The rise of authoritarian strongmen- 'modern Pharaohs' as it were- in numerous countries in recent times through either military takeovers, or by deeply-flawed but populist ('democratic') processes threaten true freedom every where. Countries with dangerous imperial delusions and territorial expansion plans include Russia under Vladimir Putin; China under Xi Jinping; India under Narendra Modi, and Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu. While each of these nations know that international law does not legitimate military conquest and foreign occupation, they plan that 'stealth' and 'subterfuge' can carry their secret plots to fruition: the acquisition and control of territories through any means, including war. Likewise, the return to power in Kabul by the Taliban; by other equally vicious military oligarchs in North Korea, Myanmar, Mali, Sudan, Tunisia, Nicaragua and Egypt mean an era of political repression and glaring injustice for the people of these unfortunate countries. It is also instructive to note that many other nations are also arming themselves to the teeth; preparing themselves for the 'Wars of the future'. Read the Friday Sermon Below:
The Modern Pharaohs of this World & Their War Strategies
The pharaonic dynasty was about horrible tyrants who claimed to be all-powerful gods, and they made their people worship them. They amassed unfathomable wealth and power, while the masses, as always, laboured to survive. They built huge
monuments to their own praise, big slabs to flatter their ego, to impress their
followers and foreign powers with their stature and might. They abused their
authority at every turn, killed off the opposition, tortured, maimed, plotted,
connived, and clung to power by every means imaginable. And their legacy [i.e.
their evil, their thirst for power, grandeur and wealth] has persisted until
today.
It is well established among the people of all religions, especially, the three main monotheistic ones, i.e. Muslims, Jews and Christians, that Pharaoh was one of the worst disbelievers in God; in fact, in the Quran, Allah does not tell the story of any disbeliever by name more than the story of Pharaoh, and He does not tell us more detail of the disbelief, transgression and arrogance of any disbeliever more than He tells us about Pharaoh.
The latter was so
paranoid of being overthrown from power (as a fortune teller predicted) that he
ordered newborn baby boys in his country to be killed. In one particular year,
the newborn boys could live, and in the next, the newborn boys were killed.
The Pharaonic mentality
has persisted for two millennia after the Pharaohs are of the past.
Pharaoh-like tyrants have kept their seats in Egypt, which has a history of
5,000 years. Rulers who have come to power since the end of the Pharaoh’s
dynasties have chosen other titles for themselves. They have made the rich
lands in the fertile Nile River available to imperial powers and thus had the
right to rule like Pharaohs.
Morsi won the first
free elections in his country in 2012. He was chosen by the Shura council of
the Muslim Brotherhood as chairman of his party in April 2011. Before that, he
faced off against the authoritarian Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. He was
arrested by the regime and was only liberated by the people days before Mubarak
was toppled.
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The silence of Western
countries, including France and others, on the death of Morsi is a clear
indicator of a double standard. Germany and others, which portray themselves as
the vanguards of democracy whenever convenient, have turned a blind eye to the
human rights violations for the sake of political interests. Amnesty
international and other rights groups have called for a fair, transparent and
comprehensive investigation into Morsi’s death and raised questions about his
treatment in prison. Gilles Devers, a French lawyer and academic who
represented the Palestinians Authority before the international court of
justice, said that they applied to the United Nations and the International
Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an investigation about the death of Egypt’s
first democratically elected president, Mohammad Morsi.
The Egyptian President’s
passing sent shock waves across the Muslim world. Mohammad Morsi’s untimely
death casts further doubt on the international community’s commitment to human
rights and democracy. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights had his say in the matter. He stressed that: “Any
sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and
transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the
cause of death.”
History will not
forgive this tragedy of democracy in “modern times” thousands of years after
the Pharaohs. History will record that the West intercepted the Egyptian
people’s first serious step toward democracy and independence simply because
their elected political leader was “religious”. It will also tell how a
civilian president was brutally baited by a “secular” dictator, on the grounds
of alleged potential to harm democracy in the country. The Arab dictators and
their murderous administrations are at the Centre of the US-Middle East policy,
which it has been pursuing with Israel. For them, the people aspiring to
democracy are nothing more than the crowds that must be crusted. The Pharaonic
tendencies have now spread beyond the shores of the Nile to other Arabian
lands.
In the realm of
warfare, the use of non-kinetic resources is growing with every passing day,
and is becoming more dangerous day by day. This is what we call: the fifth
generation warfare. To be more precise, this is the term used for a sinister
and deadly war in which nefarious forces conduct an all-out assault on a state,
its institutions, and the very way of life of its people. A fifth-generation
war is one where non-state actors take on the state, where information spreads
quickly through the internet, where there are cyber-attacks, and where military
engagement and the protocols of war are now mutating into something more amorphous,
less easily defeated.
