‘The foam of a torrent’: How Muslims opened the doors to Western exploitation

The Holy Prophet Muhammad ^{Peace Be Upon Him} foretold a time when Muslims would be preyed upon by other nations, likening it to a situation where “people invite one another to share in a feast.”

He foretold that despite their large numbers, the power and strength of Muslims would be as insignificant as “the foam on a torrent” and their enemies would no longer fear them. (Sunan Abi Dawud, Chapter: Nations summoning one another to attack Muslims, Hadith No. 4297).

We are living through the fulfilment of this prophecy.

Muslim lands – particularly the Middle East – have seen endless destabilisation and turmoil at the hands of foreign powers, particularly the West.

Consider the cases of Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria. Behind the chaos in these countries are often Western powers holding the strings of power and control.

The presence of Western military bases in Muslim lands speaks for itself. As of October 2024, due to Western interventions in Muslim lands, the US has military facilities “across at least nineteen sites […] in countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.” (“U.S. Troops in the Middle East: Mapping the Military Presence”, 1 October 2024, www.cfr.org)

Yes, that’s Muslim countries being preyed upon, as the Prophet^sa prophesied.

This interference has led to a huge decline in the collective strength of Muslim nations. Despite having 57 Muslim countries as part of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the forte of the “ummah” is as good as the “foam” on water.

Muslims allowed Western intervention

But here’s the depressing part: Western nations have succeeded in creating chaos in Muslim lands (not to mention leeching on their resources) because Muslims have allowed them to!

The strategy of “divide and conquer” is one of the oldest in history and Western powers have executed it masterfully, right under the nose of Muslim countries. They have sown discord between Muslims and used political, sectarian and regional grievances amongst Muslims to support their colonial agendas.

Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad^rh, the Khalifatul Masih IV told the Muslim world this in the nineties before the Iraq invasion:

“The entire Islamic history bears witness to the fact that whenever the Western powers have succeeded in suppressing an emerging Muslim power, or otherwise crushed it with the help of some overt or covert military action, the conspiratorial support of some Muslim countries was invariably involved.” (The Gulf Crisis & The New World Order, pp. 48-49)

This is the problem, Muslims have often opened the doors for Western intervention themselves which I will demonstrate in this piece. 

And, yes, there have been (and are) oppressive regimes and dictators in Muslim lands – that’s not the debate here. The problem is the ummah’s mistake in allowing foreign nations to meddle in their affairs instead of resolving disputes internally.

The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire

A prime example of how Muslims supported non-Muslim nations against their own was the Arab Revolt during World War I, when the British fanned the flames of “Arabism” and convinced Muslim Arabs to rise against the Ottomans – the last powerful Muslim empire.

Arba Muslims were promised “independence” and “freedom” to rule their lands by the West, and so Sharif Hussein, the ruler of Mecca, gladly agreed and led the revolt against the Muslim Ottomans, with British support.

But the Arabs were duped. 

Behind their backs, Britain and France secretly divided their lands through the Sykes-Picot Agreement, while the Balfour Declaration handed the Holy Land to the Jewish people.

There was no independence or freedom for Arab Muslims; it was a lie. Muslims were merely pawns in a game and were preyed upon, as Prophet Muhammad^sa foretold.

What was the result of the Arab Revolt? Further disunity in the ummah and the loss of the last Muslim empire.

The Iraq invasion: Pawns cast aside

More recently, during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar supported the US in toppling Saddam Hussein by allowing their territories to be used as staging grounds under the false pretext that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction”.

But no such weapons were found. 

Instead, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed, Iraq’s infrastructure was destroyed and the Sunni majority government was replaced with Shi’ite Muslim Arabs and Kurds (facilitated by the US-led coalition), which fuelled the fans of sectarian strife and violence.

A breeding ground for extremists – like Daesh – was also created and foreign powers feasted on Iraq’s oil, gaining further geopolitical strategic dominance in the Middle East. 

Ironically, the West supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, only to later dispose of him with help from Muslim nations, of course. Similarly, the Afghan “Mujahideen”, once backed by the CIA against the Soviet invasion were eventually opposed and the US invaded Afghanistan.

Muslims are often used as pawns and cast aside.

The Libyan Civil War

In 2011, the Libyan Civil War led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. The primary opposition to Gaddafi comprised various Muslim rebel groups collectively known as the National Transitional Council (NTC). 

