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12-23-2006, 00:08 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Postmaster General
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Join Date: 08-20-03
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Iraq fuels Global Jihad
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Saturday, December 23, 2006 E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version
VIEW: Iraq fuels global jihad —Fawaz A Gerges
Many of the Iraq generation of jihadists, who represent a tiny minority of all fighters in Iraq, come from the poverty belts of Arab and Muslim ghettos and streets. Many have shockingly little religious and formal education
Five years after the September 11 attacks, Al Qaeda’s notion of a clash of religions is no longer farfetched. In both camps, tiny minorities beat the drums, rallying the faithful to fight in a war they believe was caused by the other. Ordinary Muslims, not just Islamists and jihadists, view the ‘war on terror’ as a war against their religion and values. Many Muslims who had initially condemned Al Qaeda and 9/11 are having second thoughts about bin Laden’s fight against the Americans and their allies. Bin Laden has gained credibility in their eyes. “Now he is defending the Ummah,” confided a young rising poet, Massoud Hamed.
Top American policymakers — as opposed to intelligence officers — have little appreciation for how their military involvement in Iraq, as well as their staunch support of Israel, is radicalising mainstream Muslim opinion and legitimising radical groups that wage armed struggle in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere. “Al-Muqawama,” or resistance, is the most popular slogan in the Muslim world today, resonating deeply among men and women of all ages with religious and nationalist orientation alike. The plight of the Palestinians and Iraqis, in particular, echoes widely.
I have yet to hear a Friday sermon in which believers are not reminded to lend a helping hand to their beleaguered Palestinian and Iraqi counterparts. The ability of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, or Party of God, to resist the Israeli military onslaught has lent credence to Al-Muqawama proponents. “Hezbollah’s victory over the mighty Israeli army had broken the psychological barrier of fear among Muslims,” a leading political activist told me. “We no longer fear American and Israeli military power. We are armed with faith.”
Furthermore, while Muslim public backing for global jihad — as opposed to local jihad — is limited, Iraq today is one of the most promising theatres for the movement’s revival. Local jihad focuses only on occupied Arab and Muslim territories like Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, while global jihad’s boundaries extend wide and far to New York, Washington, Madrid and London. The American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq has given rise to a new generation of jihadists who differ dramatically from the first generation — the founding fathers who killed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981 — and the second generation, Afghan Arabs or Al Qaeda.
Members of the first generation of the jihadist movement — the pioneers — came from the middleclass and upper middleclass and graduated from top scientific and social sciences departments in Egypt’s best universities. They possessed a complex, though distorted, grasp of various schools of Islamic thought and laid the theoretical foundation of jihadism utilised by the Al Qaeda generation and the Iraq generation alike.
In contrast, many of the Iraq generation of jihadists, who represent a tiny minority of all fighters in Iraq, come from the poverty belts of Arab and Muslim ghettos and streets. Many have shockingly little religious and formal education. I met teenagers who aspired to join the fight against the American occupiers and were nearly illiterate, with no grasp of interpretations of religious texts. They lack the financial means — a few hundred US dollars — to travel to Iraq, but they and others like them form a huge pool of potential recruits for global jihad.
Moreover, unlike the first and second generation, the Iraq jihadists, few as they are so far, do not make a clear distinction between the near enemy (Muslim ruling ‘renegades’) and the far enemy (the US and its allies). They wage an all-out war against internal and external enemies alike. The lines of demarcation between Muslims and non-Muslims have also become blurred. The Iraq jihadists are willing to kill thousands of fellow Muslims who, in their eyes, are kufar, or apostates, and are as dangerous, if not more so, as Americans and Westerners.
In my conversation with members of the first generation and some of the Afghan-trained Arab fighters, they were at a loss to explain the beastly acts of terror carried out by their Iraq counterparts. While jihadists are conspiratorial by nature, they conceded that the indiscriminate killings of Muslims and civilians are a byproduct of the Iraq generation’s scanty religious education, low social status and America’s violation of Muslim sanctity.
