Western policies and terrorism
Omar, On e-mail
Shahedul Anam Khan's editorial piece titled "Are western foreign policies responsible for global terrorism?" makes some very cogent points, but goes too far in placing the blame only on the West. No doubt America's war in Iraq was a foolish move, one that became more effective a tool for al-Qaeda recruitment than any VHS tape production Bin Laden's camp could have put out. That said, the 'terror' that Islamic groups use as means of getting their way is something we, and other Muslim nations, must take responsibility for. The long history of Muslims in the middle east, Africa, and Asia alike, gives us many examples of Islamic governments and groups that used violence as a means of securing obedience from their subject population. We as Bangladeshis are familiar enough with that kind of policy implemented by student groups supported by our major Islamic political parties. From personal experience, one of my teachers in high school had his tendons cut by Shibir activists, as a punishment for supporting the BNP while working in an Islamic school. A cursory look into the behaviours of organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or Hamas in Palestine shows similar behaviours, whereby death was the means by which groups punished those who dared to disagree with the fundamentalist interpretations of reality. We know of the persecution of the Ahmadiyya community in Bangladesh. There is no western interference, which explains or justifies the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, or of the indigenous people of Sudan. All this is terrorism, although we failed to address such policies of terror and call them what they in fact are. We fail to confront it. The shift we see today is that same mindset, that same philosophy, using its energies to fight the West. That is all international terrorism is. In dealing with it, the West finds itself having to recognize, and sometimes address, the rot that was allowed to root itself within Muslim communities. Let's not pretend it was all their invention. ***"Are western foreign policies responsible for global terrorism? -- A response to Dr. Kim Howells," by Brig. Gen. Shahedul Anam Khan (August 31). Brig Gen. Anam writes: "Mr. Howell so proudly announces his belief in democracy and its centrality in the existence of his country but cannot convince his country's greatest ally to accord the same benefits to others. That is why the Palestinians have to suffer both economically and physically for choosing, democratically, a party they feel would deliver their future to them. The US would have nothing to do with a government made up of terrorists, yet feels no compunction in arming a state to the teeth whose main strategy for achieving their own independence from the British was terrorist violence. All the talks by Mr. Howells of rejection of oppression sound hollow under these circumstances." Brig. Gen. Anam may take a look at what Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for Hamas, recently wrote in the Palestinian newspaper Al Ayyam. He broke the taboo by calling the Palestinians to stop blaming Israel for all their ills, and look instead at their own failures. "Gaza is suffering under the yoke of anarchy and the swords of thugs," Ghazi Hamad wrote in a commentary on August 27. Brig. Anam may also be reminded that democracy is not simply about winning the election. It is also about what you do after the election. Hitler was also elected democratically and Britain and France negotiated with him on this basis, with disastrous consequence. Interestingly, Hitler also wanted to destroy the Jews. Hitler managed to work up a considerable number of his compatriots to a frenzy of homicidal fury against the Jews, even though the latter amounted to only one per cent of the German population. And the post-war Polish government did even better: that bungling and paranoid communist regime produced anti-Semitism without any Jews at all. Survivors of Poland's once thriving Jewish community had emigrated after the war. Even if the Hamas is able to destroy Israel, it will continue to blame Jews for its own failures. But clearly, people such as Ghazi Hamad, who live in Gaza, seem to have lost patience with such tactics. In Lebanon, after a few days of euphoria over Hezbollah's "victory", many prominent Shiite Lebanese leaders are speaking out against Hezbollah. Sayyed Ali Al-Amin, a prominent Shiite cleric, has broken years of silence to criticise Hezbollah for provoking the war, and has called for its disarmament. Mona Fayed, a prominent Shiite academic in Beirut, wrote an op-ed published in An Nahar a week earlier, where she asks "Who is a Shiite in Lebanon?" answering her own question she said "A Shiite is he who takes his instructions from Iran, terrorises fellow believers into silence, and leads the nation into catastrophe." As for western foreign policies, foreign policies of all true democratic countries are guided by their national interests and not the interests of the ruling elites as in Iran. Mahmood Elahi , Iris Street, Ottawa, Canada
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