Intellectuals have failed to understand terrorism: Modernism versus Fundamentalism

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

11 Nov 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com

Intellectuals have failed to understand terrorism: Modernism versus Fundamentalism

Of course, none of this is to justify the preachings of the Jamiat. Its ideas are regressive and do lead Muslims backward. But the point is that they don't necessarily spawn terrorism; indeed, if implemented, some of them may actually come in handy in the fight against violent Islam. While our experts draw a line between the 'Muslim majority' and a 'handful of fundamentalists/ terrorists', the need is to draw another line — between the fundamentalists and the violence mongers. A number of social scientists worldwide are doing that already. Indeed, they are going a step further to claim that Islamist terrorism has actually been spawned by the wave of 'Westernisation' that has swept across the globe over the past two decades. The terrorists profess an irreconcilable hostility towards the West, but they are in truth the by-products of the atomisation of society wrought by 'Western values' worldwide. To tackle terrorism, we must first reassess our ideas of who terrorists are and why they fall prey to the ways of violence, instead of relying on failed stereotypes. Our intelligentsia blames the government for its indolence towards terrorism, but it is no less guilty of intellectual laziness. It is fine — indeed necessary— to argue against fundamentalist forces, but that won't resolve the terror threat. Similarly, the government should be urged to economically uplift Muslims — but that should happen because it is the right thing to do, not because we fear that poverty- stricken Muslims would otherwise bomb us into oblivion. -- Saif Shahin Photo: Saif Shahin URL of this Page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=2081 ----- Intellectuals have failed to understand terrorism By Saif Shahin 11 Nov, 2009 Violence does not necessarily stem from poverty or conservative orthodoxy THE APPROACHING anniversary of 26/ 11 brings with it a terror of its own: the bald and bespectacled babble of homespun 'terrorism experts'. Our cuttlefish commentariat spews inexorable amounts of ink on the subject all times of the year; the news peg is sure to send them into overdrive. Apart from roasting Pakistan, their well- meaning offerings generally revolve around three central tenets: terrorism springs from the well of poverty into which Indian Muslims have been pushed, the bulk of Indian Muslims are not terrorists, and ' modernised' Muslims will have to stand up against the Deobandi ulema if we are to defeat the scourge. Unfortunately, not only is much of this not backed by empirical data, but it is also replete with some obvious contradictions. If terrorism springs from poverty, and most Indian Muslims are poor, then why aren't more and more of them answering the call to arms? And if modernisation is the antithesis of terrorism, then why is it the Deobandis who repeatedly denounce such violence as unIslamic while modernised Muslims — engineers, doctors, scientists — sit on their haunches or, worse, join the terrorist ranks themselves? Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy went to the best English schools, graduating to a top job with a Yahoo! India subsidiary and a salary running into lakhs. One of his brothers is an architect, another is a chest specialist in the UK. His wife is a homoeopathic doctor. He could have been the perfect example of a modern, sociallyintegrated Muslim — only he went on to head the media cell of the Indian Mujahideen ( IM), the only known home- grown Muslim terror outfit. He was the guy who used to send diabolical emails to media houses before terror attacks. Professional Tauqir Bilal alias Abdus Subhan, who is seen as the link between IM and activists of the outlawed Students' Islamic Movement of India, is a techie from Mumbai. Qayamuddin Kapadia is the computer graphic artist from Vadodara who allegedly planned many IM attacks. Another arrested IM operative, Mobin Qadir Sheikh alias Salman, has a BSc in computers. And Riaz, the younger of the Bhatkal brothers who are on the country's ' most wanted' list of terrorists, has a degree in civil engineering. They give the lie to the contention that poverty and obscurantism are the primary forces behind terrorism. Indeed, the reverse seems to be the case — both in India and globally. Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer in Afghanistan and now a counter- terrorism consultant to the US government, has studied the lives of nearly 500 foreign Islamist terrorists who arrived to target America. His findings, published in Understanding Terror Networks and Leaderless Jihad , should leave our experts in shock. "Most people," Sageman writes, " think that terrorism comes from poverty, broken families, ignorance, immaturity, lack of family or occupational responsibilities… Three- quarters of my sample came from the upper or middle class. The vast majority — 90 per cent — came from caring, intact families. Sixty- three percent had gone to college, as compared with the 5- 6 per cent that's usual for the third world. These are the best and brightest of their societies in many ways." Three out of every four of Sageman's terrorists were professionals or semi- professionals. Many were engineers, architects and scientists. Osama bin Laden is himself a civil engineer, his second- in- command Ayman al Zawahiri is a physician. Mohammed Atta, the 9/ 11 mastermind, was an architect. But this is Sageman's real discovery: very few terrorists hail from a strong religious background. Just one out of eight from his sample was madrassa- trained. Indeed, most were hardly religious at the time they became terrorists — although they became so after joining the movement. The resolutions passed earlier this month by the Jamiat Ulama- i- Hind, one of India's leading Islamic bodies, have come under fire for their orthodoxy. Our experts have pronounced the clauses dissociating Islam and jihad from terrorism as " lip- service", while the decree against Muslims singing Vande Mataram has been panned as " anti- national". The overall tenor of the criticism has been that the resolutions promote a regressive society and serve as a shot in the arm for Lashkar headhunters. But some of these very fundamentalist resolutions are actually anti- terrorist in nature. One of them reads: "People should be urged to avoid watching cinema, television and other moral- killing things (read Internet)." However, Islamist terrorists thrive on delivering their message of hatred through these very means. Regressive Another resolution notes that the women's reservation bill, seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures, is "uncalled for" as "bringing women into the mainstream will create social problems and issues including their security". However, terrorist outfits already have a virtual reservation for women without the slightest concern for 'social problems'. The Jamiat appears worried about women's security, but terror groups worldwide routinely use women as suicide bombers. Of course, none of this is to justify the preachings of the Jamiat. Its ideas are regressive and do lead Muslims backward. But the point is that they don't necessarily spawn terrorism; indeed, if implemented, some of them may actually come in handy in the fight against violent Islam. While our experts draw a line between the 'Muslim majority' and a 'handful of fundamentalists/ terrorists', the need is to draw another line — between the fundamentalists and the violence mongers. A number of social scientists worldwide are doing that already. Laziness Indeed, they are going a step further to claim that Islamist terrorism has actually been spawned by the wave of 'Westernisation' that has swept across the globe over the past two decades. The terrorists profess an irreconcilable hostility towards the West, but they are in truth the byproducts of the atomisation of society wrought by 'Western values' worldwide. Islamist terrorism, writes the British Indian scientist and social commentator Kenan Malik, "far from being an expression of ancient theological beliefs, is really a reaction to new political and social changes: the loss of a sense of belonging in a fragmented society, the blurring of traditional moral lines, the growing erosion of the distinction between our private lives and our public lives". Malik's From Fatwa to Jihad traces the path of Islamism over the past 20 years. The fall of Communism and the universalisation of Western liberal values have created a cultural churning in which many young minds are losing their orientation, he says. They are ending up turning to an absolutist faith that promises an answer to everything. The Indian struggle with Islamist violence, which goes back to the Mumbai blasts of 1993, appears very much a part of the same global phenomenon. To tackle terrorism, we must first reassess our ideas of who terrorists are and why they fall prey to the ways of violence, instead of relying on failed stereotypes. Our intelligentsia blames the government for its indolence towards terrorism, but it is no less guilty of intellectual laziness. It is fine — indeed necessary— to argue against fundamentalist forces, but that won't resolve the terror threat. Similarly, the government should be urged to economically uplift Muslims — but that should happen because it is the right thing to do, not because we fear that poverty- stricken Muslims would otherwise bomb us into oblivion. Source: Mail Today, New Delhi. The author is a Senior Assistant Editor with Mail Today. He can be reached at: saif.shahin@mailtoday.In URL of this Page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=2081

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Asadullah Syed