Oxygen to Global Unrest
Extremism and terrorism
are the global epidemics of the 21st
century in that they prey upon and terrorize
innocent lives. “Extremism”
and “terrorism” have also
become buzzwords of dismissal, terms
used to de-legitimize legitimate resistance
movements. The talk of terror gnaws
at the gnat of individual or group terror
while swallowing the camel of state
terror.
There has been considerable finger pointing
in the West at Muslim extremism and
accusations of Muslims waging a religious
war.
Central to the spread of zealotry are
unresolved hot crisis spots around the
world. Most prominent among these is
the Palestinian cause. During a recent
gathering of Middle East luminaries
in Rabat, Morocco, attended by the US
Secretary of State Colin Powell, the
common refrain, even among pro-American
Arabs, was the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Palestine, along with conflicts
in Kashmir, Chechnya, and Iraq, provide
oxygen to global unrest.
The Baltimore Sun in an article of November
28 compared Indian-occupied Kashmir
with Israeli-occupied West Bank. It
made the case that more people have
been killed in Kashmir in the past 2
years than in the Palestinian Intifada
since the uprising started in 2000.
Then, too, according to a Washington
Post column of November 29, Iraq is
proving to be a morass comparable to
Vietnam: “Conditions are getting
worse not improving. Let us not take
false comfort. Man for man, soldier
or Marine in Iraq faces a mission nearly
as difficult as that in Vietnam a generation
earlier.”
At the same time, it is instructive
to cite Sam Harris, a Western author.
Writing for the Washington Times on
December 2, Harris said: “It is
time we admitted that we are not at
war with ‘terrorism’. We
are at war with Islam. This is not to
say that we are at war with all Muslims,
but we are absolutely at war with the
vision of life that is prescribed to
all Muslims in the Koran.”
Recent actions in America – including
the increase in police powers –
seemingly support that view. BBC reported
on December 18 that a Cornell University
study found that nearly 1 out of 2 Americans
support restricting the civil liberties
of Muslim Americans. Interestingly,
researchers found that those Americans
surveyed who paid more attention to
television news were more likely to
fear terrorist attacks and to support
limiting the civil rights of Muslim
Americans. Presumably, such support
also extends to US actions abroad and
to its detention center in Guantanamo.
The International Red Cross, as reported
in The New York Times of November 30,
charged that the US military has intentionally
used methods ‘tantamount to torture’
on Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo.
The Christian Science Monitor of November
29 cites a report released by the US
Defense Department and written by the
Defense Science Board that flays the
Bush Administration’s role in
the Muslim world. The report says: “Muslims
do not hate our freedom, but rather
they hate our policies. The overwhelming
majority voice their objections to what
they see as one-sided support in favor
of Israel and against Palestinian rights
… American efforts may have achieved
the opposite of what they intended.”
Even the over-cautious UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan has spoken of the
dangers of Islamaphobia. At a UN seminar
on December 7, he concluded: “The
weight of history and the fallout of
recent events have left many Muslims
around the world feeling aggrieved and
misunderstood, concerned about the erosion
of their rights, and even fearing for
their physical safety.”
As if to prove the point, The New York
Times of December 12 reported that an
Iranian couple working in the US were
both summarily fired from their jobs,
with no appeals allowed, because reportedly
they had failed, without further explanation,
a security background check.
Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who was
the keynote speaker at the December
7 UN seminar, noted that combating Islamophobia
must take into account “not only
the role of extremism in Islam, but
also the role of extremism among Christians
and Jews. Muslims must understand and
take advantage of the role of the media,
as well as of education.” The
seminar stressed the importance of making
Muslim voices and views heard.
In the post-9/11 world, where scant
regard is paid to international law,
Muslim scholars may consider presenting
their views more forthrightly and less
tentatively. The hearing they can now
get in the West could be a surprise.
