Mehdi Taeb, a
senior cleric in the Iranian government recently addressed some students
at an Iranian religious school and explained to them that the major
reason so many nations have gone along with the latest round of
sanctions against Iran was because Israel had been using magic to
persuade the leaders of these nations to back sanctions. Without the
Israeli witchcraft, the sanctions would not exist. Taeb explained that
the Israelis have used this magic before, as in 2009 against Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad when he was running for president. Many Iranians openly
opposed Ahmadinejad, who won anyway. This, to Taeb, was proof that
devout Moslems could defeat the Jewish magic.
What’s interesting with this observation is that two years ago
Taeb and his fellow clerics tried to get rid of Ahmadinejad and his
zealous (against corrupt clerics) associates. One method used was send
the police (which the clergy control) to arrest key Ahmadinejad aides
and accuse them of witchcraft and sorcery. This led to street brawls
between fans of Ahmadinejad and Islamic hardliners. Clubs, knives and
other sharp instruments were used. There was blood in the streets. All
because of a witch hunt.
Ahmadinejad is quite popular, because he has gone after
corrupt officials, especially the clerics and their families, who feel
they are immune from prosecution and can take what they want. In theory,
the clerics can get rid of Ahmadinejad by simply declaring that he is
not religiously suitable to run for election. That's the kind of power
the clerics have. But Ahmadinejad is too popular for that sort of
censorship, and Ahmadinejad is not corrupt. His rants against Israel and
the Jews, while a bit much for some clerics is also not grounds for
being declared "un-Islamic" and ineligible to run for election.
Ahmadinejad is quite respectful of Islam and most Moslem clerics, but
willing to go after clerics who are dirty. This is also quite popular
with most Iranians, and that scares the dirty clerics at the top.
So why have the clerics decided to accuse Ahmadinejad cronies
of sorcery? That's because in most countries where there is a dominant
religion, especially a state approved one, there is usually still a fear
that the previous religion (or religions) will try to make a comeback.
The former faiths often involved some really old-school stuff, including
magic and sometimes animal, or even human, sacrifice. It is not
uncommon for there to be civil laws covering those accused to be
practicing such sorcery, and severe punishments for those convicted. At
the very least, the accused will be driven from any senior government
jobs they might hold, and that's what's being done to dozens of
Ahmadinejad associates.
All cultures have a certain belief in magic and what
Westerners call “conspiracy theories” to explain otherwise unexplainable
events. In the Islamic world, there is a lot of attention paid to
sorcery and magic, and people accused of practicing such things are
regularly attacked and sometimes executed. Conspiracy theories are also a
popular way to explain away inconvenient facts.
For example, back in 2008 many Pakistanis believed that the
then recent Islamic terrorist attack in Mumbai, India was actually the
work of the Israeli Mossad or the American CIA and not the Pakistani
terrorists who were killed or captured and identified. Such fantasies
are a common explanation, in Moslem nations, for Islamic terrorist
atrocities. Especially when women and children, and Moslems, are among
the victims, other Moslems tend to accept fantastic explanations
shifting the blame to infidels (non-Moslems).
After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States,
many Moslems again blamed Israel for staging those attacks. A favorite
variation of this is that, before the attacks on the World Trade Center,
a secret message went out to all Jews in the area to stay away. Another
variation has it that the 19 attackers (all of them Arab, 15 from Saudi
Arabia) were really not Arabs, but falsely identified as part of the
Israeli deception. In the United States, some Americans insist that the
attack was the work of the U.S. government, complete with the World
Trade Center towers being brought down by prepositioned explosive
charges. While few Americans accept this, the CIA and Mossad fantasies
are widely accepted in the Moslem world. Even Western educated Arabs,
speaking good English, will casually express, and accept, these tales of
the Israeli Mossad staging the attacks, to trick the U.S. into
attacking Afghanistan and Iraq. Americans are shocked at this, but the
Moslems expressing these beliefs just shrug when confronted with
contradictory evidence.
American troops arriving in Iraq after 2003 went through a
real culture shock as they encountered these cultural differences. They
also discovered that the cause of this, and many other Arab problems, is
the concept of "inshallah" ("If God wills it.") This is a basic tenet
of Islam, although some scholars believe the attitude was a cultural
trait that preceded Islam. In any event, "inshallah" is deadly when
combined with modern technology. For this reason, Arab countries either
have poorly maintained infrastructure and equipment (including military
stuff), or import a lot of foreigners, possessing the right attitudes,
to maintain everything. That minority of Arabs who do have a realistic
attitude towards maintenance and personal responsibility are considered
odd, but useful.
The "inshallah" thing is made worse by a stronger belief in
the supernatural, and magic in general. This often extends to
technology. Thus many Iraqis believed that American troops wore
sunglasses that enabled them to see through clothing, and armor vests
that were actually air conditioned. When they first encounter these
beliefs, U.S. troops thought the Arabs are putting them on. Then it
sinks in that Arabs really believe this stuff. It's a scary moment.
However, many troops learn to live with, and even exploit,
these odd beliefs. When troops at one base discovered that they weren't
being attacked much, because many of the locals believed that the base
was surrounded by a force field, the troops would casually make
reference to their force field, when they were outside the wire and
among the locals. This reinforced the force field myth, and made the
base safer. Other troops would invent new fantasies, like a pretending
that a handheld bit of military electronics was actually a mind reading
device. That often made interrogations go a lot quicker. Not all Arabs
believe in this stuff, and those that didn't and worked for the
Americans, often as an interpreter, could only shrug their shoulders
when asked about it.
This easy acceptance of fantasies is exploited by leaders
throughout the Middle East, and the Moslem world in general. Leaders who
know better, build on these fantasies as a way to maintain their
control over the population. The problem is a dirty little secret in the
Moslem world, that leaders and academics don't even like to discuss it
openly, much less with infidels. But it is real, and you can read all
about it in the local media, or overhear it in the coffee shops.
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