By Ochereome Nnanna
At the height of its power, Islam once controlled vast territories: from Morocco to China and from Russia down to sub-Saharan Africa. The rise of the European colonial empires, notably those of Britain and France, and later the United States of America’s global dominance, put the West and its value system at the centre of world power. It ended the 600-year-long Islamic Ottoman Empire and subjugated once powerful Muslim majority countries.
The establishment of the Society of Muslim Brothers (Jama-at al Ikhwan al Muslimin), a Sunni Islamic movement in Egypt by Imam Hassan al Banna in 1928, set the tone for the political resurgence of Islam in the world of today. The Islamic Brotherhood and its offshoots seek to establish “caliphates” ruled with Shariah law, which is rooted in the Islamic scripture, the Quran. Most Islamists believe that the waging of jihads is something worth returning to in order to achieve the original aim of subjugating the entire world under Islam.
Iran’s Islamic revolution of 1979, which dethroned secular monarch, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, ushered in the Shia Islamic Republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. When he died ten years later in 1989, he was succeeded as the Supreme Leader by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the president under Khomeini.
Ideologically, all the surrounding Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East (and beyond), whether Sunni, Shia or other, are united by the single desire to wipe the Jewish State of Israel from the map of the region. Some of them push the false narrative that the Jews are European outcasts imposed on, and used to displace the “indigenous” group referred to as “Palestinians”, who reside in Gaza, as well as Samaria and Judea, which is also referred to as the “West Bank”. In truth, according to the Bible and Quran as validated by history and anthropology, the Jews (Israelis) were actually the original owners of the land, who were exiled and restored as abundantly prophesied in the Bible.
When the British colonial authorities offered the returnee Jews and the “Palestinians” independence in 1948, the Jews quickly announced the independent State of Israel. The Palestinians and the surrounding Muslim nations, notably Syria, Egypt and Jordan, chose instead to wipe out the Jews through military invasion. They were soundly defeated. The Jews have beaten them black and blue in every war since then.
The Islamic Republic of Iran under Khomeini and Khamenei decided to surround Israel with proxy terrorist movements in Gaza (Hamas), Lebanon (Hezbollah), Yemen (Houthi) and the Shia-led regime of ex-President Bashar al Assad of Syria. They boastfully called them the “Ring of Fire”. With their humongous oil wealth, Iran armed them with short range missiles. They abundantly funded these groups while also stockpiling massive amounts of ballistic missiles and drones, all geared toward a coordinated attack to burn Israel off the map. More importantly, Iran was developing a nuclear weapons programme, which they definitely intended to use on Israel. Five times a day in their mosques they chanted “death to America, death to Israel”. In a recent interview, Khamenei confirmed that these chants were not mere slogans but “state policy”.
For more than 40 years, America, Israel and their Western allies endured extreme provocations from Iran who regularly attacked US military bases, killed Israelis and Americans and took hostages. Iran also harboured the ultimate ambition of overthrowing the Wahabi Sunni monarchy in Saudi Arabia and taking control of the Islamic sites which would place them in control of the Muslim world. Over the years, Western leaders, especially American presidents, could not summon the will-power to confront the threat from Tehran. They chose to engage in endless, meaningless negotiations and deals which Iran never respected.
October 7, 2023 will go down in history as the day that providence pushed the hand of Israel to “settle” Iran and its proxies. Hamas militants trained and equipped by Iran attacked a music festival in southern Israel, brutally slaughtered over 1,400 civilians (including women, babies and old people) and destroyed kibbutzes (Israeli settlements). There were rejoicing and celebrations in Muslim communities throughout the world over this barbaric terrorist attack.
Israel under the able leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, struck back. They systematically decimated the Hamas leadership and ground Gaza to a heap of rubble. They devastated Lebanon and eliminated Hezbollah leaders and commanders, including Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s chief terrorist. They went into Syria, destroyed its military installations, seized more land on the Golan Heights and forced President Assad to flee from the advancing Sunni ISIS militants led by Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa. Israel, complemented by the US military, destroyed Yemen and forced the Houthis to eat the humble pie.
They finally faced the Serpent of Tehran. After disabling Iranian air defences, Israel started decapitating the Iran leadership and military commanders, just as they did to Hamas and Hezbollah. Through waves of bombings, they crushed the head of the snake, while President Donald Trump of the US sent in the B2 Spirit Bombers with bunker-buster bombs to wipe out deeply buried nuclear sites. Iran’s remaining leadership is in hiding while Mossad agents continue to dismantle Iran from within.
Trump and Netanyahu must work together to cut off the serpent’s head. Khamenei must go. The people of Iran must be helped to welcome back their crown prince, Reza Palavi, to revive their cherished constitutional monarchy. Cuddling terror kingpin, Khamenei, in the name of chasing after a worthless Nobel Peace Prize for Trump, is the height of foolishness. Only the sorting out of Khamenei and those who placed a fatwa on Trump will remove the threat posed by Iran’s terror sleeper cells in the West and the assassination threat on Trump.
*Nnanna is a commentator on public issues
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