Leaders' self-interest can still benefit the people

Let me say something quickly about the motivations of leaders like Muhammad bin Salman and Muhammad bin Zayed or any leaders for that matter who I have said I think will produce positive results for the ummah ultimately. Look. These are political leaders, not religious leaders. I don't say that I think they are doing what they're doing for the good of Islam and Muslims, And I don't need them to be doing it for the good of Islam and Muslims. I just need it to turn out well for the Muslims.

I don't doubt for a moment that they're doing what they're doing out of ambition, out of greed, desire for power, nationalism to some extent. In one way or another, they're motivated by self interest, and I don't care. What they're trying to do will be a net positive ultimately for the Ummah if it succeeds, and that's what matters to me. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have reached and influenced across the Muslim world from the Maghrib to Malaysia with particular sway over the Middle East and North Africa. And they have the resources, they have the political clout, and they have the organizing capacity to develop every country within their sphere of influence and to more or less counter western domination or at least temper it, and that's a good thing.

Now there's a few people in the comment section who have said that I'm naive or gullible to expect anything good from Mohammed bin Salman or Mohammed bin Zayed. You're not looking at it the way I'm looking at it. Excuse the movie reference here, but in the movie Jackie Brown, you remember the scene when Samuel l Jackson is asked whether or not he thinks he can trust Bridget Fonda's character and he says You can't trust Melanie, but you can always trust Melanie to be Melanie. Well, that's the way I look at political leaders like Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed. I know that I can trust them to do what's in their interest.

And it just so happens that their ability to pursue what is in their interests has increased dramatically over the last several years, partly due to their own pursuit of alliances and partnerships around the region, partly because of how they have invested their money, partly because The United States is scaling back their presence in The Middle East and is less interested in global policing generally, and it's partly because of the owners and controllers of global financialized capital pivoting to Asia. All of these factors, among others, have allowed Saudi Arabia and The UAE more room to maneuver. And at the moment, it appears that there's nothing to prevent them from consolidating and expanding their spheres of influence. Now they're gonna pursue this not because of their love for Islam or their love for the ummah. They're gonna do it because having more power is preferable to having less power. And

And because their connections are predominantly in the Muslim world, this will have a stabilizing effect on those countries and potentially boost their prosperity. And because their connections are predominantly in the Muslim world, these leaders will have to make gestures towards Islam and Islamic values, both in rhetoric and in action, which then even if inadvertently increases the sphere of influence of Islam and Islamic values. In other words, these leaders pursuing their own self interest happens to be beneficial for all of us, and there's a lesson in that. This is what I've always advised political activists. Don't try to get politicians to do what is not in their interests to do.

Rather, you need to figure out how your cause can be benefited by politicians pursuing their own self interest. That's how you can succeed because politicians are gonna politician. The private sectors in The UAE and Saudi Arabia are not out of the control of the government. So it hasn't become there a competing parallel power structure. Every significant sector of the economy is in the government's hands, unlike the West where the government is in the hands of business.

In the West, have an oligarchy. In the Khalid, you have oligarchy, And I prefer that any day. Yes, there will be exploitation. Yes, there will be transfers of wealth out of the countries in their dominion to the Khaleid. But it will be nowhere near as bad as when Western multinationals, foreign investors, the IMF come to conquer you.

They are selfish, ambitious, power hungry leaders. Of course, they are. But happily, what benefits them is also poised to benefit us.