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Whether the terrorist element regains full strength will depend upon Western (mostly American) perseverance in the war against terrorism, and, equally, on the actions of Muslim moderates. Is this even possible?
By Ira Rifkin
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
In mid-April, Indonesian authorities
indicted a prominent Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar
Bashir, charging him with treason and plotting to
violently establish an Islamic state. "It's clear
that the radicals are on the back foot," an
unidentified "senior Western official" told The
New York Times. "This has to be seen in that
broader context."
The past week's events notwithstanding, the
official is correct. Since 9/11, Muslim extremists have
suffered a string of significant loses that reasonable
observers must conclude has, thankfully, immensely set
back their cause. Not to be overlooked is that mainstream
Islamic interests have also suffered considerable damage.
Afghanistan's Taliban were driven from power, denying
al-Qaida a safe haven, disrupting its chain of command, and
forcing it to operate on the run. Clearly, al-Qaida is hardly
finished, as the latest atrocities likely perpetrated by the
group and its fellow travelers in Saudi Arabia and Morocco
underscore. But these recent attacks will also increase
pressure on al-Qaida by forcing recalcitrant Arab
governments to finally take action, if only for
self-preservation.
Meanwhile, the American and Western European
Muslim communities that were gaining broad political and
social acceptance in their adopted homelands are under a
cloud of suspicion that will not soon lift, as are the
governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and even Jordan,
which are no longer seen in Washington as bankable allies.
Nations as diverse as the Philippines and Yemen have
accepted American military aid to battle homegrown
Muslim extremists.
Pakistan's government has largely cast its lot with the
West, hobbling Kashmiri Muslim separatists, and the
Chechen Muslim cause no longer stirs much concern in the
West, no how brutal the Russian retaliation. Palestinian
terrorism has led not to a state, but instead to the
destruction of the nascent Palestinian state and the current
pressure to marginalize Yasser Arafat. The latest wave of
Palestinian terrorist bombings underscores just how
self-defeating the extremist mentality is: Just when the
so-called "road map" promises a Palestinian state by 2005,
a wave of suicide bombers ensures that will be yet another
lost chance. Now, Saddam Hussein has been ousted, a
large American military presence is in Iraq for who knows
how long, and Syria, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah also
face stepped-up pressures from Washington.
All this points to how Muslims have paid dearly for the
Osama bin Ladens in their midst. The question is: Will
moderate Muslims - the mainstream Muslim silent majority
we keep hearing about, and which failed to act decisively
after 9/11 - finally attempt to rid themselves of the
extremist cancer that continues to bring death, destruction,
and political and economic instability to Muslims
everywhere?
The quick answer: probably not any time soon.
A prime reason why is that the majority of mainstream
Muslims around the world accepts as self-evident truths the
anti-American, anti-Israeli, and increasingly anti-Semitic
attitudes that have been drummed into them by self-serving
politicians and religious leaders. Moreover, the political and
social culture of virtually every Muslim-majority nation has
ill-prepared those Muslims who are not anti-American or
anti-Semitic (forget about finding many Muslims who are
not anti-Israel) to voice opinions that challenge the
prevailing "wisdom."
The world is approaching a decisive phase in the era of
jihad-inspired terrorism. The extremists have, indeed,
weakened their cause by bearing their claws and opening
themselves to retaliation. Whether the terrorist element
regains full strength will depend upon Western (mostly
American) perseverance in the war against terrorism, and,
equally, on the actions of Muslim moderates.
What the moderates must do is find the courage to
speak out, and they must do so not in Western media, but in
the media, mosques, universities, and other public forums of
their native lands. Threats and repression will preclude them
from doing so in some Muslim nations, and we in the West
must understand that. But they must try, or they will forfeit
the future anyway. Should the moderates cling to the belief
that the war against global terrorism is only meant to redraw
the Middle East and broader Muslim world according to
U.S. designs, and to protect Israel, they will be felled along
with the radicals when the West's full military force is
eventually brought to bear, as surely will be the case if
terrorism continues.
Is there reason to hope that the Muslim mainstream will
act in its enlightened self-interest? One reason to do so is an
essay recently posted on IslamiCity.com, a leading
American Muslim Web site. Mohammad Omar Farooq, an
economics professor at Upper Iowa University, wrote of his
anguish over contemporary Islam's emphasis on outward
forms at the expense of personal and societal growth. "As
much emphasis Muslims put on fighting (much of which is
among themselves), so little emphasis is placed on positively
touching others' lives," he said.
His is just one essay on one Web site. But let's hope
it's a harbinger. Because only the reform actions of
moderate Muslims worldwide can prevent a full-scale clash
of civilizations, which is the aim of their radical
co-religionists.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the
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Ira Rifkin is the author of "Spiritual Perspectives on
Globalization: Making Sense of Economic and Cultural
Upheaval" (Skylight Paths). He lives in Annapolis, Md.
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