The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 50
Second Friday Sem1011 Aug 17, 1990 measures as they were and quite unjustifiably introduced by Al Mostasim, invited the ire of his prime-minister who was of Shiite persuasion. The prime-minister avenged himself by inviting Halaku Khan in, who was on a whirlwind victory foray but was afraid to take on Baghdad - thinking it to be an unwise move which might bring about undesirable consequences. The prime-minister of Baghdad sent him a message saying that the state had only outward trappings of power but, in reality, its power base had eroded. The prime-minister saw to it that the forces are far too thinly deployed to be effective; he further caused the deployment of forces along the least-threatening borders, and even caused the retrenchment of a portion of the army under the pretext that it was a burden on the national exchequer. Al any rate, Halaku Khan was invited in, and the catastrophic destruction of Baghdad and the Muslim government ensued. This is not the occasion to go into the details of this destruction; many people have heard some description of this well-known historical event which has been the subject of some very moving works of fiction as well. This event took place in 637 A. H. Later, in 1386 A. D. , once again the mutual rifts and destructive squabbles presented an opportunity to Tamerlane to smash Baghdad into pieces and destroy this state complete! y. The third time around, the Muslim government of Turkey was used to destroy the Muslim government of Baghdad. In 1638 A. D. the Turkish government, however, was itself not spared: the British conspired with the clan that currently rules Saudi Arabia, and enlisted the support of the religious faction of this clan i. e. , the 'Wahabiyya sect', which were aided by the tribes living in, what now is known as, Kuwait. If the alliance of the current ruling dynasty of Saudi Arabia, the 'Wahabiyya sect' and the tribes of Kuwait had not helped the British, the Turkish Empire would not have been wiped out. The idea of' Arabism' was given publicity, and many other sinister steps were taken; it is a very long story. But anyhow, even at that time, a foreign power used Muslim governments as stooges to destroy a great Muslim power i. e. , first Turkey was used to cause the destruction of the government of Baghdad, then the Muslim tribes that 50