FOREWORD

The author, Gerd Michael Müller, born in Zürich in 1962, traveled as a photo-journalist to more than 50 nations and lived in seven countries, including in the underground in South Africa during apartheid. In the 80 years he was a political activist at the youth riots in Zürich. Then he was involved in pioneering Wildlife & eco projects in Southern Africa and humanitarian projects elsewhere in the world. As early as 1993, Müller reported on the global climate change and in 1999 he founded the «Tourism & Environment Forum Switzerland». Through his humanitarian missions he got to know Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and other figures of light. His book is an exciting mixture of political thriller, crazy social stories and travel reports – the highlights of his adventurous, wild nomadic life for reportage photography . (englisch corrections ongoing)

What „the hell“ made the Iranian ambassador in Switzerland Alireza Salari to invite me to the diplomatic celebration on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Iranian revolution against Shah Reza Pahlevi in the embassy in Bern, I do not know. I was thinking of a short media appointment and a few words „on the state of the nation“. But things turned out differently. I was the only media representative and photographer among a hand-picked selection of non-state guests. All the other 150 or so invited guests were diplomats or spies or both. Things got even more interesting when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Sarif also appeared at the Iranian Embassy in Bern and was greeted by Alireza Salari. Switzerland and the Iranian Embassy in Bern as well as the accredited representatives to the United Nations play an important role in world politics in the diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States. As in the case of Cuba, Switzerland serves as a neutral country and mediator of diplomatic interests between these countries.

The nuclear negotiations with Iran also took place in Montreux. In this sense, Switzerland and the „UN“ in Geneva are the hub for U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran and Cuba. However, we do not want to talk about that here, but first introduce a string-puller of Iranian foreign policy and look at his abilities as well as his great influence on world affairs, which by far exceeded that of American presidents. General Qassam Soleimani, the „Che Guevara“ of the Iranian revolution also ended up something like his famous Cuban predecessor, who had the same idea and exported the Cuban revolution not only to all Latin American countries, but he went so far as to logically support communist or Marxist countries in Africa. Gaddafi, after all, went about financing liberation and terrorist organizations (depending on your view and use of language) in much the same way .

General Qassam Soleimani, Tehran’s longtime gray eminence, was appointed by Khomenei to head the „Khuz“ brigades in 1998 and coordinated attacks on the Israeli occupiers from Lebanon until they withdrew two years later. In retrospect, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon is one of its gravest mistakes because it fueled Iran to build up Hezbollah in Lebanon and attack Sunnis in Iraq with Shiite militias, as then-Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian acknowledged. General Qassam Soleimani was the creator of the „Axis of Resistance to Imperialism“ and the longtime chief strategist in Iranian foreign policy aimed at engaging imperialists abroad and uniting the Shiite community throughout the Middle East and defending the faith community against Sunni claims to power. In particular, the eight-year Iraq war, which cost the lives of over a million Iranians, and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, shaped Soleimani, who grew up under the „Revolutionary Guards“ and „Khuz“ brigades, a special unit.

Iran has benefited from the collapse of Iraq and the aftermath of the Arab Spring, massively expanding its influence in the region. Tehran is driven by three main interests: the three components of Iranian foreign policy are ideological, geopolitical and security strategies. Ideologically, Iran sees itself on the one hand as a protective power of oppressed Muslims in the context of a revolutionary resistance force against Israel and the United States. Geopolitically, Iran aims to stand up to Saudi Arabia and expand its influence in the region. The rivalry is being played out in Syria or Yemen. Since Iran is militarily inferior to its most powerful neighbors in terms of strength, it is shifting its defensive disposition to neighboring countries.

A powerful network of non-state actors is essential in this context. Tehran’s regional policy decisions are made by the Supreme National Security Council, which includes the president, representatives of the revolutionary leader, the commanders of the armed forces and, in operational terms, the Quds (Jerusalem) Brigades. It also includes the Pasdaran, the paramilitary revolutionary guards. The supranational network includes cooperation and support for Hamas in the Palestinian territories and the Gaza Strip. In Lebanon, as mentioned, Hezbollah plays a crucial role, and there are good state-level contacts with the Assad regime. This is Iran’s asymmetric warfare in the Middle East, which has been successful so far.

