"Islamic Terrorism" - Some Preliminary Observations
Since last few years, Islamic terrorism has taken centre-stage of global media. In the situation, we, as an integral part of the advanced contingent of international working class, however feeble its voice may be right now, cannot remain silent. A detailed & thorough study & analysis on the issue has now been the demand of the day. However, far from doing that, here we now limit ourselves only to make some preliminary observations.
At the very beginning, it needs to be recognized that "terrorism" & "fundamentalism" are not synonymous. While the basis of "fundamentalism" is ideology, "terrorism" is a mode of violent activity of a particular grouping with a motive to achieve some objective. The basic characteristic of terrorist grouping is that they don't believe in active participation of the large section of the toiling masses to achieve their goal; and thus whatever positive & sincere their objective might be, finally it is doomed to be failure; so normally, it cannot be the path of liberation for the toiling masses. On the other hand, when we talk about Islamic fundamentalism, and not only Islamic, all religious fundamentalism, we need to keep in mind that it is a danger to the progress of human civilization, as because it attempts to revert back the wheels of history to the mediaeval "dark ages"; it denies all rational & scientific ideas & perceptions, rather their existence lies on the basis of unscientific & ahistorical myth of revival of "golden era" of Islam in poverty stricken, economically backward Muslim countries ; it has the evil designs to polarize the world between "muslims" & "non-muslims" - in this way, they disown the actually existing division of the population based on economic exploitation; it is a real hindrance to the growth of united struggle of the working class & toiling masses towards eradication of all sorts of exploitation-deprivation-oppression from the society; it is in opposition to preservation of all traces of inclusive heritage of the art & culture of the past; to them women are treated just as a child-bearing machine. So, it is detrimental for any positive aspiration of the toiling masses. Since the term "Islamic Terrorism" has already been popularized in the media, we do also use here the term frequently, but by use of the term we signify the particular breed of terrorist organizations whose ideological orientation is to re-establish a society based on Islamic fundamentalism.
What is the objective basis of the existence & development of religious fundamentalist organizations? It need not be reminded that capitalism has long back shifted from its historically determined progressive role of routing feudalism, rather it has allied with feaudalism for the sake of its own survival. In almost all of the so-called 3rd world countries, the economic basis of feudalism was not overthrown by revolution from below; and, the historically obsolete mode of structure & superstructure of feudalism objectively exists in all these places in different manners till this day; same is also true for the areas where muslim population is majority in numbers. One of the manifestations of the presence of feudalism is the presence of religion in the perception of the masses as a dominant phenomenon in all spheres of their life. So, until & unless feudalism is uprooted from the all the socio-economic & political spheres of the society, until and unless religion is limited to an exclusively private affair of the individual, there will always remain an objective basis of emergence of similar forces that can attempt to turn the wheel of history in the reverse mode. So, it is not possible to eradicate Islamic fundamentalism, and so to say, all sorts of fundamentalism, without the integration of this struggle with the overall struggle to overthrow feudalism from all aspects of society.
A major question that haunts us is why the emergence of Islamic terrorist organizations has become an important phenomenon, particularly during last 20-25 years. To get the answer to the question, we need to introspect a particular aspect of the development of history as it happened in the lives of the muslim population during last more than hundred years.
The majority of the Muslim population lives in Middle-East & Central Asia, & North & North-East of Africa. It is incidentally, one of the richest regions in terms of natural resources beneath its crust. It is needless to elaborate here the sinister designs of imperialism that have been continued for more than hundred years to usurp those resources as well as to use the region for its geo-political interests. And, it is also needless here to spend few hundred words to describe the unabated devastations that have inflicted on the lives of the millions of the population of the region due to such act of imperialism. But it is more important to recognize that people of the region have never surrendered to the loot & arson of imperialism. They have a glorious history of mass nationalist struggles, that also for more than a hundred years, against these loot & arson. Particularly since end of 2nd world war, series of post-colonial attempts at state formation, as well as the creation of Israel further engendered a series of anti-imperialist formations and movements throughout the Arab world.
