The South Asian: Genesis of Right Wing Islamic Activism

January 23, 2011

Genesis of Right Wing Islamic Activism - I Dr. Syed Ehtisham writes this multipart series sharing his views on the social, political and organizational dimensions of right wing Islamic activism.
Related Links
Muslims and the U.S. 'Melting Pot'
Anti-Americanism in Pakistan
Right to Education in Pakistan

The little publicized policy of US, other Western government and Israeli overt, usually covert support and funding of Islamic activism conducted over six decades must accept a substantial, if not the major share of responsibility for the emergence of Islamist terrorism. It, in turn befriended, manipulated, double crossed and cynically used them as cold war allies. The US disdainfully ditched the Mujahideen after the USSR.

9/11 shook Washington to the realization that if you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.

Muslim priests are cynical too. They condemn the US and Western ways, norms and Women’s rights with contempt, but do not shy away from US finance, technology and weapons.

The pace of regression post 9/11 attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq has accelerated immeasurably. Extremism, fundamentalism and fanaticism have increased several fold in the Indian sub-continent and Muslim countries.

During the cold war the USSR was only an emblem of the enemy of the capitalist society. The enemies were nationalism, humanism, secularism, and socialism. Muslim fundamentalists collaborated with West because they too were scared of and opposed the ideas..

The US believed that Muslims between Greece and China, ‘the arc of Islam’ would function as fire wall against the USSR and might even incite the restive Muslims inside the USSR to open rebellion.1

In Islam, religion and state are not separate. But the state followed an egalitarian policy. No holds barred Islamism is a more recent political creed and is in fact a perversion of the religious faith. The US supported, organized and funded it. It is variously represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, Ayatollahs, Saudi Wahabis, Hamas, Hezbollah, Jihadis and Osama.

The US found political Islam a convenient partner during each stage of empire building.

In the 1950s the prime nationalist enemies were Nasser of Egypt and Mossadegh of Iran. The US and Britain used Muslim Brotherhood against Nasser, and funded Ayatollahs during the US sponsored coup in Iran in 1953.-2-

In spite of all the effort of the imperialists and their satraps, Arab socialism and left wing nationalism grew During the 1960s. The US forged an alliance with Saudi Arabia and with Wahabism, and joined hands with the former in pursuit of an Islamic bloc. Saudis founded the Islamic Center of Geneva (1961), the Muslim World League (1962) and the Organization of the Islamic congress (1969).

With the death of Nasser’s image had been tarnished by the 1967 war with Israel. The US actively supported the ascension of Anwar Sadat to unchallenged authority in Egypt. The US funded religious opposition of Bhutto in Pakistan. General Zia of Pakistan could not have gotten away with killing Bhutto with out US connivance. Hasan Turabi of Sudan could not have to risen to power with out the help of the US ally, the Islamic Brotherhood.Brotherhood.

The 1979 Iran revolution should have taught the US and its allies that fighting against a nationalist tide was hazardous. They spent billions on Afghan jihad. The US looked on as Jordan and Israel aided terrorists in Syria, and Israel helped found HAMAS.

They neo-cons even made a deal with Iran not to let the hostages go as a tool against Carter’s bif for reelection. They again made secret deals with Iran in 1980s (Iran contra)-3.

With the USSR out of the way, the US and its allies felt that they could sit on their laurels. Political Islam was not regarded as an existential threat. But to keep their hand in they favored the army crackdown in Algeria, instead of supporting democracy. In Egypt the US covertly supported the Islamists, to keep the satrap Mubarak in line. In Afghanistan watched as the relatively liberal factions were wiped out by the Pakistan supported Taliban.

Post 9/11 Bush panicked. His handlers held his hand and told him that Al-Qaida, which the US had nurtured, could be taken care of easily. World public opinion was with the US.

But the window of opportunity thus opened up had potential. Iraq was sitting on vast oil reserves. Its Arab allies had gone back on their word to fund the aftermath of the disastrous war with Iran. The US had implicitly given Saddam the go ahead to capture Kuwait. That had given the US to bloody its nose. 4. If only an excuse to invade the country could be found. It had a secular government so an Al-Qaida link would not be credible. WMDs had to be invented and the support of the Islamic right and Iraqi Shias who were supported by Iran, had to be garnered.

Iraq would be an easy victory (Bush’s mission accomplished). Iran would be made more vulnerable and an easy nest prey.

The USA started casting covetous glances on the Mid-East Post WW I, when the Ottoman Empire finally crumbled.

In 1945, FDR went east in search of oil, and met with the king of Saudi Arabia, Ibne Saud on board his ship which was denuded of all females for the encounter. That started a long lasting relationship.

The US academia started launching departments and centers for Middle Eastern studies (discussed in detail else where in the narrative).

Americans believed that their religious fanaticism would make them natural enemies of atheistic communism. Islam seemed a better bet than secularism. But it never dawned on them that the Islamists were qualitatively different from the comprador clerical establishment.

With the advent of the cold war and Founding of the state of Israel empowered the Zionists in the US establishment and Middle East scholars found themselves in the backbenches. The US was deprived of the insight the scholars could offer.

In the late 1970s Timothy LaHaye formed California Alliance of Churches, with Jerry Falwell launched ‘Moral Majority’, and the two dominated the discourse in the Council on National Policy, the Christian Coalition. Pat Robertson’s broadcast empire and James Dobson’s Focus on Family reinforced the emergence of the religious right as a potent force.

Islam had been a dominant force for a thousand years. Though there were dissenting voices like Ibne Tammayya, the religious establishment collaborated with the ruling class. Wahhab was a voice in wilderness, accepted only by a tribe on the fringe. They joined hands with the British and French agents sent out to undermine the Ottoman Empire.

Looking for ways to revive the fortune Jamal al-Afghani created of the Pan-Islamic movement in the late 1880s. Hassan al-Banna in 1928 and Maududi in 1940 respectively founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jamat e Islami in India.

Texas and Midwest oil barons lavished funds on the Christian Right. Oil satrapies of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf opened their coffers to the Muslim Right. The Nasserist wind of change was blowing hard across the whole Arab world. It was an existential threat to the Arab rulers. They were deemed natural partners by the Right Wing in the USA. The partnership matured in Reagan years.

Blinded to irrationality by their hate of secular nationalism, the fundamentalist Christian Right and fanatic Zionists happily threw their whole hearted support behind the fanatic Taliban in Afghanistan.

All religious zealots share an absolute certainty about their beliefs. They hate separation of religion and politics and can not abide a difference of opinion. They believe that apostates, unbelievers and freethinkers should be killed. They have blind faith.

The threat to the security of main land America is highly overblown. The threat to US instllations the world over is, however, real. But the biggest hazard is the regression of Muslims, especially the younger individuals, not only in all Muslim countries but also among the Muslim populations all over the world. They are highly vulnerable to the lure of the fantasy land of an after life surrounded by blooming gardens, with springs of wine, masses of delectable food and seventy two nubile virgins. Women are not offered an equivalent deal. But the sparsity of suicide bombers in the gender is not just due their pleasure being restricted to husbands. They are treated as little more than serfs in the tribal-feudal mode prevalent in Muslim countries.

The reaction of the US to 9/11 in Afghanistan was fast, effective and widely applauded. It developed into an agenda of colonization of abstract space, encirclement of Iran, acquire control over the oil in the Mid-East and the former Asian Soviet Republics and keeping a close eye on China.

Ideas can be combated only with ideas. The term war on terror is a misnomer. It is akin to the British conquering all of India because a few of its soldiers had been killed in an ambush. War in Iraq was akin to FDR attacking Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor.

War on terror is an intelligence and law enforcement problem.

Coninued War (in the ninth year end of 2010) in Afghanistan did not destroy Al-Qaida or the Taliban. It only weakened the government, left the general populace at the mercy of marauders of all kinds. They have little choice but to support the resurgent Taliban).

The adventures have dealt a severe blow to the US economy.

The Afghan and Iraq wars were tailor made for the Bush policy of empire building and preemptive war, and it allowed the administration to construct a huge political-military enterprise from East Africa to Pakistan.

Unless the Islamic right is stopped, Al-Qaida, HAMAS, Hezbollah and other extremist groups will continue to grow. The groups draw financial, theological and legions of recruits from the fundamentalist groups.

The US must deal with grievances that push angry Muslims to such organizations as the Muslim Brotherhood. US must join the UNO, EU and Russia to help settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with a two state solution and by withdrawal of Israelis from illegally held lands to pre-1967 borders. That would pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Islamic right.

The US must abandon its imperial pretensions, withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, dismantle its bases in mid-East and else where (at the last count some 9,000) sharply cut training mission and visibility of its navy and arms sales.

The US must refrain from imposing its preferences on the region. Its call for democracy is taken as (and is) a pretext for greater US involvement in the region. The countries have to find a political system they can live with. The US must stop propping up satrapies in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

The US must give up its tendency to make bellicose threats to nations such as Iran and Sudan.

The true emancipation of the Mid-East will only come from secular and liberal forces, which will offer education, freedom of expression and religion and modernization.

Fundamentalism of whatever variety-Islamic, Christian evangelists or Jewish fanatical settlers is always a reactionary force.

- Blog syedehtisham.blogspot.com
Posted by collective at January 23, 2011 09:51 PM

Comments

ARCHIVED ARTICLES