Friends,
The subject of today’s
discussion is very complex and multi-faceted, often not fully
understood. Even when many feel that they have understood the issues
related to this subject and is like a matrix of ignorance. This
evening, in a very limited time allotted to me, I will try to present
a summary and analysis of the root causes, as I see them. What you
will hear, may not be very significantly different from what you might
have felt or heard. However, this would be my perspective and I have
tried to present it in a lecture format.
The
reasons behind terrorism are as diverse like the people who commit
terrorist acts. Political and social oppression, religious
intolerance and divine revelation are a few of the most common reasons
cited by terrorist as justifications for their attacks. Whether
motivated by religious, political, ideological or military beliefs,
there is no single reason terrorists use to justify their attacks.
The
politics of terrorism is a matter of power—who has it and how one can
get it. Accepting this as a fundamental
aspect of terrorism does not suggest any immediate solutions, but can
direct further studies toward better explanations of the subject.
If we examine the connection between terrorism and factors such
as wealth, political freedom, geography, and ethnicity, we will
understand the assumption is very contradictory that socio-economic
distress drives people to extremism. The factors that created
militancy in religions have more to do with issues of identity
than with economics.
Socio-economic grievances, explain, but do not justify terrorism in
general together with poverty, ignorance, corruption and political
oppression, all of which may lead to terrorism. But do they?
Having said
that, any direct connection between poverty, education, and terrorism
appears to be indirect, complicated, and probably quite weak. This is
like a situation in which
a person who is looking for his lost keys keeps searching under the
streetlight instead of where they are lost, because the light is
better and easier to look in, rather than the dark areas. This
highlights the human nature of exploring the familiar areas rather
than to face and address the real problems.
The human desire to identify "root
causes" and be able to correct them is quite natural. There must be an
explanation for the inexplicable. What are the root causes of
terrorism? Those who hold on to the belief of poverty as the root
cause of the present day terrorism, know that the facts do not fit
their model, because the backgrounds of these killers indicates that
they are without exception, quite privileged and their patrons are
affluent citizens of the wealthy statelets, not exactly victims of
poverty in dictatorships. However, at the same time, to exclude
economics as the root cause of terrorism means that there are
conditions that correlate strongly to political violence and
terrorism, however these are far less obvious and much more complex to
analyze.
For
ease of understanding, I have divided my presentation into three
parts, representing the three major factors, which contribute to the
development of terrorism. There may be other factors, but by including
the three major ones, I believe the analysis would be meaningful. The
three factors are:
1.
The burden of past
history.
2.
The ideological basis of
terrorism.
3.
Neo-colonialism & monopoly
capitalism as a fuel of terrorism.
These factors are randomly listed and not in the order of priority.
1.
THE BURDEN
OF PAST HISTORY:
Failure to
eradicate terrorism has often been attributed to the role of
historical, cultural and religious factors in motivating terrorism.
Within the Muslim world, the in-fighting between different schools of
belief within Islam, the tragedy of Karbala, the long and painful
history of persecution of minorities by different Muslim caliphs and
Kings, insurgencies and counterinsurgencies created belief systems
that were “cast in stone”. What
we inherited were fragmented attitudes and societies without any
vision, living on a day-to-day basis.
The
history of power brokers, wars, Crusades and of a perpetual conflict,
which was spread over a long period of time left deep scars and
societies with inherent contradictions on basic social issues. The
victors of these wars persecuted and subjugated the people who had
lost. Jerusalem kept changing hands, the fall of Byzantine Empire,
Wars in Armenia in the north and Egypt in the south, Violent battles
for control of northern Africa, conquest of Spain, the Battle of
Tours, invasions of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the capture of Baghdad
by Seljuk Turks are some extremely bloody chapters of Crusades and the
direct consequence of a lethal mix of religion with politics & power.
Then
the history witnessed Muslim warriors, including Nooruddin Zengi and
Salahuddin Ayubi, who fought to reunite the fractured parts of the
Muslim Middle East. That is the time when the word “jihad”
appears in the historical Muslim writings. The counter conquest of
Jerusalem became permanent. Then came the last Muslim force called the
Ottoman Turks and the powers of Balkan began to fall before the
Ottoman advance. Whatever happened later is a tragic and blood stained
chapter of human history, the echoes of which were witnessed in
Bosnia, Kosovo and other parts of the former Yugoslavia. However the
most important fact need to be mentioned here is the way different
parties viewed this tragedy in the aftermath. Europe saw a huge
transformation of new ideas and the basic perception of religion as a
source of governance started to be questioned. The realization that
Church and the State had to be separated from public life was taking
shape.
