By Shaker Nabulsi
There is no doubt that the escalating waves of Islamic terrorism during the
past two years have worried the entire world. Arabs seem to be relying on
terrorism to rouse them from a deep sleep. The level of violence we are now
seeing in the Arab world is excessive, whatever the assertions of the ‘Afghan
Arabs', or those responding to Israeli massacres in Gaza and the West Bank.
Even if American forces define the borders of Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan
and Kuwait, and even if Arabs hear the American voice more than they hear their
own, this level of violence is too much.
But nobody should be surprised that it is taking place.
Terrorism has been a feature of the Arab world since the independence era of
the 1940s, when - in truth - there was no independence, but simply a withdrawal
and redeployment of foreign troops, since when the Arab world has relied on the
West economically, politically and militarily to an extent that deemed
independence more a word than a reality.
The Arab world has been living with the current phases of terrorism since
1943. Historically it has been state terrorism, official terrorism, sometimes
even called "beautiful terrorism". Authoritarian states have terrorized their
citizens for decades. When Arab states became independent their leaders engaged
in terrorist activities in order to suppress dissent. They killed innocent
civilians, even children, while attempting to consolidate their power. The
leaders who took power at this time became executioners. Later, many became
victims of those very people whom they had terrorized, as Saddam Hussein became
the victim of the Shi'ites, whom he had terrorized for decades. As the
political philosopher Hannah Arendt said in her book On Violence (1970: "The
waves of terrorism hit their peak when they devoured young children, but the
murderers of yesterday have become the victims of today."
Joseph Conrad commented on the link between state power and terrorism in his
famous book Confidential Informant (1907) when he said that "the terrorist and
the policeman come from one basket." The link between terrorists and policemen
can be seen in the military dictatorships of some Latin American countries,
such as Argentina, where the terrorists were former plainclothes military
personnel. Stephen Kenzar in his 1978 book Torment Argentina correctly compared
Argentine terrorists to certain Arab rulers.
Did Arab dictators learn from Hitler that terrorism is the strongest political
weapon? Hitler explained in Hermann Rauschning's book Voice of Destruction:
conversations with Hitler (1940) that it was terrorism that silenced the
critics of the Third Reich. Did the terrorists learn from the Italian fascist
leader Benito Mussolini, who announced in a speech on 14 December 1914: "He who
spills blood is he who controls history"?
Terrorism was not the problem for the Arab world immediately after
independence. The real problem was exploitation, and terrorism was a result of
this problem. Terrorism in the contemporary Arab world is like a measles virus
that is spreading the body. A virus is deadly, and attacks the weak and those
who are not inoculated.
Mahatma Gandhi said in his 1920 Journal of Young India that terrorism is the
tool of weaklings, not of the strong, and this is still true. The virus of
terrorism has been growing since the days of independence. Those men who were
seen as the heroes of the independence movement became the exploiters of their
countries after independence. They were able to do this because the forces to
ensure a civil society were absent. As Ralph Anderson has said: "Terrorism's
viruses [were] not the product of force, but evidence of the absence of force."
Terrorism brings change for the worse. It makes the Arab world more violent
than ever. In the absence of forceful opposition to terrorism, this virus is
now appearing as a skin rash. The only medicines that effectively inoculate
victims against this virus are justice, democracy, human values, a strong
culture, and a willingness to change for the better.
Mark Twain stated that there are two types of terrorist acts. The first type is
committed in the heat of passion. The second type is committed in cold blood.
The acts of terrorism now being committed in the Arab world are of the first
type. They are acts of emotion that are praised by Arab writers, clerics,
politicians, and the Arab media. They are accompanied by prayers to God, and
the terrorists are even blessed publicly for their "bravery" and "commitment to
Islam".
However, is the beginning of the third millennium the right time for such a
deadly disease to infect the entire Arab world? This is the era of the
Internet, globalization, secularism, the conquest of space, the collapse of
dictatorships in the East and West, and the end of the Cold War. It should be
the era of global cooperation, not terrorism.
We must not forget that most terrorism is a manifestation of Arab pride and
dignity. Nor must we forget that many Arab writers and intellectuals consider
terrorism and its victims to be the major accomplishment of Arabs in the second
half of the 20th Century and the early 21st Century. This thinking is
understandable - but it must change. Arab intellectuals and leaders must find
positive reasons to admire Arab culture, not negative ones.
