The Islamic world not doing enough to mitigate the sufferings of Syrians, Iraqi.
By Syed Iqbal Hasnain
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The migration of refugees from the war-ravaged Syria and Iraq to western world is unprecedented. The state of the fleeing refugees who are risking their lives in their journey toward Europe via Eastern Mediterranean, Greece and Hungary route is heart-wrenching.
Millions of people are being forced to leave their land that has a rich cultural and religious heritage. People are fleeing their country as it has become unbearable for them to live in Syria and Iraq, due to unrelenting bombings by Assad forces and atrocities unleashed by the barbaric Islamic State.
The images and stories of the migrants on TV channels, news papers, and internet has moved the world and generated a tsunami of sympathy.
While the western world is opening its borders to give refuge and feed them, there is one part of the world that is not is not at all responding – the Arab world. While it is the primary duty of Arabs above all to protect these Muslim refugees, who are religiously and culturally their own, Arab countries are cruelly silent. After stinging criticism about the country’s reluctance to welcome the Syrian refugees, Saudi Arabia defended itself on Saturday saying that it has given residency to 100,000 Syrians.
The Arab apathy
While the western world is lending a helping hand toward Muslim refugees, why the Islamic world — The Organization of Islamic countries (OIC), the Arab League and GCC (Gulf Countries Cooperation) countries and others — are not doing enough to mitigate the sufferings of their fellow Muslims?
Why Saudi-Arabia, Qatar, Oman and UAE are indifferent towards Syrian gridlock? All these countries have a huge geographical area which is empty with enormous oil and gas resources to feed and shelter the refugees.
If Arab nations give refuge to the migrants of the war-prone areas, this human resource can really help these countries in building nations and becoming regional powers. A nation cannot become powerful by having billions of dollars in banks. It has to invest its funds in research and provide quality education to its citizen to develop human resources. The Arab world can follow the American model in this regard.
America was deluged by immigrants after Second World War. However, instead of harassing or stopping the migration, America used the human resources in building the nation after a great depression. During that time, the immigrants were educated and employed well in building the nation. Immigration is a well-kept secret of America’s robust economy.
In the modern times, China became the second largest economy in the world by manufacturing consumer goods. But, the country lacks innovation as it has not done enough investments in basic science research. Therefore, China’s economy is highly vulnerable without sound base like one see in America.
Meanwhile, the American nation built a great education infrastructure and workplace culture, which allowed innovators from different parts of the world, especially India, to be part of the communication revolution.
The Arab countries have an opportunity to follow American model of utilizing immigrants in their society and economies.
Migrants to face backlash in Europe
While migrants are accepted in the Europe, they are not free of all problems. The Muslim migrants may soon face backlash from the rightist groups in the Europe, as followers of Islam have always has hard time to mix with the liberal western culture. Refuge in the Arab world would have given security to their culture and religious practices.
While the base price of crude oil is sliding down every month, the prices go further down after oil from Arctic region and Iran starts flowing. That’s why these Arab countries should look at these migrants as a great resource for future innovation that a burden.
The Syrian and Iraqi people have a great heritage of a civilization which flourished and produced great scientist and philosophers during the 9th century. They have innovated in astronomy, mathematics and medicine and changed the world.
The current refugees can do wonders if they are given education and opportunity, similar to what Steve Jobs, the son of a Syrian immigrant did to the world. Jobs revolutionized the world by building one of the biggest technology companies.
Hearts of Arabs seems to have closed to the suffering masses. Even the image Ayan Kurdi, a boy found dead on the beaches of Turkey, has failed to touch their heart.
I pray the gates of Arab Muslim’s heart to open soon like the heart of followers of Jesus Christ who have agreed to take more than a million refugees. The rich Arab nations should at least match that number, if not exceed it.
(The writer is a consultant on education and climate change, based in Seattle. He is a former Vice-Chancellor of University of Calicut, Kerala, and Professor of Environmental Sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.)