By Johan Galtung
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 2014 (IPS)

More senseless bombing of Muslims, more defeats for the United States-West, more ISIS-type movements, more West-Islam polarisation. Any way out?

“ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq-Syria] Appeals to a Longing for the Caliphate”, writes Farhang Jahanpour in an IPS column. For the Ottoman Caliphate with the Sultan as Caliph – the Shadow of God on Earth – after the 1516-17 victories all over until the collapse of both Empire and Caliphate in 1922, at the hands of the allies England-France-Russia.

Johan Galtung

Imagine the collapse of the Vatican, not Catholic Christianity, at the hands of somebody, Protestant or Orthodox Christians, meaning Anglo-Americans or Russians, or Muslims. A centre in this world for the transition to the next, headed by a Pope, an emanation of God in Heaven. Imagine it gone.

And imagine that they who had brought about the collapse had a tendency to bomb, invade,  conquer, dominate Catholic countries, one after the other, like after the two [George] Bush wars in Afghanistan-Iraq, five Obama wars in Pakistan-Yemen-Somalia-Libya-Syria and “special operations”.

Would we not predict a longing for the Vatican, and an extreme hatred of the perpetrators? Fortunately, it did not happen.

But it happened in the Middle East, leaving a trauma fuelled by killing hundreds of thousands. The Sykes-Picot_Agreement between Britain and France of 16 May 1916 led to the collapse, with their four well-known colonies, the less known promise of Istanbul to Russia, and the 1917 Balfour Declaration offering parts of Arab lands as “national home for the Jewish people”. Jahanpour cites Winston Churchill as “selling one piece of real estate, not theirs, to two peoples at the same time”.“Imagine the collapse of the Vatican, not Catholic Christianity, at the hands of somebody, Protestant or Orthodox Christians, meaning Anglo-Americans or Russians, or Muslims. A centre in this world for the transition to the next, headed by a Pope, an emanation of God in Heaven. Imagine it gone”

The Middle East colonies fought the West through military coups for independence; Turkish leader Kemal Atatürk was a model. The second liberation is militant Islam-Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Salvation Front in Algiers and so on against secular military dictatorships.

The West prefers military order against history.

The longing cannot be stopped. ISIS is only one expression, and exceedingly brutal. But, damage and destruction by U.S. President Barack Obama and allies will be followed by a dozen ISIS from 1.6 billion Muslims in 57 countries.

A little military politicking today, some “training” here, fighting there, bombing all over, are only ripples on a groundswell. This will end with a Sunni caliphate sooner or later. And, the lost caliphate they are longing for had no Israel, only a “national home”. This is behind some of the U.S.-West despair. Any solution?

The way out is cease-fire and negotiation, under United Nations auspices, with full Security Council backing. To gain time, switch to a defensive military strategy, defending Baghdad, the Kurds, the Shia and others in Syria and Iraq.

The historical-cultural-political position of ISIS and its successors is strong.

The West cannot offer withdrawal in return for anything because it has already officially withdrawn. The West, however, can offer reconciliation, both in the sense of clearing the past and opening the future.

Known in the United States as “apologism”, a difficult policy to pursue. But for once the onus of Sykes-Picot is not on the United States, but on Britain and France.

Russia dropped out after the 1917 revolution, but revealed the plot.

Bombing, an atrocity, will lead to more ISIS atrocities. A conciliatory West might change that. An international commission could work on Sykes-Picot and its aftermath, and open the book with compensation on it.

Above all, future cooperation. The West, and here the United States enters, could make Israel return the West Bank, except for small cantons, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital – or else! – sparing the horrible long-lasting Arab-Israeli warfare.

This would be decency, sanity, rationality; the question is whether the West possesses these qualities. The prognosis is dim.

There is the Anglo-American self-image as infallible, a gift to humanity, a little rough at times civilising the die-hards, but not weak.

If not an apology, at least they could wish to undo their own policies in the region since, say, 1967. No sign of that.

So much for the willingness. Does the West have the ability? Does it know how to reconcile?

After Portugal and England conquering the East China-East Africa sea lane around 1500, ultimately establishing themselves in Macao and Hong Kong, after the First and Second Opium wars of 1839-1860 in China, ending with Anglo-French forces burning the Imperial Palace in Beijing, did Britain use the “hand over” of Hong Kong to reflect on the past?

Not a word from Prince Charles.

China could have flattened those two colonies – but did not. Given that Islam has retaliation among its values, the West may be in for a lot.

Le Nouvel Observateur lists “groupes terroristes islamistes” in the world: Iraq-Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Chechenya.

The groups, named, grew out of similar local circumstances. Imagine that they increasingly share that longing for a caliphate; the Ottoman Empire covered much more than the Middle East, way into Africa and Asia. And more groups are coming. Invincible.

Imagine that Turkey itself shares that dream, maybe hoping to play a major role (in the past, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu a superb academic, a specialist on the Empire.)

