America has just spent $6 billion dollars on the most expensive election in US history to re-elect the man that will give them more of the same.Despite the rhetoric of ‘change' or ‘moving forward' nothing has really changed. Obama through his victory speech tried his best to conceal the doom and gloom of the status quo. But reality eventually hit home. As the stock market nose-dived, it dawned on the American public that the nightmare they had lived for the past four years is here to stay. The economy is a mess, US government is in paralysis, Americans are divided and in foreign policy matters it is business as usual.

For the Muslim world America's foreign policy is the main preoccupation. Here, once again there will be no change. Many of the leaders of the Muslim world welcome Obama's re-election as they believe America will continue to support and protect them. This is contrary to the average Muslim who considers Obama a crusader just like his predecessor Bush. It can be said that for many Muslims there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans both are warmongers eager to spill Muslim blood to protect American interests.

Since September 2001, America has been at war with the Islamic world. First Afghanistan and Iraq were the epicenter of this neo-crusade and this swiftly expanded to drone invasions of Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia under Obama. His first term ended with close support for Myanmar who government was responsible for the slaughter of Rohingya Muslims on an unprecedented scale and covert support for Assad to perpetrate death and destruction on an immeasurable scale in Syria. Will Obama's second term be any different?

Unlikely, as America's hegemony in the Arab and wider Muslim world is being challenged by the masses via the numerous uprisings. Most prominent of which is Syria. The foremost lesson from all these revolts is that the Muslim masses despise the suppression of Islam in their political lives by America and the West. To counter this existential threat America is forced to engage deeper with the Muslim world, otherwise she runs the risk of losing her interests.

The question of ridding America is now the main obsession in the Islamic world. This is likely to increase as Obama's second term progresses and more Islamic countries get invaded. Some Muslims wrongly believe that the way to displace America is through democratic elections. Others falsely adhere to the notion of fighting regimes that are supported by America as a means of liberation. Both methods have failed in the past and will fail in the future. The Arab revolts amply demonstrate that America uses the armies to control the outcome of the democratic elections and counter rebels. So the real agents of change are the armies of the Muslim world and nothing else. If Muslims truly want to bring about a permanent change in their political lives then they will have to get the armies loyal to America and other Western powers to switch sides.

But this is only one part of the solution. The other part is the political vision. Most if not all political visions espoused in the Muslim world are rooted in current nation state thinking. The vision advocated by those who profess to offer an Islamic alternative is more akin to a secular state with some Islamic dressing and a benign foreign policy. This is exactly what America is seeking in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. The only political vision that can lift the Muslim world out of its subservience to colonial powers is the Caliphate. Hence Muslims across the Islamic world have to adopt this vision and demand that the armed forces support it. Otherwise come 2017, the Islamic world will still be shackled to American and Western hegemony.

Abed Mostapha