A good analysis. But how an India-born Fareed Zakaria makes no mention of the attack on India's Parliament -- Inia's 12/13?
>From: Tarun Udwala <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [email protected] >To: [email protected] >Subject: [ZESTGlobal] Fareed Zakaria: How We Can Prevail >Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 08:13:22 -0700 (PDT) > > How We Can Prevail > > By Fareed Zakaria > Newsweek | July 18, 2005 > http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8525976/site/newsweek/ > > >The London bombings have failed. Barbarous in intent, brutal for a few >hundred people, unsettling for all who watched in horror, they have >nonetheless failed. In one day much of the city's transport system was up >and running again, its Underground stations busy and its buses crowded with >passengers. Most businesses stayed open, and people didn't panic. Right >after the blasts, Britain was scheduled to play Australia in a cricket >match at Headingley stadium in Leeds, 170 miles from London. The organizers >decided that the game would go on. Britain won. > >The clear hope of the terrorists last Thursday morning was to disrupt >economic activities at one of the world's financial centers. For years now, >Al Qaeda's leaders, including Osama bin Laden, have urged that this be the >goal of future attacks. But in 24 hours the London stock market was back to >its pre-bombing levels. World markets bounced back even faster. All >indications are that Britain will see a minimal drop in tourism and >virtually none in trade. > >This is part of a larger pattern of global resilience that has been growing >ever since September 11, 2001. After those attacks, global markets took two >months to return to their Sept. 10 levels. After the Madrid bombings in >2004, the Spanish market took one month to recover. The broader economic >picture is similar. After 9/11, the United States lost hundreds of billions >of dollars in economic activity. The Bali nightclub bombing in 2002 had a >similarly dramatic effect on the Indonesian economy, with tourism vanishing >and trade and investment drying up for months. But a year later, after >another Indonesian bombing, this time at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, the >market dropped only briefly and there was little significant damage to the >Indonesian economy. The bombings in Morocco and Turkey in 2003 similarly >had little economic effect. After the Madrid attack, Spain grew faster than >it had for three years. > >Economic activity is perhaps the best measure of the psychological response >to terrorism. Do people get scared, stay home, refuse to travel and shop >less? Or do they come to the view that life goes on? Overwhelmingly, much >of the world appears to have arrived at the latter position. And in doing >so, people have robbed the terrorists of their most potent weapon. > > >The other important difference between the London bombings and 9/11 has >been the response of the world of Islam. For months after 9/11, I kept >writing that it was sad and disturbing that Muslims were reluctant to >condemn the attacks. This time is different. Major Muslim groups in Britain >have unambiguously denounced the bombings. Even "fundamentalist" >organizations have condemned it. The Muslim Association of Britain, a >hard-line group with alleged ties to militants in the Middle East, called >the bombings "heinous and repulsive" and urged Muslims to help the >emergency services and police. "We have faith in Britain and British people >that we as a country will not be defeated by this," said its spokesman, >Anas Altikriti. > >The response outside Britain has also been much stronger than ever before. >The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheik Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, condemned the >bombers but went further, rejecting the argument that this attack could be >justified as an attempt to force Britain out of Iraq. "This is illogical >and cannot be the motive for killing innocent civilians," he said. More >striking have been the condemnations from radical groups like Hamas, >Hizbullah and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, all of which have denounced the >bombings. Many of them have, of course, coupled their attacks on the >terrorists with denunciations of American and British policies in the >Middle East, particularly regarding Iraq and the Palestinian territories. >But that kind of rhetoric is old news. What is new here is the fact that no >one, not even Hamas, can continue to condone or even stay silent about >these barbarities. > >September 11 shocked the Arab psyche. For months afterward, Arabs and many >Muslims went through phases recognizable to psychologists: shock, denial, >anger. (Remember those absurd claims that 9/11 was a Mossad plot?) They are >finally, slowly, moving toward recognizing that there is a great >dysfunction in the world of Islam, which has allowed Muslims to concoct >wild conspiracy theories, blame others for their problems and, worst of >all, condone grotesque violence. > >Now things are changing. The day before the London bombs, a conference of >180 top Muslim sheiks and imams, brought together under the auspices of >Jordan's King Abdullah, issued a statement forbidding that any Muslim be >declared takfiran apostate. This is a frontal attack on Al Qaeda's >theological