"Abraham Accords Islam" and the Tunnels of State Treachery
Normalization, Islam and the Burial of Palestine
In a previous post, the Axis of Compliance, I explored how colonial scholars and officials used Islamic theological reasoning to sow division between different Muslim groups, pitting a “good” (compliant) Islam against a “bad” one (i.e. any version of Islam that resists colonialism or colonially-born systemic injustice, whether by word or deed).
These dynamics remained very much in play in the post 9/11 era. This time, the “civilizing mission” came under the pretense of the ‘rule-based order’ (which we have seen collapse recently by the utter moral failure of the international state system in preventing the genocide in Gaza. This is not my own hyperbole; even the Secretary General of Amnesty International wrote about “Gaza and the End of the Rule Based Order”, here.)
Exacerbated by the propaganda machine of the well-funded Islamophobia industry’s efforts to make a global menace out of ‘radical Islam’, Western governments, think-tanks, and pundits—with the rubber stamping of Muslim state officials and scholars—invested a great deal of money, papers, books and conferences into “counter-terrorism” efforts. Every other day in Washington or Abu Dhabi, there were countless symposia and initiatives to “combat extremism” and “promote peace in Muslim societies” as if the only cancer plaguing the world was this singular menace of “Muslim fanaticism.”
Today, that rhetoric seems to have pretty much waned, or as I will show, it has metastasized into something more cancerous. It has gone underground. In a recent Twitter/X post, Georgetown Islamic Studies Professor Jonathan Brown asked: “Is it just me or has the 'Muslim Martin Luther of the Month' pipeline really dried up? Back in the 2000s and 2010s there was steady flow.” It is an important observation: where have all the callers for “reforming Islam” gone? At one point in time, when I was an undergraduate at Georgetown myself in the mid 2000s, I recall a plethora of voices that attempted to diagnose “what went wrong.” It was such a lucrative business in the DC speakers’ circuit, especially for liberal Muslims and traditionalist ‘ulama, who vied in their different projects of “cleaning up” the house of Islam.
In response to his question, I privately messaged Professor Brown with my two-cents: that the West already found their “Muslim Martin Luther” in MBS and MBZ. In other words, instead of reforming Islam on the think-tank level, the powers-that-be found powerful Muslim governments that would carry out that project for them via coersion on the state-level. Today, the scholarly and cultural discourse on “Islamic fundamentalism” no longer needs to conduct symposia and conferences, because the “reforming Islam” project has firmly found its home in the iron fist executioners of wealthy GCC regimes.
And the price tag of this project? Palestine.
To show this, let us first acknowledge the precedent of how religious reform discourse became cemented and enacted by state power through the Lutheran Reformation itself, which arguably laid the groundwork for the creation of the modern state. The 16th century idea of ‘cuius regio, eius religio', meaning 'whose realm, his religion', gave the ruler absolute power over the religious life of his subjects, thereby granting secular rulers unmitigated authority to shape, coerce and uphold categories of religion. As such, modern subjects handed over not only their political agency over to the state, but their spiritual lives as well. This ultimate shift in power from the Church to secular rulers was a crucial step in the formation of modern states and cemented the idea that all religion was to fall under the domain of states, not individuals/groups.
Structurally speaking, contemporary Gulf regimes are ripe landscapes for executing the project of rendering Islam wholly malleable to the interests of the state/empire: cosmetically, they are already “conservative” societies socially speaking, so the veneer of being Muslim in dress and customs ticks the ‘Islam’ box so no one would be the wiser if the rulers decided to enact underhanded, egregious reform policies. Secondly, especially in the case of MBS/Saudi, there is the inescapable claim to Islamic legitimacy (however false) by being self-appointed “custodians to the holy mosques” which gives them added power. Lastly, citizens of such countries have long been lulled by consumerism and thus, adopted an existential compliance to power, no matter what shape or form that power manifested in, ‘Islamic’ or not. It only matters to preserve “national identity” “peace”, “stability” and “progress” (i.e. the state’s pervasive control) at any cost. In this toxic cocktail of consumerism and an intense inferiority complex towards the West’s progress, a sedated, state-obedient Islam was born and sustained.
