Activism Change

Paranoia about Islam trips up West

Question:

It`s too bad that there is not in existence  a single Islamic or Muslim democracy with rights and freedoms that would give credibility to the causes listed.  In fact, Muslims have consistently opposed and ridiculed the rights and freedoms enjoyed by citizens of democracies, particularly the rights and freedoms enjoyed by women in the secular democracies of Europe and Asia. THis opposition continues, even in the West.  When rights and freedoms were extended (and are being extended further) for gays and lesbians, for example, vicious denunciations of such freedoms are issued from the mosques. And the Salman Rushdie case demonstrates the Islamic contempt for intellectual freedom.  Even those who supported Rushdie were afraid to speak up for fear of terrible consequences.  Finally, forced arranged marriages are common in both fundamentalist and traditional Muslim societies (in the West too), with hideous consequences for women if they oppose such a marriage.  Of course Muslims say that this is not "official" Islamic policy, etc., but in PRACTICE such marriages are common as are the honour killings of the women who refuse to participate and elope with someone of their own choice.  So what causes, exactly, are worthy of support by citizens of democracies? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Paranoia about Islam trips up West By Haroon Siddiqui RUSSIA and the five Central Asian, post-Soviet, Muslim republics are resorting to the same tactics Arab military dictators and monarchs have long used to stay in power and thwart democracy: Serve the strategic interests of the United States, and raise the bogey of Islamic fundamentalism to squelch domestic opposition and aspire to the role of regional bullies. Russia, however, has taken the formula to new heights with its crimes against humanity in Chechnya. Its claim that it is fighting Islamic terrorists is demonstrably false. Its relentless air and land war has killed about 4,000 civilians and made nearly 200,000 people homeless. But it has yet to hit any of the known Muslim militants, the 450 to 500 guerrillas operating in the mountains. They are led by Shamil Basayev, a hero of Russia’s 1994-96 war on Chechnya that was meant to punish the republic for its secession from the Russian federation. But Moscow was humiliated and forced to sign a peace treaty, setting the republic on its way to eventual independence. Basayev broke off with the elected Chechen government because it didn’t become Islamic enough. He built a militia of unemployed local youth and a few veterans of the Afghan war, said to be the followers of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile in Afghanistan. They dreamed of an Islamic state of greater Chechnya that would include neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia. But the Dagestanis and the Ingush didn’t want that. They are ethnic cousins of the Chechens, but they belong to the pacifist Sufi tradition of Islam. They don’t relate to militancy. Or to Wahabism, the theological minimalism that frowns on excessive ritualism, and is the dominant faith of Saudi Arabians, including bin Laden. In 1997, Dagestan banned Wahabism and arrested its leaders. In August, it rebuffed, with Russian help, two cross-border raids by the Basayev militia. The Ingush, while sympathetic to the Chechens, did not follow the secessionist path. They, like the Dagestanis, remained in the Russian federation. The Chechens have a different history, one of 200 years of ferocious resistance to Russian imperialism. They have been lied to and cheated out of repeated promises of peace and autonomy by the czars, the Bolsheviks and now the Yeltsinites. Whenever they are attacked, they rally to their nationalist cause. Which is what is happening. The Russian invasion has brought the Basayev militia from the margins into the centre of the new resistance. That’s why the Russian war makes no sense. Even to Ingush President Mohamedali Mahomedov: “This is no way to fight terrorism.” Yet the United States continues to indulge Yeltsin. Its entire post- Soviet policy has evolved around him, despite his czarist tendencies and corrupt practices – in return for the peaceful management of Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal. Worthy as that goal is, it has become a carte blanche for Russian adventurism, in which the Chechens have become the fodder. Islamic fundamentalism has little to do with what’s happening. Europeans, especially the Germans and the Finns, have seen through this game and condemned Moscow. Yet our foreign affairs minister, Lloyd Axworthy, fell for the Russian propaganda about so-called Islamic terrorism and tried to justify this unjust war. He has since pulled back in the face of Russian brutalities. But his reflexive reaction showed how even the well-informed can be tripped up by this anti-Islamic tool. Similarly, the autocrats who run the five Central Asian republics – four of them ex-Communists – have been raising the ruse of Wahabism to stomp out internal opposition, and getting away with it. According to a report of the European Union, the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan “believe that the U.S. strategic and economic interests in the region, and the fear of Islamic fundamentalism, will work against pressing them too hard on human rights.” Kazakhstan, the largest of the republics, has been given considerable domestic leeway – and about $200 million – for co-operating in dismantling its nuclear, biological and chemical arsenal. President Nursultan Nazarbayev runs a dictatorship, as do the rulers of the other republics, to varying degrees. Political parties are banned. Leading opposition figures have been driven into exile. There is little accountability, much corruption and nepotism, no free press, and no free, fair elections. Religious repression is rampant. For example, in Uzbekistan, the most populous at 23 million people, mosque loudspeakers are banned, men with beards and women with hijabs are harassed, arrested and labelled “Wahabi extremists,” even though many are not even familiar with the term. The lesson is that the American paranoia about Islam has led the West into some very distorted policies, for which there will no doubt be a price to pay. Before you buy.

