing the
Dinar and how does your wakala
operate?
Zaim Saidi: That is the next stage. After the
Dinar has been minted, then the immediate
thing to be done is distribution. How to
distribute the coin and at the same time
educate the public about its use. For the
distribution, we have developed this wakala
network. So basically, the wakala will have
several functions; when fully operational, its
first function will be the distribution of the
coin itself, meaning people can exchange the
coins.
The second function will be its transfer-
ence, when people want to send currency
to other places, for example, to their
children, their families, their friends, etc.
The wakala network will function as a
courier of the coins.
The third function of our wakala will be to
act as a keep-safe, because people nowadays
are anxious as to where to keep the gold
because of security issues. So what the wakala
can do is to provide a gold keeping service.
So what we’ll do is keep the gold in a safe
place for a small charge, like a safe deposit
box.
The fourth function, in order to make the gold
coins an effective currency, is the provision
of a payment system so that people can
actually perform transactions with the gold
and silver coins; the payment system will be
equipped with electronic mediums like a
mobile phone or an internet-based function.
However, since an internet-based system is
not very secure perhaps the mobile phone
system would be safer.
In Indonesia, we are already at the stage
where we have the first three functions but
we are yet to develop the last one, which is
the most important part of all because, once
we have a payment system then I am sure
more and more people will join and exchange
their paper money for gold.
Globalia: Do you see interest in the Dinar
increasing due to the collapse of the
financial system?
Zaim Saidi: Of course, yes. If you look at the
development of the Dinar and the wakala
in Indonesia, we started our first wakala in
the year 2002, and then by 2003 or 2004,
we already had three sub-wakalas. At the
beginning we were very small. Our first
wakala was started with 25 gold Dinars,
and slowly, we we have seen the use of the
Dinar increase rapidly, especially in the last
year, after the sub-prime mortgage crisis in
the US. If you look at the absolute number,
it’s still very small, but in terms of growth and
the spread in the use of gold, it’s very
convincing. In the last 10 months, since the
mortgage crisis in the US in November 2007,
we’ve seen more and more people ex-
changing their paper money for gold. We
established a master wakala in February 2008
and until now, we’ve founded 17 effective
wakalas.
If you look at the growth in the minting of
the coin itself, it’s also very encouraging. From
the master wakala, we are reaching a figure
of about 1500 coins a month. In terms of
numbers it may seem very small, but if you
look at the people who are getting gold Dinars
and the growth and the spread, we can see
that in one, two, three more steps, we might
see a fully functioning gold Dinar economy.
Globalia: Thank you very much!
Interview Yasin Alder
The permanently devaluated Rupiah is in need of a functioning alternative.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
BUSINESS
According to the German power group E.ON,
Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Group has now provided
details of its involvement in the construction
of the London Array, to be the world’s biggest
offshore wind farm. E.ON and the Danish
energy conglomerate Dong Energy had
previously held equal shares in the
undertaking, but now E.ON has transferred
20 per cent of the mega-project to the
Arabian enterprise.
E.ON’s Chief Executive,Wulf Bernotat, spoke
about the collaboration with the Arab
company: “The London Array is a significant
project aimed at tapping into the enormous
potential of offshore wind power. We very
E.ON and Masdar have joined forces to partner
in the London Array, an offshore wind farm project
which, when built, will be the world's largest
offshore scheme. The wind farm will be installed
on a 90 square mile (145 square kilometre) site
and will be built in two stages.
GREEN POWER FOR LONDONE.ON BUILDS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST WIND FARM
much welcome the fact that the British
government has expressed its support for
this important undertaking. And we are
pleased to have found a strong partner in
Masdar who can work with us in
implementing this challenging undertaking,
as well as other projects in the field of
renewable energy. The London Array is part
of our strategy of massively expanding E.ON’s
renewable energy portfolio, towards which
we will be investing around six billion euros
between now and 2010.”
Sultan Al Jaber, who heads the state-financed
Masdar Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company,
considers E.ON an innovative partner for the
future, especially since the Germans have
numerous other projects on the table that
represent potential investment opportunities
for his group.To begin with, however, they will
work together to build the London Array wind
farm in the Thames estuary to the east of the
city.Around 271 wind turbines, with a planned
capacity of up to 1,000 megawatts, will
eventually supply approximately 750,000
households with electricity. The total cost of
this giant find farm will run to around 2.6
billion euros, with the first building phase of
up to 175 turbines due for completion in
2012. For the United Kingdom, the project is
an enormous step forward in terms of
renewable energy.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed a
personal interest in the contract, commenting
after a meeting with the heads of E.ON and
Masdar: “This is an excellent example of the
partnership we need between oil producing
and oil consuming countries to develop new
energy sources and technologies, diversifying
their economies and reducing our dependence
on carbon.The scope and vision of the London
Array is ground-breaking, and it catapults the
United Kingdom to the forefront of offshore
wind development.”
Ed Milliband, Britain’s Secretary of State for
Energy and Climate Change, stated: “The
London Array project, at 1000 megawatts,
will be the largest offshore wind farm in the
world.” Offshore wind power has the
potential to create as many as 70,000 new
“green jobs” for the country, and the wind
farm could provide enough power for a
quarter of London’s homes and will contribute
significantly towards achieving Britain’s
renewable energy targets.As soon as the go-
ahead is given, building will begin around 20
kilometres off the coast of Kent and Essex.
Masdar is an initiative of the United Arab
Emirates for the development and promotion
of renewable energies. Its best-known project
is the construction of a completely eco-
friendly model city supplied fully by
renewable energy, 30 kilometres east of the
capital Abu Dhabi. Masdar is working with a
string of power companies and suppliers in
the field of innovative renewable energies, and
is constantly on the look-out for investment
opportunities.
The Masdar Group is already well known in
Germany, having begun on 20 August 2008
with the building of a new factory in
Thüringen.A high-tech production facility for
the manufacture of thin-layer solar modules,
it is situated at Erfurter Kreuz, south of the
regional capital, and is scheduled for
completion in autumn 2009. The Gulf Arabs
are investing 150 million euros in the project,
promising to create 180 jobs by 2010 and 600
jobs in the medium term. (Source: www.arab-
text.ch/Globalia Magazine)
BUSINESS
Text By Peter Ziegler
After Oil, your own privatenuclear power plant?
Over the past few decades, it has becomeapparent to all that the current situationwith regards to energy is untenable; wesimply cannot carry on in this way.According BBC Meteorologist, Helen Willets,our climate is changing at an unprecedentedrate. As things stand, we in the West areoverly dependent on foreign oil reserves.
Oil production is in decline while,consumption from emerging markets(namely, China and India) is acceleratingand shows no signs of slowing down;experts predict that between 20 and 40billion barrels could still be recovered inthe next 40 years. After that, who knows?
Even though most agree that nuclear poweroffers clean, emission-free, affordableenergy, some environmentalists have foundcause for concern, just as they have withalmost every other conceivable alternative;as nuclear power is the cause of environ-mental contamination, so they say windturbines are harmful to birdlife, solar po-wer is too expensive, and the list goes on.
All that aside, until now, has still seen theproblem of the impracticality of nuclearpower: it is primarily available from large,expensive power stations that take decadesto build. Because of their impracticablenature, it is often difficult to build them inareas where they will be of most benefit,either due to a lack of available land, thepopulation where they are needed beingtoo small to warrant the expense of amassive power station, or some otherreason. All that could be about to changewith the invention of Hyperion.
Developed at the Los Alamos NationalLaboratory, like a conventional power
20 21
station, it is said to provide clean, emission-free nuclear energy, at a fraction of the costof fossil fuels.The main benefit of Hyperionis its size, which at approximately 1.5 metersacross is literally small enough to betransported by road or by sea. Unlike itsmuch larger cousin, the Hyperion modulesare completely unobtrusive, especially, sincethey are buried beneath the ground.
The technology behind Hyperion supposedlyensures that it is also extremely safe. Themodules include no moving parts and aredelivered sealed, so there is no need forthem to ever be comprised. Even if onewere to be opened, the material insidewould not be suitable for proliferationpurposes. There is also no risk of a ‘meltdown’, as the small amount of fuel insidecools down instantly. And as if that wasn’tenough, the amount of waste created issaid to be minimal (about the size of a foot-ball over a five year period). With a singleHyperion module, it is potentially possibleto power 25,000 average-sized homes, orthe industrial equivalent, for half a decade.
Some still remain sceptical about theviability of the project. According to LosAlamos Study Group Executive DirectorGreg Mello, “This whole idea is loony andnot worthy of too much attention. Of course,factoring in enough cronyism, corruption,official ignorance and boosterism, it'spossible the principals could make somemoney during the initial stages, before thecrows come home to roost.”
So, could Hyperion hold the key to theworld’s energy problems? Let’s just say thatnot everyone thinks so.
Text By Adil Morrison
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
FINANCE
In order to find new ways of thinking, with regards
to questions on the economy and the monetary
system, everything needs to be revised. The effects
of the financial crisis are deafening and give an
eerie glimpse of the future. We already know of
the mass poverty that contributes to the enormous
number of fatalities, either as a direct result of
mal-nutrition and disease, or one of global pover-
ty’s by-products violent crime, drug addiction,
riots and civil war.
TECTONIC SHIFTSTHE MUSLIMS AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
“When crisis strikes, it is the poor and
disempowered whose lives are most
thrown off balance and are the slowest
to recover, sometimes never to be regain
the position they were in before,” Sakiko
Fukuda-Parr, Professor of International Affairs
at the New School in New York
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on
September 14 proved to be the first sign of
the still unfolding global financial crisis. Since
then, worldwide, 9 trillion dollars has been
spent to prevent a complete depression
reminiscent of 1929’s Great Depression. The
world's media is talking about a so-called
“financial crisis”. In the USA, there was an
even more misleading term established, the
“credit crunch”. Unlike previous historic
Immediate impact of the financial crisis: A lot of people in the USA are doomed to lose their homes through foreclosure.
22 23
FINANCE
events, we are not without information; on
the contrary, we are being bombarded with
more or less meaningless facts.
While the mainstream global discourse is
focused on the description of recent events
– beginning in the USA and then spreading
in real-time to rest of the world – as merely
a crisis, there is a dire need for a different -
perspective, which enables us, Muslims and
Non-Muslims, to understand its meanings.
That the global crisis might be a historic
drumbeat or even a turn of an era; is surely
no surprise. Mountains of unpayable debt,
inflation and speculation; the irrationality of
unbridled capitalism was clear for anybody
who wanted to see it.The so-called “Western
enlightenment” left the economic sphere a
long time ago.
In order to find new ways of thinking, with
regards to questions on the economy and
the monetary system, everything needs to be
revised; from the geopolitical impact of the
crisis, and the subsequent tectonic shift of
influence to different zones like Eurasia or
China; to the dire need for the Muslims in the
world to start thinking anew on issues of
currency, which go beyond an attempt to
contain capitalism within the so-called
“Islamic Banking”. There is, at this very
moment, an imperative for new questions –
and of course new answers.
