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When Religion is Hijacked - to view the original article on the website of the Washington Times, click here.
By Yonah Alexander / Jason Korsower
The history of mankind is filled with overwhelming stark evidence that religions have at times been hijacked by political leaders in their struggle for power within and among nations.
The inflammatory statements made by Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, during the 10th Islamic Summit Conference on Oct. 16, 2003, regarding the canard of an international Jewish conspiracy to control the world, is only another recent chilling illustration of this dark record.
Such indoctrination of theological animosity inevitably will intensify the most brutal acts of terrorism, both conventional (e.g., suicide bombings) and unconventional (e.g., biological, chemical, radiological, nuclear, and cyber).
The half-century-long Arab-Israeli conflict has provided a most convincing lesson that the perverse political use of Islam has sadly contributed heavily to distortions, suspicion, fear, hatred, terrorism and wars. More specifically, in communicating with their co-religionists at home and abroad, both Arab and non-Arab Muslim leaders have habitually focused on traditional anti-Semitic themes by citing Koran verses, relating Islamic historical experiences, evoking religious principles and practices, and misinterpreting customs and ceremonies.
Unfortunately, these efforts have ignored the numerous calls for tolerance found in the Koran and have instead aimed at "exposing" the "evil" nature of Jews and their religion, vilifying Zionism, and sanctifying the destruction of Israel. Any serious research of the conflict reveals Jews have been described as the "most abominable of God's creatures," "God's adversaries," the "deadliest enemies," "worst of beasts," "poison," "pests," "dishonest," "cunning," "arrogant" and "corrupt."
Moreover, according to the critique, the Bible, upon which Judaism is based, was "forged" and "counterfeited" by "riffraff" who "falsified God's message."
In light of these repugnant qualities and immoral activities, Muslims are, therefore, called upon "in the name of Allah" to raise the flag of "conquest and victory with Allah" in a "sacred Islamic battle" and in a "holy liberation struggle" to "end the war that Mohammed began." As "protectors of religion," Muslims will "crush the foreign evil," "purify Holy Palestine from Zionist filth," "cleanse the sanctity of usurped Arab land," and thereby "regain honor and justice" and "bring back peace to the sacred Islamic homeland."
The religious duty of "jihad," which regards any deviation as a "shameful sin against religion" and a "renunciation of Islam," must, therefore, be considered as the key obstacle to the manifold regional and global efforts to advance the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Tragically, the identification of this religious obligation of "Arab resistance" to the Jewish state has had a profound influence on molding Islamic Israelphobia, particularly among more observant Muslims throughout the world.
To be sure, the legitimization of religious violence is directed not only against Israel and world Jewry. The global terrorist network, al Qaeda, also known as the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, exploits theology to the fullest extent against all adversaries. For instance, Osama bin Laden issued a statement in May 1998 in which he asserted that it is the duty of Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to attack perceived "enemies of God."
More recently, on Oct. 18, 2003, in a videotape broadcast, bin Laden promised more suicide attacks inside and outside the United States. He also threatened nations supporting the "unjust war" in Iraq, particularly Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland and Spain. Even cooperating Muslim countries, such as Kuwait, will be targeted by "God's soldiers."
A glimpse of such terrorist escalation was just provided by a series of attacks in Baghdad, ushering in the holy month of Ramadan. These coordinated suicide bombings, including the attack on the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, killing some 34 people and wounding 224 others were allegedly perpetrated with the support of "foreign fighters" affiliated with al Qaeda.
In sum, what is of particular concern to anyone truly interested in international peace is not only the education in religious hatred advanced by nonstate movements. The greater danger to civilization is the fear that if the recent Malaysian episode, which was not condemned by the representatives of the 57 countries attending the Islamic Summit Conference, becomes an acceptable norm of morality, then individuals, groups, and nations would increasingly be drawn into distinct and clashing religious societies inhaling messages of uncompromising self-righteousness and conditioned for a mood of sacred violence without end.
Thus, the seeming emerging contemporary trend is that instead of minimizing theological confrontations and maximizing ecumenical interfaith relations in the post-September 11, 2001, era, political leaders are still servants to ethnic, racial and religious intolerance, terror and ultimately war.
It would be prudent, therefore, to consider developing a new "war of ideas" and expanding the rule of law capabilities. This strategy could entail the following elements:
• First, appeal to political leaders to de-escalate, if not completely eliminate, negative religious components in their rhetoric.
