A few days back, the killing of a black American almost exploded the internet. A few weeks ago, 49 people were killed and several others wounded in an Orlando nightclub shooting, and the entire world roared with condemnation and solidarity. Similarly, explosions in France and Brussels received worldwide attention. The world seemed to have united against terror.
On the other hand, hundreds of innocent people, including women and children, lose their lives due to the violence in the Middle East every week. The Western world, however, fails to provide the same solidarity to those people in countries like Syria and Iraq. Whether it's because of the Western-centric media or people’s own ignorance, a very bitter idea resonates in this practice of the double standard: not all lives are equally important. Some may claim it's because the violence in the Middle East has been very common in the past few years. But who created this mess in the Middle East? Why is the Arab resentful towards the west and the U.S.? Where is this mess leading the world? Who's responsible for cleaning this mess? Is it even possible? Answers to these questions are really important.
The problem, I believe, begins with its name — Middle East. I recall my professor asking us to call the region “West Asia.” Indeed! Middle of what? And east from where? The region is rich with its own history, culture, tradition and identity. Do we really have to know by a name that was coined by its European colonizers? I believe not.
But again, the European powers were the ones who actually divided the region that once existed as the Ottoman Empire. After the first World War, the victors went on to partition the large Islamic State into several smaller nations. The problem was not only that there was no natural boundary, such as rivers and mountains, that separated the very similar groups of people, but also the direct and indirect colonization of those states by Britain and France. People who shared a common history, religion, language and culture had to live within those arbitrarily drawn boundaries, and under foreign control. In addition, the British promise to establish a national home for the Jews in Palestine, as well as the free movement of a large number of Jews from Europe to the region, further infuriated the Arab people. The Jews were seen as rivals who took Arab’s land and jobs.
At this point, the United States had a benevolent image in the Middle East, because it had restrained itself from interfering in the region in the name of national and economic interests. Instead, the U.S. entered the region as a diplomatic ally with several lucrative characteristics, such as industrialization, economic expansion and western systems of market and economy. The Middle Eastern nations believed these would improve their lives. The Arab nations saw hope in the United States in the aftermath of WWI and leading into WWII.
Despite initial optimism, the Middle East's hopes of mutual benefit began to be betrayed, and charges of hegemonic oppression against the United States were comfortably made. The United States, which had represented itself as a bastion of freedom, justice and opportunity, advocating for democracy and sovereignty, was seen widely supporting monarchs and dictators throughout the region. The very country that spoke for human rights was seen violating them, either in the form of Israeli support against Palestinian people or its involvement in various wars. The country that advocated for sovereignty had started meddling in the internal affairs of most of the Arab nations. In addition, its market economy actually seemed to increase the gap between rich and poor. All these factors killed the hope of the millions of Arabs, and the dying hope was filled with rage and hostility toward the very transformed American foreign policy.
The United States became involved in Middle Eastern affairs in the name of Cold War defense, when it began Operation Cyclone during the Soviet-Afghanistan war. To contain the Soviet and communist expansion in the region, the CIA trained and the Saudis funded thousands of Islamic extremists, who later formed the notable Islamic terrorist group “al-Qaeda.” Similarly, ISIS, another notoriously violent jihadist extremist group, is considered by many an American product.
After the U.S. invaded Iraq, overthrew Saddam Hussein’s secular regime and established a Shiite administration in 2003, a large number of the upper-class Sunni population, lost their political influence and grew discontent with the regime, leading to the formation of al-Qaeda in Iraq. When the United States decided to arm Syrian rebels in their fight against Russian-backed Assad’s regime, many of those Sunni rebels decided to turn their rifles toward the U.S. and its allies as a new group called ISIS.
The American hunger for oil and its support for Israel have caused the U.S. to be excessively involved in Middle Eastern politics. Syria has been the battleground for a number of rebel groups, ISIS and the Assad regime. The civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people and displaced millions so far. According to the UNHCR, over 3 million Syrians have taken refuge in its immediate neighbors Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, and over 6.5 million are internally displaced. The growing instability in the region has caused these war-affected people to seek asylum in European countries. Some states have proved sympathetic and admitted refugees in large numbers, but many others have turned their backs on them due to xenophobia, Islamophobia and other social reasons.
History provides evidence that the West has always been good at exporting their problems to the East. Today, those problems have started backfiring. The sad thing, however, is the West's ignorance of the Middle Eastern pain, while sobbing at their own insignificant ones. The world has reached the point where the murder of over 200 people from one society gets lesser attention than that of five or 10 from other society.
The West, who I believe is responsible for this mess, should look for an international cooperation in tackling the problems like terrorism and refugee crisis. The United States, Russia, Iran, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iraq should come up with an extensive multilateral agreement, monitored by the UN, to peacefully bring an end to the long-existing civil war in the region. European countries should also rise above the racial, religious and cultural frustration with the refugees, and work with international agencies in rehabilitating the asylum seekers.
At the same time, we can view the world with more open mindedness, gain a better understanding of the people and their circumstances and love each other more everyday.