The effects of the financial crisis are dea-
fening and give an eerie glimpse of the future.
We already know of the mass poverty that
contributes to the enormous number of
fatalities, either as a direct result of mal-
nutrition and disease, or one of global-
poverty‘s by-products: violent crime, drug
addiction, riots and civil war.
“This was a crisis of
capitalism and even the
greatest advocates of
the free market are for-
ced to face reality that
when capitalism fails it
has to be bailed out by
the state. It is capitalist
when it goes up and
socialist when it comes
down.” Dr Terry Lacy
The large movements of wealth within the
East are laying foundations. Trade and
manufacturing from China, the booming
service industries of India, Russia spinning the
web of oil and gas pipelines into Western
Europe and the Turkish return to dominate
Middle Eastern politics.
At present, Western styled economics is
merging with the traditions of the East. This
can be seen with Chinese imperialist
tendencies marking its economic policies, as
opposed to its political assertions. Their
emergence as a powerful force in trade, and
being the biggest creditor for most of the
developing and third world as well as the
USA, is causing a shift that once prevailed in
the West.
With money comes power:Turkey and Russia,
prior to the collapse in Wall Street, decided
to pay off their debt by 2008. What was also
of interest, was that these two countries,
along with a few others including Brazil and
Argentina, rejected new dollar-based loans.
Russia seemed on the verge of a meltdown
when foreign investment dried up; a condition
caused by the Russo-Georgian war, then later
compounded with the crisis that erupted on
Wall Street. The Kremlin responded by
pressuring oligarchs to inject up to 30 per cent
of their wealth into the financial markets and
banks, and to buy up collapsing financial
institutions. This move may have helped to a
certain degree, but the Kremlin still faced
major difficulties. Without much hesitation
Russia dipped into its own reserves, and
forked out a figure in the region of 400 billion
dollars. Over 200 billion was spent buying up
all of their foreign debt, and a further 180
billion on company debts.
The drop in commodity prices has further
impacted the economy. Its acquisition of a 7
per cent stake in the Caspian Pipeline con-
sortium from Oman raised its share to 31 per
cent. Such moves made by Russian firms are
tied-in with the prospect of controlling Central
Asian oil flows to the money markets of
Europe. The profitability of Russian interests
rest with such consolidations of pipeline
geopolitics. As Putin once stated, “whoever
controls the production, distribution and the
price of oil controls power.”
Both Turkey and Russia appear to have
reverted to old foreign policies, with regards
to their stance on Europe, that have left them,
for a long time, insecure and at the mercy of
dominant powers. Both countries have turned
towards old foreign policies to once again
regain their lost identities.
Turkey has given itself a new lifeline by
reaching out to old domains, such as actively
taking part in trade with North Africa and
the Middle East and is now using its influence
to broker peace deals in some conflict areas.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
FINANCE
Using this crisis as a prelude for a new
Russian financial architecture, President
Medvedev proposed that the (dollar)
monopoly be replaced. For sometime now,
Russia has been assessing this concept, it
seems to have become an official doctrine
of Russian policy. In his annual address to
the federal assembly, the President
announced the first step necessary in the
process to convert trade of oil and gas
exports to Rouble.
This seems to challenge long standing notions,
in play for the last century, yet Russia may not
be the first to call for a change in the regional
currency for procuring important resources.
There is a sense of change setting in the
domains of world polity.
Russian Centre for Partnership of Civilisations
director Veniamin Popove, spoke clearly at the
Russian-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group
held in Jeddah: “The balance of power is
changing. The world is changing. It is no
longer a unipolar world. New centres of
power are emerging. Russia is one pole. The
Islamic world, led by the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, is another pole. If we join these two
poles then we would have a better leverage
on the world stage.”
As of late, links between the Muslim World
and Russia are growing at a considerable
rate.Already an observer at the Organisation
of Islamic Conference, Moscow has stepped
up its role within the Muslim World thereby
gaining much of its sympathy.The 1997 Asian
crisis has lead to many developments with-
in the financial structures of the Muslim world.
Malaysia seems to have got away with little
harm ever since its move away from the risk
markets to the more subdued “Islamic
finance”.
A proposed alternativeIt is due to the crisis, that “Islamic Banking”
and its proponents have become increasingly
confident.This segment of the financial indus-
try, albeit developing for quite a while, has
seen an increase in interest during the past
years and months, since international banks
began incorporating this aspect of the finan-
cial services market into their own portfolios.
“We are not dependent from bonds and
stocks,” assured Adnan Ahmed Yousef,
Chairman of the Union of Arab Banks. Steven
Amos, from the Islamic Bank of Britain,
described the trade with non-existing wealth
as forbidden for the “Islamic Banks”.
Furthermore, is it impossible for his bank to
loan money to other banks.
The global Muslim finance industry is esti-
mated to be growing at about 20 per cent per
year and has funds under management of
between 1 trillion and 2 trillion US-Dollars.
Hatem El Nakrashaoui, Dean of Theology at
the University of Doha, thinks that Islam offers
“an alternative to capitalism” for the “radical
reformation” of the global financial system
to come. His Saudi-Arabian colleague, Sulai-
man El Audah, suggested an international
summit at which a framework for such an
“Islamic alternative” could be formulated.
Entangled within the financial webAlthough the “Islamic Banks” seem to have
surpassed the first wave of this crisis, they
cannot escape the flaws of the banking
systems. In the Gulf States, for example, their
boom has been directly linked to the
construction boom.“The fate of Islamic banks
in the region is closely tied to the property
markets as they are required to underpin
transactions with physical assets due to the
ban on interest”, reports Frederik Richter.
Ankara, however, sees EU membership and
trade as the most important long-term anchor
for the economy. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
said,“that if Turkey were firmly planted in EU
membership, process investor confidence
would be built.” But membership of the EU
can be considered only an option for Turkey,
and not a must. Old doors to the Middle East
and Central Asia have been re-opened. Due
to the importance of pipeline geopolitics and
foreign trade, this area, for Turkey, has
become more significant.
The other important aspect is, that Turkey
witnessed its trading with neighbours as a
shield to financial fluctuation caused by the
crisis. State Minister Kursad Tuzmen proposed
a free trade zone between Muslim countries
and urged that, “We should realise this
quickly”.Tuzmen went on to say that although
there has been a 10 per cent decline in the
share of Turkish exports to the EU, it has
managed to increase its overall exports by 35
per cent. This was due to its doubling of
exports to countries from the Organisation for
Islamic Conference (OIC).
24 25
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GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
FINANCE
“Islamic banks may initially have been viewed
as [being] less impacted because they are
unable to invest in the instruments that
caused the current instability some 18 months
ago”, said Danie Marx, Head of Treasury and
Capital Markets at European Islamic
Investment Bank.“However, as the instability
drags on, and the second-phase impact of
the crisis spills over into the region, either as
restricted liquidity or adverse movement in
asset prices, for example in real estate, it
could start to hurt them.”
Another downfall for the proponents of the
“Islamic Banks” is the recent state of the
Sukuks market. Mushtak Parker has an
estimate of this financial product. “Perhaps
the biggest impact of the credit crunch has
been on the market. Sukuk are Islamic
securities, whose issuance has dramatically
proliferated over the last decade. […] Sukuk
structures and arrangers such as Malaysia’s
CIMB group and banks such as HSBC,
Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Citigroup,
all confirm that the Sukuk market has virtually
'dried up’ as a result of the credit crunch.”
So far, the financial industry, discussed above,
is not independent but inter-linked with the
existing monetary system.“The reality is that
so far Islamic finance has been very integra-
ted into global capitalist structures, with little
emphasis on extending the more radical and
unique profit and loss sharing concepts to
poorer Muslims in poorer countries,” said the
development economist Dr Terry Lacy.
Counter-argumentsSo far, even taking the obvious existing
problems of “Islamic banking” into account,
there seems to be a consensus within the
Islamic world that this is the most promising
answer to the crisis of capitalism, but there
are very strong arguments that suggest that
“Islamic Banking” is too much of an intrin-
sic part of general banking to be able to live
up to its promise. One of the strongest, but
by far not the only critic of “Islamic Banking”
is the Islamic scholar and economist Umar
Ibrahim Vadillo, who has been working for
more than 20 years on the subject of Islam
and currency.
He reasons:“Islamic Banks are still Banks. By
their financial practices”, says Vadillo,“these
institutions are linked to fractional reserve
banking.” And fractional reserve banking is
“the essence of fiat money”. This money is,
according to Vadillo’s argument, and that of
many other serious critics of the prevalent
monetary system, the root cause of the
problem at hand.
Vadillo concludes, “in Islam you cannot use
debts as money. In the case of paper money,
which is not backed by specie (it is no longer
a debt, although it used to be), the banker
is trading with receipts whose value is due
to the legal compulsion of the State. The
present paper money is in fact a tax. There
is no way of allowing this in Islam. Not only
do the Islamic Bankers trade with paper
money, they contribute to the creation of
more paper money through the creation of
deposits. It must be noticed that a bank
deposit functions just like money.”
Islamic Banks are clearly not exempt from
the overall system of creating “money out of
nothing”, which is the core of fractional
reserve banking. It is responsible for most of
the money in circulation. Vadillo’s final
Bibliography
Umar Ibrahim Vadillo,“Fatwa on Banking”,October 2006.
Loretta Napoleoni, “Rogue Economics”,Seven Stories Press, April 2008.
Frederik Richter, “Gulf Arab Islamic bankseye slowing real estate”, InternationalHerald Tribune, 17 October 2008.
Mushtak Parker, “Islamic finance and theglobal financial crisis”,The Muslim News,25 October 2008.
Terry Lacey, “The Muslim World and theGlobal Crisis”,The Tripoli Post, 2 November2008.
26 27
FINANCE
argument is crushing: “Islamic Banking is
part of banking. It is Haram and its practice
is the most deceitful machination against
Islam that we have ever had in our history.”
Going back to the basicsThere is a growing discontent with the exis-
ting monetary system in the Muslim World
compounding a serious need for change.
Muslim scholars like Vadillo, but also politi-
cians, especially Dr Mahathir Mohammed,
are therefore demanding the establishment
of an Islamic real-money currency and the
return to correct Muslim business contracts.
“In 2001, Malaysia attempted to reintroduce
the Gold Dinar as a reserve currency to be held
in the central banks of Muslim countries.
Prime Minister Mahathir hoped that by 2003,
at least a dozen of the 57 countries in the
Organisation of Islamic Conference would
join the system. For several reasons, the
attempt never came to fruition and which
included Washington’s opposition to the plan,
to the extent that the White House convinced
the IMF to prohibit any member state from
pegging its currency to gold.”
