M.A Terrorism and Security Summative Essay 2 (University of Reading, U.K)

MA INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES
TERRORISM AND SECURITY (SUMMATIVE ESSAY 2)


Why is the United States and the West in general the target of Islamist terrorism?


INTRODUCTION

One of the greatest complications in understanding the Islamists threats today derives from multiplicity of different terrorist groups we find within what has become a global social movement. The world is made up of cultural identities, ethnic, national, religious and civilisation. All these are central and they shape the alliances, antagonisms, and policies of states, no country is exempt. Islam, United States and the West have often battled militarily, and the tension has existed for hundreds of years, during which there have been many periods of peace and even harmony (Zakaria, 2001).

Until the 1950s, for example, Jews and Christians lived peaceably under Muslim rule (El Sawy, 2001). What has gone wrong in the world of Islam that explains not the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 or siege of Vienna of 1683 but the attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001. According to Benjamin and Simon (2002), all has changed in the past few decades. To understand the roots of anti-American and the West rage by the Islamic terrorists, El Sawy (2001) points out that one needs to plumb the past 30 years of history. Islam vs. the United States and the West, history is filled with military battles between Christians and Muslims (and Jews), from the crusaders to the Colonial era to the 20th century’s intifadas and Balkan nightmare.

The Afghan War was the first successful resistance of Islam to foreign power (Huntington, 1996)[1]. Blanchard (2004) revealed that the Afghan cum Soviet Union war left behind strong coalition of Islamist organisation intent on promoting Islam against non-Muslim forces[2]. To the United States and the Westerners generally, Afghanistan was the final decisive victory, the waterloo of Cold War (Zakaria, 2001). Also, that war left a collection of experts and experienced fighters, camps, training ground and logistical facilities which are still being put unto use against the U.S. and the West in general (Freedman, 2002).

Gold (2005) argues that the Afghan War became a civilisation war because the Islamists everywhere saw it as such and rallied against the Soviet Union. Similarly, the Gulf War (desert storm) of 1991 became a civilisation war because the West intervened militarily in an Islamic conflict (Heffelfinger, 2006; Richardson, 2006). Westerners supported the U.S. overwhelmingly; as a result, the Islamists throughout the world see that intervention as a war against them and rallied against what they was as one more instance of Western imperialism, notwithstanding the initial division between the Arab and Islamic governments over the war (Huntington, 1996). According to Sengupta and Cockburn (2007), the Arabs and other Islamists, inasmuch as Saddam Hussein might be a bloody tyrant; he is their ‘bloody tyrant’. Also, Huntington (1996) revealed that a Palestinian Professor pointed out that people cannot condemn Iraq for standing up to Western military intervention, just as the Muslims in the U.S. and the West condemned the presence of non-Islamic troops in Saudi Arabia and for the ‘desecration’ of the Islamic holy sites.

This essay will explore why the United States and the West in general are the target of Islamic terrorists. It will also highlight and discuss the goals of the Islamic terrorists and countries which have larger population of Muslims and also argue that the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq by the Americans, British and coalition forces has exacerbated the tendency for targeting them. There is also a belief that some Islamic countries abhor the U.S. and the Western ways of life, but some of them tend to cooperate with the U.S and the West when it is absolutely necessary (Richardson, 2006)[3]. In global fight for terror, for instance, Jordan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia gives their support to an extent to America in particular and the West in general. Bin Laden declared that the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq as new crusades by the U.S. and its allies (Benjamin, 2007). Also, Zakaria (2001) revealed that, that was why Ayman Al Zawahiri had criticised the population and governments of the Islamic world for failing to answer their calls to arms and for cooperating with the United States and its allies on war on terror.

Islam has adapted a religious ideology for mobilising support, and Muslim definition of the war as the West vs. Islam facilitated antagonism within the Muslim world (Blanchard, 2004). Old differences among Muslims receded in importance compared to the overriding differences between Islam, the U.S. and the West in general. The defeat of Saddam Hussein by the U.S. in 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan are still fresh in the minds of many Islamist terrorists and their animosities have been total ‘jihad’ (Hoffman, 2006). Since the terrorists’ attacks on America on Sept 11 2001, Islam has been in the spotlight through leaders such as George Bush and Tony Blair (Zakaria, 2001). The Islamic terrorists come out of a culture that reinforces their hostility, distrust and hatred of America and the West in general (El Sawy, 2001)[4]. Some of the largest Muslim nations show little of anti-American and Western rage, when one gets to the Middle East, does the person see all the dysfunctions that people conjure up when they think about Islam (Heffelfinger, 2006)?