The apex of this form of sedated Islam was heralded with the inauspicious Abraham Accords. Using Prophetic language to legitimate normalization had clear religious aims: in its most cancerous form to date, the ultimate litmus test for today’s “modern” “compliant” “good” Islam is predicated upon the acceptance of Israel and by extension, the burial of the Palestinian struggle. (Don’t believe me? See Emirati-backed social media soothsayer on Islam, ex-convict Shahid Bolsen actively promote ‘normalization.’)
Quite literally, Palestinians in Gaza are under the rubble now because the architects of this project designed and worked towards a path to ‘normalization’ that seeks to collapse, maim and bulldoze any hopes towards Palestinian dignity, resistance and their right to an end to the Israeli occupation. This time, Israel acts with such brutality because it enjoys powerful Islamic, theological reasoning for its impunity. With the blessing of Arab states and their scholars, Israel could (and continues to) get away with even genocide. Why? Because for the first time ever, normalizing with Israel finally has received the rubber stamp of well known Muslim scholars. Just read these statements by Abdullah bin Bayyah, the Chairman of the UAE Fatwa Council, commenting on the Abraham Accords in 2020 :
The Emirates Fatwa Council has commended as “right and proper,” the good offices undertaken by the UAE leadership that have led to Israel’s suspension of declaring sovereignty over areas of the Palestinian territories.
“Given that the supreme interest is the de jure determinant of the acts undertaken by the Sovereign Ruler who is the only one that can determine the nation’s supreme interests and responsibilities in relation to war and peace, and the relations between nations, the Emirates Fatwa Council blesses the wise leadership’s acts for the supreme good for the nation and its people,” reads the statement.
Commenting on the historic development, Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, Chairman of the UAE Fatwa Council, said, “the initiative is one of the rightful authorities of the sovereign ruler”, noting that the Islamic Shari’a abounds in many examples of such cases of reconciliations and peace-making in accordance with the public good and circumstances.
The danger of such a project—is not only that it arrogantly undercut the Palestinians themselves from having a seat on the table to discuss their own fate—is the way it bolsters the Zionist, supremacist, ethno-religious state of Israel as a legitimate “nation”—not an occupying force—but a “sovereign entity” that can enter treaties with other sovereign nations. Granting “Islamic,” legal legitimacy to Israel and its allies (represented by Christian Zionism/the US and NATO forces), by extension, grants these states a carte blanche right to exercise unrestricted state violence against any entity it deems threatening to its sovereignty (ie. Palestinians, should they break this veneer of “peace”, in the case of what has transpired on October 7th).
This rhetoric strips individual Muslims the agency to enact any type of resistance to Israel’s tyranny because that constitutes a criminal act in the eyes of state-fundamentalists. The end game of such rhetoric is that a Muslim who believes in the Palestinian right to resist their oppressors falls under the nebulous category of “radical Muslim” and radicalism is the ultimate sin according to the state. Netanyahu’s longstanding vision for equating animus to Israel = radical Islam = unworthy of life/deserving of quick extermination is firmly realized today; a vision upheld and enacted in Arab states.
This is the textbook definition of tyranny if there ever was one. In reality, every Zionist accusation is but a confession. ‘Abraham Accords Islam’ is thus nothing but a form of state-sponsored fundamentalism. . Wearing the garb of “good Islam”, it is signals a departure from Prophetic ideals of governance, all in the name of obedience to the ruler as an Islamic legal norm. It is the apex of capitulation to “the axis of compliance” because it no longer holds God/His Messenger ﷺ as the ultimate arbiters, but rather, whatever the ruler wants.
This sets a very dangerous precedent for the turbulent years to come, because with this trajectory, all these well-funded Arab armies which have not mobilized for Gaza will eventually mobilize against their own people one day soon. Unless the Muslim masses begin to awaken and reject the idol of state-fundamentalism, it is only a matter of time that those who were content to sit by idly and watch the wolves maul the Palestinians, will become the next sheep in line for slaughter.
