Sayyed Fadlullah: the fall at the top will create new realities at the base level paving the way for new stages in which the Arab and Muslim peoples will be in charge of their own affairs and build their political and military strength relying on their own resources. But it needs a big cry in schools, universities and streets… Yet when success takes told in one position, it will extend to the others.

Asked in his weekly seminar the following question: On the eve of the New Year, the state of the Arab and Muslim nation looks dimmer than ever, especially with the recent developments in Iraq and the rush of Arab parties to surrender any source of strength they have to Washington, while others hasten to mediate in an effort to accommodate its demands in the Palestinian front.

How can we read this scene in a stage the least it can be described with is that is critical and decisive?

The Religious Authority Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah said:

The main problem that weakened the Arab and Islamic world might well be that the rulers have been concerned with their own welfare, and were concerned mainly with adopting their political and security decisions to the American policies in the region. They neglected their peoples, thinking only of gaining the trust of the American administrations, and did not think about the trust of their own peoples. For they considered that their only guarantee to remain in power lies in mimicking the American polices in the region, even if that serves the Israeli interests.

Those rulers have turned the Arab world into a big prison, using emergency laws that they claimed to install so that they could fight Israel… But they made peace with Israel, whether directly or indirectly, while those laws are still in place…. It is then clear that right from the beginning they only wanted to subject their people with an iron first.

Thus the Arab world has always been governed by security agencies and not political institutions…

Such mentality has produced a helpless and horrifying Arab state, with some running away from the confrontation, while others trying to act in accordance with the American agenda, and thus destabilizing and confusing the whole region.

The disgraceful fall of the Iraqi tyrant should have lead into an awaking of the conscience of these rulers, or at least into a political understanding of the situation that will make them improve their relations with their peoples, since the Iraqi experiment has shown that the only protection for any ruler cannot come from the outside, even if the ruler had worked for decades for the Americans, who would leave him to his ill-fate as soon as there is no longer any need for them.

What we are witnessing now is the fall the Arab reality under the impact of the so-called war on terrorism. But this fall is just at the top and not at the base. For the Arab and Muslim masses did not fall; they are still thriving. The best proof is the Palestinians who have been able to remain steadfast and create problems for the enemy despite all the conspiracies, and even the fear of certain Arab parties from being caught helping the Palestinian poor children even from a humanistic point of view.

As we admit that the Arab and Muslim reality is quite dim, yet we remain optimistic. For the fall at the top will create new realities at the base level paving the way for new stages in which the Arab and Muslim peoples will be in charge of their own affairs and build their political and military strength relying on their own resources. But it needs a big cry in schools, universities and streets… Yet when success takes told in one position, it will extend to the others.