Response:

Paranoia about Islam trips up West By Haroon Siddiqui RUSSIA and the five Central Asian, post-Soviet, Muslim republics are resorting to the same tactics Arab military dictators and monarchs have long used to stay in power and thwart democracy: Serve the strategic interests of the United States, and raise the bogey of Islamic fundamentalism to squelch domestic opposition and aspire to the role of regional bullies. Russia, however, has taken the formula to new heights with its crimes against humanity in Chechnya. Its claim that it is fighting Islamic terrorists is demonstrably false. Its relentless air and land war has killed about 4,000 civilians and made nearly 200,000 people homeless. But it has yet to hit any of the known Muslim militants, the 450 to 500 guerrillas operating in the mountains. They are led by Shamil Basayev, a hero of Russia’s 1994-96 war on Chechnya that was meant to punish the republic for its secession from the Russian federation. But Moscow was humiliated and forced to sign a peace treaty, setting the republic on its way to eventual independence. Basayev broke off with the elected Chechen government because it didn’t become Islamic enough. He built a militia of unemployed local youth and a few veterans of the Afghan war, said to be the followers of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile in Afghanistan. They dreamed of an Islamic state of greater Chechnya that would include neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia. But the Dagestanis and the Ingush didn’t want that. They are ethnic cousins of the Chechens, but they belong to the pacifist Sufi tradition of Islam. They don’t relate to militancy. Or to Wahabism, the theological minimalism that frowns on excessive ritualism, and is the dominant faith of Saudi Arabians, including bin Laden. In 1997, Dagestan banned Wahabism and arrested its leaders. In August, it rebuffed, with Russian help, two cross-border raids by the Basayev militia. The Ingush, while sympathetic to the Chechens, did not follow the secessionist path. They, like the Dagestanis, remained in the Russian federation. The Chechens have a different history, one of 200 years of ferocious resistance to Russian imperialism. They have been lied to and cheated out of repeated promises of peace and autonomy by the czars, the Bolsheviks and now the Yeltsinites. Whenever they are attacked, they rally to their nationalist cause. Which is what is happening. The Russian invasion has brought the Basayev militia from the margins into the centre of the new resistance. That’s why the Russian war makes no sense. Even to Ingush President Mohamedali Mahomedov: “This is no way to fight terrorism.” Yet the United States continues to indulge Yeltsin. Its entire post- Soviet policy has evolved around him, despite his czarist tendencies and corrupt practices – in return for the peaceful management of Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal. Worthy as that goal is, it has become a carte blanche for Russian adventurism, in which the Chechens have become the fodder. Islamic fundamentalism has little to do with what’s happening. Europeans, especially the Germans and the Finns, have seen through this game and condemned Moscow. Yet our foreign affairs minister, Lloyd Axworthy, fell for the Russian propaganda about so-called Islamic terrorism and tried to justify this unjust war. He has since pulled back in the face of Russian brutalities. But his reflexive reaction showed how even the well-informed can be tripped up by this anti-Islamic tool. Similarly, the autocrats who run the five Central Asian republics – four of them ex-Communists – have been raising the ruse of Wahabism to stomp out internal opposition, and getting away with it. According to a report of the European Union, the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan “believe that the U.S. strategic and economic interests in the region, and the fear of Islamic fundamentalism, will work against pressing them too hard on human rights.” Kazakhstan, the largest of the republics, has been given considerable domestic leeway – and about $200 million – for co-operating in dismantling its nuclear, biological and chemical arsenal. President Nursultan Nazarbayev runs a dictatorship, as do the rulers of the other republics, to varying degrees. Political parties are banned. Leading opposition figures have been driven into exile. There is little accountability, much corruption and nepotism, no free press, and no free, fair elections. Religious repression is rampant. For example, in Uzbekistan, the most populous at 23 million people, mosque loudspeakers are banned, men with beards and women with hijabs are harassed, arrested and labelled “Wahabi extremists,” even though many are not even familiar with the term. The lesson is that the American paranoia about Islam has led the West into some very distorted policies, for which there will no doubt be a price to pay. Before you buy.

Response:

Filed under: Human Rights

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