Why is no Muslim country coming to Iran's aid

The Game of Thrones (and oil)

Jun 20, 2025

Place: Lahore

Year: 1974

Speaker: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, President of Pakistan

Audience: Leaders and rulers of Muslim countries from around the world

“My dear friends and brothers, look at us today. 25 years ago, we were the objects of ridicule and humiliation. We were thought of as poverty-stricken people who would never rise. That is why injustices of the worst form was perpetrated against Muslim land and Muslim people.

From its birth, Islam has had many challenges. But having faith in Almighty Allah, by being guided by His wisdom and by His Holy Scriptures, we can never lose confidence in ourselves, in our cause and in our futures.

Brothers and friends, let me assure you with Allah as my witness, we shall give our blood for the cause of Islam. The people of Pakistan are the soldiers of Islam, the armies of Pakistan are the armies of Islam. Wherever the need arises, on whatever the occasion, you will find that Pakistan will not be found wanting. God forbid, if there is a conflict in future, you will find the whole weight of Pakistan behind your cause. We shall enter as brothers in arms.”

A thunderous applause followed this speech.

Place: Istanbul

Year: 2016

Speaker: Recep Tayyep Erdogan, President of Turkey

Audience: Leaders and rulers of Muslim countries from around the world

“Dear friends, Muslims today, in many parts of the world face injustice. 25% of the world is Muslim but there is no representation of Muslims in the UN Security Council.

We have to strengthen our co-operation amongst ourselves. In the face of conflict, why do we Muslims have to wait for other powers to step in and solve them? We should step up and solve them ourselves.”

Once more, an applause followed this speech.

Place: Iran

Year: 2025

A thunderous roar is heard above the skies of Iran. Israel has attacked Iran’s capital Tehran, killing some of their military leaders and nuclear scientists. The leader of Iran (Ayatollah Khamenei) is also considered a spiritual leader for many Muslims across different countries.

Other Muslim countries: Sit in silence. They have not sent any soldiers or military weapons to Iran’s aid. They have not even sent band-aids as humanitarian aid.

When I was a kid, I would often sit next to my mom and scan newspaper headlines with her. Every once in a while, news articles reported speeches of leaders. Once when I read Zulfikar Bhutto’s speech, I thought Muslim countries were like the ‘Ultimate Superhero Squad’—always having each other’s backs and maybe even wearing matching capes. The Ummah (Muslim Unity), they called it—sounded like the coolest club ever!

But then... a few days ago... Israel attacked Iran. And guess what happened after. A few awkward coughs from some Muslim leaders and maybe a tweet or two. No epic team-up, no dramatic speeches, no "Avengers Assemble!" energy.

Every week, on the Lighter Side, I write about one news story that blows my tiny brain. This week’s story is about why the Ummah members haven’t turned up for their team meeting, after Iran was attacked.

About a week ago, Israel launched an attack on Iran. By that, I mean, Israel sent missiles to blow up lots of places in Iran. Soon after that, an Iranian General (Mohsen Rezae) stood in front of a TV camera, cleared his throat, lifted his eyebrows and spoke with a deep voice ‘Pakistan has assured us that if Israel uses a nuclear bomb on Iran, Pakistan will attack Israel with a nuclear bomb.’

Fun-fact: Pakistan is the only Muslim country that has a nuclear bomb.

In the meanwhile, Pakistanis were sitting at home, eating kebabs and watching TV. When they heard this, they got all alarmed. The country’s defence minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif in his heightened state of agitation, jumped four feet into the sky, rushed to his desk, turned on his laptop, logged onto the most important website that he needed to use to communicate about the next steps of Pakistan using its nuclear bomb. He logged onto X (formerly known as Twitter), and wrote:

“Our nuclear capability is for the benefit of our people and defence of our country against the hostile designs of our enemies.”

He went back to eating his kebabs.

TV reporters love asking questions that make grown-ups squirm. The next day, another reporter popped up in front of this minister. Waving his microphone like a lightsaber, he asked him about this Iran-nuclear bomb-Israel question.

Reporter: "Do you have any fresh operational coordination with Iran, after Israel has attacked them?”

Khawaja Muhammad Asif paused, scratching his chin like he was solving a really tough math problem, finally said: “I don’t see any need for it.” (that is code for "Nah, we’re good.")

When did the idea of this group project called the Ummah (Islamic unity) even start?

It’s been around for centuries, but it got a big lift in the past 70 years.

Imagine you are a leader of a Muslim country, you don’t have any crude oil (but your friends do). You want to get some money from them. What do you do? Easy! You throw a party, roll out the red carpet, serve the fanciest kebabs, and give a big, emotional speech about the Ummah—AKA the "We’re All Best Friends Forever (BFFs) Club."

Fun-fact: Islamic countries are decently rich (they account for nearly 8% of world GDP). Many of them have lots of crude oil and other natural resources (e.g. Indonesia, Saudi Arabia).

The magic of a really good speech is that some will fall for it. Back in 1974, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave such a fiery performance in Lahore that Libya’s leader, Colonel Gaddafi (who often spent his time riding camels in the deserts of Africa) was moved to tears. Or maybe it was just the desert dust in his eyes.

