A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| The Winter of Arab Discontent |
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| bhaloo |
| 03/26/03 at 09:20:20 |
| [slm] The Winter of Arab Discontent U.S. Invasion Crystalizes Islamic World Against America http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/Primetime/iraq_analysis030321.html Analysis By ABCNEWS Consultant Fawaz A. Gerges March 21 — Now that the war in Iraq has commenced, America's relations with the Muslim world will be tested further in the months and years ahead Distinguished Islamic institutions and renowned, moderate Muslim clerics have urged Muslims to join in jihad (holy war) to resist the U.S.-led onslaught. Osama bin Laden and his militant ilk no longer have a monopoly calling on Muslims to wage jihad to defend the faith. On Iraq, lines have become blurred between mainstream and radical politics in the world of Islam, thanks to the U.S. approach, which is widely seen as unjust and hegemonic. A new realignment, bringing together a broad spectrum of political forces against the United States, is crystallizing in Arab and Muslim lands. American policy toward Iraq has alienated most of the important political secular and religious actors who, until now, had been unwilling to join with radical anti-American forces. Last week, Al-Azhar, the highest, oldest (1,000 years) and most respected institution of religious learning in the Muslim world, issued a fatwa (religious edict) advising "all Muslims in the world to make jihad against invading American forces." The statement warned that Islam itself is the direct target of the "new crusaders' invasion" which aims at humiliating and subjugating Arabs and controlling their resources. Resonating Call to the Faithful The calls for jihad against the American invasion transcend ideological lines and the secular-religious divide in the Arab world. In the absence of legitimate political authority, religious figures and Islamist groups vie with each other to fill the vacuum and to satisfy the public hunger and rage. Given its historical and religious symbolism and weight, Azhar's ruling will likely resonate with the faithful, particularly outraged young men. Although Islam possesses no organized church, the significance of Al-Azhar's call to Muslims could be compared to that of the Papacy if it were to call on Catholics to fight a just war to defend the faith. Prominent Muslim clerics and political leaders have echoed Al-Azhar and sounded the alarm. Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, a reformist, who was one of the first clerics to condemn the 9/11 suicide bombings against the United States and to dismiss bin Laden's jihadi credentials as fraudulent, ruled that attempts to resist an American attack is "Jihad" and a "binding Islamic duty." He also impressed on Arab leaders the need to exert their utmost efforts to block any aggression against Iraq, a veiled warning for pro-U.S. Arab allies who support Washington's military campaign. Maligned previously by conservative and reactionary clerics as a pro-Western reformer, Tantawi's new stance shows the extent of the realignment of political opinion against American foreign policy in the world of Islam. United Fronts Moderates and radicals now appear to be fully united and determined to oppose the American war. For example, soon after Al-Azhar issued its fatwa, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt — one of the well-organized and mainstream Islamist organizations, which has branches in several Arab countries and whose membership numbers in the millions — called on his followers everywhere to join in jihad in defense of Iraq. The Muslim Brothers have not been considered a militant group since the 1970s when they forsook violence and agreed to play by the rules of the political game. Secretary General of Hezbollah, Party of God, Sayyed Nasrallah, a known radical, was more defiant and explicit in his warning to the United States: "We tell [the Americans] that they will not be met in this region with roses, flowers and perfumes. They will be met with arms, martyrdom, and rifles." The big question is, how will the new calls for arms be translated in operational terms, and will the battlefield be limited to the Iraqi theater? A widely-respected Egyptian-born cleric based in Qatar, sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, who swiftly denounced al-Qaeda's terrorism after 9/11, accused the Bush administration of launching a war in Iraq against Islam and Muslims and behaving like "a god." Qaradawi stressed that fighting U.S. troops is "legal jihad" and that "death while defending Iraq is a kind of martyrdom." These alarming words not only express the intensity of Arab/Muslim opposition to the coming war in Iraq but also reflect the deepening cultural and religious divide between the official American position and the Muslim societal response. More Than a Clash of Words President Bush's references to religious symbols in explaining his confrontation with Iraq have generated a similar Muslim oratory, bringing the two camps closer to a clash of civilizations. Religion is being superimposed on a geo-strategic conflict with potential disastrous repercussions for both sides. Bin Laden must be laughing in either his grave or cave, depending on his whereabouts. One of his strategic goals was to portray the struggle with the United States in religious terms — one between "the camp of belief vs. the camp of unbelief" — and to mobilize the Umma, the Muslim community worldwide, to head his call for jihad. Bin Laden's apocalyptic nightmare fell mostly on deaf ears and the Muslim community did not rise up. Leading Muslim clerics cautioned young men not to be swayed by the calls for jihad by fringe groups like al Qaeda and stated that only legitimate institutions and accredited scholars are qualified to do so. What was unthinkable a year and a half ago has happened — two versions of a just war theory, one Western and the other Muslim, are clashing over Iraq. The challenge facing the silent majority now is how to limit the damage and isolate the reverberations from the Iraqi crisis. The Road to Rebuilding Trust The good news is that both mainstream Western and Muslim leaders have called on their peoples to show tolerance and restraint toward each other. In their sermons and speeches, Tantawi, Qaradawi and other Muslim clerics and politicians make clear distinctions between the U.S. government and the American people. They have appealed to their followers not to target civilians and to keep the focus on Iraq. They seem to appreciate the widespread public opposition to the war in the United States and other Western nations. Similarly, the opposition to war by church leaders dilutes the religious fervor of those who would make this a clash of civilizations. These hopeful signs can be built on to regain the momentum of peaceful co-existence and to rebuild the bridges of trust between Islam and the West. [i] Fawaz A. Gerges is professor of Middle East and international affairs at Sarah Lawrence College and author of the forthcoming "The Islamists and the West" (Cambridge University Press). [/i] |
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