The
tragedy of human destruction, however continued and still continues to
this day, but under different pretexts of power, control of resources,
survival, neo-colonialism and proxy wars. The Western powers, most
importantly, Britain played a very dirty role in the Middle East,
India and many other parts of Africa and Asia. The propped up, armed
and abetted local monsters who were loyal to them and pitted people
against people. The demography of destruction and the policy of divide
and rule are now considered a trademark of the colonial Britain. Who
can forget the evil connivance between the father of the “custodian of
the two holy Mosques” and British conspirators. Another “civilized”
country, France played a similar game in various parts of African
continent, from which to this day, human agony and suffering does not
go away.
Amidst all this turbulence, a group of people, who happened to be
Muslims, took a darker view of the historical burden. Relatively, they
continued to view the violent past as nothing but episodes of
ideological contest between Islam and other faiths. The split between
these two worlds is felt even today deeply by a particular mindset of
Muslims as an act of rape committed by the western powers, totally
forgetting that our Muslim predecessors did no less. The only
difference is that they remained predisposed with the aftermath of the
lost wars and now it appears that they are out again, fully charged
with the ideology of hate. The atrocities committed in the name of
Jesus Christ and Allah, still haunts the world and will continue to do
so.
2.
THE
IDEOLOGICAL BASIS OF TERRORISM
A
major question which haunts us today is: Does Islam has any violent
undertones? If so, why and how so, and if not, why and how has Islam
been made so violent, at this time?
All of you, at some time or another must have heard people say that
Islam cannot be used to justify terrorist crimes, and that terrorism
is completely contrary to our teaching and practice. No school of
Islam allows the targeting of civilians or the killing of innocents
and that indiscriminate, senseless and targeted killing has no
justification in Islam. Lot of our so called “Islamic sanitizers” keep
making these statements that these are the acts of pathologically mad
people and Islam has absolutely nothing to do with it.
As a matter of fact, a serious reading tells us exactly the opposite.
Islam has surely everything to do with it. The terrorists are using
Islamic sources to justify their actions. How can any one then say
that it has nothing to do with Islam?
I will surely believe that the vast majority of Muslims hate violence
and terrorism, and that the main message of Islam is peace.
Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to assume that Quran or Islamic
law cannot be used to justify barbaric acts. The terrorists are a
product of a specific mindset that has deep roots in Islamic history.
They are nourished by a cult of Islamic tradition that is
intrinsically inhuman and violent in its rhetoric, thought and
practice. They are provided spiritual comfort by scholars, who use
references from the Koran and other Islamic sources to justify their
actions. I would have surely liked to have gone into those sources,
but the time does not permit me to do so, so I would leave it for
another day and another seminar.
Recognizing the Islamic nature of the problem, it becomes our
responsibility to examine the tradition that sustains them. One could
argue that the question of violence is not unique to Islam and all
those who claim exclusivity to religion have tolerance for and
tendency towards violence. It has been true for all religions and all
ideologies down through every age. However, at the present time the
terrorists have placed a unique burden on Muslims, in particular.
Denial of the fact that they are a product of Islamic history and
tradition is a denial of responsibility and a refusal to live in the
real world.
The Wahhabi tradition that nourishes the mentality of the extremists
have a few prominent inherent characteristics. First, it detests
history and drains it of all humanity and human content. Islam, as a
religion interpreted in the lives and thoughts of people, did not
unfold in history with its human strengths and weaknesses, but was and
is a utopia that existed outside time. Hence it had no notion of
progress or human evolution.
Wahhabism, the dominant religious cult of the terrorists of the
present times, consider that the context, such as the pages of history
are not only irrelevant but dangerous and have to be expunged. To
them, the time of the Prophet was a perfect time, frozen and
eternalized. So there is no room for any kind of improvement and it is
the embodiment of morality, incapable of any further growth. Secondly,
it does not recognize, understand or appreciate a contrary view or any
form of diversity. The humanist and rationalist traditions of Islam,
or the great mystical traditions have been declared as dangerous
deviations by the Wahhabi cult.
Thirdly, this extremist cult is aggressively self-righteous; and
insists on imposing its version of righteousness on others. It
legitimizes intolerance and violence by endlessly quoting the famous
verse from the Quran that asks the believers “Amar-e bilmaaroof &
Nahi-un-il munkir”, meaning “to do good and prevent evil deeds”.
