Evolution of Modern Islamic Terrorism : Oil, Politics & Scriptures
Whenever one starts analyzing the rise of modern Islamic terrorism , often one makes the mistake of starting by citing some politically correct and convenient Koranic versus like ‘Bismillah ir rahman ur rahim ‘meaning that Allah is most beneficent and merciful . Some even try to prove by quoting it that Islam is a religion of peace and terrorism is an aberration caused by humiliation , discrimination , deprivation and poverty as was done by the Iranian President in his just delivered speech in General Assembly .
This obviously is not true because world has so many countries / societies much poorer and more discriminated than the Islamic societies and they do not take to terrorism. A study by Bruce Hoffman of Rand Corporation found out that amongst the prevalent terrorist groups the religion based terrorist groups have increased from two out of 64 in 1980 to 26 out of 56 in 1995 . Surely it was not due to increased poverty or discrimination! It is not Allah but his followers who have never followed the underlying thought of Bismillah ir rehman ur rahim .
History of Islamic conquests and the conduct of muslims with others say hindus under their rule and even now in Bangladesh and Pakistan or Syrian soldiers by ISIS or Taliban in Afghanistan , will dispel any notion about Islam being a religion of peace . Yet it is a fact that about eighty percent of Islamic population does not approve of terrorism . So how is it that a largely unapproved, relatively recent terrorists conduct of muslims has virtually become their current identity world over . This has to be understood in the larger context of muslim psychology and the recent history of Islam.
With the defeat and end of the once mighty Ottoman Empire and division of its empire between France and Britain except Turkey, after the end of first world war in 1914 and finally the rise secularist Mustafa Kamal Pasha in 1923 and his rejection of conventional Islamic Rule even in in Turkey, by 1924 , the muslim world was crestfallen . It became totally disillusioned , disoriented and fragmented . Unlike many other religions tempered by scientific thought , puritan Islam is still a strong guiding force and the soul of all muslims and they believe ,value and hold their religion in far greater and overwhelming esteem than any other society. Other religions have seen reforms and are used to moderation by science and intensive questioning by heretics ,disbelievers , atheists etc. but not muslims as Islam has virtually shunned reforms of any kind since its origin . For muslims , Islam’s early global victory is the proof of its being right and Caliphate was the global Islam’s emotional sustenance . Palestine was another blow to their already bleeding heart .
Islamists lamenting the maltreatment of Palestine people forget that in a typical Islamic treatment of Kaffirs , Islamic Turks killed 1.5 million Armenian Christians in 1915-18 in revenge .The first Islamic terror group Ikhwan Al Musalmin ((Muslim Brotherhood ) was formed in 1928 in Egypt to eliminate moderate secular Islamist leaders .The old Ottoman empire was divided and new countries like Syria , Lebanon , Iraq , Kuwait , Jordan etc were created . Africa too was divided and new Islamic countries Libya , Algeria , Tunisia etc were created . In many Islamic countries military revolution brought new young rulers like Nasser in Egypt ( 1952), Baath party ( 1958) and Saddam in Iraq, Col Gaddafi ( 1969) in Libya, Assad ( 1952) in Syria etc. in fifties and sixties .
These were young and brash rulers and their success in organizing coups had made them very confident . Many of them with Russian influence and socialist leanings, like Nasser and Saddam and even Assad were relatively secular . In Egypt, the biggest Al Azhar madarsa was converted to a modern university by Nasser. But because of the Western conquest of Ottoman Empire and thus taking away even the fig leaf of global Islamic rule and its role and support to Israel in driving out Palestine people , they all perceived West as a Satanic force .
Because of greater attachment to religion , Islamic Secularism is not same as Western Secularism and is finally limited by the Islamic faith in Allah , destiny and Ummah ie Islamic Unity particularly against non muslims . Even the new secular rulers were bound by Islamic Ummah i.e. unity by faith even if they fought with each other otherwise.
The Palestine Israel conflict was really the origin of modern Islamic terrorism . It was really a conflict of two ‘ nationalism ‘ in which both sides were partially right . Jews were possibly the most persecuted people in modern times and holocaust and killings of millions of jews by Hitler had stirred the western guilt . They had been expelled so many times from so many nations just for their religion . They richly deserved the formation of the Jewish state of Israel.
