Hajj and Terrorism

The scenario is all too familiar. When things seem to be under control, terrorists manage to strike where unexpected. The latest incident was a suicide attack in Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields. The bombing near the ethnically-mixed city came during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. It rocked an area that has seen fewer attacks than other regions in Iraq. A few days ago, it was Mumbai, India. Next week -- who knows?

"Islam does not support terrorism in any form and strictly prohibits shedding blood of innocents," Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said in his Hajj sermon addressing about three million pilgrims in Mt. Arafat as they neared the completion of the last rituals of their journey.

"The world must criminalize terrorism... we must be cautious of terrorism and fight hostile criminal gangs that destroy countries and people," the Grand Mufti added. The attacks in Kirkuk occurred despite his plea. Islam, the religion of more than a billion and a half believers, has been hijacked by a few individuals.

For eight years since the terror attacks of 9/11, Bush's "global war on terror" has been the cornerstone of American foreign policy. To be clear here, the "global war on terror" is merely a code phrase for a war on radical Islam. Where else has the US been fighting this war but in Muslim countries or against Muslims living in Western countries? But as has been evident from the never-ending terrorist attacks, Bush's "global war on terror" has failed. Radical Islam can only be defeated from within.

The sooner President-elect Barack Obama understands this, the faster innocent lives will be spared. US strikes on Islamists, such as when a US predator pilotless aircraft hit a house killing six people in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal district this Thursday, will only fan the flames of hatred and resentment towards the US. Several past "targeted strikes" have killed many innocent civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

What needs to happen is that Muslim countries must take serious action and stop playing the condemnation game. And by "action" I do not mean the arrest of dissident groups and Islamists as has been happening in countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Action means serious steps towards democratization, wealth distribution, employment for the youth and proper education. This is where the US can be more effective than all the predator aircrafts it sends to the Middle East.

Finally, let's not be in denial about the impact of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the war in Iraq on Muslims across the globe. With the advent of satellite television and the internet, millions of Muslims are subjected to very polarizing images almost daily. They are reminded again and again of the American occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Images of carnage in Iraq and pictures of Palestinian children haunt viewers throughout the region. To ignore this, Mr. Obama, is to wish for déjà-vu all over again.

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV

Comments

[brj]

Islamic terrorists have come from all backgrounds - educated, illiterate, well-to-do, poor, civilized democracies, dictatorships etc. It will be good to address social and political issues in Islamic countries but dangerous to ignore the religion driven factors which inspire violence as a strategic device for religious expansion. It will be a mistake to believe that Islamic Terrorism is only carried out by misled individuals and non-state actors. Covert state support from certain regimes with political aims is what made these terrorist groups so effective.

The wealth acquired by oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia, nuclear capability of Pakistan and the strategic significance of close to 2 billion, well distributed Muslim population have also given strength to the zeal of religious expansion (a nostalgia for Islamic Caliphate as an achievable goal).

[lopaka1002]

Wealth Distribution? We need to solve our own problems first!

[Akenanubis]

It's also critical to address the arguments that radicalizing ideologues in the Islamic world have used quite convincingly to build their powerful base. Without addressing these ideas and dismantling them with productive ideological choices going forward, with only chop the tree and leave the roots. Sorry for the book recommendations, but another good brick in building an understanding of this is Abdolkarim Soroush's "Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam."

[Ms Fu]

Nice piece! Thank God that someone understands this! Muslims worldwide, including the communities in the US, have been quick to condemn activities of radical Muslims without suggesting any solutions. Rather, the primary blame is US foreign policy. Of course, this plays a role, but terrorists aren't going to listen to non-Muslims who tell them to quit their violent activities.

Yemen has undertaken a sort of rehab program (at least on a small scale) in which Muslim religious leaders converse with terrorist Muslims to get them to see the wrong in their thinking and to show them that blowing innocent people up is certainly not something condoned in Islam.

[Petunia39]

interesting bit on Yemen, thanks Ms_Fu

[wadenelson1]

>Radical Islam can only be defeated from within.

