ABDUL-MAJID JAFFRY argues that the problem of Muslim militancy cannot be solved without undoing the injustices faced by the Muslims all over the world.
“Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards,” so pronounce the chattering experts in global media. In the present quandary, Islam and Muslims are equated with fascism and violence. The statement, “the most hate-driven violence in the world today is perpetrated by Muslims,” is widely debated in international fora. The pundits and self-anointed analysts paint only part of the picture; unable or unwilling to see beyond the black and white of the topic. They present the view of the Muslim militancy as a conflict between the West and Islam, confrontation between the Franks and Muslims, and as another chapter in the long struggle of Crescent and Cross. Former President Bush’s asinine explanation, “(Muslim extremists) hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other,” may be bought by the blithe and naïves but laughed away by the informed citizenry; it was simply a political rhetoric meant to rouse support in the gullible masses.
It would require unbiased courage and logical clarity to go beyond the superficial sound bites and put the events into wider global political context to identify the cause of the militancy in the Muslim world; a diagnosis is needed before the cure is found.
Islam is neither inherently militant nor inherently pacifist. As with the people of other faiths, it’s the prevailing political and socioeconomic circumstances, which form the collective character of the Muslim populace. The situation on the ground provides a context or even inspires violence or, on the other hand, contributes its renunciation. If we explore the political tension prevailing in the Muslim world, the root cause of militancy will become apparent; root cause is defined as, “a factor that is both necessary and a sufficient condition for an event.”
It’s not the illiteracy, poverty, or “hate-filled education” that provokes violence, in the Muslim world or elsewhere, as some argue. The ETA in Spain, Red Brigades in Italy, the IRA in Ireland, Hezbollah in Lebanon are all based in affluent, educated and secular communities. Various organisations that operated under the auspices of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation were secular in their character. The alleged perpetrators of 9/11 incident were, both educated and came from well-to-do backgrounds. Osama bin Laden is a professional engineer and millionaire, his right hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri is a medical doctor. Research has shown that no relation seems to exist between illiteracy and poverty and militancy.
The theory of illiteracy, poverty, and “hate-filled education” is circulated only to camouflage the root cause and the real issues surrounding Muslim militancy. A.W. Kruglanski of University of Maryland says in his research paper on Terrorism, “Specific personality factors, poverty, oppression, etc. cannot (Kruglanski’s emphasis) be considered the root causes of terrorism because they are neither necessary nor sufficient for terrorism to occur.” Therefore, we must look beyond the realm of illiteracy, poverty and religious radicalism to ascertain the true cause of the violence in the Muslim world.
If not illiteracy or poverty, what then might be the root cause of the Muslim militancy?
If we survey the Muslim world, we will find the land from Palestine to Iraq to Afghanistan to Chechnya to Xinjiang to Mindanao is overwhelmed with illegal occupations and oppressions. It’s this sense of political injustice and deprivation that’s fuelling militancy in Muslims. The essential motive, intent and action in the recent Muslim militancy are hidden in the political oppression and humiliation that Muslims suffer at the hands of occupiers, usurpers and tyrants. It’s the despair and indignities, oppression and dehumanisation – predictable outcome of social and political injustice – that breeds and nourishes and provides fertile ground for violence.
The U.S.-led misguided “war against terror” in response to 9/11 attack is exasperating, not curbing the terror. It is seen as a ploy to help perpetuate occupations and oppressions in the Muslim world. The worldwide war on terror has afforded the perfect excuse to repressive regimes in Tel Aviv and Beijing, among others, to crackdown harder than ever on the human rights and self-determination movements. The U.S. is increasingly identified with the political and military powers that are responsible for the exploitation of Muslim masses.
Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China in a joint report, Devastating Blows: Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, issued in April 2005 accuse China for using the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent US-led “war on terror” as a cover to crush Uighur Muslims. Peaceful Uighur activists are being arrested, tortured and at times executed, while harsher punishments are given for so-called separatist activity, which Chinese officials term “terrorism”.
For over six decades, the Palestinians have been denied the right to statehood and right to return home. According to the latest UNRWA estimates, 2.5 million Palestinians are rotting in the overcrowded refugee camps, while over 500,000 Israeli settlers have taken illegal residence on occupied Palestinian land. The act of a Palestinian blowing himself up at an Israeli military check post is terrorism, but the Israeli military’s firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated Palestinians is called retaliation. The West calls Hamas, in whose arsenal are little more than firecrackers, a terrorist organisation and censures it for capturing an Israeli soldier, while completely ignoring Israel’s tanks smashing their way into Palestinian towns and capturing Palestinians from their homes. There are thousands of Palestinians held by Israelis without trial, including women and children.
Whether it’s Palestine or Xinjaing or Russian occupied Muslim republics in Central Asia or Mindanao where Muslims are reduced to minority, in what were once their homelands or Abu Ghraib, Bagram and Guantanamo prisons, one finds Muslims being systematically denied the life of dignity and being prevented from living honourably. The occupying and oppressive regimes in various parts of the Muslim world have inflicted overwhelming sense of deprivation and humiliation which inevitably created a collective rage among Muslims and gave way to “the globalisation of militancy.”
How the militant struggle of the oppressed people who are militarily occupied and systematically dispossessed of their homelands and robbed of their resources can be termed as terrorism?
As Fawaz Gerges, in his book, Journey of the Jihadist elucidates that the key to understanding Muslim militancy does not lie only in religion but also in politics. It’s not the religion Islam, its teachings or its followers that are to be blamed for violence, nor is the agitation the result of an epochal confrontation of civilizations. It’s simply the injustice and humiliation caused by the occupation and colonisation of the Muslim world that feed into the Muslim militancy.
Any approach to the solution of Muslim militancy without first recognising and addressing the political injustices faced by Muslims around the world is bound to fail. U.S. may totally eliminate Al-Qaeda and defeat Taliban, and Israel may kill and capture leaders and rank and file of Hamas, and Russia may follow the advice of its minister “to win this war, one has to destroy the entire male population of Chechnya”, however the problem of Muslim militancy will not go away. It will persist with same or yet with greater passion and intensity unless the political injustice and human rights violations – ills from which Muslims have suffered for too long – are removed. Only Liberty and Justice for all, including Muslims can solve the problem.