Either way, Gaddafi, in a fit of "Islamic solidarity", decided to share Libya’s oil money with Pakistan, like it was free candy. Pakistan needed the cash as it was still recovering from losing a war to India in 1971.

Gaddafi: "Here, my brother! Take this money! Just promise to name a random lane after me."

Gaddafi also declared “Pakistan should pursue development of nuclear technology The Christians (USA) have a nuclear bomb, the Jews (Israel) have one, and now even the Hindus (India) have one! Where’s the Muslim nuke? This is unfair!”

Fun-fact: Bhutto was so thrilled that he went big in thanking his friend. He named the cricket stadium of Lahore after Gaddafi. Because nothing says "Thank you for the money, bro!" like slapping your friend’s name on a sports arena.

people watching game of cricket during sunset — Photo by Marcus Wallis on Unsplash

Should Iran be surprised that Pakistan is not helping them with anything more than words now?

Not really….

Because this is not the first time that a Muslim country has come under attack. When Iraq got wrecked in 2003, Libya in 2011, Syria in 2024, and Afghanistan in 2021—Pakistan didn’t threaten anyone with a nuclear bomb. So why would they start now?

Going beyond Pakistan, let’s see how the rest of the squad has behaved. Not only have they not banded together against Israel, some of them have even quietly helped Israel. Jordan is a Muslim country, right next door to Israel. While Israel started launching its missiles towards Iran, Jordan was still munching popcorn watching the fireworks through its window.

Jordan: "Fly right through, buddy. But, uh… maybe don’t post the flight path on Instagram?"

So much for the Ummah—more like "Umm… ah, never mind."

Fun-Fact: The top 6 Muslim countries with giant armies are
Pakistan – ~654,000 troops
Iran – ~610,000 troops
Turkey – ~425,000 troops
Egypt – ~320,000 troops
Indonesia – ~300,000 troops
Saudi Arabia – ~257,000 troops
Put these together, they could outnumber the United States’ army.

For years, Pakistan has been playing hide-and-seek with nuke questions when other Muslim countries have brought this up. So there is no good reason for Iran to have really thought that they'd start answering now.

silver tabby cat on brown wooden fence — Photo by Daria Shatova on Unsplash

Next time someone says religion unites nations… Remember: it’s mostly hocus pocus

The last time someone tried this was about a 1000 years ago. Those were the grand old days when Christianity thought religion as a group project was a good idea. They called this the Crusades—which was basically a road trip where knights in shiny armour got on their horses while forgetting to pack sunscreen. After a few centuries of awkward holy wars, they shrugged and went home, "You know what? Maybe let’s just do Christmas decoration and singing some carols instead."

Meanwhile, the Hindus mostly based out of India, have not gotten beyond arguing over whether turmeric should get a patent. ("Grandma’s recipe is sacred intellectual property, okay?!").

The Jews really just got together once, and that was to form Israel, a country for themselves. Other than that, the Jews in the rest of the world go about their lives sipping their coffee while reading the morning newspaper.

So, Islam is pretty much the only religion in modern times still trying to get some group spirit up by rallying people around the Islamic flag.

…..But religions and nations make for awkward roommates

Religion is a matter of person preference - a bit like your favourite ice cream flavour (what works for you is personal to you and yummy!). But when leaders start shouting 'Team God or God Squad Assemble!', grab your detective hat. Because what happens in reality is that countries always pick 'Team Me-First!'.

Here are some examples for why Team God has not worked well for Iran so far.

Pakistan and the US are best friends who trade lunch money for military weapons… but Israel is the US’s golden child who gets the top bunk. Pakistan won’t yell ‘I’ll nuke your favourite cousin!’ and expect to stay on the birthday party invite list of the US, no?
Azerbaijan (another Muslim country) has been comfortable buying military weapons from Israel (they make nice drones). Nothing beats ‘Muslim unity’ like ‘Ooooh, this drone has free shipping!
Turkey (a Muslim country) has had good relations with Russia and the EU (for the longest part, atleast). Because trade through the Black Sea earns the Turkish lots of money. The ‘holy war’ Turkey usually fights for, is to get discounted natural gas.
Saudi Arabia rakes in the money by selling their crude oil to the US and have been BFFs with America for the most part. ‘We sell them oil, they sell us weapons… it’s true love.’ While Saudi Arabia is Not Team Israel, it is definitely Not Team Iran. The Saudis have been in a long standing competition with Iran to win the race for the ‘Coolest, Best and Greatest Muslim Leader ever’. They must be secretly happy to see Iran getting weakened, so they can race ahead in this contest.
UAE and Bahrain: They are like rich uncles who side with Saudi Arabia at family reunions. They fear Iran’s influence growing. They smile at Iran at get-togethers but their wallets stay closed.

The Muslim world has a population of over 2 billion people. Israel has a population of 90 million. They would never have taken on Iran, if they suspected that the Ummah Super Squad was for real.

I know some people say that Muslim countries are not friends with Iran because Iran has a lot of Shias and other Muslim countries have Sunnis (Shias and Sunnis are two sects of Islam, fighting for the best chair in the room).

Shia vs. Sunni as the real reason? Please—if they really hated each other, they’d have united just to spite Jesus. But no, the real holy war is over who gets the oil money and the best throne.

six fighter jets — Photo by UX Gun on Unsplash

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