Also, since after the horrendous attacks by Islamic terrorists on America and much later British Subway system, the terrorist threat has become more complicated, difficult to understand and varied in any time in history. One of the greatest difficulties in comprehending the Islamic terrorists from other terrorist groups is the multiplicity of different terrorist groups and the terrain they operate from. Iraq, for example, has become an important melting point for al Qaeda and the radical Islamic jihad movement (Hoffman, 2006). No wonder that it now parades legion of Islamic terrorists that have not only political intentions of foreign power occupation but religious and ethnic undertone. The anti-Americanism and the West in general by the Islamic terrorist borders on some of issues amongst others raised by Laqueur (2003) in chapter 8, why the U.S and the West in general are hated globally?
The resentments raised for the hated of America and the West are:

As big powers they tend to disregard the legitimate interests of its smaller neighbours and other countries
They imposition of their wills intentionally or unthinkingly
The impact of their culture and economies are enormous on smaller or poor countries
Political dominance which tends to make globalisation rhetoric
Provision of regional security as a safeguard and their military strength since after the Cold War when they emerged as superpowers.

All the points highlighted and others which will be discussed later in this essay must have contributed in a significant measure to why the United States and the West in general is the target of Islamic terrorists. Also the speeches given by the U.S. officials raise the resentment for targeting the U.S. and its allies by the Islamic terrorists. For example, the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright in her speech about US threat to bomb Iraq in 1998, stressed that:

“If we have to use force, it is because we are American. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.”

Also, Newt Gingrich, former GOP Speaker in 2002 emphasised that the US does not need allies to win the war on terror. Similarly, Dick Cheney, US Vice President, opined that after the buffing and puffing, the Europeans would fall into line.

The above three statements have something in common as they reveal distinctive voices in US foreign and defence policy and how imposing the statements are. The war by Islamic terrorists on the United States and the West in general had begun prior to 9/11 and 7/7 (Pena, 2006). Also, according to George Bush, September 11 is not only a crime but an act of war. War has been declared on both ends (Islamist terrorists vs. the U.S. and the West in general. Some issues are advanced why the antagonism exists. For example,
Booth and Dunne (2002) argue that the U.S and the West tended to believe that their institutions and values such as democracy, individual rights, the rule of law and prosperity based on economic freedom - represent universal aspirations that will ultimately be shared by people all over the world. The imposition of policy by the U.S. and the West has drawn the ire of Islamic countries in the Middle East, Asia and North Africa (Acharya, 2005).

The US President, George Bush, foreign policy termed ‘global reach’ simply reflects the dominate interests of the United States (Political Science Quarterly, 2002). Nonetheless, the occupation of Islamic lands or a secessionist movement and overthrow of certain Arab governments, and the creation of Islamic states uncorrupted by the West, became the reason why the US and the West in general are the targets of Islamic terrorism (Dershowitz, 2002). Islam is a great religion but within it are people utterly unable to make the transition to modernity that is where the problem lies, that is why Islam being the world’s major culture has problems of modernity acceptance and its antagonism of the Western way of life contributes to their jihad against the U.S. and the West in general (Booth and Dunne, 2002; Fukuyama, 2005; Huntington, 1996). Nonetheless, some Islamist terrorists completely oppose modernism, but some of them in Islamic countries have been affected by Western ideas advertently or inadvertently (Huntington, 1996; Richardson, 2006).

It is a fact that in recent years, Islam has mainly produced radical movements that rejects not only Western policy but some aspects of modernity itself and religious tolerance (Fukuyama, 2005). Freedman (2002) argues that the Islamic fundamentalists have seen their past generations with large population uprooted from their traditional villages or tribal lives in the past; and Western demoralising cultural influence as much as economic predominance. According to Laqueur (2003), it became the individual duty of every able-bodied Islamist until the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the Haram mosque in Mecca were freed from their grip and their armies shattered and broken, until they would depart from all the lands of Islam, incapable to threaten any Muslim[5]. Furthermore, when enemies attack Islamic lands jihad became every Islamist’s personal duty. Cases that need to be cited are the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq by not only the American and British forces but allied forces as well (Hoffman, 2006). The Islamists (jihads), who claim they fight holy war, feel that their holy lands have been polluted and taken away from them through occupation by the U.S. and the West. This is one of the major grievances of Islamic terrorists targeting the US and the West in general. Also, the pernicious America’s interference in the affairs of Muslim countries must have continuously escalated America’s and the West be targeted by Islamic terrorists (Freedman, 2002). In another vein, Benjamin (2007) argues that attacks against the United States and European nations have declined greatly. For instance, Syria has avoided targeting Westerners and its proxies, and has not attacked United States assets in the last two decades (Benjamin, 2007).