Wahhabis and other extremists, frequently offer references in support
of their intolerant theological orientation. For example, they
frequently quote the Qur'anic verse that states: “O' you who believe,
do not take the Jews and Christians as allies. They are allies of each
other, and he amongst you who becomes their ally is one of them.
Verily, God does not guide the unjust.”
It would be
hypocritical to deny that the Qur'an and other Islamic sources offer
possibilities of intolerant interpretation. Clearly these
possibilities are exploited by the contemporary Wahhabis and
extremists. Historically, Islamic civilization had displayed a
remarkable ability to recognize possibilities of tolerance, and to act
upon these possibilities. Islamic civilization at a certain time in
history also practiced humanistic ideas that preserved Greek
philosophy, and generated much science, art, and socially benevolent
thought. Unfortunately, however, the present day extremists are
dissipating and wasting this inspiring moral tradition. They are
increasingly shutting off the possibilities for a tolerant
interpretation of the Islamic tradition.
Prophet Muhammad was succeeded by four Caliphs. Three of the Four
caliphs were murdered. People who murdered Imam Ali, the Fourth
Caliph, came from a sect called Khawarij, (who were the ideological
forefathers of the present day Wahhabi cult) who believed that history
had come to an end after the Last Prophet and there could not be any
debate or dialogue on any question, as according to them, “the
decision is God's alone” They were prone to extremist proclamations,
pronouncing everyone who did not agree with their point of view as
infidel. To be a Muslim, they argued, is to be in a perfect state of
soul. Someone in that state cannot commit a sin and engage in
wrongdoing. Sin, therefore was a contradiction for a true Muslim - it
nullified the believer and demonstrated that inwardly he was an
apostate who had turned against Islam. Thus anyone who did any wrong
was not really a Muslim and could be put to death. These people were
the original architects and originators of the present day ideology of
terrorism and violence.
The ideology of these people was suppressed and again recurred in
Islamic history with cyclic regularity followed by continuous
bloodletting. Whenever Muslims tried to open up their societies and
initiated a process of dialogue, it was followed by rebellions and
violence, which spread like an epidemic in the Muslim societies. It is
worthwhile to mention here that prominent Imams in eleven generations
of Prophet Mohammad’s own family did not die a natural death. They
were either killed or poisoned to death, by whom?, no one else but
Muslims. Today we can see this ideological influence on those who
subscribe to the terrorist doctrine.
Since the present day neo-extremists, have removed humanity and
history out of the equation, they do not seem to have any conscience,
any notion of guilt or remorse. Since the idea that they are perfect
is part of their psychological make-up, they can do anything with
impunity. Violence is inbuilt in their thought and tradition, which,
under certain circumstances, is transformed into undiluted fascism.
Wrapping up this part of my presentation, I wish to say that we, the
Muslims cannot get away by simply saying that these people are "not
Muslims". We have to acknowledge that the extremists are products of
Islamic history. Only by recognizing this brutal fact, we might
realize that the fight against terrorism is also an internal Muslim
struggle within Islam. Indeed, it is an internal struggle. Muslims
have to use the same building blocks to find a solution as the ones
used to make slippery slope on which pathological mindsets are
created, where Islam is used to justify the unjustifiable.
The ability of human
beings to interpret texts is a blessing and a burden. It is a blessing
because it provides us with the flexibility to adapt texts to changing
circumstances. It is a burden because the reader must take
responsibility for the normative values he or she brings to the text.
3.
NEO-COLONIALISTIC
CAPITALISM AS A FUEL FOR TERRORISM
Political injustice and resistance to
military occupation are perhaps the most often cited reasons for
terrorism. Terrorists often reason the opposing government has not
responded to legitimate demands for political change and consequently
they must take up arms.
Yet
this struggle to combat the menace of terrorism cannot be shaped on
the lines of the so called “war on terror”. The “war on terror” feeds
the monster what it most desires: violent reaction to sustain the
cycle of violence. This is exactly why Iraq has now become a breeding
ground for the neo-Wahhabi philosophy. A country, which had very open
minded people, is now a physical embodiment of death and destruction.
Thank You America.
The war on terror, in fact, cannot be a war at all. It has to be a
reasoned engagement with the politics of tradition. If Islam has been
construed as the problem, then Islam is also the essential ingredient
in the solution.
