abu afak
07-18-2003, 09:01 AM
Defaming Islam --one bomb at a time
Jonathan Kay
National Post
On July 4, Sunni Muslim terrorists attacked Shiites performing prayers in a Quetta, Pakistan mosque. About 60 people were killed -- roughly triple the number of civilians who died in last year's Jenin "massacre." The next day, two female suicide bombers dispatched by Chechen Islamists activated their "Martyr's belts" at the gates to a Moscow rock concert, killing 14. Two days after that, a terrorist apparently connected to Palestinian Islamic Jihad blew himself up in an Israeli home, murdering a 65-year-old woman.
Four days; three countries; three attacks in the name of Allah; more than 70 dead.
The attack in Pakistan was telling. When critics of the war on terrorism issue their grudging condemnations of suicide bombings, there is always an exonerating "but" that makes an appearance by the third or fourth paragraph -- inevitably invoking the humiliations imposed upon Palestinians by Israel, or the alleged evils of U.S. foreign policies. But how do such apologists explain the Muslim-on-Muslim slaughter in Quetta? Suicide bombing attacks have become so popular among Islamic extremists that they now regard the practice as a useful tool not only to kill "crusaders," but also to settle internecine doctrinal disputes.
Islam is not an inherently violent faith: Until a few years ago, the leading suicide bombing outfit in the world was not al-Qaeda or Hamas, but the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan group made up of Hindus. But the global pattern now suggests Muslims have a near-monopoly on suicide terrorism. I recently looked at data compiled by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. For the period from March 12, 2002, to March 12, 2003 -- the last year-long period for which data was available -- the world witnessed 51 suicide bombing attacks. Of those, 50 -- all but one -- were committed by Muslim groups in Israel, Iraq, Africa and South Asia. The first word in the phrase "Islamic suicide bomber" is virtually redundant.
This is grimly ironic, because the Prophet Mohammed explicitly forbade suicide. In fact, his pronouncements imply suicide bombers will spend eternity constantly exploding themselves: "He who drinks poison and kills himself will carry his poison in his hand and drink it in Hell for ever and ever ... Whoever kills himself in any way will be tormented in that way in Hell."
And yet, terrorists are hardly pariahs within the Islamic world. Osama bin Laden is a hero to many, and polls conducted in the West Bank and Gaza have shown that suicide bombers enjoy widespread popularity. Certainly, if mullahs are able to convince Palestinian "martyrs" that they can enter heaven by blowing up elderly Jewish women, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that mainstream Islam is being hijacked wholesale by a pathological interpretation of Mohammed's words.
One source of this pathology is Shiite Iran, whose money and ideology fuels Hezbollah, the group that helped invent the modern practice of suicide bombing in the early 1980s. Hezbollah provided the main inspiration to Palestinian terrorist groups, and continues to supply them with cash, munitions and technical assistance. But there is reason for hope on this front: Iran's theocracy looks set to collapse. And it is doubtful whether the more deomcratic regime that replaces it will maintain Hezbollah's US$100-million annual subsidy, or parrot the Ayatollahs' exterminationist rhetoric.
The larger problem lies with the intolerant Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, Saudi Arabia's state-enforced creed. Lavishly funded Saudi religious groups have spent billions exporting their faith around the world -- and with it, a passion for jihad. Last year, Israel found documents showing that the Saudi Interior Ministry was funnelling money directly to the families of suicide bombers. And it was Wahhabi madrassas in South Asia that educated the Taliban's leaders, most of al-Qaeda's shock troops and, almost certainly, the dozens of militants arrested in connection with the Quetta attack.
In his outstanding 2003 book, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, historian Bernard Lewis provides an apt analogy that puts Wahhabism's influence in perspective: "Imagine that the Ku Klux Klan or some similar group obtains total control of the state of Texas, of its oil and therefore of its oil revenues, and having done so, uses this money to establish a network of well-endowed schools and colleges all over Christendom, peddling their peculiar brand of Christianity." Thus has Saudi Arabia's oil wealth "given worldwide impact to what would otherwise have been an extremist fringe in a marginal country."
After 9/11, U.S. President George W. Bush declared that his was to be a war against terrorism, not Islam. Unfortunately, he also reaffirmed America's alliance with Saudi Arabia -- because it was felt the Desert Kingdom was the lesser evil as compared to al-Qaeda. In the lead-up to the war in Iraq, warm relations with Riyadh were maintained under similar reasoning. But now that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden have both been routed, Saudi Arabia's malign role in exporting jihad can no longer be ignored. The Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult is not only fueling murder around the world, it is also defaming an ancient faith.