The Islamic radical Palestinian groups have made it no secret that they do not only want to liberate the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 but to destroy the state of Israel (Laqueur, 2003 and Table A) see explanation too. Israeli domination of the holy places and its unwillingness to share control with the Muslims has been a cause of deep resentment in the Muslim world and this has been a source of danger of a further spread of the conflict, for there is always the possibility that a religious madman or fanatic, not necessarily Jewish, will try to burn or bomb one of the Muslim holy places (Booth and Dunne, 2002; Laqueur, 2004; Hoffman, 2006). It is pertinent to mention that in the middle 1990s, there were few terrorists’ attacks against American and the West interests by Islamic terrorists (Richardson, 2006).

A review of wars and other contemporary conflicts show indeed a greater incidence of violence and aggression in Muslim societies than most others – including tribal and religious warfare in Africa (especially Islamic factors in Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan) (Booth and Dunne, 2002; Laqueur, 2003)[6]. As mentioned earlier, many Muslims today habour a deep sense of humiliation and resentment over the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the bloodshed in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, among other places; the ill treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo with other myriad reasons Islamists have for hating the US and West in general (Hoffman, 2006)[7]. This is also echoed by Kheiber (2006) that allegations of prisoner’s abuse have dogged the U.S.-led forces, the highest profile at Abu Ghraib incident was in 2004 when photographers emerged of Iraqi detainees being sexually humiliated, threatened with snarling dogs. In another light, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 was the embodiment of the U.S and the West’s hostility to revolutionary Islam; America was generally perceived as the great nemesis behind the problems of the region, due to its support for Israel and many local reactionary regimes, and because it distanced itself from all causes of Liberty and freedom in the area (Hoffman, 2006)[8].

On clash of civilisation between the Islamic nations, U.S and the West, while declaring jihad on the U.S, Bin Laden in September 1996 released a series of statements that expanded the vision and goal of his self-declared conflicts with the U.S and specified his political prescriptions for reformation of Islamic societies (Blanchard, 2004). Al – Jazirah Television (11 February, 2003) revealed that Bin Laden raised the presence of the U.S troops in the Arabian peninsular as ‘one of the worst catastrophes to befall Muslims since the death of the prophet Mohammed. Bin Laden’s self –professed goal is to move, incite and mobilise the Islamic nation until it reaches a revolutionary ignition point (Al-Jazirah Television, 11 February, 2003).

Since late 2001, according to the Al-Jazirah Television (11 February, 2003), public opinion poll and media monitoring in the Middle East and broader Islamic world indicate a significant dissatisfaction with the U.S and its foreign policy tailored and imposed within many Muslim societies. According to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (called 9/11) of 22 July, 2004, all attacks on the U.S. and the West in general were in consistent with the mission statement of al-Qaeda. What propels the present Islamist was set out in a 1998 fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu-Yasir Rifa’I Ahmad Taha, Shaykh Mir Hamzah, and the (Amir of Jihad movement in Bangladesh, Fazlur. The fatwa lists three “crimes and sins” committed by the Americans:

U.S. military occupation of the Arabian Peninsula
U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people
U.S. support of Israel

Bin Laden in characterising the new crusade led by America and the West against Islam, stressed that the war is between the Islamic world and the U.S and its allies (Al-Jazirah Television, 2003). This is why many Islamist terrorists have declared jihad against the U.S. and the West in general. For instance, Zarqawi’s signature violence has been kidnapping and beheading of Westerners in Iraq, he was personally believed to have decapitated Nicholas Berg, an American businessman killed in 2004 (The Economist, 10 June, 2006). In order for the Islamists to associate and carry out holy war against the infidels interdependently, Bin Laden advised that the Islamic world should see itself as a seamless community and that Muslims were obliged to unite and defend themselves (Zakaria, 2001)[9]. Similarly, El Sawy (2001) revealed that Bin Laden’s statement from the mid - 1990s up until now indicate that he has continued to see himself and his followers as the vanguard of an international Islamic movement primarily committed to ending U.S. and West interference in the affairs of Islamic countries (Al-Jazirah Television, 2003). According to Sengupta and Cockburn (2007), Iraq has become a catalyst for ferocious Islamic fundamentalists and has been a recruiting and radicalising factor for al-Qaeda, and it is shaping a new generation of Islamist terrorist leaders and operative. Also, the Iraqi war has greatly increased the spread of al-Qaeda ideological virus, as shown by a rising number of Islamist terrorist attacks in the past three years from London to Kabul, and from Madrid to the Red sea (Benjamin, 2007).