“Foreign recruits to Iraq are vulnerable to Takfiri ideology [excommunication of Muslims and non-Muslims], which puts them on the wrong path,” a leader of the first generation told me. “There is no other way to make sense of the proliferation of suicide bombings — thousands of operations — against fellow believers in Iraq.”
In other words, foreign recruits to global jihad in Iraq are raw material easily moulded by Al Qaeda leaders there. They serve as human bombs, carriers of death and destruction. We are witnessing further mutation and militarisation with every jihadist generation. Who ever thought that the Iraq generation would be more violent than the Al Qaeda generation?
Both mainstream and militant Islamists whom I interviewed distanced themselves from the Iraq jihadists, “a liability to the honorable resistance,” as one put it. However, the Iraq jihadists no longer rely on foreign recruits, instead quickly winning some Sunni Iraqis to their cause. During the last year dramatic transformation has taken place within the Iraq generation, with the homegrown Iraqi contingent outnumbering Arab recruits. Although they are a tiny minority within the overall Iraq resistance, the Iraq generation of jihadists is becoming more Iraqi by the day. That means there are more Iraqi jihadists than foreigners, and that Al Qaeda has succeeded in establishing a home-base in the war-ravaged country.
Once the Americans exit Iraq, jihadists will face stiff opposition from the Sunni community that now provides them with protection and shelter. Jihadists would become a liability to the Sunni Arab community that’s already trying to distance itself from their dark vision. However, Al Qaeda and its affiliates feed on turmoil and chaos. Al Qaeda is in the process of establishing an indigenous base in war-ravaged Iraq. If the country sinks into all-out war, it will become to global jihad what Afghanistan was in the 1990s and early 2000s. “America invaded Iraq under the pretext of [the US] war against Al Qaeda,” Kamal Habib, a leading radical Islamist told me, laughing. “But America succeeded in reviving a dormant Al Qaeda and the global jihad movement. It has also awakened the Ummah from its political slumber.”
The US debate over Iraq focuses mainly on the effects of the American military presence on Al Qaeda and its affiliates — a tiny fringe in the political landscape in Iraq and beyond — while largely ignoring the negative effects of the war on mainstream Muslim opinion worldwide. The American military presence in the Arab heartland has become a liability, not an asset, to long-term political stability in Iraq and maintenance of US vital interests in the region, particularly the fight against global jihad.
The sad irony is that the American war in Iraq has proved to be counterproductive to the struggle against the global jihad movement and has alienated the floating middle of Muslim public opinion. It has given Al Qaeda central and its affiliates a new lease on life.
Even US intelligence services have reluctantly arrived at the same conclusion. The US public had turned against the costly Iraq adventure. Results of the mid-term US elections show the American people’s dissatisfaction with ‘staying the course’ in Iraq. This correcting mechanism might herald a fresh start for Iraq and the US. One would hope that Iraq is still salvageable, and that it is not already too late.
Fawaz A Gerges, a Carnegie Scholar and visiting professor at the American University in Cairo, is the author of Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy. He holds Christian Johnson Chair in Middle East and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College. This article appeared in YaleGlobal Online (www.yaleglobal.yale.edu), a publication of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, and is reprinted by permission. Copyright (c) 2003 Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
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A left handed compliment to the Jihadis is what this article seems to indicate.
There is a clear tone of being supportive of the terrorists and the call for more adherents to the 'cause' and the nostalgia for the "Ummah"! He categorically states that Moslems after having 'second thiughts' on condemning Osama and his 'just' action on the WTC, conveniently forgetting that it was a dastardly act of cowards who attacked unsuspecting and unarmed civilians! If such a inhuman act can be forgotten by the Moslems having second thoughts, it speaks volumes of the illogical and militant mindset that the Moslems have. I sincerely hope that the author is totally off the main tack!
The usual cry of Palestine and other Islamic losses make its entry into this article with no mention that the Jews and Israel also have equally impressive grievances. It is always that the Moslems are the ones who have suffered at the hands of everyone. It has almost become a Cry Wolf syndrome amongst the pro Moslem writers. If there is a terrorist attack on the Mumbai trains, the Palestinian issue is bound to surface as a justification, while the Kashmir issue looms large.