“With Islamic finance growing at the speed
of light, and the dollar losing its shine, the
Gold Dinar standard may soon become a real
possibility. “Once established, it will work as
a potent magnet,” wrote the Italian Journalist
Loretta Napoleoni. “With an Islamic gold
dinar‚” she quotes Jude Wanniski, President
Ronald Reagan’s economic advisor, “the
Islamic world would have the best money in
the world. The US would be forced again to
introduce fixed exchange rates with the Euro
and the Yuan/Yen bloc would join as well.The
best money becomes a magnet for inter-
national finance, because exporters and
importers of every country in the world can
save many hundreds of billions of Dollars a
year they now spend hedging against currency
losses in the global trade.”
“The Islamic model”, writes Umar Ibrahim
Vadillo,“uses physical commodities as money.
The Gold Dinar and the Silver Dirham are
known as the Shari’ah currency.“ The Dinar
and the Dirham are, according to Vadillo,
fundamental in preserving a stable currency.
“It does not suffer inflation because it cannot
be substituted by credit money, since credit
money has no validity in Islamic Law.”
This is of wider importance when it concerns
the zone of investment. “Sharia-compliant
investments”, says e-dinars’ CEO Dr Habib
Dahinden,“must be based on real rather than
fiat money. Most commodities, with the
exception of bullion and oil do not own one
essential attribute of real money: they are
not universal. Since oil is rather difficult to
store for an average person and the only
precious metals available in sufficient
quantities to serve as money are gold and
silver, the choice is self-evident.”
Text By Mohammed Dockrat & S. Wilms
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
FINANCE
With Usura1
With usura hath no man a house of good
stone (...)
with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper,
with no mountain wheat,
no strong flour (...)“
(Ezra Pound, Canto XLV)
“If a man isn’t willing to take some risk
for his opinions, either his opinions are
no good or he’s no good.” (Ezra Pound
1945 upon his arrest by American soldiers)
There can be no doubt that the economy,
especially the financial order, is in global crisis;
agreement about this fact is also global. But
there is a sharp disjunction – and this too
seems globally prevalent – between the
thinking and reporting related to acute
economic and financial issues, and the fields
of art and culture.
Looking at the arts section of any Western
newspaper and you could conclude that the
arts were really of tertiary importance. With
a very few exceptions, there are few signs
within of either crisis or critical reflection.
You might well ask whether the topic of
money, the financial order, currencies and
financial justice is, or ever has been, a subject
for literature at all. Before answering pre-
maturely, we should remember that there are
indeed relevant literary sources relating to
this theme, but that they have long been
marginalised.
In Western Europe especially, any critique
of currency has been, for historically under-
standable but now long-outdated reasons,
neutralised by the disgrace of historical anti-
Semitism. Yet, the recent earth-shaking
events demand a re-thinking of the means
of exchange that we intend to use for our
transactions. When it comes to searching for
genuine, sustainable alternatives, then our
thinking cannot become ideologically
blinkered.
Among the forgotten figures who fielded a
critique of currencies was the greatest
American poet of the 20th century, Ezra
In the world of literature and arts there is
normally little if no interest given to monetary
and financial questions. One of the few, notable
exceptions was the greatest American poet of
the 20th century, Ezra Pound. His serious critique
of the financial system should also be taken into
account by todays’ Muslims.
FORGOTTEN, BUT STILL RELEVANTESSAY: EZRA POUND AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
Pound. Encyclopaedic entries about him tend
to be ambivalent:“Pound is among the most
influential American authors of the 20th
century. He lived from 1922 to 1945 in
Rapallo, sympathised with Italian fascism,
and was consigned to a psychiatric hospital
in Washington until 1958 on account of his
anti-American propaganda broadcasts. Pound
wrote prolific prose and poetry [...]. His
principal work, the epic cycle of poems
entitled The Cantos (from 1915), contrasts a
devalued, commercial, capitalist world with
a humanist utopia.”
When Italy was conquered by Allied forces
in 1945, the American poet gave himself up
to Italian partisans who handed him over to
regular US soldiers. They interned him under
inhumane conditions for a long time in a
cage designed for people condemned to
death. There he wrote the Pisan Cantos, for
which he received, much to the consternation
of the US Government, the Bollingen Prize
in 1949. In 1946 Ezra Pound was indicted for
high treason and only escaped execution
because an expert deemed him mentally ill.
As a result he spent 12 years in a state mental
institution in Washington D.C.
Ezra Pound, for whose release authors such
as Hemingway campaigned, made no secret
of his now historically disproven views.
Pound professed to live life “in its totality of
highs and lows”. His monetary views were
derived neither from fascist ideologies nor
from the anti-Semitism of the 20th century, but
rather found their origins in the early 1920s,
or earlier; indeed, 400 years earlier when
even the great Michelangelo had complained
of the destructive influence of usury on the
realisation of his art.
Pound wrote of his Italian era: “I am not
28 29
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Biographical notes on Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (born 30 October
1885 in Hailey, Idaho; died November 1972
in Venice) was an American poet of the
modernist movement.
His magnum opus was The Cantos. He also
founded the short-lived but influential
Vorticism, and together with Wyndham Lewis
produced the radical journal Blast.
Pound studied comparative literature and
Romance languages and literature at the
University of Pennsylvania and at Hamilton
College in the state of New York between
1900 and 1905.
In 1908 Pound set sail for Europe and arrived
in Venice, where he published his first
collection of poems, A Lume Spento. From
1909 to 1920 he lived with intermissions in
London, where he associated with the most
influential English-language writers of the
time, including James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford
and Wyndham Lewis.
During World War I Pound worked as a private
secretary in Ireland to William Butler Yeats,
whom he admired greatly. In 1914 he married
the artist Dorothy Shakespeare.
He lived in Paris from 1920 to 1924, during
which time he became acquainted with the
American violinist Olga Rudge, with whom
he and his wife were to live up until his
death.
In 1922, he edited T. S. Eliot’s poem The
Waste Land, which was, alongside Pound’s
own Cantos, the most important lyrical work
of modernism in the English language.
Pound turned his back on Paris in 1924 and
established himself in Rapallo, Italy, where
he soon became a supporter of Mussolini.
Pound remained in Italy when the Second
World War broke out, and began anti-
American broadcasts on Radio Rome,
motivated by his aversion for American and
international capitalism, which he con-
sidered responsible for the outbreak of the
War.
In 1945, in the wake of Italy’s invasion by
American troops, Pound was arrested (some
reports stated that he handed himself over),
and was held inhumanely in Pisa in a cage
specially constructed for those condemned
to death.
It was during this time that he wrote the
most famous section of his Cantos, the Pisan
Cantos, for which he was awarded the
Bollingen Prize in 1949. He was indicted for
high treason on 26 July 1946 in the USA,
together with Frederick W. Kaltenbach, Robert
Best, Jane Anderson, Douglas Chandler,
Edward Leo Delaney, Constance Drexel, and
Max Otto Koischwitz. Pound only escaped
judgment and a possible death penalty
because an expert psychiatrist declared him
mentally ill. He spent the next twelve years
in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, a state mental
institution in Washington, D.C.
He was released in 1958 following concert-
ed intervention by his supporters. He then
returned to Italy, living first in Brunnenburg
above Merano (South Tyrol), then later in
Venice.
In 1967, Pier Paolo Pasolini became closely
involved in a documentary produced by RAI
and entitled Un'ora con Ezra Pound, in which
the director and author expressed his admi-
ration for Pound and read his poetry in Italian
translation.
writing Italian propaganda. I am writing for
humanity, which is being eaten away by
usury.” In his Addendum for C, he refutes an
anti-Semitic critique of money. “The evil is
usury [...] beyond race and against race [...],”
he wrote in 1941, thereby overriding the
erroneous idea that doing business with and
by means of usury is something connected
with a group of people who can be ethnically
or culturally defined.
Pound’s rejection of the modern financial
system was furthermore a result of his invol-
vement with the classical legacies of China
and the Occident, both of which knew only
too well the dangers of unfettered repro-
duction of capital, – “usura” – in the poet’s
words – and rightly sought to forbid it.2
The American poet also mentioned Muslim
history in his writings on money and mone-
tary justice:3
Malik & Edward struck coins-with-a-sword,
“Emir el Moumenin”
six and 1/2 to one, or the sword
of the Prophet,
Silver being in the hands of the people
According to his biographer Eva Hesse, his
interest in the issue of just currencies began
during his childhood, as the son of a gov-
ernment coinage assayer. “In that context it
is easy to conceive of how much money meant
to him, or that is to say, the thing upon which
money was then based, which was gold,”
writes Hesse in her biography.4
Pound believed that the financial system was
the key question of our time. Aside from his
poetical works, he wrote about usury and the
belief that representative democracy had
become influenced by the bankers. They, he
31
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GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
Ezra Pound together with Olga Rugde.
said, had succeeded in making governments
pay interest to private banks on their own
money. He had been preceded in this per-
ception by others, notably the Mayor of New
York, John Hylan. Ezra Pound was of the view
that economic freedom was a precondition
for the freedom of a country. In 1932, he
gathered together his reflections on the
techniques and politics of finance in his book,
The ABC of Economics. As someone who
revered the Founding Fathers – the likes of
Jefferson and Paine – it unsettled him that
the government in 1913 had relinquished its
control on the USA’s creation of money.
Instead it had to borrow money from the
Federal Reserve and burden the public with
taxes – in Pound’s eyes a clear violation of
the Founding Fathers’ Constitution. He also
opposed the resolution to shift the authori-
ty to declare war from Congress to the
President.
Taking from the work of Major C.H. Douglas,
with whom he became acquainted in 1918,
Pound developed the insight that the capi-
talist credit system, which he fought under
its older name of ‘usura’, was the greatest evil
of the modern industrial society. Later he also
espoused the economic theories of the
anarchist Silvio Gesell, who had been Finance
Minister to the Second Bavarian Soviet
Republic of 1919.5
It is one of the ironies of history that the
greatest American poet of the 20th century had
to pay for his views with grinding incar-
ceration in a military prison and then a mental
institution, whereas the now-respected
German author and dramatist Bertolt Brecht
never had to answer during his lifetime for
his denial of the Bolshevik and Stalinist crimes.
And although Pound still has a steady flock
of adherents, his critique of the world of
human species) dictates that we look for
alternatives. It borders on hypocrisy to dif-
ferentiate between “good” and “bad” capi-
talism, and this has been rightly criticised.
Contrary to the mainstream debate being
carried on in Western media, the problem is
not the “greedy fat cats”, it is the way we
transact our economy.
Footnotes:
1 Note by Ezra Pound:“Usury:A charge forthe use of purchasing power, levied with-out regard to production; often withoutregard to the possibilities of production.”2 As is found in the thinking of Aristotle,the Fathers of the Christian Church, andGoethe.3 From Canto XCVII4 Ezra Pound Lesebuch, Eva Hesse5 ibid.