• Second, declare the sanctity of Islam, Christianity, Judaism and other major religions in a joint statement by the clergy of these faiths.
• Third, seek condemnations by both public and private bodies of all forms of theologically oriented communication advocating hatred and violence from any source.
• Fourth, promote theological research by religious and educational institutions on the role of religion in advancing the cause of peace in regional conflicts that defy easy solutions.
• And fifth, draft a new international convention to criminalize religious incitement for violence.
It would be rather presumptuous to suggest such approaches will reduce the threat of terrorism to humanity. The preservation of peace, however, requires taking some immediate action in this troubling area of global security concerns.
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Familiar Recipe For Terror - click here to view the original article on the website of the Washington Times
By Yonah Alexander/Jason Korsower
Published June 18, 2003
Dag Hammerskjold, the distinguished secretary?general of the United Nations observed in the 1950s that "it is diplomacy ... that continues to have the last word in the process of peacemaking."
Unfortunately, the historical record of diplomatic successes in the Middle East conflict resolution during the past half-century is relatively short. The peace treaties between Israel and Egypt in 1979 and Israel and Jordan in 1994 have been remarkable achievements. However, the Oslo Accord of 1993 and the subsequent agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority collapsed as a result of escalating terrorism of the second intifada that began almost three years ago.
Indeed, Hammerskjold's classic observation is once again seriously questioned despite the commendable statesmanship efforts by President George W. Bush to revive the moribund peace process. Although the summit meetings initiated recently by the president in Egypt and Jordan were a hopeful new beginning of a diplomatic opportunity, they proved to be inadequate in preventing an escalating carnage on the ground.
To be sure, the daily bloody events characterized most dramatically by the suicide bombing of a civilian bus in Jerusalem and intensified military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank did not surprise Middle East observers. They fully understand that the core of the Israel-Palestinian conflict stems from the ferocious challenge by terrorist groups like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to the validity for Jewish self-determination as a people in a sovereign state. As Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas senior official who just survived an Israeli assassination attempt, repeatedly asserted: "There will be no single Jew in Palestine. We will fight them with all the power that we have."
This negation of a Jewish entity co-existing alongside an Arab state in the Palestinian Authority's territories as envisaged in the road map to be formed in 2005, is a critical disposition not limited to the traditional terrorist movements. It is much more widespread in the "Arab street" and thereby undermines any prospect for a genuine peace. According to the latest global survey by the Pew Research Center some 80 percent of the Palestinians agree with the statement: "The rights and needs of the Palestinian people cannot be taken care of as long as the State of Israel exists."
It is a truism that such an intense antipathy toward Zionism (the national liberation movement to establish and maintain a distinct Jewish State in Palestine) has deep historical roots. Clearly, concern for the fate of Palestine as part of the Arab world began to be articulated as soon as the Arab press published reports on the emergence of Zionism as a national ideology in the 1880s. Anxiety over the future of the area reached a fever pitch after successive blows to Arab national consciousness: the Balfour Declaration of 1917; the reneging of the British promise of postwar support of Arab independence in return for Arab help against the Turks during World War I; and the subsequent British encouragement of Zionist efforts to make Palestine the first "Jewish National Home" in 2,000 years.
The Palestinian Arabs revolted sporadically in the 1920s and 1930s, resorting to terrorism against the Jewish community in British Mandated Palestine. These efforts to change the political map by force were ultimately crushed by the "foreign intruders," as the Zionists were labeled by Palestinians. But it was the establishment of Israel in "Arab Palestine" (or "usurped Syria") in 1948, regarded by the Arabs as the "greatest disaster" to befall them, that irretrievably linked the existence of a Jewish entity in the Middle East with "foreign domination."
In sum, Israel represents to most Palestinians both Western imperialism and Zionist colonialism. It is viewed as a foreign, malignant body in the heart of the Arab world, a presence that is ideologically alien, morally and legally indefensible, diplomatically an affront, politically an injustice, and militarily a constant threat to their security in an independent Palestinian state and their hopes for unity and economic and social advancement.
