Abdul Malik Mujahid and the Sound Vision Team

A protester holds a sign reading “No War with Iran” as Canadians demonstrate outside the U.S. consulate in Toronto, Canada, on January 4, 2020.

CREATIVE TOUCH IMAGING LTD. / NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

It’s happening again. The ugly cycle of war-terror-dehumanization is strengthening.

With America’s assassination of Iran’s army major general Qassim Soleimani, the world has entered another dangerous stage.

This cycle, which includes American invasions, Iran-Saudi conflict, militias, and ISIS, have all contributed to the creation of the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

We stand with the victims of conflict around the world, not with divisive, oppressive forces who engage in war and terrorism.

As the world enters this latest cycle of violence, it is important for Muslims and their neighbors to invest more of our time and money to defeat this murderous nexus of war-terrorism-dehumanization.

America and the Muslim world both are losing as China, a rising superpower, continues to grow in strength.

There are extraordinary implications for the world, and especially American Muslims, as America and Iran engage in renewed saber-rattling:

We cannot ignore the root cause of the 40-plus years of conflict between the U.S. and Iran: American interference in Iran’s affairs. Beginning in 1953, America has tried to control Iran, starting with its removal of power of a democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mossadegh, and its installation of a king Mohammad Reza Shah. In response, Iranians began a struggle for freedom, justice, and Islam, culminating in the Iranian revolution in 1979. Most of the world, including Sunnis, supported this. However, it gradually became more of a Shia revolution in which Iranian interests were defined as theologically those of all Shias.

Through its alliance with Russian, Iran played a critical role in brutally defeating the peaceful movement for democracy in Syria, as the Saudis did in Yemen. Iran’s Soleimani commanded the Iranian campaigns.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was based on false information about Iraq’s nuclear capacity, and it has brought us to the quagmire we are currently in. We have burned over $1 trillion of American taxpayer money in this war and it is not ending. War is not the solution. It is killing us and other innocent people around the world. The best path out of this latest crisis is the one that the United States is taking in Afghanistan right now by negotiating with the Taliban. If the Taliban, an ally-turned-enemy, and the U.S. can talk, there is hope for dialogue, peace, and a better future free of dangerous destabilization that threatens the world.

Iran will most likely retaliate by enhancing its support for terrorism. This will mean instigating forces that push for war, which in turn means more terrorism. Watch out. War with Iran will lead to more dehumanization of Muslims in America, and dehumanization of Americans around the world.

A war with Iran will provide full opportunity to China to walk more freely on the streets and capitals of the world than Americans can. And that harms our long-term interests and strengthens the interests of our competition, China, a rising economic and military superpower.