❊ Behold The Scheme To Divide The Arab World

There’s a wave of mass delusion sweeping the Arabic speaking countries..

After the explosion near the Coptic Church in Alexandria, I tried searching for a silver lining in that dark cloud. I thought that after this great tragedy, there will be introspection and soul searching among Muslims to see where things have gone in their relationship with Christians.

Boy I was wrong. Apparently, conspiracy theories are not exclusive to parties pushing an agenda, but are pervasive in all layers of society. There’s a common perception in the region that there’s “a wider plot to divide the Arab world” (the words of Walid Jumblat). When Ahmad Hariri, a relative of the Prime Minister, headed a delegation of the Future Movement to give his condolences to the Coptic Church in Lebanon, this is what he said (my translation, hover for Arabic original):

This is part of a wider scheme for the region. The hands that are meddling with Sudan and Iraq and Egypt can also meddle with Lebanon. This is now an existential issue and we must strive to protect our cultural diversity

Why is almost everyone in the Arab world towing that ridiculous line?

There’s a perfect explanation: The idea that a bad guy out there is scheming against the Arabs is political gold for all parties involved. The lay people blame the Jews because that absolves Muslims and Christians from talking to each other about this. “Moderate” politicians blame it on Israel (or Alquaeda) because that diverts the public’s anger away from the ruling regimes’ criminal neglect. And finally, the left-leaning intellectuals blame it on an “imperialist Israelo-American project” that wants to weaken the Arab world from within to benefit Israel.

Now before we know it, the president of Tunisia will also want to join this party. What can be more convenient for a dictator than to blame the “subversion” taking place in his country as part of a devilish scheme to divide the Arab world and weaken it from within?

The losers in all of this are the minorities and the oppressed. They continue to vote with their feet and leave this crazy part of the world in their thousands.