The Myth of the Islamic Monolith: Arabia Is Far From Unified
- lhpgop
- 40 minutes ago
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The Myth of the Islamic Monolith: Arabia Is Far From Unified
The notion of a unified “Islamic world” acting with a single political will is one of the most persistent—and misleading—assumptions in Western commentary. It survives because it is convenient, not because it is accurate. In reality, Arabia and the surrounding Islamic states are fractured by rival regimes, competing ideologies, tribal interests, economic wars, and proxy conflicts that make sustained political stability—of the sort taken for granted in the West—largely unavailable.
A recent and telling example illustrates the point starkly: Saudi Arabia’s airstrike on Yemen’s port city of Mukalla, framed publicly as a security operation, but widely understood as a strike against a weapons shipment linked to the United Arab Emirates and its Yemeni proxy forces. Two Sunni Arab monarchies, nominal allies, operating within the same coalition framework, effectively came to blows inside a third Arab state. This was not an anomaly. It was a pattern.
I. Yemen: Not a Civil War, but a Regional Proxy Arena
Yemen is often described as a civil war. In practice, it is a multi-layered regional battleground.
Saudi Arabia views Yemen primarily through the lens of regime survival, missile defense, and Iranian encroachment.
United Arab Emirates has pursued its own agenda—supporting southern separatists, controlling ports, and shaping post-war power structures.
Iran, through the Houthis, uses Yemen as a pressure point against Gulf monarchies and Red Sea shipping.
The Saudi strike against a UAE-linked shipment is therefore not a breakdown of unity—it is evidence that unity never existed. Yemen merely exposes what polite diplomacy obscures: Arabia is a theater of factional competition, not collective purpose.
II. Gulf Monarchies: Shared Religion, Divergent Threat Perceptions
Religion does not equal solidarity. Among the Gulf states, Islam is a shared vocabulary, not a shared strategy.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain treat the Muslim Brotherhood as a regime-toppling ideology.
Qatar has historically supported Brotherhood-linked movements and provided media amplification.
Kuwait straddles the line—participating in Gulf security while tolerating Islamist currents domestically.
These are not theological disagreements; they are existential calculations. Monarchies fear any ideology—religious or secular—that legitimizes mass political mobilization. In this sense, there is a quiet irony: the greatest loathing among monarchies is not toward Islam itself, but toward political Islam as a revolutionary doctrine.
III. Egypt, Turkey, and the Collapse of Sunni Consensus
If Sunni Islam were politically unified, Egypt and Turkey would be natural allies. Instead, they are long-standing adversaries.
Egypt views Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as both:
A patron of the Muslim Brotherhood, and
A proponent of neo-Ottoman influence in Arab affairs.
Turkey’s interventions in Libya, Syria, and the Eastern Mediterranean have placed it in direct conflict with Egyptian, Emirati, and Saudi interests. This is not sectarianism—it is intra-Sunni geopolitical rivalry, sharper at times than Sunni–Shia tensions.
IV. Iran and Yemen: A Threat Perceived, Not Universally Shared
A significant bloc of Arab and Islamic states—Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, and Egypt among them—view Iran and its proxies as direct regime threats. Others do not.
Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria are deeply penetrated by Iranian influence.
Oman hedges.
Qatar balances.
North African states largely observe from a distance.
Again, the absence of unanimity is decisive. There is no “Islamic position” on Iran—only national survival strategies.
V. Stability: A Western Expectation, Not an Arabian Reality
Political stability in the Western sense—predictable transitions, institutional continuity, and rule-bound competition—remains largely absent across Arabia and much of the Islamic world. Power is personal, security-driven, and often zero-sum.
This produces:
Proxy wars instead of diplomacy
Arms smuggling instead of treaties
Assassinations, coups, and purges instead of elections
The Saudi–UAE clash in Yemen is not a breakdown of order. It is the order.
VI. Conclusion: Fragmentation Is the Rule, Not the Exception
The idea of an “Islamic monolith” collapses under even minimal scrutiny. Arabia is not unified by religion, culture, or history. It is divided by:
Regime type
Threat perception
Economic ambition
Ideological fear
Religious differences are a foregone conclusion—but even within Islam, there is no unanimity beyond a shared anxiety among ruling elites: that mass ideological movements, especially those cloaked in religious legitimacy, threaten their hold on power.
The Saudi strike in Yemen against a UAE-linked shipment is not an embarrassment to Arab unity. It is a reminder that Arab unity is largely a myth—and that the region’s defining feature is not solidarity, but continuous factional warfare.
Understanding this reality is not cynicism. It is clarity.