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TEHRAN, Apr 10 - A prominent political expert based in the Italian city of Milan said Wahhabis and Zionists, who have much in common in terms of “extremism and religious apocalypse”, are a lethal mix for world peace.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - “The ideology of Wahhabism, combined with Zionist fanaticism and the support they receive from Evangelical Christians, is a lethal mix for world peace,” Federico Pieraccini told Tasnim in an interview.
“The former (Wahhabism) becomes the instrument at the service of the latter (Zionism) for the benefit of a third party (US Evangelicals),” he added.
Pieraccini is an independent freelance writer and political expert based in Milan, Italy. He specializes in international affairs, conflicts, politics, and strategies. He has covered conflicts in Ukraine, Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.
The following is the full text of the interview:
Tasnim: Turkey's Istanbul recently hosted an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) about "increasing violence based on Islamophobia" a week after the New Zealand mosque attack killed at least 50 Muslims, including children. What do you think about the importance of the emergency meeting and the concerns of the participants?
Pieraccini: It is important that countries work together, such as with this example of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul. Dealing with the common problem of terrorism, whatever its origin, must be a priority for Islamic countries today.
The attack in New Zealand has shown that extremists are a danger to all populations. Terrorism affects innocents and is one of the greatest sources of instability in the world today, fueling hatred and division amongst races and ethnic groups.
Whether it is Wahhabi, extremist or white supremacist in its form, or whether it is embodied in the form of the state known as Israel, the death, misery and destruction that terrorism brings on its victims is the same.
The cynical manipulation of Wahhabi extremism, wielding it as a blunt instrument with which to strike at and disrupt (geo)political adversaries, has been one of the favored practices of the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel over a period spanning more than 30 years. Having unleashed the dogs of extremism for geopolitical purposes, permission has been given to the media, politicians and racists to paint all Muslims with the same broad brush of Wahhabi extremism, thereby justifying the West’s geopolitical maneuverings against the Muslim world. With mass migration added to the mix, a generalized fear of Islam has today become quite tangible in major European cities.
As anxiety and tension build up amongst ordinary people, the elite exacerbates this situation by bombing poor Muslim countries, creating migrant flows in the process that only adds to this already charged atmosphere. Increasing numbers of ordinary people fed up with their decreasing standards of living and increasing inequality, and who happen to be white and proud nationalists, increasingly find no other outlet for their exasperation than racism against immigrants and Muslims whom the media have so helpfully offered up as scapegoats.
These unfortunate and perverse circumstances seem less the result of accident and more of deliberate intent. The three countries that exploit these emotions more than any others, through extremist terrorism, are Israel, the United States, and Saudi Arabia. These are the same countries that have everything to gain from a Christian and Muslim clash of civilizations.
This is not to forget that Christian Evangelicals, Zionist Jews and Wahhabis have much in common in terms of extremism and religious apocalypse.
Tasnim: Brenton Tarrant, the Australian terrorist who carried out the pre-planned attack on two mosques in New Zealand’s Christchurch, penned a 74-page manifesto that he published around the time of the shootings. Revealing his admiration for Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway back in 2011, Tarrant also praised US President Donald Trump as "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose." Breivik’s attacks in Norway were described as "lone wolf" domestic terrorist attacks. Some claim that the terror attack in Christchurch was also the same. Can we describe the attack “lone wolf” or you think that an anti-Islam current is behind it?
Pieraccini: I do not believe that there is any coordination between white supremacists and extremist terrorists. Certainly, it remains suspicious that ordinary citizens have been able to purchase and accumulate arsenals of this kind, sometimes warlike (even to the extent of including explosives), without being identified by the security services of their own country. As has happened with other terrorist attacks, certain intelligence services, by not intervening against a terrorist cell, may actually be the way by which they actually direct and orchestrate such events, such practices labeled in intelligence parlance as “false flags”.
If we look at intentional actions, aimed specifically at Muslims, I would look no further than the state of Israel, where an anti-Islamic philosophy is systematically applied to disparage and delegitimize the Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian populations.
This Israeli attitude has pushed some politicians who are friends of Netanyahu, like Trump and Bolsonaro, to use false and racist comments against Muslims in general, giving a wink and a nod to the most extreme fringes of the populations in Brazil, the US, and around the world.
Tasnim: In your opinion, how can Muslims prevent the spread of Islamophobia? Wahhabism is Saudi Arabia's dominant faith and blamed for the rise of Islamophobia in the world. The ideology is closely linked to extremist ideas that have nothing to do with true Islam. Do not you think that one of the ways to prevent the spread of Islamophobia is to prevent the spread of Wahhabism?
Pieraccini: The ideology of Wahhabism, combined with Zionist fanaticism and the support they receive from Evangelical Christians, is a lethal mix for world peace. The former (Wahhabism) becomes the instrument at the service of the latter (Zionism) for the benefit of a third party (US Evangelicals).
In order to decrease, if not to altogether eliminate, violence in such areas as the Middle East, the ending of the Wahhabi and Israeli Zionist ideologies are necessary conditions for the people of the world to be able to live in harmony with each other. The use of extremism as a tool of war has now gotten out of hand, and the radicalization of populations in the Middle East, with the accompanying misery, hunger and war, has accentuated a problem that will haunt the region for who knows how many years.
The underlying intention of the Saudi, Israeli and American elites was to create an unstable area of the globe without any solution for peace, in order to avoid any domination of the region by any local or foreign powers. Keeping the region in a permanent state of chaos and war appears to be the best means of controlling its resources (oil) and preventing the creation of a peace movement that could oppose extremist terrorism, Israeli Zionist submission, or US imperialism.
Islamic countries and populations must begin to follow a winning social model for peace against the stars-and-stripes imperialism or the racism of Tel Aviv. Such models as that of Iran, which fight against terrorism while favoring interreligious dialogue, is exactly what the Middle East and the world at large need. The vast majority of Jews, Christians and Muslims only want to live in peace and harmony while respecting each other. The political use of religion is just another tool used by US imperialism to implement and reinforce the strategy of divide and rule, which is at the heart of the Western elite’s war-financier modus operandi.
Source: Tasnim
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