But Arabs were right in questioning and rejecting right of British ,French and League of Nation in imposing Jew rule over muslims and displacing the Palestine people who were in majority there . Although all the new Arab countries were created by the same body but in no other country a muslim majority was ruled by a religious minority as proposed in Israel in which a jewish minority was to rule over Islamic majority . For a people so proud of ‘Swords of Islam’ as a core belief , it was the ultimate ignomy . But Israel was created legally and Arabs were wrong in their desire to reverse the process more so because the young Arab ruler’s legitimacy of revolution came out of guns only .
Modern Islamic terrorism’s origin lied in this conflict in which Arafat and PLO realized after the Arab defeat in 1967 that they cannot get their homeland by normal means . PLO adopted armed struggle much like Gorilla war of Vietnamese people . In any other part of the world it would have remained a local conflict of Israel and Palestine people just like say Indo Chinese conflict of 1962 . But because of Islamic ‘Ummah’, it became a religious conflict right from the very beginning . Arab countries violated the international law first by jointly attacking Israel on the very next day of its declaration of independence .They again tried it in 1967 and lost . After the Camp David accord between Egypt and Israel and accord between Jordan and Israel , the hot headed young Arab rulers like Gaddafi and rest of the Islamic world started supporting PLO’s gorilla war clandestinely . The first major oil price increase in 1973 gave Arabs a new power and confidence and their hopes and desire to rule , as in old times, were rekindled . So oil really gave them the dream and means to rule over the world again and OIC typically could not think of anything to be done collectively beyond restoring the ancient Islamic glory and Shariah . Unable to fight an open war , terror finally became a means of avenging all perceived injustices right from Islam’s extinction with Ottoman empire to Israel occupying the Palestine lands unjustifiedly . Israel became the common hate symbol of all muslims globally even for the totally unconnected ones in Europe ,Africa,Asia or Russia due to muslim Ummah.
Thus began the modern Islamic terrorism .
Its first peak came in 1972 when PLO killed eleven Israeli sportsmen in Munich olympics and when PLO hijacked the Lufthansa flight 615 . The highjackers were given assylym by Libya under Col Gaddafi. Arafat was lionized by Arabs for this act of terror inspite of fact that the people killed were innocent civilians not connected with Arab – Israel conflict. Palestine terrorist groups thus became a role model for muslims . Abu Nidal Organisation lead by Sabri AL- Banana , who left PLO in 1974 was responsible for killing 900 people in terrorist attacks .Muslim Brotherhood groups , believed to be behind killing of Anwar Sadat were based in Saudi Arabia though were very active in Egypt . Iranian backed Hezabolah another Palestine based group killed amongst others 269 American marines in a suicide attack in Beirut in 1983 . In 1988 Panam flight was blown up in air killing all the 243 passanger and 16 crew . Libya owned up the responsibility and paid the compensation finally ( Lockerbie bombing) .
Once again , it was Islamic Ummah that made Arabs support this patently wrong acts of terror killing of innocent civilians on the albi of Palestine.
Islam’s concern for lives of non muslims has been historically low because prophet himself had sanctioned killing of all innocent jews in Mecca just because they did not embrace Islam . They repeated it again and again with kaffirs world over .
How can one say that Islam is a religion of peace in face of all these killings of innocents civilians unconnected with any dispute. Nor were oil rich Iranians or Libyans poor by any standard .
But to be honest American use of Napalm bombs on civilians in Vietnam is really in no way different . Romans had persecuted Christians and Christians in turn had persecuted others as well. West had been lukewarm or even toleratnt of terror elsewhere as demonstrated in Canadian trial of Air India plane blowing up because most of the people who died were Indians .But world in general was a much more civilized place now in twentieth century and the Arab support of Islamic terror in killing innocent civilians was unacceptable was unacceptable.