However, due to some inherent weaknesses of those struggles, and also in absence of proper support & guidance of international working class movement & organization, those struggles could not reach its desired goal & since end-sixties of last century a sense of failure started to loom large on these movements. Since then, anti-imperialist resistances shifted primarily to the path of terrorism. At that point of time terrorist organizations started to emerge purely on anti-imperialist nationalist agenda & those were secular in nature. Al Fatah-Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), thereafter Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) had chosen the path of terrorism to bring forth the demand of the free Palestine before the world. We also find existence of pro-Syrian terrorist groups like Syrian Social Nationalist Party, Syrian Baath Party, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who were also secular in nature. But it also could not bear any fruit, rather imperialist aggression had further aggravated in the name of combating terrorism. In this situation, since late seventies of the last century, throughout the Arab world and the West, the Iranian Islamic revolution sparked fears of a wave of revolutionary Shia Islam. Meanwhile, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent anti-Soviet mujahideen war, lasting from 1979 to 1989, stimulated the rise and expansion of Islamic terrorist groups. Arab Sunnis returning from fighting the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan as well as various Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad inaugurated a new phase in religion-inspired terrorism. In the Middle East, religious fundamentalism became politicized, and essentially political movements appropriated Islamic fundamentalist ideology and combined it with their anti-imperialism. While failure of the previous phases of struggles had a significant impact in this conversion, at the same time, imperialism had a significant role. US and the British imperialism played a very direct role in politicizing Islamic fundamentalist organizations & sponsored their terrorist activities, whether in the form of state support of Saudi Arabia in exchange for access to oil, or the CIA's funding of early Islamist terrorist groups to counter the influence of the Soviet Union (most clearly demonstrated in the funding of the Mujahiddin in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets). And, it is continuing till this day. All these they have done not only to loot the resources of the region, but also to combat the persisting anti-imperialist struggle of the region. When the Islamic terrorist organizations have gone out of hand of US, they started to project motivatedly the Muslim population as a whole as "hub of terrorism", created a paranoia about them among all other population, ghettoized them in all over the world, and created an atmosphere of fear-psychosis among the Muslim population. So, if anyone is to be blamed for the rise of "Islamic Terrorism", it is none other than the imperialism & its political allies in the region who are the real parents of today's Islamic terrorism.
Another aspect also needs to be recognized in this context. Historically, modern Islamic fundamentalist and/or terrorist organizations from among the Sunni Muslims (like Al Qaeda, IS, Boko Haram etc) have its ideological origin in Salafism/Wahhabism, & it first came to surface as a strong ideology only in the second half of the 19th Century in opposition to "European influence affecting Muslim world" through the then colonial rulers & since then it had the imprint on the anti-colonial struggles of the region. However, its meteoric rise & increase in influence on the toiling masses has surfaced only during last 20-25 years. One of the major causes lie in the creation of de-facto vacuum with the absence of a progressive ideology in society since the defeat of the first offensive of world socialist movement. Such a situation surfaced in the mind of the toiling masses through the fall of USSR & China. The Russian & Chinese revolution had not only brought forth the conviction, but also had shown the objectivity of liberation from all sorts of exploitation & oppression to the toiling masses of the globe. Between the two world wars & soon thereafter, national liberation struggles had developed in a good number of third world countries & the idea of socialism had a great influence on those struggles. If we look at the history of Muslim dominated countries, we'll find that the idea of "Arab Socialism" had a great influence on those countries during '50s & '60s of last century. There were lots of limitations & inconsistencies in the idea of "Arab Socialism" & the then already degenerated USSR had a great influence on propagating the idea. And, the fall of USSR had a great impact in further evolution of history of this region. The de-facto void of progressive ideology in the mind of the toiling masses caused due to the defeat of the 1st offensive of world socialist movement has a direct impact on the meteoric rise of terrorist organizations based Islamic fundamentalist ideology in the Muslim dominated countries as a mode to combat the atrocities unleashed by imperialism.