As long as this perception continues to prevail among the vast majority of Palestinians indoctrinated daily by propaganda against the legitimate right of Israel to exist, the future prospects of peace and stability in the region will remain only a dream of the wise. History teaches us that a fundamental prerequisite to any normalization of relationships between antagonists is the unconditional cessation of terrorism and not merely cease-fire agreements.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, in his speech in Aqaba already promised: "We will exert full efforts to ending the militarization of the intifada. The armed intifada must end, and we must resort to peaceful means to achieve our goals." He must now begin to seriously dismantle the terrorist infrastructure of religious and secular Palestinian groups. The Palestinian Authority, in coordination with Israel, the United States and the Arab countries (particularly Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) must put an end to terror, or terror will put an end to any current and future diplomatic initiatives.
The message communicated by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons on May 13, 1940, will therefore continue to be instructive for those policymakers committed to a realistic peace process in the region: "Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."
Yonah Alexander is professor and director of the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies and Jason Korsower is the Center's research coordinator at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Va.
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Minnesota and terrorists -- is there an attraction? - click here to view the original article on the website of Minnesota Public Radio News
It'll be three years next month that the French Intelligence Service confirmed that the man authorities were holding in the Sherburne County jail, Zacarias Moussaoui, had ties to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Since then, Minnesota officials have arrested five more men with alleged ties to terrorist organizations, prompting some to wonder about the state's connection to terrorist cases.
St. Paul, Minn. — Minnesota's major terrorism-related cases include Mohammad Warsame, a Minneapolis college student who court documents allege wired money through a Pakistani bank to persons he met at two Al-Qaeda training camps. He supposedly taught English to Al-Qaeda members, and even joined the Taliban front lines. The documents also say he attended a camp where he attended lectures and ate with Osama Bin Laden.
Then there's Mohammad Kamal Elzahabi, formerly of Minneapolis, who was picked up for lying to the FBI about allegedly moving large quantities of radio equipment from New York to Pakistan. Elzahabi allegedly fought as a sniper, and served as an instructor for sniper skills at a training camp in Afghanistan. And then just this past week, a federal grand jury indicted an Iraqi man on three counts of lying to federal agents after he stepped off a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam. Court documents allege Ali Mohammed Abboud Almosaleh lied to U.S. Customs officials when they asked about how long he'd been out of the country, what countries he visited and what he carried on his digital video disks.
Those discs reportedly contained images of an Iraqi militia leader accompanied by calls for resistance against the U.S., Saddam Hussein and the invasion of Iraq, and a possible suicide note.
International terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann says Minnesota is one of several Midwestern states where there's been an unusual connection to radical groups. He says it's not out of the question that Minnesota could be attractive to terrorists.
"Border states allow for relatively easy slipping in and out of the country. ... Three of the top states for terrorism-related arrests and cases are border states.
- International terrorism analyst Jason Korsower”
"The Midwest -- and Minnesota -- is not the first place you think that terrorists are going to be interested in scoping out and setting up a base in, and perhaps operating from," says Kohlmann. "I think in the past, especially if you look at the 9/11 plot, the 9/11 hijackers relied on that. They went to Florida, a place where you could really blend in. A place full of new people, outsiders, people who didn't have roots there."
International terrorism analyst Jason Korsower of the Investigative Project says terrorists could also find it easier to live in Minnesota's Muslim population, where they might not only find it convenient, but an easy place in which to blend.
"There is the possibility that terrorists and supporters could take advantage of larger Muslim populations in order to reduce detection. And Minneapolis has a large population of Somalis," says Korsower.
Korsower says Minnesota probably ranks 4th in terrorism-related arrests and prosecutions, behind areas such as New York, Washington D.C. and Phoenix. He says the public shouldn't jump to conclusions that Minnesota has now become a major haven for terrorist activities. He says, however, Minnesota's international border with Canada could increase its attractiveness to would-be terrorists.
"Border states allow for relatively easy slipping in and out of the country," says Korsower. "Interestingly enough, I point out that three of the top states for terrorism-related arrests and cases are border states."
There hasn't been any evidence made public that any of the six men arrested on terrorism-related charges are part of a cell. However, Evan Kohlmann says that information cuts in both directions.
"You could say either that's evidence that it's not an organized conspiracy -- or that's evidence that there's possibly five different conspiracies," says Kohlmann. "I think the one thing you can say is that as long as terrorists are using Minnesota as an operating point, probably it's unlikely they would target the state for an operation."
Ali Mohammed Abboud Almosaleh, the most recent Minnesota terrorism-related arrestee, will make his first appearance in federal court next Tuesday morning.
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