Militant Islam A Protest Movement?
The Hindu had a small article about the inaugural lecture delivered at the Center of West Asian Studies (School of International Relations) at M.G. University. The university is in Kottayam (Kerala). The lecture was delivered by Professor Anwar Alam who is the Director of the Center for West Asian Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) in New Delhi.
JMI is a very prestigious university which falls under the University Grants Commission (UGC). According to the Jamia Millia University web site Anwar Alam before joining the university worked as a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Aligarh Muslim University. He has authored a few books and is a visiting Fellow at many important institutions abroad.
The Hindu quoted Professor Alam as saying that political Islam is “essentially a protest movement against the cumulative failure of Muslim States, whether secular or religious. In other words, it is an expression of socio-economic and political discontent of Muslim masses and therefore a reflection of the deep crisis in Muslim societies”.
Thousands of articles have been written in the past fifty years to try and understand the reasons for the radicalization of certain Muslims (along with all other sensible individuals I believe that only a small minority of Muslims belong to this category). Islam is a religion that is practiced by over a billion human beings. The first mistake anyone can make is to generalize the thought process of a billion people.
It is not up to a professor or just a particular community to define what political Islam is. Everyone who is affected by it has the right to define it as they see it. The reasons provided by Anwar Alam maybe one of the reasons but it does not account for all of them. If political Islam is an expression of socio-economic and political discontent then why are certain Muslims from Pakistan willing to go to India and then gun down innocent civilians in Mumbai many of whom were Muslims? Mass murder of this scale is not simply an expression of political discontent but hatred of others.
If political Islam is a protest movement against the cumulative failure of Muslim states then why is that the target of these attacks include countries like India, United States, Britain, France and Spain none of whom are Muslim states? Wouldn’t the citizens of these countries be right in thinking that these attacks are a protest against successful non-Muslim states and their non-Islamic ideologies?
It is not just the Muslims who are living in repressive regimes. Millions of people in countries like India, China, North Korea and Myanmar live under political and/or socio-economic conditions that are far worse than anywhere in the Middle East. But they are not killing each other or their neighbors. So the political and socio-economic reasoning is lame (many of the 09/11 terrorists came from well-to-do families in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Let’s not forget the millions of Indians and people from Sri Lanka, Philippines and other countries live and work in the Middle-East for decades. This is a clear indication that they consider the socio-economic conditions there a lot better that what they face at home.)
According to The Hindu the Professor also observed that “the ghost of “Islamic enemy” vis-à-vis the West, was deliberately constructed, maintained and promoted by the West to rationalize and justify its interventionist policies throughout the world in the post Soviet, globalized world. It has been asserted that by confining the scope of political Islam to Islamic Terrorism, the West reserves the right to pre-emptive strikes in the name of self defense or maintenance of internal peace and stability on any nation, thereby discarding the age-old principle of respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty and non-interference in the domestic matter of a nation. The 9/11 incident played the role of catalyst in this grand design of the West”.
Do the above statements offer a balanced opinion about world politics of the past few decades or does it sound like an opinion stated by a radicalized individual himself? It is very difficult to prove (because it is not valid) that the West deliberately “constructed, maintained and promoted” the Islamic enemy. This is not a problem of the West alone. Predominantly Muslim countries like Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Indonesia faced serious threat from militant Islamic individuals and organizations long before the cold war ended and continue to do so even today.
Countries like India, China, Philippines and Somalia all of whom are not part of the “West” has in the past and also continues to face existential threats from political Islam. So where is the evidence for calling the West out solely for creating the “Islamic Enemy”? Any society including Muslim societies who have been victims of these brutal, senseless attacks have issues with militant Islam. The West is no exception.
To suggest somehow that the West created the “Islamic Enemy” and then associated entire Islam with Islamic terrorism to take unilateral actions against Muslim nations and then capture their territory is just pure fantasy. When innocent people have to jump from 100 story buildings and die because the building is burning or when they are executed in hotels, hospitals, railway stations or in volleyball counts (as was the case in Pakistan recently) then these people and their countries have the right to defend themselves and go after the perpetrators.
Like many other so-called experts on this subject Professor Anwar Alam has side stepped a few critical issues. There is a very small minority of Muslims who believe that their religion is the true one and all others are infidels. This minority unfortunately for the rest of us are willing to kill and die to hold on to this false premise. Events of the past twenty years have shown that they are willing to die for their beliefs whether they are well off or poor live in repressive societies like Saudi Arabia or in free societies like in United States or India and whether they are illiterate or very well educated. Why?
The answer cannot be just political discontent or socio-economic conditions. Most people on earth including me would fall into this category. It is to be something else.
Related posts:
- Islam and the False Concept of Equality in Indian Society
- American Official: Muslims in India are Not Terrorists
- Canada Supporting Anti-Indian Sikh Movement
- Arundhati Roy’s Delusional Comments
- About a Synagogue in Mecca & Mosque in New York
Category: Culture & Religion
I know what your are saying. In my opinion ,Muslims need to have a good political leader.
No question about that. They need religious leaders who are committed to the welfare of their society. There is a lot of overlap between religious leaders and political leaders.
“There is a very small minority of Muslims who believe that their religion is the true one and all others are infidels. This minority unfortunately for the rest of us are willing to kill and die to hold on to this false premise.”
Very true!
If we see the matter in a bigger perspective of time and boundaries, we will be able to see that world still is having its modern crusade. This has been carried on since last 1100 years. Even if we give Israeli land to Palestine or stop advocating female education in the Islamic society, they will find a way. This rage will be then fueled by some other propaganda.
As some wise man said, “At the end, its all about land…”
Fanaticism needs no excuse.