Study Calls for Rethink on the War on Terror
"Is it in the interest of the Arab and Islamic people to fight al-Qaida and the militant fundamentalist movements? And is it – at the present time – in the interest of America to fight these movements? The answer in both cases is 'yes'."
And that is precisely where the problem lies: the Arab world is all too quick to condemn Arab critics of Islamist movements as collaborators with the USA, the west or imperialism in general.
Mashari al-Dhaydi, a columnist for the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, points this out in a recent article. Even worse: the joint criticism of Islamism is not only taken as justification for accusations of betrayal, but brings calls for political and social reforms themselves into discredit.
What prompted al-Dhaydi's warning of a looming "execution of modern thinking" is the publication of a study by the RAND Corporation, an American think-tank with significant influence over US security policy.
The analysis is entitled "Building Moderate Muslim Networks", and caused extreme reactions, not only in the Arab world.
A "road map" for the Islamic world
The authors' heady goals are to "derive lessons from the US and allied Cold War network-building experience [in the fight against Communism], determine their applicability to the current situation in the Muslim world and develop a 'road map' to foster the construction of moderate and liberal Islamic networks."
The starting point of the 180-page instruction manual is the assumption that the military is not the only tool for confronting the challenge of Islamism:
"The struggle underway throughout much of the Muslim world is essentially a war of ideas. Its outcome will determine the future direction of the Muslim world and whether the threat of jihadist terrorism continues, with some Muslim societies falling back even further into patterns of intolerance and violence. It profoundly affects the security of the West."
In this light, the RAND strategists call for a clear change of direction in the global "war on terror".
Lessons from the Cold War
Similarly to the conflict with Communism during the Cold War, say the authors, the real battlefield is not in the countries where the ideological opponents are most strongly anchored.
Instead of combating the Islamist movements in the Middle East to act against their increasing influence in other regions, the authors see a "reversal of the flow of ideas" as a possibility for curbing the success of Islamist ideologies.
In their view, it is not Egypt, Jordan and Palestine, but Turkey, Southeast Asia and most of all the Muslim communities in Europe that should be the starting point for strengthening moderate Muslim movements as a counterweight to militant Islamism.
And their idea is that the experiences of "political warfare" during the Cold War have many lessons to offer in this process.
The CIA's extensive activities in the 1950s and 60s are given as an example of successful interventions – material and moral support for non-communist trade unions and student organisations, or magazines such as the German-language cultural journal "Der Monat".
Potential partners
The report recommends targeting discreet efforts towards building Muslim networks at secular Muslim intellectuals, women’s organisations and religious minorities, journalists and young imams.
According to the authors, support is conceivable for all Muslim organisations and individuals who appear open for a pluralist form of society and non-Islamic law sources.
So there would be plenty of potential partners – but whether they would be prepared to accept the support is another question, says the RAND Corporation. Any active support that could be traced back to state institutions in the USA is likely to prove a "kiss of death" for critics of Islamism.
Gaps in the study
However, the analysis conspicuously omits one aspect of the Cold War, which is extremely significant for the current conflicts.
After all, it was not just anti-communist organisations in Europe that profited from America's financial generosity, but also Islamist groupings in Afghanistan, which are now fighting their former patrons in the form of the various jihadist movements.
Another gap in the authors' strategic considerations is just as evident. The great range of experience of European and American power politics in the 20th century, which still colours the perceptions of external intervention in the Islamic world to this day, is not even mentioned in passing.
The history of colonial ambitions clothed in emancipatory pathos is, understandably, a high hurdle for changes initiated from outside.
Cards on the table
In this regard, the lack of inhibition with which the study's authors take US interests as grounds for intervention in Islamic societies is almost likeable by comparison.
Rather than veiling the intervention in human rights issues and societal visions – as is all too often the case where state and NGO initiatives from the EU and its member states are concerned – the report lays its cards on the table for all to see.
But for Muslim critics of Islamism like al-Dhaydi, the ideas behind the USA and the EU’s policies on the Islamic world are of secondary importance from the very outset.
RAND and its critics may write whatever they like, says al-Dhaydi. At the end of the day, the Islamic world faces "a clear choice that cannot be avoided: moderation and enlightenment or decline and destruction, that is the one reality."
Götz Nordbruch
© Qantara.de 2007
Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire
Qantara.de
Middle East Conflict
Seething Anger
War, poverty and instability deepen institutional crisis throughout the region – with no fix in sight. In his analysis, Fawaz Gerges looks at three main fault lines of Middle Eastern societies
Analysis Amr Hamzawy
The Autumn of the Patriarchs: Where Is the Arab World Headed?
The past months have seen dramatic changes in the political sphere of the Arab world. In his analysis of the events, Amr Hamzawy makes an optimistic prognosis but warns that radical Islamism and ethnic violence are still influential factors in the region
Interview with Abdelwahab Meddeb
In Search of the "Greek" Dimension of Islam
Abdelwahab Meddeb is one of North Africa's most important contemporary thinkers. Meddeb talked to Beat Stauffer in Tunis about the maladies of Islam and his own confession to an open, humanist Islam
www