14 December 2010

The New Caliphate

(The current museum and former mosque/cathedral of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul)

Are you a Dhimmi?

You probably have received one of those horrifying notes about what the notion of “dhimmitude” means, and what is happening to Europe, and to a lesser degree, the United States. There is a lot of talk about Eurabia, much of it quite alarming.

I will dispense with the dry stuff first, so you may want to get a cup of coffee, or just pour an early white wine. It is awfully cold outside, 20 degrees with a twenty knot wind and the smart place for all of us to be would be back under the eiderdown.

But the hell with it. I was trying to contextualize the notion of Dhimmitude as a conditional deflection of jihad. That apparently is one of the demands inherent in the acts of violence against societies around the world.

In that construct, Infidels who submit without fighting to the conquering Islamic armies of old were granted a pledge of security, and protected from being killed, enslaved, ransomed or deported. Dhimmis were permitted the discrete exercise of their religion, and limited self-government. There were two major conditions for these dispensations: the payment of a poll tax (the jizya) and submission to the provisions of Islamic law (Shari’a).

I was thinking about that as I sipped wine with a dozen very nice people, exiled Iraqis and a few Turks. All appeared to be secular in orientation and embarked a variety of enterprises to reconstruct their homeland. In this particular season, the construction of soccer stadiums around the country was intended to provide jobs and eliminate the poverty and idle hands that enable the continuing slaughter.

This was exciting stuff, and I had not been around people seriously trying to deal with problems in the country where we will have the largest American Embassy in the world, and some sort of military presence that will go on into the indefinable future.

Everyone was pleasant. The Minister’s son introduced himself as Muhammad, and declined to provide his family name for reasons of security.

“I normally just use the name Isaak here. Seems to cause less problems.”
“Muhammad is the most common boy’s name in the UK,” I said. “So it isn’t something that should be a big deal. But Isaac works nicely, since all the faiths claim it.” He nodded, and told me he was studying Chemical Engineering at one of the local colleges, and we laughed when we discovered we would both be in Detroit over the coming holidays.

“Detroit is home to the largest Iraqi population in North America,” I said.

“Yes,” he responded, with a smile. “Dearborn is called Little Baghdad. But there will be no partying on the 25th. All the clubs will be closed.”

“Lay in a stock of holiday cheer the day before,” I said. “That is what we do.”

I was having one of those fugue states in which I realized I was reading too much e-mail. There were real people around me with real hopes and aspirations of pulling a society back together. Meanwhile, we are stuck with cartoon demons as much as the crazies.

The latest of them, Iraqi-born Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly bungled his attack on the innocent in Stockholm over the weekend. He succeeded only in burning his used car and apparently detonated one of the dozen pipe-bombs strapped to his body when he stooped to pick up the cell phone trigger he dropped.

(Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly. Photo Guardian.)

In recorded messages made public by the Swedish security forces, Mr. al-Abdaly apparently made reference to “the Islamic state, may Allah protect it, and its people.” The talking heads are trying to tie the statement to al-Qaida in Iraq, which is certainly possible.

My understanding of the those words could equally apply to the larger notion of the Caliphate, which we in the West largely associate with the Empire of the Ottomans that subsumed the glory that was Rome and Greece in the city of Constantine.

I have heard the rant before, as we all have if you listen to the post-attack bravado from the terrorists. A fellow named A’bdullah said it this way in a web posting in 2008:

“A Caliphate is simply an executive entity that has the authority to execute the rules on behalf of its citizens. It’s the only Government that has the God Given authority to be implemented and its ideology (Islam) propagated to the entire world (by force) as stipulated by Islam. This is not 'my particular' understanding or 'my' opinion. Neither is it 'Islamist' or 'Extremist' or 'Jihadist!' These terms are cleverly designed by the western countries as a euphemism to indirectly undermine and ostracize the core Islamic ideas they fear so as to divide Muslims into moderate and extreme camps. There are more than 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today who are working to bring stability and security to the world at large once again! To remove the filth of Freedom and Democracy and to replace it with responsibility and accountability to the entire world!”

Isaak and I wound up blocking traffic into the kitchen as we talked to one of the Turks, a secular journalist who is based here in Washington, and an American who is working on the stadium project. The journalist was a stringer for a Turkish paper until Istanbul decided they did not need to know what Washington was thinking.

The American was enthusiastic about how things were going. The Turkish General Staff was actively engaged in military-to-military talks with the Iraqis, and taking over training functions.

The Turkish military has always been the backbone of the secular state, and an idea occurred to me. Maybe the Caliphate was something we could use, conceptually. Why not support the Turks in a regional leadership role to temper the crazies. Re-establish some of the relationships of the Ottoman period in a completely new context.

Lower the American profile in the region so the young men wouldn’t whip themselves into such a murderous frenzy.

I suggested as much, blue-saying the idea. The Turk looked back at me with a steady gaze.

“There is a problem with that,” the journalist said slowly. “The Turkish secular state no longer exists.”

I frowned. “Damn, when did that happen? Where is Ataturk when you need him?”

Tomorrow: The New Ottomans.

Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
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