Could that be the reason for Turkey not really joining, as it seems, this anti-ISIS crusade?

The West should be realistic, not “realist”. Switch to rationality. (END/IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE)

(Edited by Phil Harris)

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, IPS – Inter Press Service. 

Excerpt:

Human rights groups are calling for the Committee on the Rights of the Child to bring the Mexican state to account, as it has done in other countries, for failing to investigate widespread reports of sexual abuse of minors in Catholic institutions.

Experts consulted by IPS said the lack of action by the Mexican authorities and justice system violated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the Unite Nations General Assembly in 1989 and went into effect in 1990.

“There is a high level of impunity,” Juan Martín Pérez, the head of the Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México (REDIM – Network for Children’s Rights in Mexico), told IPS. “There is clear evidence of collusion between the authorities and the Catholic Church, so cases seldom wind up in court.

“The high-profile cases show the power of the church. It is one of the powers-that-be that is untouchable.

“Protecting children is a duty, at school, in the home, and in church…Usually the excuse is that these are areas of private life,” he said.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which monitors and reports on implementation of the Convention, is made up of 18 independent experts, including two from Latin America – Sara de Jesús Oviedo from Ecuador and Wanderlino Nogueira Neto from Brazil.

Mexico’s fourth and fifth periodic reports were due in April 2011, but were not completed until June 2012. And the combined report does not discuss paedophilia or measures to combat it.

The scandal over sex abuse of children and adolescents by Catholic priests broke out in the United States in 2002 before spreading to European countries like Germany, Ireland and Belgium, and to Latin America, especially Mexico and Chile.

“The state has not taken action and the Church has protected its own, reassigning priests to different parishes without even facing up to the issue or apologising to the victims. The state has never taken a stand on the matter,” Nashieli Ramírez, the coordinator of Ririki Intervención Social, a civil society organisation working with children and teenagers, told IPS.

According to the Mexican bishops’ conference, there are 5,000 seminarians in 145 seminaries and 15,000 priests in Mexico.

The Church leadership in Mexico has stated that it will follow the Vatican’s new guidelines and respect the reforms approved, in order to prevent sexual abuse and penalise the perpetrators.

They were referring to the Jul. 11 announcement by Pope Francis – who is now visiting Brazil – of an overhaul of the laws that govern the Vatican city-state.

The reform of Church law, to take effect in September, stiffened penalties for physical or sexual abuse of children, child prostitution and the creation or possession of child pornography.

In April 2012, the Mexican bishops’ conference approved guidelines to prevent and eradicate sexual abuse in churches. The guidelines are focused on the selection of candidates for the priesthood, taking into account factors like personality, psychology, spirituality and vocation.

In May 2011, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had instructed bishops all over the world to prepare clear procedures to handle cases of abuse, to be implemented by May 2012.

At the 62nd session of the CRC, held Jan. 14 to Feb. 1, 2013 in Geneva, the Committee on the rights of the Child harshly censured the United States for its failure to take action against clerical sex abuse.

“The Committee is deeply concerned at information of sexual abuse committed by clerics and leading members of certain faith-based organisations and religious institutions on a massive and long-term scale and about the lack of measures taken by the state party to properly investigate cases and prosecute those accused who are members of those organisations and institutions,” it said in its observations.

The Vatican has also come under the scrutiny of the CRC, which has asked for information on measures adopted against clerical sexual abuse, to be provided by November.

Ahead of its 65th session, to be held Jan. 13-31, 2014, the CRC has asked the Vatican to “provide detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers and nuns or brought to the attention of the Holy See over the reporting period,” on measures adopted, investigations and legal proceedings against perpetrators, and support for victims.

Children’s rights activists are again blaming the state for negligence, as they did in 2005 in their shadow report to the CRC titled “Infancias mexicanas, rostros de la desigualdad” (Mexican Children: Faces of Inequality).

The report concluded that “information on sexual abuse by priests is not available to those responsible for guaranteeing due process of defence and protection for human rights, particularly of children.”

And it denounced that “the concealment of information by the Catholic hierarchy has hindered victims in filing claims.”

In 2010 the Mexican Congress approved a reform of the Federal Law on the Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, criminalising paedophilia.

The law compels religious organisations to report ministers who sexually abuse children and adolescents, on pain of losing their accreditation.

Experts complain they are still not seeing concrete results from these actions.

“The state must develop mechanisms to protect children and overcome impunity,” Pérez said. “It is important to change civil codes that whitewash sexual abuse, like the offence of statutory rape (sexual intercourse with a minor) where the laws protect the perpetrator rather than the victim and avoid prison sentences. Mechanisms are needed to prevent abuse and to report those responsible for abuse.”

NGOs are preparing their shadow report for the 69th session of the CRC, to be held from May to June 2015, when Mexico is due for evaluation of its official report. The NGOs’ report will include cases of sex abuse by priests.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a support group for victims all over the world, has identified at least 65 priests in Mexico involved in sexual offences, none of whom has gone to prison.