Amen.

[Akenanubis]

Terrorism did not spring out of a vacuum as a result of boredom, and the activities of the "War on Terror" are nothing more than an extension of the kind of foreign policy activities that the West has perpetrated for the last two hundred years in their attempt to pluck Iran and the Middle East like low hanging fruit and hamstring the broader area so it couldn't fight back. Now there are those in the area who have figured out a way to fight back but the majority of Americans have no idea about the history of their nation's participation in the economic subjugation of the Islamic world. Yes, the answers to this problem lie within education, redistribution of wealth. This cannot be imposed from outside. The travesty in this is the repackaging of Islam to serve a coming-of-age war between an aggressive domineering West that has vampirized Iran and the Middle East for centuries as they strove for independence and self determination and economic viability in a changing global economy. But one wonders what, if not a violent slamming the door in the face of the West and a polarization of Eastern and Western identity could have convinced the west to begin to "allow" independent nation states in the Near East the right to self determination that may not include submission as consumer satellite states of the US? "Occidentosis" by Jalal al-i-Ahmad would prove an enlightening starter- read for those not versed in these matters.

[newsjunkie5]

I really hope that Obama will not adopt Bush's cowboy tactics!

Otherwise, we are ALL in trouble.

[myclarity]

this writer comments as a solution : "Action means serious steps towards democratization, wealth distribution, employment for the youth and proper education. This is where the US can be more effective than all the predator aircrafts it sends to the Middle East."

Isn't that what the Bush Presidency has accomplished in Iraq???

[newsjunkie5]

Are you kidding me...?!?

I would love to know concrete examples of how Bush and his war have brought democracy, wealth distributuion, employment, and education to Iraq!

I seriously hope you were being sarcastic...otherwise...I think you need to find some "clarity!"

[joz22]

You must be kidding? You call what's going on in Iraq democracy? Wealth distribution...when most Iraqis do not even have electricity and running water? Pleeeese...

[MajorKong]

Well, we liberated 100,000 or so of them from their lives.

We liberated the rest from electricity and drinking water.

We liberated the Shiites and Sunnis to ethnically cleanse each other.

We liberated the Iraqi Christian minority from their homes since most of them have fled the country.

We liberated Iran to become a major power in the region by taking away their main enemy.

[loosely coupled]

Will the invasion of Iraq accomplish a nominal "democracy" in Iraq? Perhaps, although we all know how "democracy" is going to work out in the middle east in a country with extremely polarized religious and ethnic groups that will kill each other at a moment's notice.

Regardless, anything good that could come out of the "forced democracy" in Iraq is offset by multiple orders of magnitude worth of negative consequences in the form of destroying America's credibility, marginalizing America's influence, inflaming moderate Muslims and Muslim countries throughout the world, providing Al-Qaeda and Islamic militants with a huge propaganda boost, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians and soldiers, and costing the United States over a trillion dollars while it's economy crumbles. Not to mention that pre-invasion Iraq did not have the Islamic militant problem that it now faces! The Iraq war will be seen in history as one of the most destructive and counter-productive foreign policy failings in American history!

[leonardox1]

Any talk of democracy in Iraq is moot while the country is under foreign occupation. Maliki"s government in the Middle East is known as the "puppet regime."

[jad114]

How can George Bush talk about a war on terror when he has been terrorizing the world with his cowboy deplomacy for the past eight years?

[zaz33]

The Military Industrial Complex and the Security Industrial Complex believe that only they can defeat radical terrorists. This is obviously self serving.

Follow the money.

[jad114]

Are you suggesting that they perpetuate the violence to keep selling weapons?

[Rule Of Law]

zaz, you are right, of course. The MIC and the banks that fund them needed this war to run up even more debt and more profit. I have posted a semi-tongue in cheek reply re the use of covert operations as a way to change things from the inside as Jamal suggests is the way.

The only Real answer to any of these problems is for the US to get out of every foreign country where it currently has military bases! Every one of them! We should use diplomatic and economic pressure to force the Sauds and other regimes to work FOR their people.