The second fillip to Islamic terrorism was given sadly by Americans during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989 and the Iranian revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini . Americans financed Afghan rebels and gave them arms and money in abundance to avenge their defeat in Vietnam due to Russian support . But for mass recruitment and motivating Afghan fighters they used Islamic Madarsas and fanned the fervor for Islamic Jehad against infidel Russians . While Americans gave money , the success of PLO and Iranian revolution really gave jihadis the idealogical inspiration and hope .It unleashed extreme obscurantist Islamic fervor . It made Afghans, once ruled by a modern westernised king Zahir Shah , go back by hundred years . The final Russian withdrawl got interpreted as the victory of Jihad and thus a victory of the obscurantist Islam . Islamic world was jubiliant and wanted more victories. Najeeb’s hanging in Kabul ended moderation and secularism and through Taliban , the most brutal and obscurantist Afghans came to power and all moderates were either banished or killed .
It is this new confidence created by oil money and victory over Russia that led to the return of obscurantist Islam all over from Pakistan to Nigeria and China to Somalia. It gave muslims appetite to fight all perceived injustices by the same methodology.West too had a role in it like it bargained and took Libya off the hook for a payment leaving Gaddafi free to hunt for nuclear bomb from Pakistan and such activities. Inspite of its visible flaring of global militancy from Afghanistan , Americans used same tactics of creating obscurantist jihadi Islamic rebels in Middle East in the guise of restoring democracy. None believed them after the WMD fiasco in Iraq . It was generally rumoured in e mail world and believed that it was all done to save oil trade being done in dollars only which is crucial for survival of their debt ridden economy. Saddam’s death was rumoured to be organized because he was considering switching to Euro for oil trade . This possibly was the reason for Gaddafis killing too. American effort to install dummy regimes in middle east will ultimately fan Islamic terrorism even more . American strategy of fighting middle east war by using their mullahs as proxies as in Afghanistan cannot succeed in controlling terror . What Americans are now trying is really neo colonialism for oil wealth and ultimately it will get defeated because world cannot be fooled for ever .
Americans were not alone in exploiting Jihadi Islamic fervor for politics . Islamic rulers in Pakistan like Zia Ul Haq , Saudi Arabia and many other countries too exploited Islam and jihad for getting public acceptance of their rule . All over it is getting proved that that there is nothing called a good terrorist .Espousing terror even for a good cause finally boomerangs . The Syrian example of ISIS , created by Americans to fight Assad junior in Syria finally became a monster like Al Quaeda also once created by Americans in Afghanistan .
It must be understood that there is no dividing line between political , militant and religious Islam. It all is a matter of power available . Anyone understanding muslim psychology from first hand experience will testify that muslims cannot give up Ummah and Jinhad . They will use wealth for furthering Islam and Shariah rule only as islamic population is not evolved enough yet for persuing any other higher goals collectively. However unpleasant it may look , except massive use of force and heavy collateral damage , no other method will succeed in controlling this fervor now as otherwise the clandestine methods of diverting part of oil revenue to finance terror will continue . The use of massive force is necessary to curb this menace .
But after the demise of USSR , Americans are perceived as having started using force unilaterally and repeatedly for their political and economic objectives which is against the international law .The civil wars , though not exactly terrorism which were supported by west have really unleashed much more havoc on population in Africa and Asia . This promotion and use of rebel terror clandestinely to destablise Arab regimes is in no way different from Libyan support to terror in the final effect of debasing humanity. The albi of installing democracy in middle east is a sham . Iraq after Saddam and rise of Hammas in Gaza by democracy, should educate the attacking western nations that they should leave Islamic societies to be controlled by Islamic dictators only . Mullahs cannot be reigned by weak democracies there .But installing proxy rulers to usurp their money or force oil sale in dollars is unjust and is finally neo colonialism . Such actions will continue to give incentive to militarily weaker societies to adopt terrorism as a method of avenging their exploitation as is happening in middle east and will give respectability to mullahs.
So finally the cancer of Islamic terror has spread so much now that the use of massive force and inflicting heavy collatoral damage is now the only remedy . But it should not be to usurp oil wealth by indirect methods or violate the rights of peaceful nations or installing neo coloniasm.
