The Wars inside Arab Civilization

The Wars inside Arab Civilization

William Pfaff

http://www.williampfaff.com/article.php?storyid=646
Paris, September 25, 2013 – We have today entered a new political – or politico-religious – period in which the Muslim peoples of the Middle East are seizing control of their own fortunes, a control lost as a result of the first world war and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire – which with its Arab Caliphate predecessors in Crusader times, traces back to the very origin of Islam in what now is Syria, Iraq, and Arabia proper.

Few in the West seem to have grasped the significance of the fact that Muslims themselves have taken over the struggle against Islamic radicalism. The West did not start the war in Syria. Until chemical weapons were used in the war it has had no direct implication in it, and feeble indirect ones, other than to assist the victims. It is the Syrians’ war, and that of the other Arabs who have chosen to take part.