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According to observers, 9/11 stems from Islamic fundamentalists seeing the US as an aggressive force that seeks to steal the Muslims' resources, exploit their labour and undermine their religion. There is a feeling that Washington and Hollywood are together working to establish a hegemony over the world. In the words of Ayatollah Khomeini: “The danger that America poses is so great that if you commit the smallest oversight, you will be destroyed... America plans to destroy us, all of us.” (Imam Khomeini, Islam and Revolution, trans. Hamid Algar; Berkeley, Calif.: Mizan Press, 1981; pp. 286, 306). This thinking has helped shape a mentality that views violence against the US as defensive in nature. Ikrama Sabri, Yasser Arafat's man running the Palestinian Authority's religious hierarchy in Jerusalem often condemns the US in his Friday sermons. For example, he said: “Oh Allah, destroy America, her agents and her allies!” (Voice of Palestine, 12-9-1997). In this context, it is worthwhile mentioning what Daniel Pipes, Director, Middle East Forum and author of a new book due out this summer, entitled Militant Islam Reaches America, writes in a scholarly article “A New Round of Anger and Humiliation: Islam after 9/11”, published by Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2002: “This context helps explain why the Muslim world responded as it did to the September 11 atrocities, even before it was clear who had perpetrated them. In most of the world, initial reactions to this news was mournful. Peoples and governments alike responded with heartfelt grief and with the sense of common humanity. But among Muslims, the killing of thousands of Americans prompted less a sense of grief than one of pleasure. 'Bull's eye', commented Egyptian taxi drivers as they watched reruns of the World Trade Center collapse. 'It's payback time', said a Cairene. Other Egyptians expressed a wish for George W. Bush to have been buried in the buildings or exulted that this was their most happy moment in decades. And so it went around the Middle East. In Lebanon and the West Bank, Palestinians shot guns into the air, a common way of showing delight. 'We’re ecstatic', said a Lebanese. In Jordan, Palestinians handed out sweets in another expression of joy.
“Outside the Middle East, a good many Muslims expressed the view that Americans got what they deserved. Nigerian papers reported that the Islamic Youth, Organisation in Zamfara province organised an event to celebrate the attacks. 'Whatever destruction America is facing, as a Muslim I am happy, came a typical quote from Afghanistan. A Pakistani leader said that Washington is paying for its policies against Palestinian, Iraqi, Bosnian, and other Muslims, then warned that the 'worst is still to come'.
“Around the Muslim world, nearly identical anti-American slogans were heard over the next weeks: 'US, go to hell!' (Indonesia), 'Go to hell America (Malaysia), 'Death to America' (Bangladesh),'Death to America' (India), 'America is the enemy of God' (Oman). 'America is a great Satan' (Yemen), 'US go to hell' (Egypt), 'Down, down USA!' (Sudan).
“Most Muslim governments were on best behavior after September 11, decrying the loss of American lives. But here too, there were cracks. Iranian officialdom, for example, found it very hard to be sympathetic to Americans and insisted on bringing the Arab-Israeli conflict into the discussion. Some analyses connected the terrorism to America's 'blind support of the Zionist regime' and others actually accused Israel of organizing the attacks, in a supposed effort to deflect world opinion from its own conflict with the Palestinians. (This subsequently became an accepted verity in many Muslim countries, with elaborate conspiracy theories about the Mossad's role.) In Iraq, not surprisingly, the state-controlled media approved of the violence, commenting that 'the American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity. It also announced that the myth of America was destroyed along with the World Trade Center.”
This mentality is again reflected in an article by Iftekhar A. Khan (posted or www.nation.com.pk), in which the writer attributes the attacks on US territory to the US policy of blindly supporting and arming Israel in the Middle East and adds that George Bush has defined the “axis of evil” but many in the Muslim world consider the US “great Satan”, prophetically termed by Imam Khomeni during the Iranian revolution. Shri Khan appears to be suggesting a 'world conspiracy' led by the US against Muslims in the article “US-Israel-India Nexus” as he writes: “Whatever the damage caused by 9/11 and whoever the perpetrators of the gruesome act were, Israel and India have emerged as the ultimate legatees by cashing on it. To pursue its surreal 'war against terror', US struck a continent apart impoverished Afghanistan, while its surrogates Israel and India have begun to settle their score with their respective neighbours. Both Israel and India have a familiar justification to offer for their analogous agenda: If US could attack Afghanistan without any credible evidence, and without the so-called civilised world raising any outcry, why cannot we do it. The victims in all the three cases are Muslims, their territories and resources.