One wonders why religion is the sole raison d'etre of a nation in the Moslem mind. Is it because to them religion is the be all and end all of existence? If so, why do they go to non Moslem lands to reap the harvest they fail to reap in their hovels of Islam? If being intolerant to everything non Islam, why do they cry from rooftops when they are given the same treatment (though more humane and democratic in comparison) in non Islamic countries?
I wonder when will they learn to live with others and most importantly, be happy!
__________________
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
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12-23-2006, 09:26 AM
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#2 (permalink)
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Senior Contributor
Join Date: 10-23-05
Location: Carl Perkins' Cadillac
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Sir,
What makes this whole thing funny is that during the hard sell and hasty rush to war in Iraq, this was predicted down to the letter by more than a few people.
The radical Pan Islamic blowback from the Russian war in Afghanistan was well understood and highlighted as a case study for post War Iraq.
The so called Afghan Arabs that came home from that war and brought the current round of troubles on were quite few in number. Afghanistan took a bit of effort to get to for the Jihadi recruit whereas Iraq is simply a ride on a bus for most who can afford the ticket.
More people are going to Iraq AFAIK than did to Afghanistan which is going to make the blowback significantly worse as they return to their own countries and set up to do battle against the governments there.
To make matters worse, the Jihadi in Iraq has the opportunity to learn to kill Americans and Americans are pretty tough to kill in the grand scheme of things given their level of discipline, training, equipment, etc. Imagine how much more effective this makes the Iraq Jihadi when he or she goes up against the weaker, less organized police and military forces of their home countries.
The article mentioned driving the nationalist and Pan Islamic elements together...oh joy, what a boon for our cause. We better come up with a competing product and introduce it into that marketplace before the other guy gets to much traction or there will be Hell to pay.
My military education has been sadly neglected but I was under the impression that you are supposed to starve your enemy, not feed him.
Best regards to you and yours, Sir, and may you enjoy Peace and Prosperity in the coming year,
William
__________________
Pharoh was pimp but now he is dead. What are you going to do today?
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12-23-2006, 10:38 AM
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#3 (permalink)
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Postmaster General
Military Professional
Join Date: 08-20-03
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William,
The Iraq situation is rather unfortunate. In fact, I don't think it could have been avoided, given the strategic compulsions of the US, notwithstanding the prediction of the Tarot Card post Afghanistan.
Iraq is a tradeoff between the strategic requirement of post Cold War geopolitical compulaions vs the then appreciated Islamic fundamentalism consequent to Afghanistan. Obviously, it must have been appreciated then that Islamic fundamentalism could be contained.
I am sure there will come one day when Islamic fundamentalism will wane and the world will be at Peace.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your folks.
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12-23-2006, 11:21 AM
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#4 (permalink)
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Senior Contributor
Join Date: 10-23-05
Location: Carl Perkins' Cadillac
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[quote=Ray;315810]
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I am sure there will come one day when Islamic fundamentalism will wane and the world will be at Peace
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I have heard it said that "time is the cure for all bad passions and anarchical doctrine".
To that end, the Egyptians have had some luck with the principle of "Salafi Burnout".
I am in favor of attempting to induce Salafi Burnout on a wide scale as well as trying to ideologically innoculate certain demographic segments in the Muslim World as I have stated before but it will require a management team willing to employ a mixture of the insturments of national power instead of relying soley on military interventionism.
The situation we are in is a product of what Churchill described as instutional culture being incapable of reacting to novel conditions; the view of the Admiral over the Captain over the Commander and all that.
William |
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12-23-2006, 12:43 PM
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#5 (permalink)
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Senior Contributor
Join Date: 08-06-04
Location: New Delhi
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>> Iraq fuels Global Jihad
Nah .. Jihad caused Iraq. Global Jihad caused Afghanistan.
It is your fault. You started it. Now quit whining!
__________________
I rant, therefore I am.
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