Text By Sulaiman Wilms
30
finance has not yet been brought into the
current debate – whereas the works of Brecht
are performed at the opening of banks and
bank-sponsored cultural events.
Following the events and changes at the
opening of this century, namely the War on
Terror, we are now living through the second
global and historical watershed. It is obvious
that the dramatic collapse of the investment
and mortgage banks (and all the other
bankruptcies) will have far more reaching
effects on our world than attacks on
skyscrapers. These bankruptcies are the sign
of a tectonic shift. At the same time, much
of the world’s population is struggling with
food prices that have risen by an average of
45 per cent over 12 months. Aid organi-
sations are complaining of the difficulty of
finding suitable markets in which to buy up
food.
In times like this, human reason (if not the
sheer instinct to assure the survival of the
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
LAW
32 33
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Daniel Finke and Thomas Koenig, professors
of politics at the University of Mannheim,
500 km south of Berlin, have found numer-
ous similarities between U.S. “homeland
security” and European laws since 2001.“We
do not want to attack all EU homeland
security policies, but we have found there is
a law-making trend across Europe that
reduces civil liberties in exchange for more
collective security,” Koenig told IPS. Finke and
Koenig studied Austria, Britain, Denmark,
Germany and Sweden.
Finke and Koenig say the European trend of
trading off civil freedoms against homeland
security goes against the rights of democratic
institutions such as parliaments.“Parliaments
are forced to ratify all government decisions
in this matter without questioning, and
without the right to discuss and eventually
reject elements of the laws,” said Koenig.
This means, he added, that governments have
been turning off the democratic system of
check and balances. “On the question of
homeland security, we are facing the
dismantling of traditional democratic
controls.”
In a new book Der Terrorist als Gesetzgeber
- Wie man mit Angst Politik Macht (The
Lawmaker as Terrorist, or How Politics
Foments Fear), Heribert Prantl, a former
district attorney in Munich, and now leading
editorial commentator at the Sueddeutsche
Zeitung newspaper, says governments all
over the industrialised world have “sacrificed
civil rights at the altar of homeland security
and the so-called war against terror.
“Inspired by the notion of preventing terror,
which pervades U.S. foreign policy under
George W. Bush, the new anti-terror laws
consider every one of us a potential
terrorist,” told Prantl.“Until 2001, it was the
other way around: if you did not give a reason
to be a suspect, you were left in peace. This
was called the rule of law. Now laws are
taking away our freedoms.”
The French watchdog Reporters Sans
Frontieres (RSF), said in a report last month
that EU countries have been curtailing the
rights of journalists to report freely on political
issues.The report says the U.S. is now behind
African countries such as Mali, Ghana and
Namibia in the world ranking of countries on
respecting freedom of information. Some
European countries have been systematically
harassing journalists, it says. “France has for
the past two years held the European record
for police and court interventions linked to the
confidentiality of journalists’ sources, with
five searches, two preliminary indictments
and four summonses.”
The report condemned particularly the arrest
of investigative journalist Guillaume Dasquié
by the state intelligence agency Directorate
for Territorial Surveillance (DST), and of Bruno
Thomas, a reporter for the motoring weekly
Auto Plus. Dasquié was detained by the DST
in December 2007 after he published an
intelligence report on Osama bin Laden and
Al-Qaeda in July in the Le Monde daily.
Dasquié was released after two days of
questioning at the DST headquarters in Paris.
Thomas was detained in July 2007, and is
still under judicial investigation, after he
published a report on a new model by French
automobile maker Renault that is not yet on
the market. Auto Plus editor-in-chief Laurent
Chiapello said the matter was “blown out of
proportion”, and that the journalist was
“simply doing his job, that is; finding new
information to better inform the reader.”
These arrests were “accompanied by raids
on their homes and offices…[showing] that
the confidentiality of sources is not always
adequately protected in the ‘land of human
rights’,” the RSF report adds. It says similar
practices affecting the confidentiality of
Outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush has been
unpopular in Europe, but his policies in fighting
the ‘war on terror’ have found many takers. The
new European laws reducing civil rights range
from introducing biometric control devices, such
as computerised passports and the digital
registration of fingerprints, to surveillance and
storage of all telephone and Internet traffic and
transaction data, including bank operations.
FOLLOWING THE LEADTHE EUROPEANS CRITICISE BUSH, BUT COPY HIM
GLOBALIAGLOBALIA || Issue 04 Issue 04 || December 2008December 2008
LAW
sources have been recently introduced in
other European countries, such as Spain, Italy,
and Germany. The French government’s mo-
ves were followed by an announcement in
May that a new law to protect the confiden-
tiality of sources and judicial protection of
journalists will be passed early next year.
In Germany, 17 journalists working for leading
newspapers in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and
Hamburg were prosecuted last year for
“involvement in disclosing state secrets.”The
lawsuits were filed in August 2007 after the
leaking of confidential material from a
parliamentary commission investigating the
role of the state secret services in the ‘war
on terror’. The German national journalists’
association Deutscher Journalisten Verband
says 180 lawsuits alleging ‘complicity in
betraying state secrets’ have been brought
against reporters since 1986. By the end of
2007, all the investigations were dropped.
Freedom of Internet activists are meanwhile
opposing the growing government control of
online communication. They particularly
criticise EU directive 2006/24/EC passed in
March 2006 that provides for “the retention
of data generated or processed in connection
with the provision of publicly available
electronic communications services or of
public communications networks.”
The EU directive compels all telecommuni-
cations providers in the EU to retain for a
period of between six months and two years
all data necessary “to trace and identify the
source of a communication ... the destina-
tion of a communication, the communi-
cation device [and] ... the location of mobile
communication equipment.”
“The EU telecommunications data retention
directive allows for the whole European
population to be observed, without any initial
suspicion,” says Ralf Bendrath, civil rights
activist in Germany. “Who I call or write to,
whether I use the Internet or not, my location,
all this data is nobody’s business, least of all
the government’s.” Bendrath said that the
recent cases of citizens’ fiscal, bank and other
personal data being lost in Britain, and the
illegal commercialisation of the data bank of
the German telecommunication provider
Deutsche Telekom “show how easily the data
retention can lead to criminal abuses.”
Several electronic storage devices containing
fiscal and other data of several million
citizens have been lost or stolen in Britain
since 2006. In one case, the addresses, birth
dates, national insurance numbers and bank
account details of every child benefit
claimant in Britain went missing when two
compact discs were sent by unregistered
post in October 2007.
In Germany, Deutsche Telekom is involved in
several cases of misuse of electronic data
banks. In one case, in 2006, the personal
data of 17 million clients of the company’s
cellular phone service was stolen and offered
to other companies. The case was revealed
by German media only in October 2008.
Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann
called this “an infuriating episode”, and
announced the dismissal of four middle-rank-
ing executives.
In a similar case, personal data of some 30
million Deutsche Telekom clients was made
available on the Internet. In yet another case,
during 2005 and 2006 the company spied on
more than 60 members of its own union and
on journalists, trying to establish information
leaks within the company. (IPS)
Text By Julio Godoy
A policemen checks the papers of a Muslim man in London.
34
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35
Text Shaykh Dr Abdalqadir as-Sufi
The first Empire with world hegemony was
the British Empire. The British Empire began
when Disraeli persuaded Queen Victoria to
claim India as Imperatrix. She was declared
Empress in 1877.The Empire lasted precisely
70 years.
It came to an ignominious end under Viceroy
Lord Mountbatten, whose wife, daughter of
the notorious banker Sir Ernest Cassel, during
the partition settlement carried on an
adulterous affair with the Hindu leader Nehru.
The disastrous and illegal partition cost the
lives of millions of Muslims. The populace
was never consulted by ballot or referendum.
It was 1947.
The second Empire with world hegemony was
the American Empire. The American Empire
began following the nuclear devastation of
Shaykh Dr Abdalqadir as-Sufi's analyses are among the
most important statements in the Islamic World, rela-
ting to the problems of our time. In numerous, success-
ful publications, the author links a comprehensive
knowledge of European philosophy and history, with
the timeless dimensions of Qur'anic revelation.
THE SIEGE OF BOMBAYCAPITALISM BREATHS THROUGH TERRORISM
Hiroshima and Nagasaki - which ended World
War Two.The assumption of power was foun-
ded on three events. One: the settlement of
the U.N.O. in New York. Two: The establish-
ment of Israel through the instrument of the
U.N.O. Three: The Bretton Woods Agreement
which defined the dollar-based capitalism
which collapsed in 2007 when the Bear Sterns
Hedge Fund declared a bankruptcy which
heralded the 2008 absolute failure of the
Bretton Woods dual power-system of bank-
ing and democracy.The Empire lasted only 50
years. It began when the war-time leader Ge-
neral Eisenhower was elected President and
took office in 1952. It came to an end when,
ignoring Eisenhower’s famous warning of the
military-industrial complex, Congress gave
authority to the invasion if Iraq. The ‘free-
world’ project was over. It was 2002.
The myth of al-Qaeda and therealities of terrorThe political construct that posits a secret-
cell system of a militant Islam that is in
Image: AP Photo/David Guttenblatt
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
ASIA
Schmitt-ian terms, ‘The Enemy’ suits lots of
people from President to Pope. Of course,
with the help of TV media, and the new
academic breed of ‘Experts’ – it is convincing
to the iPod masses. Intellectually, it does not
play.
Firstly – its leadership. Bin Laden is scarcely
convincing. As a son of a Saudi billionaire
family, as a former C.I.A. operative, as
someone who bought his way into Afghan
society – he fails to take on the mantle of
Islamic leadership.
As head of a secret society which drives
adolescent youths to suicide and stays hidden
out of danger in the mountains he can be at
least recognised as a perfect copy of the
Shi’a Ismaili leader who fought Salahud-din,
the Old Man of the Mountain with his gang
of corrupted youths, the assassins (or
Hashishiyin).
As dead, which every tea-house in Peshawar
knows, he is very interesting politically. It is
the US leadership which ‘needs him’ alive. His
second-in-command only talks Marxist anti-
US polemics. Never an ayat of Qur’an. Never
a Salat-an-Nabei. Never a judgement of Fiqh.
In short ignorant of Islam.
Secondly – Its bizarre targets. If the World
Trade Centre is a target because it represents
world-market capitalism – as such it can be
defined as an enemy stronghold, but, but,
but! If you destroy it – you strengthen world
capitalism, plus the insurance system of
capitalism will more than double its value.
Strengthen, because, as Ernst Jünger has
demonstrated, destruction of capitalist
entities by ‘The Enemy’ is necessary for its
own survival. Why the Marriot Hotel in
Islamabad? Why the Taj Hotel in Bombay?
Why trains in London and Madrid? No
strategy, if such a militant approach could
offer success, could bring Islamic success any
closer, no strategy such as the terrorists have
elected to perpetrate.