Jonathan Kay is editorials editor.; jkay@nationalpost.com
© Copyright 2003 National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/components/printstory/printstory.asp?id=DC396380-7197-41E4-8F8D-0FBCC05D6A8C
Jonathan Kay
National Post
On July 4, Sunni Muslim terrorists attacked Shiites performing prayers in a Quetta, Pakistan mosque. About 60 people were killed -- roughly triple the number of civilians who died in last year's Jenin "massacre." The next day, two female suicide bombers dispatched by Chechen Islamists activated their "Martyr's belts" at the gates to a Moscow rock concert, killing 14. Two days after that, a terrorist apparently connected to Palestinian Islamic Jihad blew himself up in an Israeli home, murdering a 65-year-old woman.
Four days; three countries; three attacks in the name of Allah; more than 70 dead.
The attack in Pakistan was telling. When critics of the war on terrorism issue their grudging condemnations of suicide bombings, there is always an exonerating "but" that makes an appearance by the third or fourth paragraph -- inevitably invoking the humiliations imposed upon Palestinians by Israel, or the alleged evils of U.S. foreign policies. But how do such apologists explain the Muslim-on-Muslim slaughter in Quetta? Suicide bombing attacks have become so popular among Islamic extremists that they now regard the practice as a useful tool not only to kill "crusaders," but also to settle internecine doctrinal disputes.
Islam is not an inherently violent faith: Until a few years ago, the leading suicide bombing outfit in the world was not al-Qaeda or Hamas, but the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan group made up of Hindus. But the global pattern now suggests Muslims have a near-monopoly on suicide terrorism. I recently looked at data compiled by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. For the period from March 12, 2002, to March 12, 2003 -- the last year-long period for which data was available -- the world witnessed 51 suicide bombing attacks. Of those, 50 -- all but one -- were committed by Muslim groups in Israel, Iraq, Africa and South Asia. The first word in the phrase "Islamic suicide bomber" is virtually redundant.
This is grimly ironic, because the Prophet Mohammed explicitly forbade suicide. In fact, his pronouncements imply suicide bombers will spend eternity constantly exploding themselves: "He who drinks poison and kills himself will carry his poison in his hand and drink it in Hell for ever and ever ... Whoever kills himself in any way will be tormented in that way in Hell."
And yet, terrorists are hardly pariahs within the Islamic world. Osama bin Laden is a hero to many, and polls conducted in the West Bank and Gaza have shown that suicide bombers enjoy widespread popularity. Certainly, if mullahs are able to convince Palestinian "martyrs" that they can enter heaven by blowing up elderly Jewish women, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that mainstream Islam is being hijacked wholesale by a pathological interpretation of Mohammed's words.
One source of this pathology is Shiite Iran, whose money and ideology fuels Hezbollah, the group that helped invent the modern practice of suicide bombing in the early 1980s. Hezbollah provided the main inspiration to Palestinian terrorist groups, and continues to supply them with cash, munitions and technical assistance. But there is reason for hope on this front: Iran's theocracy looks set to collapse. And it is doubtful whether the more deomcratic regime that replaces it will maintain Hezbollah's US$100-million annual subsidy, or parrot the Ayatollahs' exterminationist rhetoric.
The larger problem lies with the intolerant Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, Saudi Arabia's state-enforced creed. Lavishly funded Saudi religious groups have spent billions exporting their faith around the world -- and with it, a passion for jihad. Last year, Israel found documents showing that the Saudi Interior Ministry was funnelling money directly to the families of suicide bombers. And it was Wahhabi madrassas in South Asia that educated the Taliban's leaders, most of al-Qaeda's shock troops and, almost certainly, the dozens of militants arrested in connection with the Quetta attack.
In his outstanding 2003 book, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, historian Bernard Lewis provides an apt analogy that puts Wahhabism's influence in perspective: "Imagine that the Ku Klux Klan or some similar group obtains total control of the state of Texas, of its oil and therefore of its oil revenues, and having done so, uses this money to establish a network of well-endowed schools and colleges all over Christendom, peddling their peculiar brand of Christianity." Thus has Saudi Arabia's oil wealth "given worldwide impact to what would otherwise have been an extremist fringe in a marginal country."
After 9/11, U.S. President George W. Bush declared that his was to be a war against terrorism, not Islam. Unfortunately, he also reaffirmed America's alliance with Saudi Arabia -- because it was felt the Desert Kingdom was the lesser evil as compared to al-Qaeda. In the lead-up to the war in Iraq, warm relations with Riyadh were maintained under similar reasoning. But now that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden have both been routed, Saudi Arabia's malign role in exporting jihad can no longer be ignored. The Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult is not only fueling murder around the world, it is also defaming an ancient faith.
Jonathan Kay is editorials editor.; jkay@nationalpost.com
© Copyright 2003 National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/components/printstory/printstory.asp?id=DC396380-7197-41E4-8F8D-0FBCC05D6A8C