Self-Interest
History has shown that there has always been a strong Western power
that has allied itself with an Islamic warmonger. Britain and France
allied themselves with the Ottomans as early as the Crimean War of
1853-1856 against Tsarist Russia. During the First World War Germany
and Turkey were war allies. Later, Great Britain and the Arabs
became allies, headed by the desert Sheikhs, mainly of the Hashemite
tribe of the Saudi families of the Arab Peninsula. After the Second
World War, the United States threw its weight in the Middle East and
Africa. It helped the Saudi clan to emerge as the leading
Arab-Islamic nation in the Middle East and helped Egypt to emerge as
the leading Arab-Islamic nation of North Africa and the Islamic
world. To safeguard their interests, Western countries have
knowingly aggrieved the indigenous natives. Islamic regimes have
been feasting on the misery of the indigenous people of the Middle
East with the encouragement and blessings of the West (Hiro, 1989: p
55).
Assyrian appeals to the players of world politics and key power
brokers have had little effect in curbing their agenda of hegemony.
Self-interest foreign policy and economic interests has overridden
justice. The West, being in control of the global wealth and
advanced technology, has forsaken its Christian God. Until recently,
the whole of the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Australia and New
Zealand, were collectively called the Christian countries or the
Christian world. They are now described as the Western countries.
They have dropped mention of their religion and seldom identify
themselves with their faith as their democracies have become more
secular. By doing so, they have earned themselves the name “The
West”. Islam fills the religious vacuum left by secular Western
democracies.
Western countries claim that to maintain a healthy economy, business
should be given primacy. The West is more concerned about the growth
and enhancement of the economy of their countries, rather than risk
reducing or losing market outlets by maintaining their traditional
Christianity image and so reduce the priority of furthering the
cause of human rights. They explain that worship is personal, as far
as the Christian is concerned. But when it comes to people of
non-Christian faith, in Western countries, the West endorses their
religion and supports them as part of their inherent culture. They
are obliged to respect and assert them at the expense of the
persecuted Christians in the East and the rest of the Islamic
countries. Whatever happened to reciprocity? The West has a
Christian history, but has largely forsaken it, underestimating the
tenacity of other religions that come to fill the vacuum.
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