Thirdly - who are they? There is a world-wide
elite in the Muslim-world of Ulama’, scholars
and social activists. We know each other
across schools and movements, rejoicing in
the variety and energy of our local approa-
ches. Nobody, neither modernist nor tradi-
tionalist, had ever heard of those secretly
appointed assassins drawn from the under-
class of Arabs and Asians, ending with semi-
idiots like the infamous and absurd shoe-
bomber!
The realities of terror and their exponents do
however point to zones of extreme injustice,
oppression and poverty.There is a point when
the sons of Adam turn against their degra-
dation. When they strike it is, unsurprisingly,
violent.
The four zones of inhuman and unaccounted
for savagery and oppression are:
1. The Uighur nation and the evil Chinese
occupation.
2. Afghanistan and its wars of occupation.
3. The Indian sub-continent and its endemic
persecution of Muslims.
4. Palestine and its persecution by Israel.
Now the root of disorder in 1 and 4 goes
back to the political reality from which they
came.The Uighur was a linked province to the
Osmanli Dawlet. Palestine was a linked and
protected province of that same Osmanli
Dawlet. 2 and 3 are the unified provinces of
the Mughal Dawlet. The last legal frame of
India was dominated by the Mughal centres
of a mighty civilisation based in Delhi, Lahore,
Shrinigar, Agra and Lucknow.
Since the exploitation of discontent – not to
remove the cause but to keep it down- is the
known policy of capitalism, deeper questions
must be asked. To banish the conspiracy-
theory of Al-Qaeda and its assassins we must
ask the questions of real-politique.
Who stands to gain?1. China.A ‘colonial’ conflict in East Turkestan
and Tibet is an inexpensive but brilliant
diversion of the foreign attention from the
full-scale commercial and cultural invasion
The inhuman situation of the Uighur Muslims is yet been unaccounted for.
36 37
ASIA
by China (the top three hotels of Cape Town
no longer sell Indian tea at teatime, but china
tea, timers, cups and pots!)
2. Darfur and Congo are now part of a military
take-over with paid surrogate armies.
3. Palestine.Terrorism assures that the massive
subsidy of the U.S. without which the Israeli
State cannot survive, continues, a one-party
(coalition) state since its inception!
4. Afghanistan. The last bastion of bank-
rupt U.S. global policy, it is needed as the
southern base on Russian Asia’s network
of oil and gas. It is under NATO command
to avoid any accusation of torture and killing
pointing to the U.S. NATO forces are above
all state laws.
5. India/Pak/Bangladesch. The potential
awakening of sub-continental wealth, firstly
in its brilliant people, secondly in its
communities, thirdly in its industries.
Bollywood menaces Hollywood! If the U.S. is
bankrupt, India is massively rich – when it
breaks free of the dying dollar hegemony.
The Bombay incident is a last futile attempt
to halt Indian domination of the U.S. and its
markets. It also assures that an Indo-Pak
conflict – along with a continued matriarchy
in Bangladesh – will allow a few years more
before the completion of the Mexican take-
over of a failed U.S.A.
The constructive Islamic response to the
horror of the Bombay siege should be the
foundation of a pan-Indian Muslim union –
uniting all Muslims of the sub – continent to
take an oath of loyalty to fellow Muslims
and a vow to refuse to fight fellow Muslims
across the three countries.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
ASIA
“It never ceases to amaze how the West’s
perception is almost as selective as that of a
totalitarian state.”
THE FORGOTTEN CONFLICTFREEDOM IS DYING OUT IN KASHMIR
I have found a handful of places in the world
which live up to all the praise heaped on
them, that justify the swarms of visitors and
postcards, and deserve their own iconification.
Descriptions and images teeming in my vision,
and having devised reasons in advance to
soften the inevitable disappointment, I arrived
at such places and was utterly enchanted
from the first moment, as if no one had ever
seen such a miracle before me – indeed as if
I were the discoverer, despite the chatter of
the ubiquitous tourist-droves, or the posters
of dictators reminding one of the unfriendly
present.
Venice was like that for me, as was the Taj
Mahal, the sculptures of Bernini, and every
visit to Shah Square in Isfahan – and Kashmir.
I must have heard it described a hundred
times as ‘Paradise on Earth’; in classical
Persian poetry, in old travel diaries, and in
almost a third of the articles in my press
folder. But, the fact is, it really is paradise, with
its rich green meadows, gigantic broad-leaved
trees, multicoloured lakes, fairytale gardens,
a garland of white glaciers, graceful people
and the beauty of its colourfully dressed
women.
Yes, the paradise of revelations, as if God had
not promised the righteous something
heavenly but a place, already prepared, five
thousand feet high, north of India, east of
Persia, west of China, south of Russia – a
place to inspire as many empires imaginable.
But of course, in global politics, inspiration
usually leads to war.
Since the 14th century, Kashmir has had foreign
rulers who have conquered it, plundered it,
and even sold it off. Following the withdrawal
of the British in 1947, most of the country,
despite its Muslim majority, fell to India, while
Indian army marching in the streets of the capital Srinagar.
39
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38
its west went to Pakistan and a strip in the
north-east, went to China. At the United
Nations, India promised a plebiscite in which
the Kashmiris themselves would decide on
their fate. That never happened, and instead
there have been three wars with Pakistan.
Delhi did grant the province far-reaching
autonomy, but in 1989, after a series of
obviously rigged regional elections, an armed
rebellion broke out, which has since cost as
many as one hundred thousand people their
lives – and that in a region with a population
of five million.
The Indian army is said to be stationing about
600,000 soldiers in the province, most of
them in the Kashmir valley, which is no larger
than England’s North Yorkshire. Nowhere in
the world is there anywhere near so heavy
an armed presence as in Kashmir. Soldiers
populate all the towns, all the villages, both
main and secondary rural roads, the main
streets, the alleyways, even tracks through
the fields – no, even the fields themselves.To
the Indians it’s a war against terrorism.To the
population, it’s an occupation.
When I travelled around Kashmir last autumn,
the rebellion seemed to have exhausted itself.
“Fed up” was the expression I heard most,
fed up with the night searches, the identity
checks, the roadblocks, the arrests, the rapes
and the abductions – all of which, of the -
relevant human rights organisations have
documented – fed up most of all with the
despotism of these foreign soldiers, who,
machine-guns loaded, seem to watch even the
chicken coups.The Kashmiris still carry in their
hearts the call for Azadi, or freedom, yet
immeasurably more urgent is the appeal for
peace. It did not surprise me, therefore, when
the Indian government announced it had
overcome the militant resistance.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
ASIA
Muslim students protesting for the independence of Kashmir.
Now, out of nothing and without political
leaders having done much to bring it about,
a protest movement has arisen, which is as
great as that of 1989. If it remains peaceful,
notwithstanding the Muslim extremists,
Pakistani agents and Indian provocateurs,
then Kashmir will still stand a chance. A few
hundred militants do not present much of a
challenge to the world’s numerically largest
occupying force, but non-violent mass
movements certainly do. No nation knows
that better than India.
The protest was triggered by the granting of
a 100-acre piece of land to an Indian pilgrims’
organisation last June. In 1989, around 20,000
Hindus used to make the pilgrimage each
year to the Caves of Amarnath, but the
number has since risen to 400,000, which, in
the eyes of the Hindu nationalists, justifies
their claim to Kashmir. Right or wrong, the
Muslims saw the land transfer as the start of
a settlement policy like Palestine’s, aimed to
cast the Hindu presence in stone.
Within days the whole valley was in tumult.
Strikes and demonstrations forced the
authorities to revoke the land transfer. This
enraged the Hindu nationalists in Jammu so
much, that they blocked the only road
connecting the region to Kashmir, whereupon
a massive Kashmiri protest march moved
towards the Pakistani border to demand the
opening of the road to Muzaffarabad. When
the Indian army opened fire, four people died,
including separatist leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz.
People flooded the streets at the funeral and
the days thereafter, 200,000 people each day,
according to the authorities.A joke, said eye-
witnesses. More people have died, 42 since
the beginning of the latest unrest. The
authorities have now imposed a strict curfew.
Why do we hear so little about this uprising,
about the shots fired into the crowds, about
a people’s demands for freedom? Reports
pop up here and there, usually when scattered
groups succeed in a rare attack.
The only in-depth reporting is in Britain. It
never ceases to amaze how the West’s per-
ception is almost as selective as that of a
totalitarian state. Russia is back in the
West’s bad books, so too, therefore, are the
radicals, all of the political groupings in
Kashmir had signalled their approval and
declared the armed conflict over. Vajpayee’s
successor, Singh, also expressed similar aims:
the borders were not to be lifted, but made
irrelevant. But since 2004, nothing has hap-
pened; there have been no more negotiations
and no peace conferences.With the new Indo-
American alliance, the external pressure on
India to accept a compromise has dissipa-
ted. Non-violent protest has become the
Kashmiris’ only remaining means of exer-
cising pressure from within.
When most of the separatist groups laid down
their weapons, the tourists – or the Indian
ones at least – began returning to the house-
boats on the Dal Lake. Were lasting peace to
come to the Valley, mass tourism would soon
follow. And Kashmir’s magic would not
disappoint. (First published with permission
in Die Süddeutscher Zeitung on 02.09.08)
41
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40
Abkhazian separatists. How wonderful, I think
to myself, that law can acquire global validity,
and how sobering to realise how quick we
are to divide the world into good and bad.
Iran has been deemed even worse than it
was, since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
and its atomic programme is seen to be
threatening world peace.
India, on the other hand, having become
“good” since September 11, is permitted to
violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
– with the express sanction of an American
agreement. And in Kashmir, India is doing
About the Author
Navid Kermani is a writer and orientalist
from Cologne, whose most recent
publication was the novel Kurzmitteilung
(Ammann Verlag). He is currently residing
in Rome on a scholarship from Villa
Massimo. He is a member of the German
government’s ‘Conference on Islam’.Text By Navid Kermani
nothing but defending itself against Islamic
terrorists.
Political blocks filter reality in this way,
obviously. But it is because the free public
accepts this filtering that freedom is dying out
in regions like Kashmir. Complicated the
conflict may be, and the consequences may
be devastating for every minority, should the
majority be allowed to determine the destiny
of the multi-religious federal state. And yet
the foundations of a possible peace have
stood for years: autonomy with open borders
to the Pakistani area, regional self-adminis-
tration in the three provinces, and withdrawal
of the army.
It was that which India’s Prime Minister
Vajpayee and Pakistan’s President Musharraf
proposed in the nineties in response to pres-
sure from the Clinton administration, which
had declared Kashmir the most dangerous
conflict in the world because of India and
Pakistan’s atomic weapons.Apart from a few
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
AFRICA
Text By Rhomeez Hendricks
The expectations of the 1994 elections in South
Africa, aroused the idea that this moment
heralded a new begining. Not only was the country
rid of its past, but is was to embark on a journey
towards freedom, wealth and riches. A decade
after this momentous event, shanty towns were
transformed into shack cities and poverty gripped
the majority of South Africans.
