"The Peace on The Horizon - 70 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East"(44)

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By Areha Kazuya

E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp

 

Chapter 6: Genealogy of Islamic terrorism

 

6-1(44)　The roots of modern Islamic terrorism

 

According to Oxford English Dictionary, "terrorism" is " the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims." The motive of terrorism can be divided into three categories: ethnic conflict, religious conflict and ideological conflict. As mentioned before, ethnic conflict is a problem of "blood", speaking in modern terms, the confrontation of DNA. And the conflict of ideology is the problem of "political belief". The conflict of religion is the problem of "generosity".

 

The Kurdish independence movement was a terrorism caused by the ethnic conflict in the Middle East. Ethnic terrorism is very common throughout the world. It probably will take place in the future continuously because DNA is eternal. However, after the World War II, the international community based on the nation states made ethnic conflicts smaller and regional.

 

Terrorism caused by confrontation of ideology had occurred frequently in various places of the world during the Cold War. Che Guevara (Ernesto Guevara) born in Argentina, Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro of Cuba were terrorists of socialist ideology against Cuban dictatorship. The terrorism based on ideology is the product of principal. Therefore, different from the ethnic or religious terrorism, ideological terrorism has the character to spread all over the world. Ideological terrorism has almost diminished after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 when liberalism and capitalism kicked socialism and communism. It was just Prof. Francis Fukuyama said in "The End of History and the Last Man".

 

Religious terrorism used to penetrate geographically in width rather than ethnic terrorism because religion itself has the character to penetrate beyond ethnic boundaries or borders. In the era of imperialism and colonialism in Western Europe, Christian missionaries had been doing missionary work as the front of invasion. Although the missionaries would not have been conscious as the invaders, they treated the native religions as being inferior to Christianity under the name of "God" or "Christ". There were many terrors by the native religious powers against the invasion of Christianity.

 

There are three types of religious terrorism depending on opponents. One is a conflict with infidels, the second is conflict with ideology, and the third is sectarian conflict within the same religion. From the Muslims’ point of view, the conflict with infidels appears as a conflict with Judaism or Christianity which are the same monotheism. In logics, "Jehovah" of Judaism, "God" of Christianity and "Allah" of Islam are the same one because the supreme existence of monotheism is one only. In fact, Islam teaches that Allah, God and Jehovah are exactly the same one. But Judaism and Christianity older than Islam recognize each other as Old Testament and New Testament, but they never accept Allah of Islam. Thus, the religious conflicts have been continuing for centuries in the form of Jewish-Christian union versus Islam.

 

In the 20th century, Islam was challenged by political ideology. Communist atheism was exactly the dogma of the devil for Islam, which denied the supreme existence of Allah. For Muslim the hostility to atheism is so big as to be compared with the Christian who was brain-washed by liberalism and capitalism. When communism grabbed the power, Islamic forces resisted with terrorism. The Afghan conflict was exactly such case.

 

And when communism lost power the sectarian confrontation has appeared as a new stream of terrorism. Sectarian conflict among the same religion was conflict over "legitimacy". The disruption and confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites of Islam occurred just before the Prophet Muhammad died. Sunnis disputed the legitimacy of the teachings of Islam. On the other hand, the Shiites raised the legitimacy of the prophet's genealogy. However, both parties have stopped their struggle shortly. Generally speaking, Shiites were inherited in Iran of the Persian nation, and Sunnis were handed down to the Arabs.

 

The roots of modern Islamic terrorism was in the Sunni radical group Al Qaeda. Al-Qaeda was an Islamic fundamentalism (Sarafist) organization launched by Osama Bin Laden who was the son of Saudi Arabian Billionaire Bin Laden family. Islamic Sarafist fought against Afghanistan Communism regime with radical terrorist activities. When the Soviet Union withdrew in 1989, and the local Taliban took the power, Osama Bin Laden, a leader of Al-Qaeda, left Afghanistan.

 

The purpose of Osama Bin Laden was to deploy Islamic fundamentalism in other Muslim countries. He thought that the liberalism and democracy of Western European countries devastated the sublime value of Islam. He had strolled Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa one after another. He also utilized the Internet which has been prevailing at that time. He agitated the masses by returning to the fundamentalism in Muhammad era.

 

Al-Qaeda spreads into the Islamic world by ramification. And the anti-government terrorist organizations self-nominated the name of al-Qaeda in various regions or countries. They were "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)", "Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)”, “Al Qaeda in Iraq”, “Jemaah Islamiyah” in Indonesia, “Abu Sayyaf Group” in the Philippines, etc. Furthermore, a lone wolf terrorist declared himself as a sympathizer of Al Qaeda in a crime statement. The name of Al Qaeda became a famous brand of Islamic terrorism. People looked on Osama bin Laden as hero of Islam.

 

(To be continued ----)