God Almighty did not permit it

Wishing you all a happy Eid al-Fitr, and on this day—the last for us and the second for the rest of the Muslim world—let us say a few words about the war in our region.

Years ago, I went to the Gulf region. I filmed a documentary on the Hejaz Railway. I traveled to AlUla, 200 kilometers north of Medina. Following the line, I went as far as Tabuk.

I traveled step by step through the Arab geography leg of the Hejaz railway project, an exquisite project of our ancestors.

I examined the train line, the bridges, and other engineering structures again and again.

I recorded all the details of a magnificent engineering structure.

During these studies, I also visited famous cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Bahrain, and Riyadh.

I visited diamond-like hotels, legendary airports, ostentatious bazaars, and the 850-meter-high Burj Khalifa.

I ate their delicious food.

In this geography where luxury reaches nirvana, wealth and excess were dazzling.

Muslims have created a paradise on earth.

I do not believe that the entertainment venues built on artificial islands, canals, and ports exist anywhere else in the world.

Where was the money for this mill coming from?

Yet, I did not come across a single factory or production facility.

Why has this artificial wealth and virtual life, created solely by oil—a blessing from God—remained captive to a specific region?

While thousands of their brothers, women, and children are being bombed right next to them, why is this wealth and ostentation trapped in a limited area?

Did the consciences of the sheikhs in abayas, sipping champagne accompanied by escorts on the hundredth floor of their residences, not ache at all?

Did the income from energy resources, God's blessing to Muslims, belong only to these sheikhs, while other poor Muslims were being bombed in their tents with their families?

There is no one who does not know the answer.

Unfortunately, since no one from there was willing to step up, it was left to God Almighty to lay down the law.

The bubble of luxury and ostentation they created in forty years and the sinful lifestyle in the holy lands were razed to the ground as a result of the cries of the oppressed.