Cultural theology of ...
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Therefore, the global ethical reconsideration is a religious matter, as analysts unanimously agree: “This ethical reconsideration must be understood within the framework of the three major religious traditions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, just as the resistance in Palestine is perceived as a religious matter.”
Vulnerable civilization
of West
Another aspect that allows us to discuss the “cultural theology of the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” is the belief held by many intellectuals that what the world understood in the post-Al-Aqsa era was the “globalization of resistance” against the “global cultural recession.” Western cultural decline has long entered the period of “identity crisis,” and its civilizational situation, described by Huntington as a “Christian-Jewish heritage,” is more fragile than ever. In such a situation, the rise of opposing forces against Western civilization increases the challenges faced by its governments, making their crisis situation both internally and ideologically much more complex than before.
In my view, the globalization of resistance accelerates a “global soft revolution,” and this is not a mere slogan to be induced through propaganda and advertising, but it can be substantiated through scientific analysis. New studies provide evidence, such as the global inclination towards submissiveness and “formal activism” after the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Analysts interpret this inclination as a departure of world nations from the submissiveness of their governments regarding the Palestinian issue. People, independent of their governments, accused the Zionist regime of creating humanitarian disasters, completely diverging from the discourse of governments aligned with Zionism. Here, it can be assessed who chose the right side of history.
This process’s formation is a result of the initiative and intellectual openness of the global resistance movement, giving it the ability to find its discourse in various thoughts. Secondly, due to its flexibility in forms and methods, the resistance movement can unite different nationalities around fundamental human values. This is an inherent quality of Islam.
Quranic power and
global revolution
The acceptance of resistance signifies a fresh dynamism between identity, religion, and society; a dynamism that has been unprecedented in contemporary history, with its starting point being the “Islamic Revolution of Iran,” which, in Michel Foucault’s words, marked the return of the spirit to a soulless world. Our revolution was able to gain global recognition for one reason only, and that was the reliance of the late Imam on the “Quranic power” of pure Islam.
The Islamic nature of the resistance movement, in line with the revolution, has been able to shape “formal activism” based on the “Quranic power,” which is neither united nor disjointed and is now visibly the tip of the iceberg. As always, when Americans and Zionists are perplexed, this time too, it is inconceivable for Western theorists and liberal capitalist think tanks to envision a cultural alliance with a religious inclination, stemming from Islamic resistance, emerging with such power in the modern world. It forms an international aspiration for liberation from the prison that was supposed to confine people forever in the global village. I emphasized a month before the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm at the “International Sun Conference” in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad that the world ahead of us is a “revolutionary world,” and the movement of followers of monotheistic religions towards reviving fundamental human values is only possible through breaking away from the process of Westernization and fighting against it. Today’s signs and analyses can be considered the strongest support for the “theory of a revolutionary world.”
Transformation of values in cultural world
It is evident that the global rise of resistance is due to something beyond confronting an apartheid regime, and one should not fall into the trap of pseudo-intellectual and pseudo-religious discourses in analyzing this issue. Instead, a critical approach should be taken towards these interpretations that downplay the issue. Although apartheid has always turned against itself, and many apartheid regimes have emerged throughout world history, most of them had limited territorial aspects.
Zionist apartheid is not a “limited national apartheid” in accordance with prevailing political theories. Rather, it is a global and universal apartheid. From this perspective, its nature differs from all other dictatorial, racist, and fundamentalist regimes. This particular demonic nature has also created a “special international sense of danger” in the minds of people, as if they have just realized that all their values, achievements, and existence may be at risk due to the existence of this global Zionist apartheid. Through this collective sense of danger, a “new global cultural community” is emerging, and its structures and anatomy can gradually be identified. This community has a collective narrative about the post-Al-Aqsa Storm world that needs further discussion.
Based on reliable research analyzing global attitudes, “the self-sacrifice and resilient resistance of Palestinians in liberating their land for survival in current conditions has turned into a collective and popular narrative, even including secular voices.” Despite the propaganda by secular movements regarding the nature of this collective and global narrative, all its essential elements are derived from the epistemology of the Islamic Revolution and the discourse of resistance.
Today, the world fully knows and sees that the colonial, nationalist, and military project of the usurper Zionist regime over the past seventy years has transformed into a “global destructive radicalism” with no human qualities. The dragon is fully awake while a greater power rises to confront it. For people worldwide, it is now crystal clear that the goal of this destructive project is the annihilation of the history, identity, livelihood, presence, rights, life, and altogether the existence of Palestinians. Currently, it is the agency of the people that shapes the global scene against Zionism. This seed, planted solely by Imam Khomeini in the global consciousness, was to combat falsehood.
Issue of human
liberation
Here, we return to the focal point of our discussion, which is the emergence of the cultural theology of the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm that transformed the ideal of “liberating the land” into the concept of “liberating humanity” for the world. As cultural resistance intellectuals and independent scholars outside this movement also unanimously agree and have discussed, the operation challenges the imperialist narrative that perpetuates discrimination, militarism, oppression, racism, deceit, abuse of power, greed, dehumanization, and various forms of state violence with increasing intensity.
Now, the ethical reconsideration of the West after the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm has transcended theoretical debates and academic discussions, entering the realm of public discourse. This has brought about new social behaviors worldwide in support of Islamic resistance. The emergence of this “global unity” that has also been noticed by Iranian analysts is a “global capital” for the Islamic revolution. The wise leadership of Imam Khamenei has demonstrated that the revolution is not stagnant, and its benefits, directly and indirectly, contribute to its dynamism, increasing its “global capital.”
During this period, through meetings and discussions with non-Muslim intellectuals, researchers, and professors, I have come to understand that what captivates them about Islamic resistance is the practical aspect of this cultural theology, which in their articles they have referred to as the “practical allure of theology.” This is the same secret of the pure Islam of Imam Khomeini, which combines mysticism and struggle, making “Islamic mystic fighters” a global phenomenon.