The tiny number of serious strategists and policy makers at the disposal of Pakistan’s ruling elite must be pulling their hair out at the unravelling of the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The recent escalating diplomatic row between the two theocratic regimes has become toxic and can have disastrous consequences in Pakistan with a quarter of its population from Shite background. Pakistan is already infested with pernicious Islamic sectarian proxies that are spilling innocent blood, tearing apart the social fabric of the country, and eroding the cohesion of the state structures. The repercussions across the Middle East are no less virulent.
For the first time in almost three decades, Iranians could not participate in this year’s pilgrimage as negotiation with the Saudi regime on logistics and security failed. Ali Khamenei wrote on his website: “Because of Saudi rulers’ oppressive behaviour towards God’s guests, the world of Islam must fundamentally reconsider the management of the two holy places and the issue of Hajj.” He was venting his wrath at last year’s Hajj stampede, which killed 2,297 pilgrims, with 464 Iranians amongst the dead.
Saudi Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al Sheikh snapped back at the Iranians: “We must understand these are not Muslims, they are children of Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is an old one. Especially with the people of Sunna.”The sparring intensified with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif later accusing the Saudis of being no different from the “bigoted extremism” that they sponsored and preached. What we are witnessing here is not sectarian religious divide between the two theocracies but a struggle for domination of the Middle East and western Asian region for the respective vested interests of their monarchies and their clerical aristocracy.
Sunni and Shia have lived side by side for centuries in the Middle East and the Sunni-Shia divide was never critical for the region’s politics. This changed in 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussain, and the subsequent mayhem resulted in the rise of sectarian prejudices and a gory conflict. The 2011 Arab Spring sent shivers across the region with regimes toppled and destabilised by the rising mass revolt. Both Saudi Arabia and Iranian elites played the old trick by deliberately stirring Sunni-Shia sectarianism to perpetuate their despotic rule. In Yemen, Saudi Arabia saw the Shia Houthi insurgency as an Iranian proxy and intervened militarily when the Houthis overthrew its puppet regime. Iran was aiding insurgents whose Shia identity would make them effective anti-Saudi tool. This proxy war was effectively extended throughout the Middle East. Sectarianism has become a vicious curse in just a few years with horrendous ramifications for the ordinary masses.
We are witnessing the same bloody scenario in Pakistan, and particularly in Balochistan where these sectarian terrorist proxies are carrying out a brutal slaughter of the Hazaras. On top of that, the masses in Balochistan are subjected to proxy wars by the state and regional as well as world imperialist powers.
A similar scenario has been ravaging Syria for years now. Initially, the violent bloodshed had little to do with religion; the Syrian people had arisen in a revolt as part of the Arab uprising of 2011. The Saudis and other Sunni/Wahabi Gulf states armed Syrian rebels who came from the Salafi background, and are launching vicious bloody war against the Iranian allied regime of Bashaar al-Assad. Iran used much the same strategy, portraying the Syrian war as a genocidal campaign against the Shias. Assad regime and Tehran were able to attract Shia militias from Iraq and Lebanon. This sectarian conflict enables Iranian and the Saudis to dupe, pacify and crush dissent and mass revolts in their own countries. The Saudi regime has been particularly hit hard by the massive fall in oil prices resulting in a massive deficit, and it has become extremely insecure with its hold on power becoming more tenuous. The regime of the Iranian aristocratic clergy is daunted by similar economic and social crisis with a simmering discontent in society. The 2009 upheaval in Iran was a trailer of what impends in this Islamic Republic.
The balance of forces in the region have tilted in the favour of the Iranian ruling clique in particular with the American retreat on the nuclear deal and isolation of the Saudis and the Israelis on the issue. However, US imperialism cannot completely abandon Saudis, and this explains why the al-Saud dynasty is being offered over one billion-dollar arms for the Saudi war efforts in Yemen. Earlier, a complex $10 billion arms deal was struck that would strengthen two key Arab allies — the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. In the same vein to reassure its support for its Zionist imperialist outlet, US will give Israel $38 billion in military assistance over the next decade, the largest such aid package in US history for any country.
However, this increased weaponisation of the Middle East would only result in further escalation of ferocious proxy wars, bloodshed and mayhem in the region. Islamic sectarianism is a device used by these theocratic states to stave off crisis, and continue the domestic control through religious authoritarianism. This means that there is no end in sight of bloody wars and conflicts plaguing and devastating the inhabitants of this region rich in oil and other resources. These regimes instead of ending sectarian bloodshed actually exacerbate it for their vested interests of power and financial oligarchy.
The only force that can cut across these sectarian divides and hatred is a movement of the oppressed masses based on class unity. Working classes comprise of people of all religious, nationalist, ethnic and sectarian backgrounds. Hence the class struggle above all has to overcome and cleanse these vile prejudices of the past. We saw a glimpse of such a unity evolving in the beginnings of the 2011 revolt. The masses shall rise from the ashes yet again. The victory of such a movement shall overthrow these despotic theocratic regimes, and eradicate the venom of religious sectarianism from the womb of society.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at [email protected]