ISIS, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the West

by Salim Mansur • June 14, 2015 at 5:00 am

What principally mattered in accepting Christian support was whether such support served the followers of Islam in spreading the faith. The same thing could also apply to an alliance with the Jews and Israel in defending Saudi interests.
In the age of totalitarianism -- which in the last century flourished under the various headings of Marxism-Leninism, Stalinism, Hitler's National Socialism and Maoism -- Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb added Islamism. Shariah, as God's law, in covering and monitoring every detail of human conduct, as Qutb insisted, is total; its enforcement through jihad made for an ideology -- Islamism -- consistent with the temperament of the totalitarian era.
American support in the reconstruction of Germany and Japan after 1945 was crucial. The transformation of imperial and militaristic Japan into a peaceful democracy was testimony to how American support can make for a better world. In the Korean Peninsula, American troops have held the line between the North and South since the end of the Korean War in 1953; this has made the vital difference in turning South Korea into a democracy and an advanced industrial society.

The famous photograph of Abdulaziz ibn Saud meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt in February 1945 aboard the U.S.S. Quincy symbolizes the incongruity of the Saudi-American "special relationship." (Image source: U.S. Navy)

In a hard-hitting essay on ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) for The Daily Mail, the 2001 Nobel Prize winning author, V.S. Naipaul, wrote: "ISIS could very credibly abandon the label of Caliphate and call itself the Fourth Reich." Among the writings on Islam and Muslims in recent years, Naipaul's, as in the books Among the Believers and Beyond Belief, have been perhaps the most incisive and penetrating in exploring the extremist politics of the global Islamist movement from inside of the Muslim world. And that ISIS on a rampage, as Naipaul observed, revived "religious dogmas and deadly rivalries between Sunnis and Shi'as, Sunnis and Jews and Christians is a giant step into darkness."

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Greece: Watching the Wheels Come Off

by Maria Polizoidou • June 14, 2015 at 4:00 am

The Greek Coast Guard recently arrested a "refugee" coming from Syria, who had 200,000 euros in cash. Apparently this Syrian "investor" did not think that Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon -- countries that border Syria -- were safe for his "investments." He preferred to deposit his money in Greek "zombie banks."
The network of Greek police officers and intelligence agents, cooperating with human traffickers from Turkey in transporting illegal migrants into Greek territory, had such access and influence that police officers and intelligence agents could be transferred from one city to another and from one department to another, to sideline honest officers who stood in the way.

In April, 140 illegal migrants landed on the Greek island of Gavdos (population 152).

When you visit Greece, the customs officers will put in your passport the stamp of the Greek Republic. You will see the Greek flag waving at Athens International Airport; taxis waiting for customers, gas stations still in operation and public infrastructure being kept at a mediocre level. This, however, is just an illusion. Greece is a collapsing country.

Greece is experiencing the perfect financial, political and social storm: all at the same time, state structures have to deal corruption and serious internal and foreign security problems. It is the ultimate nightmare for every state. Greek banks function not because they can, but because they have to. The Greek state has stopped honoring its financial obligations toward private individuals and enterprises. The state's revenue is enough only for civil servant salaries and pensions.

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