New Rand Study
Suggests Radical Approach
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
CA
In a radical approach, a new
Rand Corporation study recommends that Sunni,
Shiite and Arab, non-Arab divides should be exploited
to promote the US policy objectives in the Muslim
world.
The Rand study titled “U.S. Strategy in
the Muslim World After 9/11” has been conducted
on behalf of the United States Air Force. One
of the primary objectives of the study, released
on December 15 2004, was to “identify the
key cleavages and fault lines among sectarian,
ethnic, regional, and national lines and to assess
how these cleavages generate challenges and opportunities
for the United States.”
“The majority of the world’s Muslims
are Sunni, but a significant minority, about 15
percent of the global Muslim population, are Shi’ites…..
The expectations of Iraqi Shi’ites for a
greater say in the governance of their country
presents an opportunity for the United States
to align its policy with Shi’ite aspirations
for greater freedom of religious and political
_expression, in Iraq and elsewhere,” the
study says.
It points out that with the moves toward rapprochement
between Tehran and Riyadh, there are reports that
Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ites are now turning
from Iran and placing their hopes in the United
States.
“Their expectation is that any move toward
democracy in Iraq would give the Shi’ite
majority a greater say in the politics of that
country and increase their ability to help their
brethren in Saudi Arabia. Such expectations could
present an opportunity for the United States to
align its policy with Shi’ite aspirations
for greater freedom of religious and political
_expression and a say in their own affairs in
countries controlled by others.”
On the division between the Arab and the non-Arab
worlds, the Rand Study pointed out: “Arabs
constitute only about 20 percent of the world’s
Muslims, yet interpretations of Islam, political
and otherwise, are often filtered through an Arab
lens. A great deal of the discourse on Muslim
issues and grievances is actually discourse on
Arab issues and grievances. For reasons that have
more to do with historical and cultural development
than religion, the Arab world exhibits a higher
incidence of economic, social, and political disorders
than other regions of the so-called developing
world.
“By contrast, the non-Arab parts of the
Muslim world are politically more inclusive, boast
the majority of the democratic or partially democratic
governments, and are more secular in outlook.
Although the Arab Middle East has long been regarded
(and certainly views itself) as the core of the
Muslim world, the most innovative and sophisticated
contemporary work in Islam is being done on the
‘periphery’ — in countries such
as Indonesia and in Muslim communities in the
West, leading some scholars to ask whether Islam’s
center of gravity is now shifting to more dynamic
regions of the Muslim world.”
The Rand Report holds the post-independence political
and economic failures responsible for the current
political environment of the Muslim world in general
and the Arab world in particular. “Many
of the ills and pathologies that afflict many
countries in this part of the world and that generate
much of the extremism we are concerned about derive
from — and contribute to — economic
and political failure.”
This situation, the study argued, leads to the
concept of structural anti-Westernism (or anti-Americanism).
“This concept holds that that Muslim anger
has deep roots in the political and social structures
of some Muslim countries and that opposition to
certain US policies merely provides the content
and opportunity for the _expression of this anger.”
According to the Rand study, “Outside the
Arab Middle East, Islamization has involved the
importation of Arab-origin ideology and religious
and social practices — a phenomenon that
we refer to as Arabization.”
The Rand study claims that a number of critical
or catalytic events have altered the political
environment in the Muslim world in fundamental
ways. “Catalytic events include the Iranian
revolution, the Afghan war, the Gulf war of 1991,
the global war on terrorism that followed the
September 11 terrorist attacks, and the Iraq war
of 2003.”
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Kashmir
conflict, the study says, are not catalytic events
per se but rather chronic conditions that have
shaped political discourse in the Middle East
and South Asia for over half a century.The Palestinian-Israeli
conflict and Kashmir have retarded the political
maturation of the Arab world and Pakistan by diverting
scarce material, political, and psychic resources
from pressing internal problems, the study says.
The Rand study calls for madrassa and mosques
reforms in the Muslim world and suggested that
US should “support the efforts of governments
and moderate Muslim organizations to ensure that
mosques, and the social services affiliated with
them, serve their communities and do not serve
as platforms for the spread of radical ideologies.”
The Rand Study even suggested that there should
be government appointed and paid professional
imams in all mosques to suppress anti-Westernism
and anti-Americanism.
“While only Muslims themselves can effectively
challenge the message of radical Islam, there
is much the United States and like-minded countries
can do to empower Muslim moderates in this ideological
struggle,” observes Angel Rabas, lead author
of the study.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of
the online magazine American Muslim Perspective.
www.amperspective.com
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