Right now, the most hypocrite, the most larcenous coup is taking place before the eyes of the entire democratic world. The democratic world is shamelessly supporting this coup attempt by ignoring all its modern values . By the democratic world, we mean especially the U.S. of the lonely cowboy Trump. However, when it came to a coup in Venezuela, we saw that Trump was far from being alone. With many Latin American countries, he put himself together and they are descending upon Venezuela, the country with the largest oil reserves in the world. They are trying to topple a leader who got the support of 68% of his people, in the name of democracy, by actually killing democracy.
An oppositional group led by the President of National Assembly of Venezuela is rising up against Maduro who was reelected as President after getting 68% of the votes last May, declaring that it doesn’t recognize the outcome of the elections. These words just hit the U.S. where it hurts: its sensitivity for democracy. Fraud in the elections? How come? Where is democracy, where is humanity? “If there is a fraud in an election, of course, you’ve got to go to the U.S.”
It is as if whenever there is a claim of fraud in an election, the U.S. reacts against it right at that point as if all its red lines were crossed as if it was invaded, and as if it was hit in the nerves. In the end, the ballot boxes are the honor of democracy. With this excuse, it was enough for them when President of the National Assembly and opposition leader Juan Guiado mumbled: “these elections are manipulated”. Our lonely cowboy who is very sensitive about democracy is able to keep singing this tune.
When Abdelfattah al-Sisi, who came to power through a coup got 98% of the votes, the entire Egyptian people said: “no election took place in this country, they just opened the boxes and these numbers came out ”. We haven’t heard anything from neither the U.S. nor the EU and the Latin American countries aligned with the U.S. against Maduro that would show sensitivity about democracy. Egypt is still getting aid from the U.S.
As you may recall, recently there was a historicism debate. We tried to contribute in this column with a few writings. We said then that what occupies the minds of those who give credit to historicist arguments regarding Islam and the Qur’an is the assumption is that today’s world is very advanced and very different from that of the past. Today’s world is so advanced both in terms of human rights and institutionalization to ensure these rights that it can change all mentalities radically that Muslims couldn’t benefit from this change and advancement. It is as if we have a lot of things to learn from the Western world which is living now in a distant futuristic age.
It is as if this situation requires us to view the Qur’an, which is far behind this understanding or at least contradicts it, from a different perspective.
This is the foil of the Western appeal that tries to deceive us so as to keep us away from the Quran’s temporality which is unique and full of wisdom.
They may decorate this argument as much as they want. In the end, what lies behind it is only this cruelty, this greed, these double-standards, and this imperialism.
They claim that in Venezuela which has the richest petrol reserves in the world, the people are starving under Maduro’s administration. Thus, they want to say that Maduro is not able to govern this country, and they may even want to go beyond that and say that despite all the riches they have these countries are not able to govern themselves.
However, no one mentions the embargo imposed mercilessly upon Venezuela, therefore preventing their access to their own resources by the so-called “democratic world”. Just like when they try to suggest that the Muslim world is backwards economically, politically and technically-scientifically because of Islam, without even considering the fact that they unleashed those dictators on peoples of the Muslim world by similar tricky means.
They try to teach Venezuela through Maduro and through Venezuela the entire world that their bid for independence is only a naïve dream.
They make idols by using fancy sentiments of democracy and human rights and worship them and force the peoples of the world to do the same. Just like Arabs of Jahilliyah made idols of sweets and ate them when they got hungry, the U.S. also feels no shame from eating the idols they made with their own hands and put the entire world under its spell.
Unfortunately, the U.S.’s claim to democracy we want to believe so desperately today is only about an idol made of sweets, sorry I mean, oil.
The fact that Venezuela has the biggest oil reserves is obviously seducing the U.S. to eat its own idol of democracy in the ugliest and the most hypocritical way.
It is as simple as that. No matter how you try to see or present today’s world as unique with the help of a historicist analysis, the essence of this issue is this simple, the motivation of the actors is this archaic and outdated.
The fact that the practice that inspired my analogy had been carried out by the Jahilliyah Arabs doesn’t mean that this was only practiced at that time and was never to be repeated again. As a typical action of Jahilliya, you may encounter this action at any time and at any place, just like we do today.
Even though the historicist understanding has difficulties accepting it, jahilliyah too is a universal characteristic of humankind. It may repeat itself at any time, and it can be repeated even by the most educated people who are thought to have gone beyond that.