In this context, it further needs to be mentioned here that during '50s & '60s of the last century a good number of Muslim dominated countries had declared themselves as "secular" & Islamic fundamentalist organizations were handled very strongly with the help of military forces. How much it has backfired is a great lesson of today. This experience shows us that any sort of fundamentalism cannot be handled merely with the help of military & legal structures.
Now, some other aspects related to the issue need to be addressed. Globally, existence of Islamic fundamentalism & terrorism is a bare truth right now. But is it the fact that as on today, fundamentalism & terrorism is limited only to the Islamic organizations? Christian fundamentalist organizations are there in the Christian dominated regions of the so-called 3rd world countries. How deep & wide the wings & claws of Hindu fundamentalism has spread in India is known to all concerned. The rise of a good number of ultra-right forces has now been a major concern across the whole of Europe. But is it also not the fact that only Islamic fundamentalism has been made the primary target of the political superpowers & mainstream media? Was there any uproar when hundreds of Muslim people were killed, raped, looted in Central African Republic which finally led to exodus of thousands of innocent Muslims - caused due to the terror perpetrated by Christian militants there? In November 2015, Robert Lewis Dear killed three and injured nine at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. But was there any strong voice against the incident? Even in case of India, the carnage perpetrated by RSS-Sangh Parivar in Gujarat 2002 was much bigger than that has happened in Bangladesh. But, even after when all these things are happening in front of our own eyes, just because the established political leaders like Modi-Obama etc as well as the global media, puppets of imperialism & capitalism, are telling us hard about the simmering danger of "Islamic Terrorism", consciously enhancing "Islamophoebia", shall we be swayed by their overtly motivated campaign, or try to expose their true motive?
Now, another question. Much is being discussed in the media about the cruelty & brutality of "Islamic State (IS)". And, the brutal atrocities unleashed by them & also by Taliban-Boko Haram etc evidently validate the complaint. But, the crush question that cannot be avoided is that, who is the main danger to the global majority? Islamic terrorism, or imperialism & its allies working in the national level in each country? If we look into a simple fact of India, we find that during last 5 years, a total of 74 people were killed by Islamic terrorists. In Europe, a continent of 750 million, a total of 150 people died in terror attacks in 2015. On the other hand, is it not imperialism, who during last hundred years, has acted as the prime mover of the war & killed millions of innocent people all over the world? Take just one example - US invasion of Iraq in 2003. According to one estimate, at least 6, 00,000 Iraqi people were killed during first four years of the occupation. Who killed those innocent Iraqis? It was none other than USA and its allies. Is it not imperialism & capitalism who is the real perpetrator of global hunger-malnutrition? Is the death due to starvation less brutal than the killings of the Islamic terrorists? Who has made unemployment a fact of life, other than imperialism & capitalism, with a sole motive to maintain vast sections of "reserve labour" so that they can exploit it at their own terms? Every year at least 45,000 youths finished their lives by making suicide for not getting any job - is this not mass killing? Is it not imperialism & capitalism who has taught the world that matter-culture-knowledge-values-morality-emotion and everything else that existing on this earth, is nothing but a commodity, which you can buy if only you have enough money, it is irrelevant how you have procured that money? Is it not they who have devastated the whole nature & all its resources-climate-everything else just to satiate their infinite greed? So, if you remain quiet about all the silent mass killings going on every second at every nook and corner of the world made by imperialism & capitalism & shout louder every time an Islamic terrorist attack is carried out, you will act as nothing but just a pawn of those imperialists & capitalists who have given birth to those terrorists!
The fundamental question that has been attempted to bring forth here is that Islamic terrorism needs to be eradicated, but until & unless this struggle is integrally connected with the struggle to overthrow the traces of feudalism along with the complete overthrow of capitalism & imperialism, it would be doomed to failure. This struggle needs to be developed globally; and right now, we, the international contingent of the working class, is far behind to develop this struggle. Aug 30, 2016 ▆
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