These rebels were supported by Britain, France and Italy who sent military advisors to assist the Muslim rebels in their military strategy against Gaddafi. (“Western Nations Step up Efforts to Aid Libyan Rebels”, Washington Post, 20 April 2011, www.washingtonpost.com)

Along with Muslim states like Qatar and Kuwait, Western countries also gave hundreds of millions of pounds to the Muslim rebels trying to overthrow Gaddafi. (“Libyan rebels loaned £800m in fight to force Gaddafi’s departure”, 9 June 2011, www.theguardian.com)

Nato also chipped in by bombing Gaddafi’s forces.  

But what was the result for Libya? Take the words of Yasmina Khadra, who noted the following, four years after the Libyan Civil War:

“By toppling Gaddafi, Nato interfered with the order of things. Once the personal guarantor of national unity had been lynched by his compatriots, the Libyan people were left to their own devices in an appalling state of upheaval, with no roadmap to guide them.

“Through herd mentality, or pure atavism, the leaderless state was drawn back to its one familiar point of reference, the tribal system of its ancestors, and with it the full force of its legacy: a return to the hatred of the past, to intractable rivalries, violent raids and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance.

“After civil war, pillaging, settling of scores, mass rape and destruction on a massive scale, each ethnic group has withdrawn to its own territory and demands autonomy. The bastion Gaddafi built is crumbling. Libyan unity is now no more than an old story, a fairytale no one believes in.”

This was the legacy left for Muslims: Disunity and destruction.

Palestinian suffering: The defeating silence

Even in recent years, Israel’s relentless (and continuous) bombing of Gaza and its horrific and merciless persecution of Palestinians haven’t led Muslim leaders to even bat an eye. 

Muslim states take no unified or decisive action against Israel – on the contrary, many Muslim-majority countries support Israel either openly or covertly (think Jordan and Turkey), prioritising political alliances and economic interests over the collective suffering of Palestinians, their Muslim brethren. 

They do have the power to act, but their blindness for worldly pleasures has disabled them to act.

The result is a tragic silence in the background of unimaginable suffering of fellow Muslims in Palestine.

Even after Sunni rebels took over Syria, Israel continued to bomb Syria’s military sites without any outcry from Muslim states; not even the new Ahmad Hussein al-Shara (also known as al-Joulani)!

There are so many examples we can take of how Muslims have allowed foreign powers to destabilise their lands, but let’s focus on recent weeks.

The fall of Assad in Syria

Under Assad, Syrians experienced horrific suffering and lived in great oppression and his fall was welcomed by Muslims across the world, particularly Syrians. It was a relief from suffering.

But where an oppressive dictator fell (as others did before Assad) and Muslims rejoiced, the US, Israel and Turkey (a Muslim-majority country) – who helped the new Sunni rebels overthrow Assad – also grinned at a further fragmented Syria and Muslim world.

Discussing the recent events in Syria and its possible future, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad^aa, Khalifatul Masih V recently noted:

“As for these people [in Syria], they do not even have Allah’s support. They are exacting vengeance against one another. This new government that has emerged will also seek revenge. Will its leader establish justice? No. One party will be supported by America, another by Russia, and another by Iran. Before, they formulated their policies shrewdly and strategically: Israel attacked Hamas, devastated Palestine, then weakened Hezbollah, then Iran, who, along with Hezbollah, supported Assad. They were thus weakened. Russia was kept entangled in the war in Ukraine, thus weakening it as well. All these factors combined, reducing the support Assad received, and gave others a chance. America then took advantage of this opportunity […]

“Such events are bound to occur in the world when righteousness disappears, revenge takes hold, the ego flares, humility disappears, and one’s relationship with Allah the Exalted is severed. This is the inevitable consequence. And do you think it will not happen again? Of course, it will. This disturbance will persist indefinitely. Perhaps it will become another Libya. The situation is dire, and it will cause further unrest. If not today, then in ten years, another eruption will occur in some other country.”

A reason why Muslim lands have fallen apart

In the hadith referred to at the beginning, the Holy Prophet Muhammad^sa ended his warning by saying the reason why Muslim nations would be preyed upon was because “love of the world and dislike of death” would consume Muslims.

This is exactly what has happened. 

The love of the world and the lack of fear of the hereafter has rotted the Muslim world from within. 

Their blindness in front of greed and vested interests stops them from seeing the solutions the Quran has given to their suffering, such as “be not divided” (Surah Aal-e-Imran, Ch.3: V.104) or “dispute not with one another, lest you falter and your power depart [from you.]” (Surah al-Anfal, Ch.8: V.47)

Today, unfortunately, the world watches while Muslim nations are preyed upon and the power of Muslims remains equal to the foam on a torrent of water.

Will Muslims ever awaken from this slumber, turn to Allah and unite once again? Only time will tell.