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The Muslim world and the invaluable use of Oil

In the last 60 years, Israel has turned Palestine into the largest concentration camp ever in history, gradually wiping it off the map of the world. 1.5 million Palestinian prisoners in Gaza are being starved to death while the rest of the world is cheering Israel’s civilised 60-year democracy.

The President of the so-called civilised nation of the United States of America declared in Israel’s Knesset last week and hopefully Israel’s ‘evil Arab neighbours’ upon whose land they squat, and whose babies they kill, and whose resources they steal listened carefully:

He said: “Israel’s population may be just over seven million but when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong because the United States of America stands with you.” He continued... “Israelis’ talent and determination was more “valuable than oil”?

Wait a minute pompous one...I wonder whether the people who write your speeches ‘Know’ what they are doing, are as inept as they sound, or whether they are not your friends. You may have felt it unnecessary this time over, to stop-over in Palestine and feign solidarity with the evil Arab mourners at the 60^th anniversary of Al-Nakba, the Uprooting and the Catastrophe that befell the Palestinians when Israel was carved out of their homeland in 1948, then what, may we ask, was the necessity to stop over in Saudi Arabia and meet with Israel’s evil Arab neighbours and owners of the ‘invaluable’ oil reserves?

It’s time the Arab leaders quit being gracious and overly polite, hosts beyond necessity when all they should be doing is telling the US President: “You want some oil? Well then, just sit down and quietly listen to what we have to say.”

Oil and the power and the riches that pump out of the ground with it, are not an acceptable justification for killing hundreds of thousands of people. Even the unbelievers cannot accept it. Neither will the necessary thousands of young men who go off to risk death, or willingly die, for someone else’s enrichment. No, it goes deeper than that.

Oil, and the control of the world’s oil and energy resources, is the key to power and domination. That is the underlying force which drives this war on terror, and that is the ultimate goal. The world population, and the world’s consumer culture, has evolved to a degree where the end of current energy resources is in sight, if not exactly, just around the next corner. Even as we consume it and the reserves diminish, every day it becomes even more essential in our daily lives.

It is obvious. Ultimately, a scramble for control of these resources is inevitable. The forces that end up in control of the world sources of energy will become the dominant world power.

Unfortunately, most of the oil in the world lies under the ground of Muslims. Whether this is a blessing or a curse, is a question best left to the ideological pundits. The fact is that most of the major oil reserves in the world lie under Muslim tents, mosques, homes, schools and, yes, palaces.

The millions of Muslims who sit on top of this oil are of little consequence to those who want to control this wealth. If the people who own the big oil are un-cooperative, un-submissive and unwilling to give or let these reserves be taken from them, then they will have to go!

If the Arab and Muslim world has chosen not to enlist Oil as a weapon of war, then they cannot complain if it is picked up and used by others to gain domination.

It is not a question of religious belief or cultural diversity or a fight against terror or evil. It is a simple matter of ambition, power and greed for the greedy, and control of the essential resources; and those who are not with them, are against them.

If He provides, and man decides, if it is He who gives you the opportunities, but you who decide what you are to do with them, then you can only look to yourselves for answers when the time comes to ask, “What happened?”

And why should we condemn someone else for taking up that opportunity, those tools and weapons for their own aggrandizement, power and enrichment, and your own enslavement?

He gave you the water; He gave you the pump; He taught you how to use it; He did not say He was going to deliver water to your doors. Sometimes the well is a long way down the street! That is the problem. And that is the war you refuse to fight! A wise possum once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Debbie Menon is an independent writer based in Dubai. She can be reached at debbie.menon@yahoo.com