There is poetic justice in the fact the that the single-most most powerful Revealer that has exposed the perniciousness of the underground tunnels of state-sponsored fundamentalist tyranny would be Palestine/Gaza. (See what I did there?) I write of tunnels and terror intentionally, to turn the rhetoric of “terror” on its head. Because who, if not Netanyahu and the Zionist project since its inception, spurred and sustained this narrative of the “war on terror” to begin with? As we have seen, historically, these religious discourses have always tended to go from individual —> think-tank/civil society level —> state-sponsored policy.
In as early as 2004, Kevin Toolis, writing in The New Statesman credits the butcher Netanyahu for being a central figure in the development of the field of “counter-terrorism.” Toolis regards the word itself as “a bogus intellectual justification for authoritarianism, military repression and neoconservative Islamophobia.” Further, in her 2013 book, Disciplining Terror, Lisa Stampnitsky discusses how it was Israel who introduced the use of the blanket term “Islamic terrorist” to discredit all Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. In 1979, the Jonathan Institute conference in Jerusalem— and a follow up in 1984 in Washington—on “International Terrorism”, both directed by *drum roll* none other than the butcher Netanyahu, manufactured the threat of “Islamic radicalism” the number one menace plaguing the global stage:
“This institute designated terrorism—Arab terrorism, that is—as absolute evil and connected it with the Soviet threat, against which Netanyahu proposed "an anti-terrorist alliance of all Western democracies." These theses were taken up by Ronald Reagan and his administration from 1981 to 1989 in the name of a "new Cold War" against the USSR's "evil empire," to which Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was affiliated in this binary worldview.”
Read the rest of Jean-Pierre Filiu’s article, “How Benjamin Netanyahu became the self-proclaimed leader of the 'civilized world,’” here.
Netanyahu himself wrote a book in 1996 entitled, Fighting Terrorism. His brainchild, the Jonathan Institute was the unofficial think-tank face of the Israeli government with its extreme anti-Palestiniaisn/anti-Islam animus. It had figures such as Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Ezer Weizman, Moshe Dayan, and Shimon Peres on its administrative committee. By discrediting any resistance to state-led violence as “terrorism,” and by describing violence outside the law as inherently illegitimate, this Israeli-led “anti-terror” campaign offered the perfect cover for carte blanche state-led violence in the Muslim world. Zionist anti-Muslim animus (and Muslim state compliance) eventually provided the intellectual and legal backing for the excessive, disproportionate and misdirected force that has characterized the post-9/11 “war on terror” bloodbaths in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now, in Gaza, Yemen, Syria and Southern Lebanon.
Thankfully, scholars are connecting the dots of this age-old strategic campaign in increasing crystal clarity. In an important recent white paper published by Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights entitled, Anti-Palestinian at the Core: The Origins and Growing Dangers of U.S. Antiterrorism Law, Darryl Li shows how core features of U.S. antiterrorism law were driven by anti-Palestinian agendas from the very beginning. The repercussions of this cannot be understated: Israel-aligned groups are today working overtime to weaponize U.S. antiterrorism law to criminalize a growing movement calling for justice in Palestine and to prevent Palestinians further from political determination and dignity.
The real tragedy is that this pernicious project has long trickled down to—and became policy— in Arab states, who weaponize their own authoritarianism/anti-Muslim animus to deem public protest for Palestinians/demands to open borders/cut ties with Israel as criminal acts, should they transgress the strictly delineated bounds. Protests are OK to let off steam, but nothing more. As such, Arab regimes such as the ones in the UAE, Saudi, Jordan, Morocco, Bahrain or Egypt have adopted wholesale the Israeli narrative frame of ‘the war on terror’ and have too, tied their notion of a compliant Muslim citizen with someone who practices Islam in a way that keeps buried the Palestinian right to resist occupation and injustice—and by extension, their own state tyranny.
