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4/17/2008 4:56:58 PM
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Presence of an estimated one hundred million extremist Muslims in the Um"mah is a constant reminder of the psychological terrorism faced by the non-Islamic world. Politicized Generals of many Muslim majority nations and non-state (al Qaeda) members of the Islamic Um"mah routinely exploit terrorism for personal and political gains. With rising levels of Muslims killing Muslims several Islamic nations in last five years have been destabilized; the law and order has deteriorated and the writ of the government is challenged by terrorists.
Some elite Muslims op-ed writers view defensive measures taken by America and European nations to inhibit potential terrorist attacks as Islamophobia. These pundits forget that Muslims in general and its ruling elites in particular are helpless against overwhelming superior economic and military power of developed non-Islamic nations. The developed non-Islamic nations are not afraid of Islam, nor are they intimidated by Jihadists. Any Muslim majority nation instigating global Jihad is a fair target for occupation by non-Islamic developed nations if they choose to.
Terrorism, both psychological and physical, is the dark side of political Islam and it is a preferred tool for gaining power by the "economically and militarily weak" jihadists or warlords against non-believers. For extremists the non-believers are non-Islamic followers and also those of different sects judging from sectarian wars between Sunni, Shia, and Islamic tribes.
Islamic trilogy of scriptures - Quran, Hadith and Shariah - is heavily politicized and is the working documents for political Islam. A statistical analysis of the trilogy by Bill Warner of the Center for the Study of Islam showed that the scriptures contain 17% words attributed to God or Allah and 83% to Mohammed. Of the 146 references to Hell in Quran 6% are for moral failings - murder, theft, etc and the balance for intellectual sin of disagreeing with Mohammed, a political crime. Contrary to what Muslims like us to believe Jihad is not spiritual for in Bukhari Hadith 97% jihad references are about war and only 3% are about inner struggle or spirituality. At least 75% of Shariah is about jihad as war.
There is a constant struggle for moderate Muslims to defend Muslim extremism and non-Islamic believers to ignore Islamic terrorism. Defenders of Islam maintain that percentage of Muslim extremist is small. A Gallop poll recorded extremists represent about 7% or an estimated 100 million of 1.4 billion global Muslim populations. Muslims know or should know that 6.6 billion global populations prefer not to have to face hate and intolerance of 100 million extremist Muslims. In a climate of mounting terrorism, moderates Muslims remain silent or defend extremism by trying to divert attention away from political Islam. Why do they feel immune from Islamic terrorism if not caught in current hot spots for terrorism in Iraq, Palestine, and parts of South Asia?
Islamic terrorism is linked to ruling elites and promoting jihadi terrorism is central to foreign policy of several Islamic states. Sponsorship of terrorism by the ISI of Pakistan in South Asia and that against Israel by Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are well documented. Muslims participants in the Gallop Polls link terrorism to political grievances. Extremists have grievances against leadership of Islamic states and a zeal for subversion of non-Islamic states to promote Islam.
Prior to the event of 9/11 Pakistan actively supported al Qaeda and Taliban. It provided sanctuaries and training to Arabs and other foreign participants of jihad master-minded by al Qaeda. Pakistan is the "training ground" of the terrorist that continue to surface in Europe. Taliban incursions into Afghanistan are taking place from Pakistan. Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq were trained in Pakistan.
Pakistan"s association with al Qaeda has boom-ranged. Pakistan agreed to fight America"s War on Terrorism and killing Muslims for blood money. Consequently the ISI and the army have lost control of tribals used as terrorists in Afghanistan and inside Pakistan by al Qaeda.
A study by the University of Chicago (Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism) reported that between 1980 and 2003, there have been 315 suicide terror attacks worldwide and at least 75 per cent of these attacks involved Islamist groups or terrorist acts in Muslim lands. Subsequent to 2003, almost all suicide attacks involved Muslims killing Muslims.
Al Qaeda and politicized Generals of Pakistan with dreams of strategic depth and those from other Muslim nations wishing to establish next Caliphate harbor extra-territorial ambitions. In South Asia and Iraq tribals are exploited by the ideologically driven forces to carry out terrorist attacks.
Suicide terrorism is all about group dynamics; tribals driven by their code of honor have no extra-territorial ambitions while ideologically driven forces have extra-territorial objectives. Segregation of the two forces followed by political isolation of all ideologically-driven elements may inhibit rampant regional terrorism.
Over the past five years 1,000 Muslim suicide bombers have killed more than 13,000 Muslim men, women and children in Iraq. Last year, tribal Sheikhs began forming ad-hoc armed forces that guard neighborhoods, infrastructure and man checkpoints. These "Awakening Groups" across Iraq have managed to identify and then isolate Al Qaeda elements. As a consequence, Al-Qaeda is fast loosing sanctuaries and is being unable to continue its deadly campaign of terror. Awakening Groups against suicide bombers have sharply reduced the number of suicide attacks.
Suicide terrorism is now rampant in Pakistan as the army and ISI have lost control over al Qaeda dominated tribals. The suicide campaign is entirely proactive seeking to establish safe heavens on Pakistani territory. Pakistani society continues to tolerate extremist preachers and Muslim suicide bombers are killing Muslim of other sects.
Tribals follow a code of conduct offered in the Islamic scriptures enshrined with medieval tribal Arab norms. Extremist and a silent majority of moderate Muslims are intolerant to critical examination of Islamic practices. For some non-Muslim believers Islamic scriptures represent fascist tendencies and one recent attempt to expose it is a documentary, "Fitna," by a Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. Mr. Wilders released the film on internet for a worldwide circulation of "Fitna."
The message of "Fitna" is that the Quran is the living inspiration for jihadists. Without the Quran"s violent passages, the film suggests, Islamic terrorism would not exist. Mr. Wilders shows verses from the Quran alongside hate speeches by imams and graphic images of Islamic terrorism from 9/11 to the Madrid train later. He uses footage from the video-taped beheading of a hostage by Islamic terrorists. He also shows the most famous of the Danish cartoons (the one with a bomb on Mohammad"s head) that triggered demonstrations across the Muslim world two years ago.
In addition to terrorism the other dark side of political Islam includes subjugation of women and homosexuals, and anti-Semitism. News media in 2007 covered rampant spread of psychological terrorism in Pakistan. In 2004 a Dutch Muslim of Moroccan descent declared that Islam demanded him to kill filmmaker Van Gogh, who had made a short movie that criticized the mistreatment of women in Islam. Somali-born Dutch parliamentarian Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali had collaborated with Mr. Van Gogh in making of the film and after the murder she was put under 24-hour police protection and eventually she had to leave Netherlands and seek asylum in USA.
One hundred million extremist Muslims is not a trivial enemy strength to deny and for the world to ignore. Muslims settled is secular democracies who maintain that Islam means peace should come together with non-Islamic believers to show that we are capable of defending our values against the intolerance of radical Muslims. Appeasement is not a viable solution as the 100 million strong enemies considers it as our weakness with a potential for our ruin and their victory. Muslims who take comfort that they are immune from psychological and physical terrorism should wake-up and start neutralizing the Islamic extremist in their environment.
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