When Osama Bin Laden reduced the Twin Towers to rubble, the Yanks suddenly wanted to know more from the Iranians about the Taliban and the situation in Afghanistan. Iran also saw Osama Bin Laden as an enemy, so Solemani, as head of the Khuz Brigades in Geneva, provided the CIA with key intelligence. But the Iranian-American alliance did not last long, already the stupid Bush fired up the Iranians again to enemies of the state and kreeirte the „axis of evil“. Iran, feeling threatened by the U.S. intervention in Iraq and by being surrounded by aggressive, imperialist U.S. troops, intervened at the United Nations and they warned the Americans of the consequences of intervention in Iraq in Geneva. But the Americans then „within a few months destroyed the entire structure in Iraq, weakened the state and disbanded the armed forces,“ according to Hossam Dawod, an advisor to the Iraqi dictator. „The foundations of Iraqi society were totally destroyed in the process.“

Soleimani also took advantage of the power vacuum created by the Yanks. „He played a central role in the post-war development in Iraq“ and influenced history there as well, in which he sent the Iraqi Shiite militias trained in Iran back home, equipped them with weapons and also supported them financially, several insiders confirm. As a result, the pro-Iranian Hezbollah attacked U.S. forces so mercilessly that the Americans had to withdraw, once again leaving behind a gigantic mess that will occupy the Western and Middle Eastern world for decades to come. For Iran’s shitic aggression in Iraq gave rise to the Sunni variant of extremism, the IS, which as we know has also caused much misery, to put it mildly and to cut the known events short.

And domestically, after the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, some 4,000 Iranians were then executed in a purge wave, revealing the murderous God-state’s ruthlessness toward politically rebellious individuals. Also during later protests, for example during the uprisings as a result of the increased gasoline prices, sharp shots were fired and many demonstrators were killed with targeted shots to the head, many more were sentenced to long prison terms after imprisonment or were executed and buried in mass graves without the relatives being given the corpses or being allowed to mourn. A barbaric system.

The situation is complicated. Bashar Assad is, after all, a Christian and therefore the Western states forgive him the so far untouched claim to power in Syria despite once tepid protests against his dictatorial regime at the beginning of the revolution in the shadow of the Arab Spring that he was able to defend until today. Because the Sunnis, and in particular the strengthened IS, were now also becoming a threat to Bashar Assad in Syria, Solemani and Assad joined forces in the fight against the Sunnis. Solemani flew in a plane loaded with humanitarian goods to Amman to Assad and coordinated with him the attacks against the IS. So from that point of view, ironically, Europe and the West should be a little bit grateful to Solemani.

Now to another brilliant strategy play by Solemani that led to the control of Iraq from Tehran and cost the Americans billions for the arch enemy. Of the reconstruction aid between 2005 – 2015 amounting to some 800 billion. U.S. dollars to Iraq, about $312 billion was diverted by the Iranians via Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian organizations and taken out of the country, according to a Finance Committee report by former Iraqi minister Ahmed Al Hadj.

„Iraq became Iran’s cash cow,“ Hosham Dawod also affirms. But in 2019, Solemani was disavowed by an intelligence leak to Iran’s MOIS. Then the 2014 war crimes in „Jurf al Sakhar“ came to light. The Shiite Hezbollah committed atrocious crimes, resulting in over 150,000 displaced among the Sunni population. Qassem Solemani is dead. And that is a good thing. But this changes little in the foreign policy of Iran and one also wonders how many Americans should have been killed or eliminated before in order to avoid all the mischief that the USA finally caused in its own interests with catastrophic consequences for the whole world.

But one must ask oneself, with all the blame on the USA, what the Muslim society and diaspora worldwide is doing to finally pacify the continuously smoldering religious conflict between Sunnis and Shiites and to end the Gordian knot of many conflicts and terrorist acts? Almost nothing is happening. And that is the biggest problem. But let’s remember for a moment how long the conflict between Christians and Catholics lasted and how many lives were claimed by religious wars in Europe. Let us be aware that in our mostly passive role as unbelieving spectators at the grotesque world events and the most evil practices of power, we often corrupt even in small ways and turn a blind eye to many grievances and conveniently fade out further interventions.

In any case, one thing becomes apparent again and again. The interventions of the Americans, be it in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Syria are and ended with a huge disaster that made all regions ultimately more unstable and created numerous aggressors. And also the conditions on Guantanamo and the torture methods practiced there throw an inglorious light on the military interventions of the USA. No bitch licks that, as we say so casually. Also, the armament of all terrogroups existing today have mostly happened on military armament by the United States. A fatal cycle that seems to repeat itself again and again.