In the survey conducted my Independent Newspaper on Iraq, it found that the discredited claims by the U.S. and British governments about Saddam Hussein’s weapon of mass destruction, had led more young Islamist engaging in extremist activity than the invasion of Afghanistan two years previously (Sengupta and Cockburn, 2007). In the Middle East both Iran and Syria, support Palestinian rejectionist groups and from the look of things, it seems it is likely to continue (Benjamin, 2007). It is worthy to spell out some of the main types of terrorism the U.S. and the West in general faces.

The first is the familiar ethno-nationalist groups which are diverse such as the in the Basque region of Spain and Sri Lanka while the second is state-sponsored terror, for example, Iraq, Iran, Palestinian and Syria; the third and most dangerous form of terror is that of radical Islamist (Benjamin, 2007). The 9/11 debacle and a number of other conspiracies are evident. This type of terrorism possesses a desire and enigma to kill on a grand scale (Benjamin, 2007). Benjamin (2007) further argues that a large majority of Islamist terrorist groups ‘jihadists’ have demonstrated an interest in indiscriminate killing, including with weapon of mass destruction back in the early 1990s and this type of terrorists see violence in a different way than others. Richardson (2006) echoes that all kinds of terrorist organisations use revenge on the U.S. and the West in general in order to make known their primary and secondary motives; such as the hijacked TWA 847; and the storming of the Branch of Davidson Compound IN WACO, Texas. Also, at times the Islamist terrorists target the U.S and the West in general in order to obtain concessions for release of comrades imprisoned either in the country in which the incident occurs or by an ally of that country (Richardson, 2006). A case which needs to be cited is the release of 145 passengers on board flight 847 in return for Israeli’s agreement under intense pressure from America to release 766 detained Lebanese (Laqueur, 2003; 2004; Hoffman, 2006; Richardson, 2006).

[1] The cohesive gathering of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda around Afghanistan and Pakistan border has been the torn in the flesh of the U.S and Coalition forces. Bin Laden and his colleagues may have been motivated first by the desire for revenge and what they saw as justice. The U.S. and the West in general had committed great crimes and had to be punished (see Political Science Quarterly, 2002)
[2] Russia has given the U.S. great support and facilitating its gaining bases in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in return for tacit Western approval of its attacks on Islamic terrorists in Chechnya and their supporters in Georgia (Political Science Quarterly, 2002).
[3] Huntington (1996) ‘Clash of Civilization illumines this fact. Al-Qaeda leaders believe that regular attempts to characterize al-Qaeda’s actions and defensive and religiously motiivated will increase tolerance ofand support for their broader ideological campaign.
[4] Fanaticism can spring from misguided excess in any religion and the Muslims who kill in the name of their beliefs are not true Muslims; aggression is not a tenet of Islam but something rather condemned except on self-defense
[5] For Islamists, Israel is a symbol and catalyst of their rage, rather than the cause and the spread of Islamic terrorism globally. The US military aggression in the post-war world, especially its occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq is bound to lead to oppression and armed resistance.
[6] Islamist terrorist use religion as a camouflage to kill and cause collateral damage
[7] For the radical Islamist terrorist, killing Americans and their Western allies is essential tasks, by doing so, they have demonstrated their bona fides are the only ones determined to stand for Islam. The presence of Coalition forces in Iraq thus provides an irresistible invitation.
[8] A 1985 communiqué from a Lebanese Shi’a terrorist group of the same name declared, ‘consider ourselves a part of the world Islamic community, attacked at once by the tyrants and arrogant of the East and West, our way is one of radical combat against depravity, and America is the original root of depravity
[9] Call for holy war (jihad) by Bin Laden, is to unify the Islamic course to defeat the Western enemies who have not only occupied their lands but have polluted them.
Islamic Terrorists and their Goals

