Understanding The Problem Of So Called “Islamic Terrorism”

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam 11 January 2023 Osama Was Fighting In Afghanistan As The Arab Leader Of The Mujahideen. Al-Qaeda Was The Name Given To The Database Maintained By The US Of The Mujahideen Fighting In Afghanistan Who They Were Aiding. The Mujahideen Who Became Al-Qaeda Were Hailed As Heroes By President Reagan. ------ A solution to any problem is possible only when we understand what caused the problem. The causes then need to be taken care of or eliminated to prevent further aggravation of the problem or its spread. Outside the Palestine/Israel theatre, the so called “Islamic terrorist” activity began when the “Afghan Mujahideen” who were hailed as freedom fighters by the US and the rest of the World, morphed into Al Qaeda. Birth Of The Afghan Mujahideen The US led the Soviet Union into the Afghan trap by aiding the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahideen six months before the Russians made their move, knowing that "this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention". Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998 Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct? Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention. Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it? B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would. Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today? B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire. Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists? B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war? Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today. B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries. Without the activism of the US, the Russians may never have entered Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, they had shown considerable reluctance to do so and were supporting the Socialist regime only from outside. Even if the Russians had entered Afghanistan, they would have left after completing their mission of consolidating the Socialist regime. The US help emboldened the rebels. It is a repeat of the story of what the US did in South America of arming, training and aiding the rebels whom they called contra revolutionaries or contras to overthrow Socialist regimes. Osama was fighting in Afghanistan as the Arab leader of the Mujahideen. Al-Qaeda was the name given to the database maintained by the US of the Mujahideen fighting in Afghanistan who they were aiding. The Mujahideen who became Al-Qaeda were hailed as heroes by President Reagan. The Problem Inherent In A ‘Solution’ Involving Civilian Fighters Wars are fought by countries under the direction and control of their government. The “Mujahideen” who fought the war to drive out the Russians were drawn from 35 countries and numbered around three hundred thousand. There was no government (in Afghanistan or in exile) to manage and control them and therefore none to take care of them after the war. They were left to fend for themselves. The US and Pakistan simply washed their hands off the problem once the war was over. If the US were to disband their army in Afghanistan and leave the soldiers with their arms to fend for themselves, we can expect them to behave just like the Taliban or perhaps worse. Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State) understood the nature of the problem very well and said while answering a question during an interview with Fox News's Greta Van Susteren: “To be fair we had helped to create the problem we are now fighting. Because when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, we had this brilliant idea, that we were gonna come to Pakistan and create a force of Mujahideen, equip them with stinger missiles and everything else to go after the Soviets inside Afghanistan…. and we were successful. The Soviets left Afghanistan and then we said great! good bye! and washed our hands off, leaving these trained people who were fanatical in Afghanistan and Pakistan, leaving them well-armed, creating a mess frankly, that at the time we really didn't recognize, we were just so happy to see the Soviet Union fall, and we thought ok fine, we're ok now, everything's going to be so much better. Now you look back, the people we're fighting today, we were supporting in the fight against the Soviets." The US army applies several filters in their recruitment process and a candidate who inclines to the religious right is not selected. Such people have been found to be the ones more likely to remain maladjusted after a war and indulge in senseless violence such as shooting sprees. In the case of the "mujahideen", normal boys were put through a process of indoctrination in religious extremism using experts from Palestine in specially set up madrassas! The US understood the risks very well based on their well-documented research which has become the basis of their selection policies, but didn't care and I doubt if Pakistan and Saudi Arabia anticipated the problems these fighters would create after the war. The Afghan Mujahideen Heroes Morph Into “Terrorists” The US fought a proxy war with the Soviet Union arming/training the Mujahideen. The war broke the might of the Soviet Union who suffered an ignominious defeat, leaving the US the only superpower. The US pre occupation with the communist world ended, allowing it to focus on the strategic oil rich Middle East. Saddam obliged by occupying Kuwait giving Bush the opportunity to enter the ME. When Saddam looked ready to withdraw from Kuwait, Bush unleashed a volley of abuses, making it impossible for Saddam to withdraw and save face, forcing a war. This was