A Century of Darkness
September 4th, 2003Tonight Hubby and I watched the final in the series Age of Terror. I’d missed the previous episodes which Hubby had assiduously followed, mostly because I don’t like thinking about the darker side of human nature. Tonight, however, we were late with dinner (we ended up ordering pizza) and so I was co-opted into watching the final episode.
Tonight’s show was essentially about state sponsored terrorism. Yes, the terrorism you have when you’re not having a terrorism. (Apologies to Claytons). There were interviews from US CIA bods who had been involved in the Contra guerrilla war and Argentianian military bods who had terrorised and tortured their own citizens during “The Dirty War”.
It made me realise, how dark the twentieth century really was. The first modern acts of terrorism (according to this show) were committed by those fighting to establish the nation state of Israel, and today Israel is beleagured by suicide bombers. Despite the glitz of the eighties, the democratic US was committing acts of terrorism on foreign soil. Now in the new millenium, terrorism is coming home to the whole planet. When will we learn? The ends don’t justify the means!
On a related note, today I also had a stark reminder of how hatred can eventually evolve into the evil of terrorism. Two Australians who claim to be Muslims have been linked with an Al-Qaeda operative from Spain. One of them, a man who goes by the name Abu Ayman, is linked with an extremist Wahhabi-Salafi sect here in Melbourne. In the past, this sect was mainly known to me for annoying the bejezus out of Muslim university student organisations by their insistance on propogating and enforcing their own minority ideology, but for their leader to be linked with an al-Qaeda operative, gives me no great surprise. One of the things this group is infamous for is hatred of Jews, hatred of kafirs, hatred of Sufis, and well… hatred of anyone but themselves as far as I can make out.
They usually present themselves as ultra-pious defenders of the faith, but they have shown a much darker side. It’s time the mainstream Muslim community vocally and visably reject the ideology of Wahhabi-Salafiism. We may not have fundamentalist messianic cults like Christianity has its David Koreshs and Jim Joneses but we have these militant war cults instead. It’s not good enough just to have a ‘live and let live’ policy, when these groups breed the hatred that eventually turns into terrorism.
A Melburnian Muslim convert blogs religion, academia and life in general.
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Modern Terror
Maryam of A Dervish’s Dua has a post on a program that aired in Australia, Age of Terror. It is difficult to tell from either her description or the program description what qualifies as modern, but she writes, Tonight’s show…
Some of the groups with the worst attitudes, like Hizb-ut-Tahrir, are independent of the Wahhabi movement; a lot of them were influenced by the Egyptian radical Syed Qutb, who was not to the best of my knowledge a Wahhabi. Bin Laden’s “right hand man”, Ayman Zawahiri, was a follower of Qutb. Also, Bin Laden’s “mentor”, Abdullah Azzam, was a student of Qutb.
I think that blaming everything on “Wahhabis” is too superficial an answer. There are many extremist trends in Islam and some of them have nothing whatsoever to do with either Saudi Arabia or Wahhabis. By focusing attention exclusively on Wahhabis, we may fail to deal with the other groups.
I should also note that Bin Laden has been working for more than ten years to overthrow the Saudi regime. I think that they probably bought him off by financing his activities elsewhere in an attempt to keep him from going after them (just as Pakistan paid the Taliban to go into Afghanistan) but that isn’t the same thing as saying that the two are allies or that they share common aims.
Sr. Al-Muhajabah wrote:
I think that blaming everything on “Wahhabis” is too superficial an answer.
Good point. I think I was blowing off a bit of steam, because in my local area it is really only a small extremist W-S fringe that causes the Muslim community problems. For some reason Hizb ut-Tahrir haven’t gained a foothold here, and I’d never heard of JI until the Bali bombings.
I should also note that Bin Laden has been working for more than ten years to overthrow the Saudi regime. I think that they probably bought him off by financing his activities elsewhere in an attempt to keep him from going after them (just as Pakistan paid the Taliban to go into Afghanistan)…
I hadn’t thought about it from that POV. It’s hard to imagine Bin Ladin accepting essentially a bribe to look the other way for a while as it were. But then it’s hard to know anything about the man. He is becoming/become a mythical character much like Adolf Hitler’s name is synonymous for evil.
but that isn’t the same thing as saying that the two are allies or that they share common aims.
True, but I find it hard to imagine if Bin Ladin, and the Taliban from the Pakistan madrasas could have evolved into such Frankensteins without the mother’s milk of W-S extremism.
It actually places me in a bit of a bind to discuss Muslim militant extremism. Being who I am, I firmly believe in the concept of Islam manifesting in legitimate diversity. That’s what has been the strength of (particularly) Sunni Islam. We had figures such as al-Ashari, al-Ghazali, Muhammad Abduh (may God be pleased with them all) who managed to forge an acceptable syncretism in mainstream Islam. But I find that I have to speak out against those who would make rallying cries for hatred. I just cannot stomach it from people who claim to belong to the same faith that I do; whose Prophet tended after the sick Jewish woman who’d been throwing rubbish in his path every day.
I think a big piece of the answer-puzzle is to encourage *more* Islamic education. It really has been such an eye-opener for me when I began my studies. The richness of Islamic thought and scholarship. Sure the Muslim community has had its fair share of problems, but I cannot imagine it’s possible to read about Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya, Hasan al-Basri, Al-Ashari, Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-’Arabi, Mulla Sadra and not have your heart jump and wish with all your heart that every Muslim had the opportunity to do the same: so we could see what an incredibly rich heritage we have; a diverse heritage; a mind-expanding heritage - okay I know I’m on my soapbox a bit now. Apologies.
As a postscript, I should probably point out where Muslims are denouncing extremism, hatred and terrorism:
Al-Muhajabah’s excellent: Muslims Condemn Terrorist Attacks
Islamic Statements Against Terrorism in the Wake of the September 11 Mass Murders
Prof. Godlas’ collection of links.
I’ve written a bit about this topic here and posted about it subsequently to my blog. I also recommend reading “The Battle for God” by Karen Armstrong, which shows the similarities among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim fundamentalism.
Wahhabi zeal and literalism is certainly one of the factors, but if it hadn’t been them it would probably have been someone else because there are many other factors that do not have anything to do with the Saudis.
assalamu alaikum
what is remained unknown about 911 disaster is who responsible and organized that. US is still not giving us strong evidence instead of blaming osama bin ladeen and his Al Qaeda as executors. it may arise doubts in many moslems whether it is true or false accusation. US seems so untransparant on this subject and merely trying to blame moslem fundamentalists and virtually all moslems for this. i know and realize that this is a partly beginning of the clash of civilization like what huttington has predicted.
Assalaamu Alaikum.
You mentioned this story above:
“Prophet tended after the sick Jewish woman who’d been throwing rubbish in his path every day.”
Can you help me. I am trying to find its reference.
Was-salaam,
Faiyaz Khan.