Unholy Alliance

Title: Unholy Alliance – The Agenda Iran, Russia and the Jihadists Share for Conquering the World

Author: Jay Sekulow

Publisher: Howard Books, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9781501141027

Pages: 310

The Middle East is a very unstable place now. Civil war, religious strife, terrorism and belligerent leaders make this region a grave cause of concern for the entire world on account of the vast quantities of oil exported from there to all parts of the globe, which makes the global economy ticking on. Any upset in the Middle East is guaranteed immediately to reflect in escalated fuel prices around the world. Any catastrophic hindrance to shipment of oil could even lead to recession of the economy that’d cause loss of jobs and civil unrest in a large way. All factors make it imperative for the people of the world to understand what is going on in the Middle East and the parameters that decide the flow of events. Jay Sekulow is a prominent free-speech and religious liberties litigator in the US, having argued twelve times before the US Supreme Court in some of the most groundbreaking First Amendment cases of the past quarter century. As chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), he is a renowned constitutional attorney and an acclaimed and distinguished broadcaster. In this book, Seklulow writes about the deadly situation in the Middle East and the reasons for violence and terrorism which originated there, but is now spilling over to the West under the guise of political asylum to refugees fleeing the war zone in the Middle East. This book makes a general survey of Islam, its history and guiding principles and the history of the Middle East.

Jihad is a religious tenet enjoined for all Muslims in which religious war is to be waged against unbelief. Sharp political observers were quick to leverage this aspect in ways favourable to them against their own fellows in the West with whom they were at war. Germany funded the jihadists at the turn of the twentieth century. Max von Oppenheim, a wealthy explorer, writer and later diplomat, plotted to kill other Europeans by jihadists. He could organize some brave effort, but all of which failed miserably. The Sanussi tribesmen attacked Egypt from Libya, which was instantaneously crushed. The Silk Letter Conspiracy in India was discovered by the British even before it began. However, this episode is little known in Indian history and need to be examined in detail by scholars.

Sekulow makes a study of the differences fundamental to Muslim and Western minds. The Muslim mind is influenced only by Islam, while the Western one is said to be moulded by the concepts of liberty, freedom and diversity, stemming from Judeo-Christian principles such as the imago Dei, which gives inherent value to all human life. Another pillar of difference is the cultural foundation of the two. The Islamic society is based on a ‘shame culture’, where one’s own social standing is adversely affected only when the facts of an evil deed is known to the society. The Westerners follow a ‘guilt culture’, where a person is eaten from the inside by guilt of the deed committed by him. This provides for confession by that individual and reconciliation. The third point of difference is that the Islamic world is intergenerational and community-oriented, whereas the West is much more concerned with individual liberty. Ingenuous the perceived differences are, but the author seems to be lauding the stereotypes.

The book takes another shot at radical Islam in comparing the concept of peace as conceived in the West against that of the Islamic world. Peace in the West is the state of coexisting with neighbours, respecting their rights and beliefs and requiring others to respect ours. To radical Muslims, peace is the state when all infidels have been converted, killed or forced to pay tribute and live by Sharia. The author has a valid point here. India is a country in which the Muslims are in a minority, but the nation grants them a secular polity and equal rights. Mutual respect of religions is a necessary prerequisite for furtherance of such lofty ideals. But, do the radical and say, some of the moderate Muslims in India respect other religions? An honest answer is hard to come by in the open. Sekulow quotes an Islamic scholar on the four teachings in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan. The principles are 1) If kufr (disbelief, denial of Islam), shirk (saying anything about the oneness of Allah), or irtidad (apostasy) occurs anywhere in the world, the punishment is death and Muslims must enforce that punishment 2) non-Muslims are born to be subjugated. Only Muslims have the right to rule the world. Every non-Muslim government is illegitimate. When Muslims have power, they must take over that government 3) the world must have one government of Muslims, called Khilafah (caliphate). There is no need for separate governments and 4) the concept of modern nation states is kufr, which has no place in Islam. Doubtless to say, these teachings are repeated everywhere radical Muslims preach the doctrine.

An unstated aim of the book is to glorify America as the only country that stands up to and fights the terrorists. The author’s assertion that ‘the United States of America is the greatest country on the face of the earth’ (p.40) sets the tone of what is to come. While narrating the rise of Osama bin Laden in the Afghan war against the Soviets, the author does not mention even once that he was supported by the US in this mission. Shiite Iran’s unholy alliance with Sunni extremists and Russia is the motive of the book, but its alleged simultaneous backing of the Assad regime in Syria and the al-Nusra front is not logical. The book was published during the run up to American presidential election, and Barack Obama is severely criticized for his follies in the Middle East policy. The power vacuum created by Obama’s evacuation of US troops in Iraq was taken over by Russia, Iran and the ISIS. Sekulow assumes that the Judeo-Christian worldview underpinning the Western society is inherently benevolent and does not take into consideration the Enlightenment in Europe that firmly put religion in its place. The book hosts a very large number of notes for clarifying points and a good index.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star