As the administration of George le Fou, readies the American public and its European allies for the coming bombing of Iran-- once again in total disregard of the Law of Unintended Consequences, a possible solution seems to have been discarded by the wayside: the reestablishment of the Caliphate.
The Caliph, or successor to Muhammad, literally meaning "Prince of the Faith" or "Defender of the Faith," had been in existence for more than a thousand years when it was abruptly put to rest, in 1924, by the Turkish political reformer, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, reacting to pressure from the victorious North American and European powers of the First World War. Since it had essentially devolved, over time, into a secularly controlled institution of the corrupt Ottoman Empire, it was hardly missed by Arab or Western leaders. Only Muslim visionaries and scholars whose voices were silenced by cynical and corrupt potentates or by agents of Western Powers, realized the importance of the Caliphate.
Muslim scholars have rued the loss of one central Islamic leader who could represent all of Islam on the world stage, much as the Christian "Prince of the Church," in Rome, has historically functioned since Gregory I, articulating its values, its weltanauschuug primarily, however, its sensibilities
The absence of a unified voice for all Muslims has resulted in the splintering of the Muslim community which then retrograded into primitive tribalism; a welcome situation for stronger powers seeking to exploit the oil wealth of the Islamic world. There was another reason why the West sought to remove the Caliphate: simply the old stratagem of divide and conquer, which is exactly the history of the Western powers vis-a-vis the Muslim world over the last century.
The mere mention of a resurgent Caliphate gets M. George la Bouche to jump out of his cowboy boots. A powerful Caliph would be a check on the ever more common unilateral action taken by my country-- with the tacit assistance of other Europeans nations and sundry US supplicant client-states hither and yon. Gone would be the under the table dealing between the oil-rich aristocracies and their Western business counterparts which have historically resulted in the impoverishment of Muslim peoples from North Africa to Indonesia.
The Caliph would be a unifier of the Muslim people who then could speak with one
voice. At the same time, the Caliph could use his office to limit or eradicate freelance terrorists, since his voice would have the force of both secular as well as religious law.
The Caliph could, also, represent the interests of the Muslim world as a permanent
member of the UN Security Council. Perhaps, this would also lead to the
enfranchisement within the world body of an African and South America permanent
seat in that, hithertofore not-too-august, world body.
Right now a Caliph could check the ambitions of the excitable new president of Iran,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has recently been provoking the happy-to-be-provoked
Republican administration. "Wait," you say, "The Iranians are Shi'a
and have never followed the direction of what was in fact a Sunni succession to
Muhammad, a rival to the Shi'a's line of Imams leading back to Ali Ibn Abi Tali,
whom the Shi'a furiously believe was the true successor to Muhammad.
Not being a Muslim, myself, is not for me to suggest how the Caliph should be chosen, that would be a problem for Muslims, themselves, to decide. However, I am aware of at least one branch of Islam, the Ibadi, who believe that the caliphate should be elected by all of Islam, regardless of his sect, the only important factor being that he be the most revered spiritual leader in Islam.
One argument that has been advanced by the Bushies is that the Caliphate would
end up in the hands of an Osama Bin Ladin type and would lead to a worldwide
crusade of Muslims against the Christian world. To that all I can say is "Poppycock,"
Forget the fact that it was George la Bouche that first uttered the call of a crusade against Islam.
All of this reminds me of an observation made by the eminent American pop philosopher-yogi, Y. Bera, "It's like deja vu all over again!"
Restive nationalist/ethnic populations have been just as much of a problem under Caliphates as any other system.