Telling friend from foe: The United States is at war against terrorism. But who is the enemy? And who is not? http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20010916enemynat4p4.asp Sunday, September 16, 2001 By Jack Kelly, Post-Gazette National Writer Who is the enemy? The U.S. State Department currently designates 28 organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and officially accuses seven states -- Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Cuba and North Korea -- of sponsoring terrorism. Despite its current status as terror sponsor No. 1, Afghanistan is not on the list because most of the world does not consider the Taliban movement that controls the country a legitimate government. Nevertheless, the Taliban is known to provide sanctuary to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire turned terrorist suspected of masterminding Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Taliban is attempting to create what it calls the first "pure" Islamic state. It has banned movies, television and most music. It forbids girls to go to school and women to work outside the home. It has brought back public executions and amputations. It has destroyed ancient statues of Buddha. The Taliban also has provided training bases for Muslim extremists from the Middle East, the Philippines, Indonesia, Central Asia and China. The Russian news agency Novosti recently claimed that bin Laden has been named commander-in-chief of the Taliban's armed forces, quoting the Russian foreign ministry as saying, "Pseudo-religious values are being used as a cover to prepare a bridgehead for expansion of militant extremism far beyond the region's borders." Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world which recognize the Taliban regime. (The others are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.) Pakistan has provided more support than any other country save Afghanistan to bin Laden's organization, Al Qaeda. Nevertheless, in the wake of this week's attacks on the United States, Pakistan announced yesterday that it would fully cooperate with a multinational assault on terror. Of the 28 groups listed as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, 17 are based in Islamic countries. Nine are motivated by radical views of Islam. The membership of even the largest of these organizations is very small compared to the total Muslim population of the countries in which they operate. The largest organizations listed are Hamas (an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement), and Hezbollah (Party of God). Hamas is primarily a secular organization, even though it shares with the Islamists a desire to destroy Israel. The number of hard-core members of Hamas is unknown, but the State Department says it has "tens of thousands of supporters and sympathizers." Hamas gets most of its money from Palestinian expatriates, Iran, "and private benefactors in Saudi Arabia and other Arab states." Hezbollah operates chiefly out of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut. It is the principal Shi'ah Muslim terrorist group, and has more of a religious motivation than Hamas does. Hezbollah has a membership of several thousand, and gets most of its money from the governments of Iran and Syria, the State Department said. Al Qaeda was founded by bin Laden in 1990 to bring together the Muslims who fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Its goal is to unify and purify all Muslim nations, while driving from all of them any Western influence. The State Department estimates Al Qaeda's membership at between several hundred and several thousand, but it also serves as an umbrella group for other terrorist organizations. It is financed mostly out of bin Laden's pocket and has links to groups in some 40 countries, providing them training, money and strategy. Two tiny non-Muslim groups -- the Japanese Red Army and the Basque Liberation Movement in Spain -- have ties to Muslim terror groups. Four others on the State Department list are in Latin America. Two in Colombia are flourishing, while two in Peru are languishing. Who is not the enemy? In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, some Americans have been taking out their ire on Muslims in this country, and on people they mistake for Muslims. A mosque north of Dallas was firebombed. An Arab-American gas station in Chicago was attacked with a machete. Muslim women have been jostled and threatened. A Sikh (Sikhs are not Muslim) in New York City was assaulted with a baseball bat. Muslims There are about a billion Muslims in the world, the largest single religious grouping on the planet. The religion began on the Arabian peninsula. But while most Arabs are Muslims, most Muslims are not Arabs. The largest number of Muslims in a single country, about 198 million, are Indonesians. Pakistan, with about 146 million non-Arab Muslims, is the next largest predominately Muslim country. As Christendom is divided between Catholics and Protestants, Islam is divided between Sunni Muslims and Shi'a Muslims. About 90 percent of Muslims are Sunni Muslims. Shi'a Muslims are concentrated in Iran and in southeastern Iraq but also reside in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and other countries. Though there is little love lost between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, they tend to see eye to eye on Israel and the United States. The big divide in the Muslim world is between radical Islamists and the majority of more moderate Muslims. Islamists are those who wish to impose the Sharia (Islamic law) on all who live in their societies. The more radical among them also maintain that the Muslim holy book, the Koran, sanctions the killing of Jews and other "infidels." Most Muslims say the Koran forbids both murder and suicide bombings. Islamists account for perhaps 10 percent of Muslims. But they control the governments in Afghanistan and Sudan, exert powerful influence in Iran, Pakistan, Lebanon and Algeria, and are a significant and growing force in Egypt. Even among Islamists, those who wish to impose the Sharia by force and impose it upon infidels are a small minority. Many Islamists oppose the Taliban and say the harshness of the regime stems more from Afghan tribal customs than from Islam. The governments of Iraq, Syria and Libya are secular, but often make common cause with the Islamists because they share a hatred of Israel and America. Arabs Most Arabs are Muslim, but about 10 percent are Christian or Druze, found chiefly in Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Palestinian-controlled territories. The Druze religion is an offshoot of Islam, heavily influenced by Gnostic Christianity. Arabs, narrowly defined, were nomadic tribes of the Arabian peninsula, but the term has come to apply to all who speak Arabic. The Arab homelands stretch from western Morocco, south to the Sudan, north to Turkey (although Turks are not Arabs), and east to Iraq. Most Arabs have dark hair, brown eyes and light skin, but some are black and some are white. There are, all told, about 250 million Arabs, of whom four million live in Europe and two million in the United States and Canada. Most Americans of Arab descent are Christians, not Muslims. Sikhs Sikhs are not Muslims. The religion, begun about 500 years ago in northern India, is sort of a monotheistic version of Hinduism. Sikhs have been persecuted by Hindus and Muslims, and are not, in general, especially fond of either. A bearded man wearing a turban in the United States is likely Sikh, not Muslim. --- Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