“Without feeling any qualms about the way Israel carries out savage acts against the Palestinians, George Bush has said on a number of occasions that Israel is our friend and we have to safeguard its interests. By the same logic, US will support any country that Israel considers its ally such as India. Thus, US-Israel-India nexus comes into play.”
It is to be noted that after 9/11, the number of Islamic fanatics drawing inspiration from Osama bin Laden and the Taliban of Afghanistan are growing in Muslim countries. What is more distressing is that such outfits are coming into being in supposedly moderate Indonesia too. One such group called Taliban Brigade sees itself as vanquisher of vice in the city of Tasikmalaya, near the south coast of Java and seeks to turn the country into a pure Islamic state. According to a report in The Washington Times, its members want to abolish the country's secular legal system and replace it with a version of the Shariah. Another Group Islamic Defenders raids cafes, discotheques, bars, etc, which they consider un-Islamic, in Jakarta (AP, 27-6-02). It also spearheaded violent protests against the US-led war in Afghanistan.
It is not only the fanatics in the Islamic world that harbour hate for the US, in the US itself hundreds of Americans have followed the path to jihad. Americans might be accustomed to thinking of the jihadi movement as something overseas, inspired among the faithful in Spartan Pakistani schools and gleaming Saudi mosques, but there is also an American road to jehad, one taken by true believers. In an article “Made in the USA” in US News and World Report, David E. Kaplan writes: “For 20 years --long before American Taliban John Walker Lindh--American jihadists have ventured overseas to attack those they believe threaten Islam... Whatever the outcome of those cases, the jihad movement in America remains alive and active. And while it is easy enough to dismiss country jihadists as adventurers or extremists, most seem motivated by unselfish aims; they care deeply about the suffering of their brethren overseas.”
What further aggravates the', scenario keeping in view the US “war against terrorism” is the fact that the major ally in this war Britain does not appear to be aware of the development that Islamic terrorist groups operating in J&K are openly raising funds at mosques in Britain. According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph, banned Kashmiri terrorist groups raise around five million pound from Britain every year. The report reveals that Abu Hamza, the Imam of Regent Park mosque, the biggest in Britain, said that if funds were raised for terrorism, he would support the fund raising activities. “These people are fighting to defend their Islamic brothers”, he said.
In the 10 months since 9/11, the British people have deluded themselves with the thought that America was the sole target of Al Qaida network. It was not. The US might be the “great Satan” to these Islamic fanatics, but Great Britain ranks equally as high in their warped thinking. An editorial “Unholy Warriors” in The Yorkshire Post (12-6-2002) writes: “According to Rohan Gunaratna (a Research fellow at St. Andrew University in Britain), Britain is one of the safest havens for the Al Qaida terrorists. Their tentacles have spread to the large immigrant populations, to the mosques and madarsas, especially in Central London and Midlands, and their recruits number not only the Arab and Middle Eastern fanatics who move freely among these communities, but homegrown militants and recent converts to Islamic fundamentalism like the would be shoe-bomber Richard Reid. All these people are united by a terrifying willingness to die for the cause, and more blindness to inflicting death and suffering on innocent civilians.”
Meanwhile there is relieving factor that another western country Holland has launched a criminal inquiry into Muslim clerics accused of inciting violence from mosques in Holland. According to a report in The Telegraph (UK), the unprecedented move by the Justice Ministry conies after leading imams in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague were caught secretly on tape calling for the “destruction of the enemies of Islam” and encouraging Muslims to “disobey” Dutch law. Inflammatory prayers at the El Tawheed mosque in Amsterdam included recitations of “Allah make your enemies' lives an unbearable hell” and denunciations of President George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister.
Meanwhile the US too is going to take measures to counter the terrorist threat in US. The Justice Department is to propose new regulations requiring tens of thousands of Muslims and Middle Eastern visa holders to register with the government and be finger printed. A report in The New York Times quoting official sources said the initiative, the subject of intense debate within the administration, is designed for “individuals from countries who pose the highest risk to our security”, including most visa holders from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and many other Muslim nations. The proposal ignited a raging debate in the Bush administration. White House Officials supported the Justice proposal, but the State Department lodged objection, fearing diplomatic repercussions with allies in the war on terror, administration officials said.
“Allies in the war on terror” is
of course the “good terrorist” Musharraf and his Pakistan.
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