|
|
Case studies of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan form part
two of the book, underlining the distinctive features of each.
And make for instructive reading. The Birthplace of Muslim
Brotherhood, Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt has been a feature
of the political landscape since the 1930s. While President
Sadat (assassinated 1987) endeavoured to co-opt moderate
segments of the fundamentalist movement into the
politico-religious establishment, his successor, the incumbent
Hosni Mubarak, has followed a policy of relentless repression of
both militant as well as moderate Islamists. Saudi Arabia, a
monarchical autocracy without a full-fledged constitution, much
less a fully or even partially elected Parliament, is a recent
state (b. 1932) caught up in a mounting economic and political
malaise. To the great alarm of its royal rulers, its per capita
income has plummeted from $ 28,000 (at par with the USA) to a
measly $ 7,000. And all this within less than two decades!
Meanwhile, unemployment, hitherto unknown, has soared to almost
20 per cent. The Saudi ruling house persists in the mistaken
belief that reform, at the expense of their monopoly of power
and privilege, would result in their losing all to the
commoners.
Afghanistan,
"a case unto itself," has had a troubled quarter
century and more since the ouster of King Zahir Shah (1973).
Later, in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion (1979) and its
far-from-peaceful exit (1989), Islam emerged as an ideology of
armed resistance. In its wake, the fundamentalist Mujahideen
Alliance seized power when traditional ethnic differences proved
so strong that it gave way to an ultra-radical vision of Islamic
fundamentalism, represented by the Taliban, with the country
becoming a haven for Islamist terrorist groups such as the Al
Qaida led by Osama bin Laden, the renegade Saudi millionaire and
militant.
The concluding
part deals with the bombing of US embassies in the Kenyan and
Tanzanian capitals in August 1998 as a precursor to 9/11. The
author’s inescapable conclusion that so much is being swept
under the umbrella of terrorism that the world community finds
itself waging a war that knows no end.
The study
underlines two major dilemmas. To start with, since the Sharia
(Shariat) is composed of both the Quran as well as the Hadith—the
words and deeds of the Prophet—there has been over the past 14
centuries an impressive array of religious literature.
In the event, it
is impossible to make a particular interpretation of the Sharia
stick with all Muslims worldwide.
Another problem
the book highlights is that the USA, or India or China for that
matter, can defeat terrorism without necessarily removing the
cause (causes) that brought it into existence; and discourage it
by tightening international cooperation. But to eliminate
terrorism as a tactical, or even strategic, tool to gain
political, social or personal ends may be well nigh impossible.
Dilip Hiro, who
specialises in Islam and Central Asia, is a prolific writer and
not an infrequent commentator on the BBC and the CNN. His study
makes for an incisive, if sobering, commentary on a subject that
leaves no nation, much less an individual, untouched.
|
WITH
Washington pitching in for an "inevitable" war against
Iraq, reports of UN inspection teams and Saddam Hussein’s repeated
claims that he does not have any weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
regardless, the international scene inspires little hope, even less
confidence. Adding to the grim scenario is Ariel Sharon’s bouncing
back to power in Israel and Tony Blair—President Bush’s knight
in shining armour—trying bravely to paper over the cracks in the
European community over war and peace. One hates to think that the
powder keg may blow up before many weeks, not months, are over.