A UAE official who opted to remain anonymous in this Reuters piece, said that, despite all, the UAE continues to back Israel because "Hamas is not their favorite organization: it is Muslim Brotherhood after all." Because Arab States equate any calls for Muslim political determination as “Muslim Brotherhood”, the logic becomes that “bad Muslims” are the apex of evil and thus deserving of being killed/jailed/genocided.
But then look at what happened, what you had in Germany was "denazification," and what you had in Japan under Douglas McAruthr was a cultural reformation. And the Japan that you visit today is so different from Japan of the 1930s. Germany that you visit today is so different from Germany of the 1930s.
Is that possible in the Arab world? I categorically say, of course, it is, because we've seen it already in two places. We've seen it in the Gulf States. When you visit Dubai and when you visit Abu Dhabi or when you visit Bahrain, you see something entirely different. There was, in fact, a cultural change there. And let me say that same thing is happening, to a considerable extent, in Saudi Arabia. - Netanyahu in a X space conversation with Elon Musk, Nov. 27th 2023
Thus, the road map to a free Palestine will only be within reach when Muslims and Arabs begin to see the twain (Israel and Arab state-fundamentalists) as one and the same. Or perhaps they are even worse. It is no secret that in 2018, Jeffrey Goldberg editor-in-chief of The Atlantic (and former IDF jailer) said in a session at the Aspen Institute, that when he interviewed MBS he came away with the conclusion that the only real difference between Netanyahu and MBS is that “MBS really hates the Palestinians.” It is no coincidence that less than a month prior to October 7th, 2023 MBS proudly declared: “we are getting very close to normalizing ties with Israel.” Today, 5 months into the genocide in Gaza and the utter abandonment of its people, it is clear that oceans of Palestinian blood was never a deal breaker for peace.
The only difference between Netanyahu and Arab regimes, then, is that the latter have taken their “normalization Islam” underground, into the dark, shameful tunnels of treachery, away from the prying eyes of those who remain conscientious in the umma. The Arabic word ‘munafiq’, which means ‘hypocrite’, shares the root letters ن ف ق with the word ‘nafaq’ which means ‘tunnel’. A hypocrite, thus goes from one end of the tunnel to the other depending on what suits him. You might see him on one end today and on the other end tomorrow.
For Arab and Muslim authoritarian regimes, the crushing of Palestinians is done deftly, quietly and underground. On the one hand, they might “condemn” the genocide with thoughts and prayers, or snub the Israeli or American ambassador as a sensationalist stunt, but underground, in reality, they resume talks or export goods to Israeli via land routes while Gaza starves. After so callously licking his ice cream cone while blatantly lying about a looming ceasefire, Genocide Joe went on TV last week and said that Arab states are “eager to resume normalization.” This simply shows the glaring fact that the Gaza genocide never was and never will be a red line for them, in fact, it was always part of the plan to wipe out what little remains of Palestine to resume the status quo of “progress” and “stability” in the Middle East.
These are the results of the treacherous tunnels of state-fundamentalist, “Abraham Accords Islam”: an Islam by name, by dress, by image, but when it comes down to it, it is all about retaining and grabbing more mundane, earthly power, no matter at what cost. Even if it costs 30,000+ innocent lives. Even if it costs kids and the elderly eating animal feed and dying as mere skin and bones. An Islam whereby it is enough to drop measly food parcels from the sky into the sea on the 150th day of the genocide, because of the infallibility of colonially-carved, state borders. An Islam where it is acceptable to charge people fleeing a genocide $5,000-7,000 per person to cross into safety into the ‘Muslim country’ next door. An Islam where it is acceptable to provide Israel with fruits and vegetables to bypass the Red Sea while Yazan Kafarneh and 12 other children (and counting) die of starvation. If there are no transgressions to shari’a in any of this, what remains of true Islam, then?
It is no wonder that Gazans look at Muslims around the world and say: “we are the ones who are free. You are the ones who do not even know what freedom looks like.”
