Synthesised GP Blog

Hamas woes turned into pan-Islamic cause

"Clerics issue edict telling Muslims to donate to Palestinian govt shackled financially by the West"

According to the article's title and the short summary above, I find little need to elaborate further on the issue at hand. It seems once again that religion has connected the Middle Eastern countries for a common goal - very expectedly against the West. The fatwa issued received very positive feedback from the ME countries:

"Iran pledged US$50 million (S$78 million) to the Palestinian Authority. Qatar and Saudi Arabia soon followed suit, pledging US$50 million and US$90 million respectively."

Yet Palestine is in a debt of US$1.5 billion making the amount gathered seem minute. Furthermore, the Arab banks have been hindered by American pressure making it even more difficult for money to reach the Palestinian authority. We cannot deny though, that these are official figures and we cannot tell for sure what goes underneath the table. The Hamas government could very well be getting rich as the religious power in ME cannot be underestimated. It can do much more than the West can boycott since the Arabic countries own a large reserve of oil and hence economic stakes in the world.

Meanwhile, the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - the so-called quartet involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts are working to establish a temporary financial structure to bypass the Palestinian government in their aid offered. This seem to work a contrary effect in their “boycotting” since this provokes and heightens the cause to help Palestine and the government in the Islamic community. The west may be applying a wrong strategy it seems.

Here, we see an obvious fact that the West has succeeded in disabling the government financially yet, politically (through religion), not much impact had been dealt. Peace seems far-fetched but the solution could perhaps very well lie in the greatest influence itself: religion.

posted by synthesis @ 11:42 PM