Africa

London Libya Conference: Another Colonial Trick

As the 44 delegates arrived at the hastily arranged London Libya conference, the very people they were meant to be helping were beating a hasty retreat out of areas captured only a day earlier. The conference largely a façade to showcase the apparent global support for the Libyan operation did very little to effect any real change in the status quo. There wasn’t even an agreement among all the parties on how to progress the implementation of the UN resolutions passed earlier this month.

Scared from the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan both physically and in terms of acquiring a reputation as global war mongers, Britain and America are trying their level best to make the attack on Libya look like a global effort.

As one Foreign Office Official put it “We had bitter recent experience of military action taken on a unilateral basis. We are trying to achieve the opposite.” The bitter experience was a military failure and an international public relations disaster, so it makes sense for the main players Britain, France and America to give the impression it’s the whole world bombing Libya not just them.

There was much talk of UN resolutions 1970 and 1973, which give the ‘coalition’ the green light to implement a ‘No-fly zone’ over Libya by any means necessary. However, UN resolutions are not the important issue as they come and go like the seasons. Resolutions 1970 and 1973 are just pretexts for the attack on Libya.

The importance of this summit and the involvement of the Arab League in reality is to give the message that this is not a neo-colonial war effort in order to control the resources and politics of yet another Muslim country. This is simply a risk the West cannot take, not with the Muslim ummah in the mood of defiance at the moment.

Although the main reason the world has been sold for protecting cities like Benghazi is for humanitarian reasons the actions of the “coalition” betray them. Just ten days into the operation and with Hilary Clinton giving herself a self-congratulatory pat on the back for such a speedy deployment of air power, the issue of Libya’s oil is already being discussed. The tiny country of Qatar having already agreed to help bomb Libya has now agreed to aid the sale of ‘rebel’ held oil.

Without the aid of corrupt dictators who sit in the Arab League the West would find it very difficult to sell this operation to the Muslim masses.  Having been politically and militarily inept for decades the remaining dictators of the Middle East have been invited to sit around the table and feast on Muslim blood and resources. The last time they had such courage was in the coalition which bombed Iraq in the first Gulf War, it seems they can only act when it is to bomb their own.

The removal of Gaddafi is imperative, no one can deny that. However it should not be under the terms of some Western backed military action. Leaders and ministers of countries who have nothing to do with Libya sitting miles away have no right to go and bomb Muslim lands. The military actions shouldn’t be coming from NATO but from the Muslims countries which border Libya and even those that don’t.   

The West acts only based on benefit and ‘national interests’ that’s why they ignored Gaddafi’s killing for 42 years. The London Libya conference was just a propaganda stunt to try and garner international support for what is a colonial war effort. 

Allah سبحانه وتعالى warns against allying with those that don’t follow your deen:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِنْ دُونِكُمْ لَا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالًا وَدُّوا مَا عَنِتُّمْ قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ ۚ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ ۖ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ

“O you who believe! Take not as your Bitaanah [advisors, allies, close friends] those outside your deen since they will not fail to do their best to corrupt you. They desire to harm you severely. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths but what their hearts conceal is far worse. Indeed We have made plain to you the signs if you have intelligence” (al-Imran, 3:118)