For example, in the
history of hybrid warfare, one of the most devastating cyber-attacks included
the use of a malicious computer worm, Stuxnet. The covert mission code-named
“Olympic games” was conducted by the United States and Israel against Iranian
nuclear program using Stuxnet. The classified effort started under the regime
of George Bush Junior in 2006 when General James Cartwright who was then head
of U.S Strategic Command introduced the idea. Overall, the cyber-attack which
was finally executed under the Obama administration was responsible for
destroying 1,000 of Iran’s 6,000 centrifuges at the uranium enrichment plant in
Natanz.
So, like I have said,
the tactics of war have all changed, the war strategies of the past have muted
into something more dangerous.
Large-scale data interpretations,
social media trials, misinformation through cyber space, attacks on
installation etc. are prime tools of fifth generation warfare, but not the only
tools. Gray zone warfare, psychological warfare, information warfare, cyber
warfare, and biological warfare are all part of fifth-generation warfare.
Concerning fault lines,
they are identified and are targeted like sectarian divide, ethnicity
conflicts, entrance to security software, hijacking of websites of important
ministries and institutes, etc. These fault lines exploited according to their
needs and are designed to achieve the desired objectives of chaos, confusion,
physical damage, etc. For example, in Syria, ethnic and sectarian divide was
used to create chaos and war. Even the spilling of certain truths on the
security of a state or country by certain politicians or officials,
intentionally or unintentionally, forms part of fault lines which act as a
security breach which endanger a country or state.
In the 21st
century, we see a tendency toward blurring the lines between the states of war
and peace. Wars are no longer declared, and having begun, proceed according to
an unfamiliar template. We hear about the hybrid or fifth generation wars as
well as the seventh generation war where banking systems and other crucial
agencies of the economy of a country or state are targeted to finish its reign
or power.
The experience of
recent military conflicts confirms that a perfectly thriving State can, in a
matter of months and even days, be transformed into an arena of fierce armed
conflict, and later become the victim of foreign interventions that can, in the
name of humanitarian and terrorism reacted excuses, sink those States into the
web of chaos, humanitarian disaster and civil war. Navigating from the physical
and tangible aspect of war, new-generation wars are to be dominated by
information and psychological warfare. The objective is to reduce the necessity
for deploying hard military power to the minimum necessary, making the
opponent’s military and civil population support the attacker to the detriment
of their government and country. The aim of this kind of “warfare” is to
intensify psychological pressure to cause the downfall of the target’s state
from within, so that the political objectives of the conflict can be achieved
without fighting.
Moreover, one of the
strategies used in this new war is to outwit and defeat the enemy by using the
social media and diverting their youths’ mind against their country and
leaders. Very often non-state actors, often terrorist groups in all corners of
the world and especially the Jihadi-terrorist groups in this era are used by fighting
conventional military to the point of stalemate. And the actual masterminds
remain behind the curtains. They are the puppet masters directing the whole
plan from behind the veil, either long distance or within the country itself.
This is done by secret agents and/ or enemies of the state paid for by hostile
foreign governments. They operate from within, not just as militant terrorists,
but as NGO workers, ethnic rights activists, secularists and other agents,
using sophisticated online propaganda techniques to create such dissatisfaction
with the targeted country and its leaders, with its armed forces, and with its
way of living, to such an extent that the state will inevitably implode.
The fifth-generation
warfare is probably not a new phenomenon. Propaganda, non-state actors,
targeting civilians, and economic and social conditions leading to
dissatisfaction, and other elements of a so-called hybrid war have been
elements of war and revolution for centuries. But what is new is the violent
challenge by non-state actors to the modern nation state.
And as for biological
weapons, we have seen many of its kinds sprout in this millennium, especially
with the appearance of the COVID-19 back in 2019. Today, China is crippled
again by the virus which originated in Wuhan. New cases in thousands have been
reported, with death within people with health complications and the old
people.
In Islam, Allah has
ordained the true believers to put their trust in Him alone. Whatever plans the
enemies of Allah, the Pharaohs of this “modern” world have, may Allah capsize
their plans! Allah says in the Holy Quran – and I have personally received this
as a divine message many times since Allah chose me as His Khalifa:
وَمَكَرُوا
وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ
Wa makaruu wa makarallahu, wallahu
Khairul Makireen
And (the unbelievers/ evil-doers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and Allah is the best of planners. (Ali-Imran 3: 55)
May Allah protect humankind from the evil tactics of the pharaohs of this world and make their reign come to an end. Insha-Allah, Ameen.
To read Friday Sermon of the previous week, click here.