A FAIR SHARE IN THE WEALTHON THE FAILURE OF DEMOCRACY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Naomi Klein in her masterpiece The Shock
Doctrine writes: “In January 1990, Nelson
Mandela, while in prison wrote a note to
some of his supporters who gathered outside
regarding a question as to whether he had
become weak and tired after being locked up
for twenty seven years in his long battle for
economic transformation of the South African
Apartheid state?”
His answer was simple: “The nationalization
of the mines, banks and monopoly industries
is the policy of the ANC, and the change or
modification of our views in this regard is
inconceivable. Black economic empowerment
is a goal we fully support and encourage, but
in our situation, state control of certain sectors
of the economy is unavoidable”.
That belief had formed the core doctrine of
the ANC and was enshrined in a document
known as The Freedom Charter.
What the ANC wanted for the citizens of
South Africa was a share in the wealth of a
minority who had amassed enormous sums
in the richest country in Africa, containing,
among other treasures, the largest goldfield
in the world. The first defiant demand of the
Freedom Charter reads: “The People Shall
Govern!” (Naomi Klein; The Shock Doctrine)
The fact that the world capital markets are
forty times larger than real trade is indicative
of the source of power in our society. Thabo
Mbeki does not control the money, and while
appointing Tito Mboweni as Governor of the
Reserve Bank, he did not have the power to
42 43
AFRICA
choose him. The private owners of the South
African Reserve Bank did.
What is of concern here is power, the power
to, amongst other things; allow a country’s
leaders to realize their vision of peace and
prosperity. The dismal failure that charac-
terizes each and every politicians tenure in
office, here in South Africa, demonstrates
either utter incompetence, or an inability to
do anything constructive, or both.
The Neo-liberal agenda has as its goal; ‘small-
government’, the state ‘open for business’,
privatization and loose capital controls. Neo-
liberal globalization was unfortunately
threatened by the policies outlined in the
ANC Freedom Charter and thus had to be
revised before things could move ahead. State
ownership of the means of production,
minerals and strategic commodities would
not only result in the denial of ownership to
international investors, but also the denial of
the ability of international cartels to fix prices
on key commodities.
Gold is the key to understanding the failure
of democracy. It is not that South Africa failed
democracy – Thabo Mbeki was after all the
capitalist’s best friend – but rather demo-
cracy that has failed South Africa.
The transfer of ownership of wealth and land
lies at the heart of any transfer of power.The
state, while claiming to represent the needs
and interests of the masses, has failed to
take ownership and redistribution of these
strategic commodities, without which it is
highly unlikely whether the levels of
education and health envisioned by each
incumbent could ever be achieved. On the
other hand, historically democratic states
have failed to maintain the welfare of its
citizens, defined by the so-called national
interest; instead it takes into account, and
realizes the interests of the dominant capital
groups at the heart of the political-economy.
This is where democracy has been a tremen-
dous success, and if the current stock market
is taken as a yardstick, then this political
system has a small group of winners, and
many losers.
Thabo Mbeki embraced neo-liberalism
without a whiff of shame. Indeed, in 1996 he
told a group of businessmen in London,“Just
call me a Thatcherite”. Thatcher and Reagan
are famous for breaking with the welfare-
state and instituting Neo-liberal reforms on
a large scale within their respective coun-
tries. General Pinochet did the same.
Leaving the ownership of the gold fields in
the same hands as those who held them
during Apartheid, Mbeki sought to realize
his dream of a prosperous South Africa by
creating favourable conditions for inter-
national investors, which included taking on
the Apartheid regime debt load so as to
Machinery used in the production of Gold, the great wealth ressource of South Africa.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
AFRICA
Image: Yaseer Booley (2008)
44 45
AFRICA
appease the IMF and World Bank, without
which loans could not be secured, such as the
$46 million loan in 1997 for industrial
competitiveness and job creation.
Nationalizing the mineral wealth would cause
the ANC government to be labelled ‘leftist’,
anti-business, and South Africa as being an
unstable investment destination. Capital flight
would have ensued and this country could
have descended into a similar situation as
Zimbabwe is in today – the result of anti-
capital political decisions.
There is reliable evidence that the state of the
nation is worse for most people today than
it was during Apartheid. One must remember
that the Apartheid regime was democratic –
exclusive but democratic. By comparison,
today we have an inclusive political culture
yet the poor are poorer and the rich are richer.
Democracy has not remotely achieved the
fiscal objectives outlined in the Freedom
Charter.
“In the early 1990’s. talks emerged between
the ANC and the then National Party. To its
credit, the ANC did negotiate a peaceful
handover but did not manage to prevent
South Africa's apartheid-era rulers from
wreaking havoc on their way out. The
negotiations focused on two aspects: one
was political, the other economic. The atten-
tion, naturally, focused on the high-profile
political summits between Nelson Mandela
and F. W. de Klerk, leader of the National
Party.” (Naomi Klein; The Shock Doctrine)
The infamous economy-focused meetings
between the old ANC elite and the corporate
establishment prior to 1994 – and after, are
testimony to the real source of power. Here
the interests of big business were nego-
tiated – most notoriously those of the
Oppenheimers. The outcomes of these
meetings were that the ANC could have the
political power but the gold and diamonds
would remain in the hands of the individu-
als that controlled them before.
One of the most revealing aspects of the
economic transition, was the ownership of the
Reserve Bank of South Africa. Arguably the
most powerful institution in the country, its
fate was explained by Durban businessman
Vishnu Padaychee, who was asked to draft
a document for the negotiating team on the
on the pro’s and con’s of having an
autonomous central bank, one with total
autonomy from the elected government.
Padayachee could not believe what he was
hearing. He and his team drafted and
submitted the document with the clear policy
of not allowing the Reserve Bank to be
autonomous. He was later told by the
negotiating team, “We had to give that one
up”.
Not only would the Reserve Bank be run as
an autonomous entity within the South
African state, its independence enshrined in
the SA constitution, but it would be headed
by the same man who ran it under Apartheid,
Chris Stals. Another Apartheid era figure,
finance minister Derek Keyes, also retained
his position in the new administration. The
New York Times praised Keyes as “the
country’s ranking apostle of low-spending,
business-friendly government”.
Padayachee lamented that with the loss of the
Reserve Bank, “everything would be lost in
terms of economic transformation”. The
Freedom Charter pledges’ to redistribute land;
became highly constrained, with a new clause
in the constitution protecting all private
property. Job creation was constrained by the
signing on to the General Agreement on Trade
and Tariffs, precursor to the World Trade
Organization, which made the subsidization
of auto plant and textile factories illegal. Free
Aids drugs violated the intellectual property
rights commitment under the WTO. Money
that could potentially be used to rebuild
schools and medical facilities and develop
affordable housing was diverted to repay
Apartheid Era debt. Even services like water
and electricity have been privatized, regularly
resulting in cut-offs as the poor cannot afford
the cost.
To impose currency controls to guard against
speculation and value fluctuations would
violate the conditions attached to an 850
million US-dollar IMF deal signed just before
the 1994 elections.This IMF deal also includes
“wage restraint” in order to allow for a
“flexible labour pool”.
William Gumede, author of the exposé Thabo
Mbeki and the battle for the soul of the
ANC, has said that the reason why the
grassroots populace allowed these develop-
ments to take place was that “everyone was
watching the political negotiations, and if
people felt it wasn’t going well there would
be mass protest. But when the economic
negotiators would report back, people
thought it was technical; no one was
interested. We missed it! We missed the
whole story”.
He explained that South Africa appeared to
be on the brink of a civil war during this time
and that all focus was on the unfolding
political situation and that most people
naively assumed that no matter what
compromises had to be made to get into
power, they could be unmade once the ANC
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
AFRICA
was firmly in charge. “We were going to be
the government we could fix it later”, he
said.
The ANC initially tried to fulfil its pledges, it
did build more than 100 000 homes in the
first two years and millions were hooked up
with electricity and water. But after 10 years
of democracy, under Neo-liberal duress and
bankruptcy, privatization of government
services ensued, resulting in millions of people
cut off from newly connected water and
electricity because they could not pay.
According to a June 2003 edition of the
Sunday Independent, up to 40 per cent of the
new phone lines were no longer in service.
According to a 2006 study, life expectancy in
South Africa had dropped by 13 years.
As mentioned earlier, under the leadership of
Mbeki, the ANC pursued a policy of attracting
Foreign Direct Investment, which would create
new wealth, the benefits of which would
‘trickle down to the poor’, as the saying goes.
The ANC had to make sure that the country
was attractive to foreign investors. This
proved difficult as the State had to first be
subjected to, what William Gumede called,
the “electronic herd” of global capital.
Following the release of Mandela, the SA
stock market collapsed, and the Rand drop-
ped by 10 per cent. A few weeks later, De
Beers moved its headquarters to Switzerland.
This “electronic herd” was a call-and-response
shock dialogue between the ANC leadership
and the financial markets.When an ANC offi-
cial dared to utter something that hinted at
the Freedom Charter becoming policy, the
market responded with a shock, sending the
Rand into free fall. Gumede writes in his book
that shortly after his release from prison,
Mandela spoke out in favour of nationa-
lization at a private lunch with leading busi-
nessmen the “All-Gold index plunged 5%”.
Mandela acknowledged this reality at the
ANC national conference in 1997 when he
said, “The very mobility of capital and the
globalization of capital and other markets,
make it impossible for countries, for instance,
to decide national economic policy without
regard to the likely response of these
markets”.Thabo Mbeki understood this game
and, from the early days, gave assurances to
the corporate elite as to ANC policy. Gumede
writes that “shortly before the 1994 elections,
the ANC submitted their economic program
47
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46
to Oppenheimer for approval and made
several key revisions to address his concerns,
as well as those of other top industrialists”.
In 1996, Mbeki unveiled his new economic
plan for the country, it called for more -
privatisation, cutbacks to government spen-
ding, labour ‘flexibility’, freer trade and
looser controls on money flows. According
to economist Stephen Gelb, who helped draft
the plan, its overriding aim “was to signal
to potential investors the government’s
commitment to the prevailing (Neo-liberal)
orthodoxy”.
In the first years of democracy, the South
African government serviced the Apartheid
Era debt to the tune of $4.5 billion annually.
Gumede notes that between 1997 and 2004
the government sold off 8 state-owned farms
to raise just under $4 billion and that half
that money went to servicing the inherited
debt. He writes that not only did the ANC
renege on “the nationalization of mines,
banks and monopoly industry” but they
actually sold off state assets to pay the debt
of the previous regime.