Comoros: The Perfume Islands emerge from obscurity

Now we take a short detour into the Indian Ocean to an unknown group of islands that were once colonized by France. We are talking about the Comoros. For a long time, the rival sultanates at the crossroads of the Arab and African worlds kept themselves hidden. Apart from the perfume manufacturers who stocked up and enriched themselves here with the coveted ylang-ylang fragrances, few people know the Grande Comores, with its four islands, Grande Comores, Anjouan, Moheli and Grand Mayotte. The locals call the four volcanic islands between Madagascar and Mocambique Ngazidja, Ndzuani, Mwali and Mayotte. They are politically and geographically divided and culturally a panopticon where Malay, Polynesian, African and French influences merge. Before the colonial era, as many as 12 sultanates vainly struggled for supremacy.

The French succeeded in 1845 in placing the Comoros, weakened by the quarreling regents, under their protective rule and declared it an overseas territory of the Grande Nation in 1912. In a 1977 referendum, Mayotte’s population alone voted to remain with France. The other islands opted for independence and for the long-awaited, hard-fought independence and finally united to form the Islamic Confederation of the Comoros. But the split Mayotte clouded the unity of the new island state, which, by the way, the independence economically seen, enormously penalized and totally impoverished.

In tourist attractiveness the islands would not lack by far. Grande Comores is the largest island with 1025 square kilometers. Behind Ngazidja’s capital Moroni, whose magnificent building, the gleaming white Friday Mosque, stands out from the sea of houses from afar, rises the mighty volcano Karthala. It erupted for the last time in 1977, leaving behind broad lava trails that gave the youngest volcanic island in Comoros a bizarre appearance.

Crossing Grande Comores from west to east over the steep Dibwani Pass, many other small volcanic cones rise up on the northern flank of the road. The Comoros probably owe their Arabic name of „moon islands“ to this fantastic lunar landscape. Also the coast is mostly made of rugged, pitch-black lava rock. The most beautiful seaside resort of the main island offers three pearl-white beaches, surrounded by the offshore, dazzling coral reef. The Galawa Hotel is nestled here.

At low tide, colorfully dressed women in headscarves arrive in droves. In the shallow, crystal-clear water, they fish with nets and harpoons made of rebar, hunting for squid or even larger fish that get caught in their nets, which are stretched out in a circle and then tightened. Anjouan, the pearl of the Comoros, is the island of untouched valleys, idyllic tropical rivers and rugged, densely guarded crater landscapes and volcanic cones. At the foot of the rainforests lie the wonderfully fragrant vanilla, spice and ylang ylang plantations, from which the French perfume manufacturers enriched themselves for decades. The neighboring island of Moheli has an African orientation and is a refuge for giant water turtles, which I was completely surprised to see burying their eggs by the hundreds on the beach at night, brightly lit by the full moon.

Otherwise the island is rather a refuge for Robinson Cruso followers. On the market of Mitsamiouli one recognizes the few Musungus (white tourists) at first sight. I saw in any case except my three journalist colleagues not a single white on the island. Here, it was not women veiled with black hijabs that dominated the picture, but the ladies dressed in colorful ngazidjas and Lesotho shawls wrapped around their bodies, whereas the women on Anjouan mostly wore a red and white chiromani. Many of the faces were covered with a thick layer of sandalwood as sun and mosquito protection.

The beauty mask, which crumbled as the day wore on, served to keep the delicate skin of the women well cared for. I was really shocked when I saw condoms lying around in the hotel room of the puritanical Islamic states of God. That instead of the Koran condoms would lie on the night table, I would have expected here last. And that here condoms obviously belonged to the standard hotel room equipment, I would never have expected. One (n) learns to it. Later I found out that in addition to the normal rate there was also a Schäferstündchen rate. But from the pragmatized and contemporary so-called immoralities now to the traditional matriarchal customs of the country.

At the Grande Mariage, the most pompous celebration and most important event in the life of a Komor man and woman, traditionally all the guns are brought out. It happens that the parents build their bride a house, while the groom showers the bride with real gold or jewels. The wedding, which is often celebrated over a period of days with hundreds of guests, is not only a major festive event but is also always associated with social advancement. At least that is the expectation of most islanders. Through this act, a family also achieves a change of class into the upper class, is accepted into the circle of the grands notables and is henceforth also more influential in the political-religious context. However, the grande mariage not infrequently also means the financial ruin of a family. Even then, young people rightly complained that the money would be better invested in education and the further development of the country instead of being squandered so senselessly. The illiteracy rate at that time was almost 50 percent and the Republic of the Comoros was one of the 15 poorest nations in the world.