Currently they covertly support the very terrorist fundamentalists they fear because they perform the role of keeping those people terrified so that they don't demand change from their government. We can see freedom and voice of the people raised as we claim we want when we get our armies out and work for change from the bottom up.

[medi22]

The "war on terror" seems a lot like the "war on drugs" -- lucrative and perpetuating the problem it's supposed to be trying to solve.

[MatoSka]

It is critical for Americans to understand "Why Kirkuk?" There is no randomness in this act. It is a clear provocation in attacking this city. It is NOT about Palestine, it is about Kurdistan. CNN reported: "The restaurant bombed on Thursday near Kirkuk was packed with families celebrating a Muslim holiday and included Kurdish and Arab politicians who went there after a political meeting. More than 100 people were injured; one of the Arab officials believes they were targeted."
There is the history of Saddam Hussein"s attacks on Kurds in Iraq that included the gassing of Halabja and the forced displacements of thousands of Kurds from Kirkuk in the Al-Anfal campaign. More recently there has been the deployment of hundreds of thousands of Turkish troops on the border of the Kurdish Autonomous region, the organizing of the Sunni Awakening Councils and the continued delays of the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution guaranteeing a referendum on the status of Kirkuk as part of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
"No people deserve the chance to self-rule more than the Kurds." http://www.moera-krg.org/articles/detail.asp?smap=01030000&lngnr=12&anr=12121&rnr=140

Now it appears that there is yet another force determined to undermine the right of the Kurdish nation to self-determination. Yet again Kurds are targeted.

[gsc 99]

Dajani proposes a strategic common sense solution to this vexing problem of Islamic terrorism. It might not work because common sense means there is consensus and rule of the majority which in turn implies democracy. We all know lack of democracy is one common thread that binds most Muslim countries. Take Pakistan for example, how can this approach proposed by Dajani work there when the recent civilian government can't even dictate its foreign policy. Pakistani PM promised that head of Pakistani ISI will visit India to help with the Mumbai investigation. That proposal was shot down by the Pakistani Army. Pakistani Army has not and will not allow strong public institutions e.g. Judiciary, education and others that Dajani mentions. Its a catch-22. A two pronged approach is necessary, to encourage building of public institution and at the same time to apply military pressure on eliminating the existing radical elements which are too extreme to change

[SaulZ]

gsc_99 must understand that Pakistan is a democracy. The PM promised Indian leadership incorrectly without taking his parliament and cabinet in confidence. It was a nice gesture. However, the PM has no experience in foreign relations. He had to withdraw the offer under the combined advice of memers of his own cabinet, many parliamentarians, including those in Government and in opposition, and media.

gsc should have read news coming out of Pakistani media around that time. No body wanted the ISI leader to be dispatched to India.

The demand by India to have the ISI head sent was against all the diplomatic norms in any case. There are internationally accepted channels available for dealing with such situations.

Democracy in Pakistan will certainly help getting rid of radical Islam as Dajani is suggeting. However, the world should stop putting extra pressure on Pakistani leadership.

[newsjunkie5]

This is a really interesting perspective. I'm not sure what the solution is to eradicate terrorism in the world and to think that there is one generic prescription is perhaps a bit naive. Terrorism takes many forms and has many different causes, therefore, it needs to be approached and handled on a case by case basis. Maybe I too am simplifying the matter. Who knows?

[Ghazala]

Very pertinent, insightful and matter of the fact article Mr. Dajani. I am from Pakistan , where the current action (or is it reaction?) is. Your words should be spread more and more and I am going to do exactly that on http://www.pakspectator.com

regards

[Jamal Dajani - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for your kind words and for the link to this interesting site and good resource.

[medi22]

Thank you. It's always good to read your posts. To stop terrorism, American leaders should support sustainability and human rights everywhere.

[newsjunkie5]

That's a nice idea medi22. Unfortunately, that will never happen. Want to know why...?

What's in it for them?

[medi22]

Reality. A chance to succeed. Sustainability, sovereignty, human rights are conditions of survival.