This county has seen an influx of FDI and is
relatively competitive, yet this has not resulted
in the masses of poor being lifted out of the
squalor in which they live.According to South
African government statistics, the poorest 50
per cent of South Africans have seen their
income drop by 20 per cent. Since 1994, the
year the ANC took power, the number of
people living on less than 1 US-dollar a day
has doubled, from 2 million to 4 million in
2006. Between 1991 and 2002, the un-
employment rate for black South Africans
more than doubled, from 23 per cent to 48
per cent. The ANC government has built 1.8
million homes, but in the meantime 2 million
people have lost their homes.
Close to 1 million people were evicted from
farms in the first decade of democracy. Such
evictions have meant that the number of
shack dwellers has grown by 50 per cent. In
2006, more than one in four South Africans
lived in shacks located in informal shanty-
towns, many without running water or
electricity.
Talk delivered at the 11th International Fiqh
Conference Cape Town, South Africa.
Bibliography:
Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine
William Gumede: Thabo Mbeki and the battle
for the soul of the ANC
No opposition to the Neo-liberalist ideology. Nelson Mandela and the former chief of the Worldbank, Paul Wolfowitz.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
EUROPE
European cities are – like in many other parts of
the world – subjected to a massive loss of social
cohesion and a growing gap between poorer and
more affluent communities. As the German city
of Duisburg demonstrates, this is a good oppor-
tunity for the Muslims of Europe to step forward
and show their positive potential to the broader
public. They just have to take the initiative.
THE BEGINNINGS OF A CHANGEPOTENTIAL OF THE MUSLIMS FOR INDUSTRIAL CITIES
Germany’s largest mosque was opened
recently in Duisburg, an old industrial city in
the west of Germany, formerly best known for
its steel. The mosque belongs to DITIB, an
organisation connected to Turkey’s Ministry
of Religion. It is not situated in the city centre
or in a central, visible place, but rather to be
found in the outlying suburb of Marxloh, an
blue collar district with a high proportion of
Muslim immigrants. The new mosque in
Duisburg-Marxloh has drawn widespread
admiration, not on account of its size but
because its construction, which unlike many
other mosque projects, was relatively free of
conflict.
What effects could such a large mosque have
on the image of Muslims in the society, and
what are the potentially positive contribu-
tions that can come from the Muslim-major-
ity districts of European cities, often referred
to – wrongly – as ghettos? European cities
vary however.
Take France’s banlieues for example.They are
not really anything like Germany’s immigrant
suburbs. What can be said though is that
cities are becoming noticeably more segre-
gated along ethnic, social and economic lines.
There are also more and more areas in which
immigrants, especially Muslims, not only
constitute a statistical majority, but also play
a growing role in providing an economic and
social infrastructure from which the non-
Muslim population can also benefit.
The concentration of immigrant and, or
Muslims has long been the subject of heat-
ed debate. Some sociologists argued that
segregation of this kind can have positive as
well as negative effects.The social networks
it encourages can provide immigrants with
security, identity and self-confidence, they
say, that can help them get used to the new
society. Common needs can also be ad-
dressed mutually. What is generally agreed
on, however, is that this should not become
static.
There has been a counter-tendency – in
Germany it was especially pronounced in the
early 1990s – in which residents of immigrant
areas who had become more affluent moved
away into districts populated in the majority
by indigenous people. Even so, why is it that
so many other immigrants remain in their
ethnic colonies, which to outsiders look so
unappealing, even when they could afford to
live in other areas? Often it is precisely those
ethnic infrastructures and social networks
that have developed which assure them a
better standard of living. Not that the
infrastructure should necessarily be called
“Islamic”; rather perhaps “ethnic/Muslim”,
be it Turkish as in Germany, North African as
in France and Belgium, or Pakistani as in the
United Kingdom.
In districts struggling under an ageing
populace, social decline and the drifting-away
of the old-established population, it can
sometimes seem that the immigrants them-
selves, most of whom are Muslim, are what
keep the otherwise dying districts alive. But
the problem with ethnic concentration is that
they can become set in their modest ways,
and so become impervious to social growth
and contact with other ethnic groups.
In this context, it means that Muslims of a
particular ethnicity keep to themselves
because of their cultural infrastructure, and
have too little contact with the majority of
society and other ethnic groups. A
consequence of this is that the majority –
non-muslim – population then often comes
to view Islam in Germany as a mainly oriental,
cultural affair which has nothing to do with
them. Another consequence is that many
Muslim communities remain ethnically
divided. Only over the past ten years have
tendencies emerged among younger
generations, showing a greater openness
towards majority peoples and Muslims of
other ethnic origin.
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4848
In Germany, the services offered by the
Muslim population are generally well
received by the locals. This has long been
the case with restaurants and food stores
but nowadays, many people also call on
Muslim doctors, mechanics and building com-
panies, to name but a few examples.
However, when it comes to the mosques and
the Muslims’ charitable services in general,
things still tend to look sparse, despite the
fact that mosques can play an important
social role. “The communities [mosque
communities] function as a link, not only
between religious and ethnic groups, but also
between citizens and administration, so they
contribute towards the running of the society
as a whole,” wrote Gerdien Jonker and
Andreas Kapphan in a study of mosques in
Berlin in 1999. This accounts for why
countries like Sweden and the Netherlands
support some mosques financially and the
building up of local infrastructure.
A tendency does exist for mosques to assume
more of a church-like role; in Germany this
can be said of some of the large Turkish
organisations. They may offer services such
as language courses, sports clubs and so on,
aimed especially at members of their own
associations, but they fall well short of the
classical function of the Osmanli ‘Külliye’,
which included a soup kitchen, healthcare
and similar social welfare services directed at
the general populace including non-Muslims.
Nor have economic services emerged such as
the setting-up of open, free markets.
Clearly it has not yet been realised that these
kinds of facilities can be useful to the public
in general if they are properly established
and properly presented. Having said that,
mosque associations have become more open
to the outside world, especially since the
1990s. There are ‘open days’ and contacts
have been established with other social insti-
tutions, and some mosques run initiatives to
combat drugs and criminality.
Looking at the United Kingdom, the signs
are that minorities will become majorities in
many cities over the next ten to twenty years
– and similar changes can be seen in other
European countries. In Britain, however,
unlike France or Germany, social and ethnic
diversity and self-organisation was officially
recognised and promoted, with little pressure
to integrate, which is why ethnic segregation
and the independent existence of groups is
more pronounced there than elsewhere.
Some years ago, the state began to realise
that this policy was creating more segre-
gation than was desirable, and they launched
a new initiative called “community cohe-
sion”, a bottom-up approach in which the
different segments of the populace establish
contact in order to get to know another
better. It aims to strengthen a sense of
togetherness and create equal opportunities
for all, while continuing to acknowledge
diversity.
Architect and town planner Mahmud
Manning, has written a dissertation about
the city of Bradford, one of the cities with the
highest proportion of ethnic minorities in
Britain. Bradford is often considered Britain’s
test case for any issues relating to the Muslim
minority.
“Friday prayers are always full to
overflowing, high street trade is vibrant,
The former workers’ quarter Duisburg-Marxloh is in dire need of new ideas.
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
EUROPE
different light, not just a negative one any
more; the mosque has upgraded Marxloh’s
image.” Ceylan also likes the fact that the
mosque combines different functions.As well
as the prayer room there are “seminar rooms,
a bistro, a kitchen and a meeting place where
events can be held.” The mosque, he says, is
already collaborating with other local play-
ers and the local authorities, and has applied
for funding for a range of activities.
Ceylan cites the ethnic economy as another
of Marxloh’s plus-points. One industry which
is flourishing is wedding clothing, for which
customers come from all over Germany and
even the Netherlands and Belgium.Although
Marxloh used to be a workers’ district it
slumped to become a zone of high unem-
ploymment (around 20 per cent), especially
among the youth, which is definitely a major
problem. But, Ceylan claims, the immigrant
population – and especially the Muslims –
represent considerable social capital.“Immi-
grants have the space here to express them-
selves culturally and socially in a way other
areas of the city do not allow.”The problems
of districts like Marxloh, he says, are caused
not by the presence of immigrants, but by
factors like high unemployment levels and a
poorer quality of schooling.
In this part of town, around 60 per cent of
the population come from an immigrant
background. Inhabitants of Turkish origin
command most of the infrastructure, which
in turn attracts Turkish residents from other
parts of the city.“Immigrant entrepreneurs are
often very willing to take risks but have
insufficient business sense, which is why there
is a high level of fluctuation among
enterprises.” In addition to the typical,
traditional ethnic businesses there are an
increasing number of Muslim lawyers, doctors
and other academically qualified profession-
als, who in turn create other jobs and
represent a real economic factor, reports Dr
Rauf Ceylan. Turkish people now own many
shops and businesses in the centre of Duisburg
as well, even if you cannot tell from the
outside, and they provide jobs for members
of the majority population. Many first-
generation immigrants choose Marxloh
consciously, and some have purchased prop-
erty, which means that many of the second
generation also remain there. There are of
course social climbers who move away from
the area.“Then again, there are also members
of the indigenous German population who
choose to live in Marxloh because they favour
a multicultural lifestyle – students and
academics, for instance.”There are no visible
conflicts in living together, he says, day-to-day
living is harmonious and there are no un-
crossable borders between the ethnic groups.
Marxloh has an institutional Round Table
which citizens can participate in.
“Migration always means social, cultural but
also economic renewal,” says the social
scientist. “Immigrants have not only helped
to halt the process of decay in these districts,
they have breathed new life into them. And
since more than 35 per cent of the people of
Duisburg are from an immigrant background,
this will at some point apply to the city as a
whole.” The importance of the mosque, says
Ceylan, has not been appreciated by German
politicians, who often stigmatise mosques as
objects of scandal. But in reality they are
social centres offering a range of activities
which have brought forth a young and largely
well-educated generation of people. The
historical division of Turkish Muslims into
different groupings, and in turn their
segregation from non-Turkish Muslims, which
Ceylan and others criticise along with all
dynamic and a refreshing counter-point to
‘official’ city mall shopping centres. An
overlooked asset by local government.As city
centres have imploded, only shored up by
regeneration injections – Leeds, Manchester,
Newcastle – the Muslim population finds
itself in an interesting position. Take them
out of Bradford and the city collapses,” claims
Mahmud Manning.
Case study: Marxloh, DuisburgIn the weeks since its opening, many non-
Muslims, individuals and groups, have visited
the new mosque to see it for themselves and
find out more; there is considerable interest.
In 2006, Duisburg-based social scientist Dr
Rauf Ceylan published an acclaimed paper on
‘ethnic colonies’ using a similar district as an
example. He considers the new mosque to be
well placed, because, he says, mosques have
to be built in places where Muslims live, they
have to be near and easy to get to. “The
building of the mosque has had many good
effects, even before it was finished,” believes
Ceylan.“The area is now cast in a completely
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ethnic division amongst the Muslims of
Germany, is expected to disappear gradually
as this new generation develops.