in 1991. The Afghan Mujahideen had offered to liberate Kuwait just as they had liberated Afghanistan from the Soviets but the Saudi monarch was afraid of the growing influence of Osama and felt insecure. He therefore invited the US to help liberate Kuwait. It would have been much cheaper and safer for the US to use the Mujahideen to drive out the Iraqis. This however did not meet their objectives for a larger role in the ME. This was the beginning of the rift between the US and the Afghan Mujahideen who now morphed into Al Qaeda. All the so called Islamic terrorist incidents are after the first Gulf war and the first of these incidents was on February 26, 1993 – World Trade Centre bombing, in New York City. 6 killed. The Magnitude Of The Problem While it should have been absolutely clear to all that it was a blunder to have used civilians to fight wars and thereafter leave them to fend for themselves, nothing has changed. These “Mujahideens” or “terrorists” continue to be used by the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. They have been used in Libya to overthrow Gaddafi and they are being used in Syria to oust Bashar al- Assad. Pakistan has used them against India in the past. The approximately 1000 Madrasas set up in Pakistan to indoctrinate the “Mujahideen” to wage “Jihad” continue to function with local and foreign students ensuring a steady supply of fresh “Jihadis”. The Problem however is confined mostly for the Muslim countries alone or in the country where these people reside. These people make very little impact on the rest of the World. The Individual “Jihadis” who can strike anywhere are a different people who are more likely to be University graduates and whose motives are purely political and directly correlated with specific incidents that aggravate the grievances. A Department of Defence study in 1997 concluded that: "Historical data show a strong correlation between US involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States." Former president Jimmy Carter, some years after he left the White House, was unambiguous in his agreement with this: “We sent Marines into Lebanon and you only have to go to Lebanon, to Syria or to Jordan to witness first-hand the intense hatred among many people for the United States because we bombed and shelled and unmercifully killed totally innocent villagers—women and children and farmers and housewives—in those villages around Beirut...As a result of that...we became kind of a Satan in the minds of those who are deeply resentful. That is what precipitated the taking of our hostages [in Iran] and that is what has precipitated some of the terrorist attacks.” However, attacks by individual “Jihadis” are extremely rare and in terms of actual loss caused, they have caused little damage. In the 13 years since 9/11 only 33 deaths in the US are attributed to such people. The World Gets A Shock According to the Soufan group, a very small number of 3000 westerners from Europe and North America joined the war in Syria/Iraq. The highest number was from France numbering around 700 followed by UK numbering around 400, Belgium and Australia 250 each, Germany 270, US 70 etc. These countries were worried about what these small numbers will do after they return and were planning several measures to deal with the problem. If such small numbers caused so much worry requiring elaborate measures to deal with the situation, why do these countries not worry about the thousands from Muslim countries who got involved in Afghanistan and now in Syria? If they are worried about the small number of what their own nationals may do after the war, why is it so difficult for the world to understand what half a million of such people spread across 35 countries have been doing which goes in the name of “Islamic terrorism”? These people are doing what they have been taught to do in state sponsored and supported Madrasas and it is normal behavior for them. To expect anything else from them is insanity. Is it not hypocrisy that while the US, UK, etc. continue to back the foreign civilian fighters in Syria and elsewhere, they were worried about the very small numbers from their own country who have got involved? The Solution It is a huge problem that must be tackled. Blaming does not help. Understanding what the problem is and how it came about is necessary to prevent more of the same and to reverse the process. The first step is to close down those 1000 madrasas which were set up specially for the purpose of churning out “Jihadis”. Although the Russians have left, not a single madrassa has been shut down or changed into a normal madrassa. Yes, the US cannot be blamed for this but only Pakistan, except that the US is aware of what is going on but will not do anything to put an end to the nonsense. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other countries which have the problem of terrorism from their own citizens, should absorb those who can be retrained for Army discipline into their armies. The rest should also be accounted for by imprisonment if necessary. We should raise awareness among the general public of what has caused the problem in the first place and what needs to be done to put an end to it and count on public pressure on their governments to effectively deal with the situation and bring the problem to an end. As described, not even a single step has been taken to put an end to the menace of terrorism while reams have been written and lip service paid. ----- A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation. URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/islamic-terrorism-us-afghan-mujahideen/d/128851 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism