- The first thing to do when trying to understand
"Islamic
suicide bombers"is to forget the cliches about the Muslim taste for
martyrdom. It does exist, of course, but the desire for paradise is not
a safe guide to what motivated the appalling suicide attacks on New York
and Washington 12 days ago.
-
- Throughout history, political extremists of all faiths
have willingly given up their lives simply in the belief that by doing
so, whether in bombings or in other forms of terror, they would change
the course of history, or at least win an advantage for their cause. Tamils
are not Muslims, but they blow themselves up in their war on the government
of Sri Lanka; Japanese kamikaze pilots in the Second World War were not
Muslims, but they flew their fighters into US aircraft carriers.
-
- The Islamo-fascist ideology of Osama bin Laden and those
closest to him, such as the Egyptian and Algerian "Islamic
Groups",
is no more intrinsically linked to Islam or Islamic civilisation than Pearl
Harbour was to Buddhism, or Northern Irish terrorists are to Christianity.
Serious Christians don't go around killing and maiming the innocent; devout
Muslims do not prepare for paradise by visiting Florida strip bars and
getting drunk, as one of last week's terrorist pilots was reported to
have done.
-
- The attacks of September 11 are simply not compatible
with orthodox Muslim theology, which cautions soldiers "in the way
of Allah" to fight their enemies face-to-face, without harming non-
combatants, women or children.
-
- Most Muslims, not only in America and Britain, but in
the world, are law-abiding citizens of their countries - a point stressed
by President Bush and other American leaders, much to their credit. Nobody
on this side of the water wants a repeat of the lamented 1941 internment
of Japanese Americans.
-
- Still, the numerical preponderance of Muslims as
perpetrators
of these ghastly incidents is no coincidence. So we have to ask ourselves
what has made these men into monsters? What has so galvanised violent
tendencies
in the world's second-largest religion (and, in America, the fastest
growing
faith)? Can it really flow from a quarrel over a bit of land in the Middle
East?
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- For Westerners, it seems natural to look for answers
in the distant past, beginning with the Crusades. But if you ask educated,
pious, traditional but forward-looking Muslims what has driven their umma,
or global community, in this direction, many of them will answer you with
one word: Wahhabism. This is a strain of Islam that emerged not during
the Crusades, nor even at the time of the anti- Turkish wars of the 17th
century, but less than two centuries ago. It is violent, it is intolerant,
and it is fanatical beyond measure. It originated in Arabia, and it is
the official theology of the Gulf states. Wahhabism is the most extreme
form of Islamic fundamentalism.
-
- Not all Muslims are suicide bombers, but all Muslim
suicide
bombers are Wahhabis - except, perhaps, for some disciples of atheist
Leftists
posing as Muslims in the interests of personal power, such as Yasser Arafat
or Saddam Hussein. Wahhabism is the Islamic equivalent of the most extreme
Protestant sectarianism. It is puritan, demanding punishment for those
who enjoy any music except the drum, and severe punishment up to death
for drinking or sexual transgressions. It condemns as unbelievers those
who do not pray, a view that never previously existed in mainstream
Islam.
-
- It is stripped-down Islam, calling for simple, short
prayers, undecorated mosques, and the uprooting of gravestones (since
decorated
mosques and graveyards lend themselves to veneration, which is idolatry
in the Wahhabi mind). Wahhabis do not even permit the name of the Prophet
Mohammed to be inscribed in mosques, nor do they allow his birthday to
be celebrated. Above all, they hate ostentatious spirituality, much as
Protestants detest the veneration of miracles and saints in the Roman
Church.
-
- Ibn Abdul Wahhab (1703-1792), the founder of this
totalitarian
Islamism, was born in Uyaynah, in the part of Arabia known as Nejd, where
Riyadh is today, and which the Prophet himself notably warned would be
a source of corruption and confusion. (Anti-Wahhabi Muslims refer to
Wahhabism
as fitna an Najdiyyah or "the trouble out of Nejd".) From the
beginning of Wahhab's dispensation, in the late 18th century, his cult
was associated with the mass murder of all who opposed it. For example,
the Wahhabis fell upon the city of Qarbala in 1801 and killed 2,000
ordinary
citizens in the streets.
-
- In the 19th century, Wahhabism took the form of Arab
nationalism Turks. The founder of the Saudi kingdom, Ibn Saud, established
Wahhabism as its official creed. Much has been made of the role of the
US in "creating" Osama bin Laden through subsidies to the Afghan
mujaheddin, but as much or more could be said in reproach of Britain which,
three generations before, supported the Wahhabi Arabs in their revolt
against
the Ottomans. Arab hatred of the Turks fused with Wahhabi ranting against
the "decadence" of Ottoman Islam. The truth is that the Ottoman
khalifa reigned over a multinational Islamic umma in which vast differences
in local culture and tradition were tolerated. No such tolerance exists
in Wahhabism, which is why the concept of US troops on Saudi soil so
inflames
bin Laden.
-
- Bin Laden is a Wahhabi. So are the suicide bombers in
Israel. So are his Egyptian allies, who exulted as they stabbed foreign
tourists to death at Luxor not many years ago, bathing in blood up to their
elbows and emitting blasphemous cries of ecstasy. So are the Algerian
Islamist
terrorists whose contribution to the purification of the world consisted
of murdering people for such sins as running a movie projector or reading
secular newspapers. So are the Taliban-style guerrillas in Kashmir who
murder Hindus. The Iranians are not Wahhabis, which partially explains
their slow but undeniable movement towards moderation and normality after
a period of utopian and puritan revivalism. But the Taliban practise a
variant of Wahhabism. They employ ancient punishments - such as execution
for moral offences - and they have a primitive and fearful view of women.
The same is true of Saudi Arabia's rulers. None of this extremism has been
inspired by American fumblings in the world, and it has little to do with
the tragedies that have beset
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- The Wahhabis have two weaknesses of which the West is
largely unaware; an Achilles's heel on each foot, so to speak. The first
is that the vast majority of Muslims in the world are peaceful people who
would prefer Western democracy in their own countries. They loathe
Wahhabism
for the same reason any patriarchal culture rejects a violent break with
tradition. And that is the point that must be understood: bin Laden and
other Wahhabis are not defending Islamic tradition; they represent an
ultra-radical
break in the direction of a sectarian utopia. Thus, they are best described
as Islamo-fascists, although they have much in common with
Bolsheviks.
-
- The Bengali Sufi writer Zeeshan Ali has described the
situation touchingly: "Muslims from Bangladesh in the US, just like
any other place in the world, uphold the traditional beliefs of Islam but,
due to lack of instruction, keep quiet when their beliefs are attacked
by Wahhabis in the US who all of a sudden become 'better' Muslims than
others. These Wahhabis go even further and accuse their own fathers of
heresy, sin and unbelief. And the young children of the immigrants, when
they grow up in this country, get exposed only to this one-sided version
of Islam and are led to think that this is the only Islam. Naturally a
big gap is being created every day that silence is only widening."
The young, divided between tradition and the call of the new, opt for
"Islamic
revolution" and commit themselves to their self-destruction, combined
with mass murder.
-
- The same influences are brought to bear throughout the
10-million- strong Muslim community in America, as well as those in
Europe.
In the US, 80 per cent of mosques are estimated by the Sufi Hisham
al-Kabbani,
born in Lebanon and now living in the US, to be under the control of
Wahhabi
imams, who preach extremism, and this leads to the other point of
vulnerability:
Wahhabism is subsidised by Saudi Arabia, even though bin Laden has sworn
to destroy the Saudi royal family. The Saudis have played a double game
for years, more or less as Stalin did with the West during the Second World
War. They pretended to be allies in a struggle against Saddam Hussein while
spreading Wahhabi ideology, just as Stalin promoted an
"antifascist"
coalition with the US while carrying out espionage and subversion on
American
territory. The motive was the same: the belief that the West was or is
decadent and doomed.
-
- One major question is never asked in American discussions
of Arab terrorism: what is the role of Saudi Arabia? The question cannot
be asked because American companies depend too much on the continued flow
of Saudi oil, while American politicians have become too cosy with the
Saudi rulers.
-
- Another reason it is not asked is that to expose the
extent of Saudi and Wahhabi influence on American Muslims would compromise
many Islamic clerics in the US. But it is the most significant question
Americans should be asking themselves today. If we get rid of bin Laden,
whom do we then have to deal with? The answer was eloquently put by Seyyed
Vali Reza Nasr, professor of political science at the University of
California
at San Diego, and author of an authoritative volume on Islamic extremism
in Pakistan: "If the US wants to do something about radical Islam,
it has to deal with Saudi Arabia. The 'rogue states' [Iraq, Libya, etc]
are less important in the radicalisation of Islam than Saudi Arabia. Saudi
Arabia is the single most important cause and supporter of radicalisation,
ideologisation, and the general fanaticisation of Islam."
-
- From what we now know, it appears not one of the suicide
pilots in New York and Washington was Palestinian. They all seem to have
been Saudis, citizens of the Gulf states, Egyptian or Algerian. Two are
reported to have been the sons of the former second secretary of the Saudi
embassy in Washington. They were planted in America long before the
outbreak
of the latest Palestinian intifada; in fact, they seem to have begun their
conspiracy while the Middle East peace process was in full, if short,
bloom.
Anti-terror experts and politicians in the West must now consider the Saudi
connection.
-
- Stephen Schwartz is the author of Intellectuals and
Assassins,
published by Anthem Press. This article appears in the current edition
of The Spectator.
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