The best way to combat the brutal Wahhabi tradition is with the
humanistic and rationalist traditions of Islam. This is how they were
defeated in Islamic history and this is exactly how they will be
defeated now. If Muslims do not take on the challenge, they actually
surrender the initiative to those who have misconceived the problem
and accepted a military strategy that is not a solution at all, and
that will make us all prey to more violence.
Why
is it that the understanding of the Divine has been totally distorted
through the prism of violence? This is an unhappy fact that the Muslim
world has absorbed more the fallout and radical ideologies from the
West than its own liberal ideas and philosophies of Sufi saints,
poets, reformers and in some cases men of letters. The war games by
the Western powers, US, Israel and the wars by proxy of the
superpowers in our own backyards have corrupted our youth and made
them radical to a level which was unthinkable, otherwise. As a matter
of fact, Muslims, partly due to the fallout of neo-colonialism and
partly due to bad governance have been left out, at the crossroads.
From the outset of the military assault against Afghanistan, it was
known to the politically conscious people that this is not simply a
war for justice or security against terrorist attacks but is bound up
with the geo-political aims of imperialistic capitalism and appears to
be an effort towards the establishment of neo-colonial forms of rule
in a number of countries.
The ongoing and de
facto partition of Iraq signals the start of a new division of the
world by the imperialists. The colonies of yesterday will again be
subjugated. The conquests and annexations which belonged to a bygone
era according to the opportunist apologists of imperialism are once
again order of the day.
Recently, Turkey's
Prime Minister Mr. Erdogan criticised military solutions to the
so-called war on terror, saying the US-led invasion of Iraq had
transformed the country into a training ground for extremists and that
military action was not an effective way to combat militants. He also
said that global defence budgets totalled more than one trillion US
dollars annually, with only a small fraction of that amount spent
trying to eradicate extremism's root causes such as poverty, ignorance
and religious intolerance.
The imperialist
argument that the existence of “failed states” provides the
justification for imperialist intervention & rule is an utter
nonsense. The so-called “failed states” are a direct product of the
interventions of the imperialist powers in organizing coups, stoking
up civil wars and ethnic conflicts for their own purposes, and arming
repressive regimes, together with the imposition of economic policies
that have created a social disaster for people of these countries. In
a not too distant past, glaring examples of this activity can be seen
in Dr. Musadaq’s Iran, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Falkland, Nicaragua,
El-Salvador, Cuba, Chile, Pakistan and the list goes on.
The impoverishment of
the entire sub-Saharan region of the African continent, for
example—the region of many such “failed states”—stems from the fact
that in any year the repayment of loans and interest to the major
Western banks and bodies such as the International Monetary Fund is
greater than the entire budget for health and education.
The facts concerning
the role of the US, in collaboration with the Saudi regime and
military hawks of Pakistan in financing the warring factions to the
tune of at least $10 billion, the support provided to the Taliban and
the promotion of Osama bin Laden when it served the interests of the
imperialist powers, are completely ignored. They left their children
in our home to become a time bomb.
The chaos caused by
yesterday’s crimes is made the starting point for the perpetration of
new ones, beginning with the establishment of colonial forms of rule.
The problem in Afghanistan was not that the US armed the fighters in
Afghanistan in order to wage a proxy war against the Soviet Union
during the 1980s but that it pulled out of Afghanistan with the
withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989, leaving the country to the
warlords.
Under the banner of
the global fight against terrorism, the imperialist powers, led by the
United States, are preparing nothing less than the re-organization of
the world through the imposition of military power. This has resulted
in the militarization of international relations and politics, which
proves that imperialism, is incompatible with democratic forms of
rule.
The monopoly
capitalism promoters must not forget the “glory days” of British
imperialism. The carve-up of the world in the latter part of the 19th
century and the first part of the 20th did not bring any peace and
prosperity. Rather, it led to two inter-imperialist wars, resulting in
hundreds of millions of deaths as the major capitalist powers—the US,
Britain, Germany, France, and Japan—inevitably came into conflict with
each other in the global struggle for resources, markets and spheres
of influence.
I
would like to end my presentation with a quotation from the writings
of Vladimir Lenin.
“The principal feature of the latest stage of capitalism is the
domination of monopolist associations of big employers. Colonial
possession alone gives the monopolies complete guarantee against all
contingencies in the struggle against competitors. The more monopoly
capitalism is developed, the more strongly the shortage of raw
materials is felt, the more intense the competition and the hunt for
sources of raw materials throughout the whole world, the more
desperate the struggle for the acquisition of colonies”.
Thank you for a patient hearing.
