The Only Path Out: When the Islamic World Unites and the Cathedral Becomes Irrelevant
By M. K.Sudarshan
Sunni-Shia Rapprochement and the Possibility of Islamic Cohesion
The collapse of Greater Israel would remove the primary strategic wedge keeping Sunni and Shia powers divided, making rapprochement more likely than not. The common enemy disappears. Netanyahu explicitly frames Israel as fighting “against Sunni and Shia axes.” Remove the Israeli expansionist threat, and that logic collapses.
Sectarian division was always secondary to geopolitics. “Middle Eastern politics is shaped not only by sectarian identity, but also by national interests, security concerns, regional rivalries, and global power dynamics.” Sectarianism has, in fact, been instrumentalized by Iran’s revolutionary ideology, Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi establishment, and Israel’s security doctrine.
Without the Israeli expansionist threat, national interests dominate again. The “Taqrib” movement (bringing Sunnis and Shias closer) has enjoyed popularity for two decades. It hasn’t succeeded yet, but the structural barriers are political, not theological.
A unified Middle East would see consolidation around civilizational confidence and regional cooperation—not pan-Islamic political unity, but an ASEAN-style regional bloc.
The OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) would gain real power. A regional security architecture would emerge without U.S. security umbrellas. Islamic finance and trade would strengthen. Religious identity would re-center, with less “Western vs. Islam” framing and more internal Islamic discourse on governance, modernity, and justice.
All the above would be a fatal blow to American hegemony that the US-Israeli establishment fears most.
What Consolidation Would Look Like
The Islamic world in MENA would see consolidation around civilizational confidence and regional cooperation, not pan-Islamic political unity. “Think ASEAN-style regional bloc rather than caliphate”.
1. OIC gains real power: Currently weak, but could coordinate on Palestine, economy, security. Already condemned Greater Israel settlement plans collectively.
2. Regional security architecture emerges: No more U.S.-carried security umbrella. Turkey-Iran-Saudi Arabia-Egypt triangle as security guarantors. Joint counter-terrorism, border security, energy coordination.
3. Islamic finance and trade bloc: Gulf sovereign wealth funds invest regionally (not just West). De-dollarization accelerates (already underway with Iran, Turkey, Qatar).
4. Religious identity re-centers: Less “Western vs. Islam” framing. More internal Islamic discourse on governance, modernity, justice. Sectarian boundaries soften as political competition decreases.
This doesn’t happen automatically. And three things could prevent it:
(A) Saudi-Iran rivalry continues even without Israel (Yemen, Iraq, Syria proxy
(B) Turkey’s ambitions create new Sunni-Sunni competition with Saudi Arabia;
(C) external powers (Russia, China, EU) exploit divisions for their own gain.
But the structural conditions would be vastly improved compared to the current “Greater Israel + U.S. hegemony” order.
The Choice That Must Be Made
This is not just complex geopolitics. It is a magnificent cathedral of imponderables and unimaginables, where every actor is trapped in a logic they did not create.
— Neocons are trapped in post-9/11 interventionism.
— Christian Zionists are trapped in millenarian prophecy.
— Iranian revolutionaries are trapped in anti-imperialist ideology.
— Saudi monarchs are trapped in Wahhabi legitimacy.
— Israeli settlers are trapped in biblical promise.
— Palestinians are trapped in Nakba memory.
— Americans are trapped in hegemony addiction.
None of them can exit, because exiting the metaphoric cathedral would mean admitting their entire worldview was wrong—and that is psychologically and politically just simply impossible.
The haunting possibility therefore is this: the Greater Israel project will never be “defeated” in the sense of being destroyed. It will only be transcended. And transcendence comes not through military victory but through:
— A new regional order that makes the project irrelevant
— A Palestinian state that renders occupation pointless
— American decline that removes U.S. protection
Until then, the cathedral stands—magnificent, terrifying, and self-perpetuating.
The Final Question
The question is not whether America, Iran, or the Middle East will lose. The question is whether they will lose together, or whether they will choose something they cannot yet imagine: a world where none of them are winners, but all of them are free.
That choice requires abandoning the logic of zero-sum competition. It requires accepting that American hegemony and Middle East Islamic cohesion are mutually exclusive—one must yield. It requires recognizing that the more the U.S. fights to keep Greater Israel alive, the more it accelerates its own decline.
This is civilizational fate, not just geopolitics. And the imponderables are unimaginable precisely because they demand that human beings choose freedom over victory, transcendence over survival, and unity over domination.
The cathedral will stand until someone chooses to walk out of it.
(Concluded)
Sudarshan Madabushi
(The Author M. K. Sudarshan [Sudarshan Madabushi] writing under nom de plume, “Unknown Sri Vaishnava” is a writer who has authored 6 books on Vedanta philosophy and Hindu history and religious literature. He also calls himself a “perennial graduate student” of contemporary geopolitics after having lived and worked 25+ years in the Middle East and having also travelled worldwide in his professional career. In his blogs he often observes and comments upon the Islamic world and American foreign policy).