Impetus for #Kitchener's desire to "capture #Islam" in #MiddleEast in #WWI was rooted in his inability to understand that #societiesAreNotHomogenous.
There was a time when Britain ruled over half of world's #muslims in #Africa & #India, and Kitchener believed Islam as a homogenous, single centralized entity controlled by the #Caliph — #Mohammad's successor.
This perception probably grew out of the fact that #Turkish #Sultan had immense sway over muslims far away in India.
⬆️ At the #ThievesBanquet, #Britain coyly agreed to let #Russia swallow #Constantinople.
After the war, #Kitchener worried that once Russia got Constantinople, it would use the #Caliphate and plot to destroy the #British Empire.
So he wanted to:
1. Cut a swath through #Mesopotamia (#Iraq) into #India
2. Choose an #Arabian Caliph, without regard to #Shia-#Sunni divide in #Islam
He thought since #Mohammad was Arabian, so should his successor. This has rubbed #Shia #Iran & #Iraq the wrong way
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⬆️ It wasn't #British diabolical designs that led to the present #MiddleEast mess.
Of course, #Turkish intrigue with #Germans in 1914, is quite a story in itself. That, and its plans to depose Grand Sharif #Hussein is what started the ball rolling and led to the #ThievesBanquet in 1915.
It was the #Arabs who approached #Britain first in 1914, and it is THEY who must bear the primary responsibility for the subsequent arrangements with the British.
Arabs had full agency in this mess.
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#Hussein's favorite son #Abdullah approached the #British as a supplicant who feared that the #YoungTurks were going to depose his father.
He lied to the British that rival #Arab chiefs were ready to bury mutual hatchets and unite to rise against the #Turks, in exchange for British support similar to that in #Afghanistan where locals enjoyed self-rule but #Britain handled all foreign affairs.
The British rebuffed Abdullah's overtures at the time, but came back after #ThievesBanquet
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It was #misfortune compounded by #misunderstanding.
Misfortune was that #Abdullah's initial contact with #British in 1914 had already primed them into choosing #Hussein in 1915 without considering ALTERNATIVES.
The misunderstandings were 2-fold:
1. Misunderstanding on #Kitchener's part about a monolithic homogenous #Islamic bloc & blind spot over the #Shia-#Sunni divide, and
2. Misunderstanding on #Hussein's part in conflating #DamascusProtocol and British offer of Independence
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#Kitchener's mistake in choosing #Hussein & #Arabia as representative of ALL #muslims based on his misunderstanding of religious differences was responsible for 4 decades of #proxyWars between #ArabLeague states & #Iran's theocracy-backed #AxisOfResistance, until the secret #rapprochement brokered between them by #China in March 2023
#British mistake in offering independence based on vague borders & #Hussein's subsequent confusion were addressed in #McMahonHusseinCorrespondence, but in vain.
Ramesh #NotGoingBack