|
Islamic movement
fighting on so many fronts
The killings
of Palestinians continues unabated, as Palestinian Muslims
continued the al-Aqsa intifada in defiance of Israeli
attempts to suppress it through brute force. Even as
the Palestinians faced some of the worst days of the
intifada, however, representatives of Yassir Arafat’s
Palestinian Authority began meetings with Israeli and
American representatives in Washington to bring the
Palestinian ‘peace process’ — also known as the Palestinian
sell out — back on track. It was a stark reminder of
the reality that Muslims’ leaders are often our worst
enemies.
The point
was emphasised by the reports of further massacres in
Algeria. Since the military coup in January 1992 that
prevented the Islamic Solidarity Front (FIS) from taking
power after its overwhelming electoral victory the previous
month, over 100,000 Algerians have died. According to
the authorities, they have been killed by Islamic activists.
The idea that mujahideen might, under any circumstances,
find reasons for the sort of brutality against innocent
Muslim people that has become commonplace in Algeria’s
recent history makes no sense whatsoever, and there
is ample direct evidence, and even more circumstantial
evidence, pointing to the Algerian state as the real
perpetrators of the crimes.
The Algerian
regime might well be one of the most ruthless regimes
in the Muslim world when it comes to dealing with its
own people, but it is has many rivals for the title.
While some naive Muslims have looked to Arab states
for support for the Palestinians in their struggle against
the zionists, the regimes of kind Abdullah II in Jordan
and king Muhammad V in Morocco are only two of several
that have been more concerned with preventing their
people from turning anti-zionist protests into anti-government
ones. Far from condemning Arafat for his repression
of Hamas and other Islamic activists, Arab states are
doing precisely the same thing in their own countries.
Both regimes have cracked down hard on Islamic activists
protesting against the zionists, for fear that the public
mobilization might turn against themselves. Another
way of avoiding this would be to take a firm stance
in support of the Palestinian intifada, but this appears
not to have occurred to them. Instead, the pressure
from the Arab states has been not on the zionists, but
on Arafat, to return to the negotiating table and reach
a settlement, even though such a settlement can only
be to the zionists’ advantage.
In numerous
Muslim countries, Islamic movements are being viciously
suppressed, often far more viciously than the Islamic
movements in Palestine. It is hard to imagine which
has the greatest impact on a Muslim community: the sorts
of hardship being suffered by the Palestinians, or the
more subtle but perhaps more even painful hardships
imposed on Muslim women in Turkey for trying to fulfil
their Islamic duty to cover themselves and conduct themselves
with modesty and reserve. Similar secular policies are
being pursued by the government in Tunisia. In Uzbekistan,
scores of Muslims who wish to practice, or to live according
to their faith in public and social matters, are in
jails, and Islamic institutions are subject to regular
crackdowns and closure. The examples are legion.
Islamic
movements confronting the forces of kufr on the front-line
against Western civilizational imperialism (and its
allies and agents) have a high profile, be they in Palestine,
Kashmir, India, east Turkestan, Chechnya, Sudan, Nigeria,
or the Balkans. But the battle of Islamic movements
in the Muslim countries, fighting against agents of
kufr planted deep into our societies, and imposed on
us as rulers and leaders, is arguably far harder and
even more important. Until Islamic movements overthrow
these rulers, and create Islamic states in the heartlands
of the Muslim world, the struggles in Palestine, Kashmir
and other such places will not be won.
The struggles
of these Islamic movements take many forms: political,
military, intellectual, social and cultural. Often they
are harder to see for Muslims elsewhere, particularly
in the West, than the movements of the frontiers, and
information about them is harder to come by and to understand.
Supporting them, in the heart and in material terms,
is often harder. But while we support wholeheartedly
the struggle in Palestine, we must remember also, at
this time more than any other, that there are other
movements requiring our support and assistance all over
the Muslim world, not only in our prayers, but by our
actions.
|