Terrorism can be an effective wake-up call for those who are impatiently
awaiting the dawn after a deep sleep, but it cannot waken those whose sleep is
heavy. For example, the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 by the United
States terrorized the Japanese people, but it also woke them up from their deep
slumber during the long and dark night of militarism. It pushed them to change
their thinking about how Japan could achieve a better future.
On the other hand, the calamities that have befallen the Arab world for more
than half a century - including the Palestinian catastrophe, Israeli terrorism
and wars - have not succeeded in awakening the Arab people from their long
slumber. These disasters have not jolted the Arab people into the realization
that they must respond to the profound international political changes of the
past century.
Some scholars of Islam have blessed the terrorism now being exported to the
wider world. Terrorism is authorized by the announcer of the dawn prayers - the
Muezzin - as a way to bring freedom, democracy, and change to the Arab world.
From an historical point of view, they may be right. Most of the world's
students of history have remarked - as Henry Kissinger did in his book
Diplomacy (1994) - that "violence was behind the important changes in the
world." Equally, "blood is the oil that brings on the dawn of nations," wrote
American President Roosevelt in a letter to a friend: "If I have to choose
between blood and iron, water and milk, I will choose blood and iron. It causes
suffering in a nation, but it is good for the world in the long run."
On a similar note, Mao Tse-Tung wrote: "History has been written with iron and
blood", while the fighter and thinker Franz Fanon wrote in his famous book
Torturers On The Ground (1961): "Violence is the force that liberates citizens
and rids them of fear, despair and negativity."
The realities of the worlds in which Roosevelt, Mao Tse-Tung and Franz Fanon
lived are different from those of today. Nations today are linked through
global forces into a worldwide community, and they need to cooperate with each
other, not fight, in order to promote the welfare of all. Today's world has a
need for cooperation and peace, not violence and war"We saw the commitment to
peace in Iraq in January 2005, during the legislative elections, when eight
million Iraqi voters defied fear, death, despair and terrorism so they could
vote to select the deputies for the Iraqi National Assembly who were to write
the new Iraqi constitution. We saw it in 2005 in Lebanon at the Martyrs Square
in Beirut, when more than one million young people banded together to demand
the withdrawal of Syrian forces from their country. They also demanded that the
murderers of Hariri be found, that there be new elections and the establishment
of democratic rule. They did this despite all the
violence, terror and murder that had been practiced by Syrian forces and their
allies in Lebanon for 29 years.
Should we look at contemporary terrorism as a disinfectant that is being used
in Arab Purgatory to wash Arabs of their sins of the past and present, and
bring them into the modern world? Arabs are attempting to shift between their
nomadic culture to a modern and urbanized civilization where it will be values,
behaviour and understanding that bring them into the modern world - not dress,
drink, and Western technology.
Perhaps they think that terrorism is the tool that will take them through this
intermediate state into a productive coexistence with the international
community. If so, they are wrong.
Will it take a nuclear bomb, delivered by religious fundamentalists, to wake
up the Arab world, as the American bomb woke up Japan in 1945? Will such a bomb
wake them from the deep lethargy that has made them miss so many trains to the
future? Will it push them to catch the train of political reform, modernity,
social reform, and peace?
Such an extreme act of violence would no doubt accomplish such an end, but not
in the way the terrorists envisage. It would not put the imagined enemies of
Islam on their knees. It would impel them to rise up - as America did after the
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor - to retaliate so fiercely and so viciously
against the Arab world that every resident of every Arab country worldwide
would feel the sting of vengeance. The United Nations and almost every country
of the world would react with horror and disgust against a group that would
conduct a nuclear holocaust upon millions of innocent victims. The result would
be a condemnation of terrorism within and beyond the Arab world that would no
doubt rid the region of this scourge - but at what cost?
Would it not be better to find a peaceful way to wake up the Arab world? Is
there not some better way, some non-violent way, to awaken the Arab world to
the realities of modernity? Do we have to wait until some mindless terrorist
gains possession of an atomic bomb and murders millions in his misguided and
insane efforts to establish Arab dignity? What are we waiting for?
We need to stop terrorism now.
saiyed shahbazi
www.shahbazcenter.org