methods. Declaring someone takfirand thus sanctioning his or >her deathis a favorite tactic of bin Laden and his ally in Iraq, Abu >Mussab al-Zarqawi. The conference's statement was endorsed by 10 fatwas >from such big conservative scholars as Tantawi; Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali >Sistani; Egypt's mufti, Ali Jumaa, and the influential Al-Jazeera TV-sheik, >Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Signed by adherents of all schools of fiqh (Islamic >jurisprudence), it also allows only qualified Muslim scholars to issue >edicts. The Islamic Conference's statement, the first of its kind, is a >rare show of unity among the religious establishment against terrorists and >their scholarly allies. > > >This hardly puts an end to the struggle within Islam. The same day the >Jordanian statement was issued, Al Qaeda in Iraq said that Egypt's >ambassador to that country, Ihab al-Sherif, would be killed as an apostate. >The day of the London bombings, an Internet message purportedly from >Zarqawi's group said the "ambassador of the infidels" had been killed. > >These kinds of events will continue. There should be much, much greater >condemnation from mainstream Islam. Moderates must adopt a zero-tolerance >policy on terrorism, regardless of what they think of Iraq, Palestine or >any other policy issue. But those clamoring for such condemnations should >bear in mind that this will not solve the problem. Even if the moderates >win and overwhelm the extremists, there will always be some number of >unconverted jihadists, who either out of depravity or conviction seek to do >evil. If 99.99 percent of the Arab world rejects terrorism, that still >leaves 20,000 people to worry about. If 99.9 percent of the Muslim world is >against the terrorists, there's 1 million people out there who are >dangerous. And the technologies of destruction ensure that they will, on >occasion, be successful. > >To realize victory, we have to understand this struggle is more complex >than we have been led to believe. Simple slogans telling us we fight >terrorists in Iraq so that we will not have to fight them here, are just >that: slogans, not comprehensive policies. In fact, as London shows, >terrorists can fight in two places at the same time. Or three. Or 10. And >the great danger, of course, is that they can fight with dangerous weapons. >The calculus of terror would change irrevocably if one of these splinter >groups were ever to get its hands on nuclear materials or biological >pathogens. So far the Bush administration has not given this danger the >priority it urgently requires. > >The broader shift that needs to take place, however, is a better definition >of victory. America's political leaders continue to give their citizens the >impression that victory means ensuring that there will be no other attack >on American soilas long as we go on the offense abroad, get perfect >intelligence, buy fancy new technologies at home, screen visas and lock >some people up. But all these tough tactics and all the intelligence in the >world will not change the fact that in today's open societies, terrorism is >easy to carry out. The British authorities, perhaps the world's best at >combating terror, admit they had no warning about last week's attack. The >American response to the London bombs has been a perfect example of U.S. >grandstanding. We immediately raised the alert level, scaring Americans, >with no specific information about terror attacks in America. Why? Because >were something to happen here, politicians and bureaucrats want to be able >to say, "Don't blame us, we told you." > >Real victory is not about preventing all attacks everywhere. No one can >guarantee that. It's really about preventing the worst kinds of attacks, >and responding well to others. And on this score, America remains woefully >unprepared. "The British attacks failed because Britain has excellent >response systems and its people are well prepared on how to respond. >America has neither advantage today," says Stephen Flynn, a >homeland-security expert and author of "America the Vulnerable: How Our >Government Is Failing to Protect Us From Terrorism." "We need good >education and training for transit workers and citizens, good communication >mechanisms among government agencies and the people, and most important, a >good public-health infrastructure." We have little of this today. In the >years after 9/11 we have wasted much time, effort and money on other >priorities rather than engaging in the massive investment in the systems of >response that we need. Our leaders remain unwilling to speak honestly > about the world we live in and to help people develop the mentality of >response that is essential to prevailing. > >The bombs were meant to show that the terrorists were strong and we were >weak. In fact they have shown the opposite. But to realize victory fully, >we must know what victory means. > >(With Carla Power and Rana Foroohar in London, Rukhmini Punoose in New York >and Christopher Dickey and Eric Pape in Paris) > > _________________________________________________________________ Job hunting? Get the right one! http://creative.mediaturf.net/creatives/timesjobs/hotmail_TOL.htm Log on to www.timesjobs.com TODAY -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! 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