Ultimate Goals
Abu Nidal organisation; Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigade Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF); Palestinian Islamic Jihad; Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement)
Destroy Israel; establish Palestinian state
Ansar al - Islam
Evict United Sates from Iraq; Establish Islamic state
Asbat al Ansar
Establish Islamic State in Lebanon
Anum Shinrikyo
Seize power in Japan; hasten the Apocalypse
Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)
Secede from Spain
Irish Republican Army and Red Irish Republican Army
Evict Britain from Northern Ireland; unite with Eire
Al-Gama al- Islamiyya (Islamic Group) and Al Jihad
Establish Islamic state in Egypt
Harakat ul Mujahidin and Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army Mohammed
Evict India from Kashmia, unite with Pakistan
Islamic Jihad Group
Establish Islamic state in Uzbekistan; reduce US influence
Jemaah Islamiya
Establish Islamic state in Indonesia
Kahane Chai (Kach)
Expand Israel
Al-Qaeda
Establish Islamic states in Middle East, destroy Israel; reduce U.S influence
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (Zarqawi group)
Evict United States from Iraq; establish Islamic state
Revolutionary Organisation 7 November
Establish Marxist State in Greece
Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front
Establish Marxist state in Turkey
Source: Office of Counterterrorism, U.S Department of State (2005) “Foreign Terrorist Organisation”, Fact Sheet (11 October)

The networks of Islamic terrorists are expansive and cover many countries globally (9/11 Commission). For example, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population, followed by Pakistan and Bangladesh. Turkey, a sixth largest Muslim country in the world is a close ally of the West (Being a member of NATO). Iran, Egypt, Syria, Iraq habour virulent Islamic fundamentalists, and raw anti-Americanism seem to be everywhere. This is the land of the suicide bombers, flag-burners and fiery mullahs.

Al-Qaeda organisation seems to be waxing strong, strengthening with its leadership based either in Pakistan or the Afghanistan border. The most recent indicator of al-Qaeda’s renewed efforts to attack the U.S and the West in general, has been the ‘Heathrow plot’ in which Barot, a British Islamist who was al-Qaeda terrorist pleaded guilty on 6th November, 2006 of a botched massive lethal explosive attacks on thousands of air passengers on both sides of the Atlantic (Britain and the U.S.) (BBC 1, 6 November, 2006). The bombs made with liquid explosives and were assembled on board, and were to be used on as many as 10 U.S commercial jetliners. The plot was disrupted at its planning cycle. If Barot’s plan had succeeded, the 9/11 attacks on America would have been a child’s play. Since this incident, security checks particularly at the all the British and American international airports have been intensified. Passengers are currently not allowed to travel with any liquid in their carry-on bags.

It is important to emphasise here that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have been on the lips of those who carried out bombings in Madrid in 2005 and London in 2005 as well as on those of Mohammed Bouyeri, the Dutch Islamist murderer of Theo van Gogh. Also, the February 2007 arrest of six British Islamist soldiers indicate similar the murder of van Gogh (who was first shot and then decapitated). The tactical influence that the events in Iraq have exerted on some home-grown Islamist terrorists need to be taken seriously not only by the U.S. and Britain but by Western governments in general.

Conclusion

In concluding, Laqueur (2003) traces with authority the roots and development of Islamist fanaticism, illuminating above all – in an analysis echoing what he sees as its truly uncompromising hatred of the West. Just like Fukuyama (2005) points out that modernity will transform Islam, Laqueur (2003) argues that modernity will transform Islamist terrorists, but until it is complete, that process will exacerbate the very forces most antagonistic to the U.S. and the West in general. The greatest national security question ever to face the United States may well be: will that transformation occur before religious fanatics acquire biological and nuclear weapons. Laqueur’s analysis is right, the United States and the West in general are in a race for their lives because of the main grievances/hatred such as American occupation of Saudi Arabia, interference in Islamic doctrine, lost of territory and Mujahidin’s belief that they could use their means to defeat conventional war and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, raised by many authors in this essay. Also, in another vein, Benjamin (2007, p. 4) points out that:

“The leading figures in the United States administration have often spoken of the terrorists’ ideology of hatred; U.S. actions have too often lent inadvertent confirmation to the terrorists’ narrative. In its most barebones formulation, that narrative holds that United States and its allies seek to occupy Muslims’ lands, steal their oil wealth and destroy their faith. Radical Islamists interpret most of the history through this prism: from the Sykes-Picot redrawing of borders in the Middle East after World War 1 to the creation of Israel to the U.S. deployment to Saudi Arabia and Invasion of Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. Radical Islamists believe moreover that the U.S. supports the autocrats of the Muslim world as a way of keeping the believers down and undermining their faith.”


Chris E. Obinwa





References

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9/11 Commision