According to Rauf Ceylan, conditions in the
ethnic districts of German cities are nothing
like those of France’s banlieues. The stan-
dard of living in the German areas is much
better, the problems less pressing.“We don’t
have ghettos in Germany. An American
journalist who visited Marxloh with me was
astonished when I told him people call this
part of Duisburg a ghetto. He said that if he
were to live in Duisburg he would live there,
because it was less boring than other parts
of town, more colourful and lively.” Poverty
may be considerable, but you do not see
homeless Turks because their families take
them in.“This social capital is very important
and is often undervalued. People help each
other. That helps to alleviate and absorb
poverty,” says the sociologist.
“The Iftar Tents that we know from Islamic
tradition should be opened up to everyone
again, rather than becoming meeting points
for cronies as they are now,” suggests Dr
Rauf Ceylan. Other things, such as a soup
kitchen and free homework tutoring, also
available to non-Muslims, could be part of a
service offered to the wider community, with
the funds coming from Zakat and charitable
donations.
The collapse of urban culture and social cohe-
sion, in Europe, brings with it many oppor-
tunities for Muslim minorities. Indeed there
are already many ways in which they can
contribute positively to society. Yet this will
require a change in consciousness, something
which is only just beginning to make itself felt.
Text By Yasin Alder
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
THOUGHT
Political theorists have been discussing the
foundations of politics ever since Plato. For
centuries on end, the idea of rule defined purely
in human terms was inconceivable. Humans strive
and plan, but are also always the victims or
beneficiaries of unforeseeable Higher Forces.
THE OLIGARCHIC TENDENCYFROM POLITEA TO THE TIME OF THE BEDOUIN
“Well, I said, and in oligarchical States
do you not find paupers?
Yes, he said; nearly everybody is a pauper
who is not a ruler.”
(Plato, Politea, 552d)
Political concepts are not only flexible, they
are subject to changing times.While in Roman
exile, the Greek thinker Polybios (200-120
BC) developed the famous theory of
Anacyclosis on the cyclical nature of govern-
ment. Examining monarchy, aristocracy and
democracy, Polybios concluded that every
type of government at some point collapses.
But while modes of government come and go
and are subject to a necessary process of
inner change, the political questions behind
the great organisational forms have remained
the same since the time of the great Greek
philosophers.
Political theorists have been discussing the
foundations of politics ever since Plato (428-
348 BC): the relationship to power, the
techniques of exercising power, and the taut
relationship between politics and econom-
ics. And, of course, thinkers have always
reflected on the effects of what has been
called “fate” or “fortune” on human efforts
to establish an order. For centuries on end,
the idea of a rule defined purely in human
52 53
THOUGHT
terms was inconceivable. Humans strive and
plan, but are also always the victims or
beneficiaries of unforeseeable Higher Forces.
Old fundamental questions about just rule
always re-emerge during times of crisis. Every
age has its own challenges.Today, more than
two thousand years after Plato, those
challenges once again revolve primarily
around the relationship between politics and
the economy. During the recent American
elections, the independence of politicians was
once again called into question. What does
it mean for democracy when corporations of
ever-increasing power finance parties and
their candidates as well as control media
companies?
Humanity is currently experiencing the worst
financial crisis since the beginning of the last
century. A kind of “economic state of emer-
gency”, it is one in which the true balance of
power is revealed. In the shortest of times,
gigantic amounts of money have been raised
to rescue collapsing banks the world over.
The political problem is especially pronounced
in America. People working on Wall Street for
financial, insurance and property corporations,
along with those companies’ political action
committees, invested millions of dollars in
the campaigns of Senators Obama and
McCain. It is therefore not particularly
surprising that both candidates supported
the campaign to rescue Wall Street.
Since 2002, Wall Street has donated more
than 1.1 billion dollars to Congressional
candidates. Nine out of the ten biggest
recipients of this Wall Street generosity – each
of whom received an average of 1.5 million
– are members of financial supervisory and
tax committees.The consequences for political
freedom, and the effects on the broader
community, are devastating. Even though
some of the big banks could not survive
without tax funding, they remain in private
ownership. It is impossible to overlook the
new oligarchic structures emerging under
current political conditions.
Since the American elections, the Fed has
been lending money in secret and outside of
any political control, far in excess of the rescue
packages publicised for financial institutions,
and other companies in difficulty. In one week
in November, according to the Washington
Post, $507 billion went to banks, $50 billion
to investment companies, $70 billion to invest-
ment funds and $266 billion to companies
holding short-term loans.
In his renowned Politea – a title translated
somewhat uncomfortably as ‘The Republic’ –
Plato defines oligarchy as “A government
resting on a valuation of property, in which
the rich have power and the poor man is
deprived of it.” (Politea 550d) To Plato, the
power of money and wealth contains a logical
threat which in the long term is destructive:
“And in proportion as riches and rich men are
honoured in the State, virtue and the virtuous
are dishonoured.” (551a).
The consequent spiritual detrition is as
dynamic as it is irreversible: “And so at last,
instead of loving contention and glory, men
become lovers of trade and money; they
honour and look up to the rich man, and
make a ruler of him, and dishonour the poor
man.”
Plato proceeds to sketch what we now realise,
in light of today’s financial crisis, is the
timeless threat: that the oligarchs and their
structures will utilise their growing influence
to re-structure laws and modes of governance
to serve their own purposes. Regardless of
their background; religious or not; the
oligarchs will undermine traditional law to
their own advantage.
Money and the acquisition of money will in
future determine the “oligarchic” constitution
of the individual. What Plato was especially
afraid of was that the political unity of the
community would be broken.What we would
now call a parallel society would necessarily
emerge:“The inevitable division: such a State
is not one, but two States, the one of poor,
the other of rich men; and they are living on
the same spot and always conspiring against
one another.” (551d).
In the wake of the madness of modern
ideologies, the 20th century has undoubtedly
seen a tectonic shift in power from the
political to the economic sphere. Modern
constitutions incorporate well-known
mechanisms to prevent ideologues from
coming to power – the notorious coup d’état
– while at the same time ignoring the
possibility of a silent “Coup de Banque”.
Capital grows faster and faster, becomes
globally networked, and dominates national
political parties as well as public opinion.
The political actors of the post-modern state
are politicians, or more accurately party-
politicians, who, within the process of
globalisation, fight in vain against the global
fortification of oligarchic structures. The
foundational political question between
economic and political power is clear: who is
actually governing whom?
In his classic 1911 work on political parties,
Robert Michels demonstrated what he called
the “iron law of oligarchy”. Michels showed
GLOBALIA | Issue 04 | December 2008
THOUGHT
how every organisation inevitably brings
forth a leadership without exercising
effective, long-term control over it. Today,
almost 100 years later, which technical
debates abound, which the majority of the
population cannot possibly understand, this
phenomenon has become only more
pronounced. The need for full-time
functionaries, the extent to which the party
leadership knows more than others, and the
inexorable specialisation of the political
process – are all solidifying the party
apparatus.
How can we defend ourselves against these
tendencies? The great Muslim historian Ibn
Khaldun saw only one way of stopping
political nihilism. He did not believe in linear
models of progress, but instead, in the natural
ascent and decline of each and every political
order.The quality and the unity of every order,
said Khaldun, depends solely on its capacity
for transcendence.
“Only by Allah’s help in establishing His deen
(or way of life),” he wrote in his famous
Muqaddimah, “do individual desires come
together in agreement to press their claims,
and hearts become united […] The secret of
this is that when hearts succumb to false
desires and are inclined towards the world,
mutual envy and widespread differences arise.
But when they are turned towards the truth
and reject the world and whatever is false,
and advance toward Allah, they become one
in their outlook. Envy disappears. Mutual co-
operation and support flourish.” (The
Muqaddimah, 319-20).
In modern political discourse, especially in the
West, Ibn Khaldun is seen first and foremost
as a romantic figure or perhaps the founder
of sociology. The Scottish author Ian Dallas
54 55
THOUGHT
contests that view, as well as the dicho-
tomisation of “medieval” and “modern” in
general. In his masterpiece The Time of the
Bedouin, he brilliantly links Ibn Khaldun to
Ernst Jünger, and the end of European philo-
sophy from the perspective of first Muslim
community in Madinah. In Dr Dallas’ work,
European history devolves on a transfer of
power; the foundational political form,
monarchy, replaced by structurally networked,
oligarchic elites.
Neither does Ian Dallas believe in the linear
progression of political models. The French
Revolution – with which, after all, the Modern
Era begins – he sees marks the birth of
democracy but also state terror, both two
sides of the same coin.According to Ian Dallas,
Revolution has Terror built into it, and
“Terrorism is not and cannot be perceived as
the destructive force of an evil other. It is not
even a Janus-head of one monster. It is the
quintessential core of the dying entity (the
bourgeois epoch).” (ToB p. 273)
New elites appear in the form of sects and
dominate the state as the political ur-model,
where monarchy is abolished, along with its
inner unity of political decision and military
responsibility. Dr Dallas demonstrates that
a shift of power took place which far from
empowering the populace as professed,
empowered instead what Hilaire Belloc calls
the “Money Power”; the finance-commo-
dities elite. The diffuse forces of politics,
economics and the Military-Industrial
Complex may serve a whole range of
puposes, just not the objectives of the old
nations.
The limiting of political sovereignty by the
power of financial technique made the
German philosopher Martin Heidegger
sigh, “Only a God can save us.” Heidegger
Platos’ collected works (Geman edition). The Time of the Bedouin by Dr Ian Dallas.
saw no political solution, advocating
instead Gelassenheit, an inner distancing
from the power of technology. But Ian
Dallas points to Ibn Khaldun, a political
thinker he considers groundbreaking: “It
requires a young intellect to grasp Ibn
Khaldun – not his ideas, but his mode of
thinking.” (ToB p. 278)
As with the thinking of Plato, Dr Dallas does
not consider man to be a detached observer,
rather an integral part of the political model.
If man wishes to win back his freedom, he
must change himself and re-discover his
meaning as part of a tremendous creational
process.
Dr Dallas’ Bedouin is not dissimilar to Ernst
Jünger’s Waldgänger. Neither anarchist nor
revolutionary, he is however a crosser of
boundaries who seeks and upholds his own
freedom. The Bedouin understands that his
highest possibility lies not in individualism
but in actions performed together with others.
Ibn Khaldun calls this transformative energy
“Asabiyya”. Ian Dallas writes: “The true
Asabiyya as understood by Ibn Khaldun is of
higher spiritual brotherhood, which is always,
in its great phase, invincible.” (ToB, p. 278)
Dallas explains that to Ibn Khaldun,Asabiyya
has a declared aim which is not only of
political character but also a visibly economic
one: “Ibn Khaldun marks the point at which
Asabiyya installs Monarchy as being that
point when the King adopts a natural currency
based on gold and silver.” (ToB p. 290).
Consequently, it is only a Divinely inspired
monarchy which is in a position to stem the
oligarchic tendency and the erosion of law,
and to give back to man his political
sovereignty.
Text By Abu Bakr Rieger
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