Toronto Star : Confront roots of terrorism, not just the symptoms

Confront roots of terrorism, not just the symptoms

by Haroon Siddiqui | August 5, 2007

Terrorism by Muslims is real. It cannot be wished away. The only debate is how best to tackle it.

The War on Terror has vastly increased terrorism, empowered radicals, strained America's relations with much of the world, and diluted our own democracies.

Many intelligence services, think-tanks and an increasing number of governments now see a clear link between the terrorism and the wars in Iraq, the Israeli Occupied Territories, Afghanistan, etc.

Those who disagree ask: What about Muslim-on-Muslim violence? After all, Muslims are the biggest victims of terrorism. Sunnis and Shiites are killing each other. So are supporters of the Islamist Hamas and the secular but mostly Muslim Fatah.

And what of "Islamic terrorism," "Islamist extremism," "radical Islamism," etc.? Al Qaeda does exist, as does Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. So do dozens of other violent groups. They wage jihad against the U.S., Israel and Western allies, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

Some imams spout hate for Christians and Jews from the pulpit. Neither the militant groups nor such imams can be ignored and, in fact, are not. Still, we must ask:

Why have such outfits and individuals emerged in recent years? Why do they find traction? And why is intra-Muslim violence mostly confined to occupied or wartorn lands? Two answers are given.

Violence is part of the genetic makeup of Muslims.

Or we are seeing the blowback of contemporary geopolitics – the U.S. backing of Islamic jihadists in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, the drawn-out Arab-Israeli dispute, the two Gulf wars, the economic sanctions, the ever-present politics of oil, and the widely perceived American double standards.

Every month in Iraq has been a 9/11, every day a 7/7. In Afghanistan, too, there is no peace.

While collateral damage caused by coalition forces is far less now than locals killing locals, there's no escaping responsibility for the civil wars amid the ruins of the physical and social infrastructures.

The British newspaper the Guardian urges Gordon Brown to "acknowledge Britain's role in creating, unintentionally, the conditions for instability, civil wars and mayhem ... Such an approach would not extirpate the terrorist cause in Britain but it would be a start in altering the conditions in which terrorists recruit."

Britain has uncovered 15 terrorist plots since 2001. Some of the plotters have been found guilty. Another 100 await trials.

The convicted were engineers, doctors, gangsters, thieves, drug users; most were born Muslim and others are Christian converts; some are religious and others not.

Most did not come from faraway caves or madrassas but British schools, universities, taverns and cricket and soccer fields. They were angry about the British involvement in Iraq and also identified with global Muslim grievances.

They turned violent at the behest of militant imams, or Al Qaeda or just watching TV or perusing jihadist websites.

Canada is not immune to potential homegrown terrorism, as seen in the 2003 arrest of 22 Muslims and the 2006 arrest of 18 more.

"We need to resolve the conditions and conflicts which create this irrational behaviour," Paul Cavalluzzo, lead counsel to the Maher Arar inquiry, said in an interview.

Equally, the fact that all terrorism-related charges in the 2003 case were dropped, as were charges against three of the 18, suggests that when police and security officials nail suspects, "they should be showing less adrenalin and more sensitivity to due process and people's rights," he said. "Once you're labelled a terrorist, it's a difficult label to remove for the rest of your life – like being called a Communist in the McCarthy era."

Let's wage war against Al Qaeda. Keep an eye on the peddlers of hate. Initiate early warning systems to detect the radicalization of the young. Crack down on suspected criminals and prosecute them in speedy, transparent trials.

But doing all that while ignoring the conflicts that create the rage is to just treat the symptoms of the disease.

Happily, there are signs that this process is now underway.

Haroon Siddiqui, the Star's editorial page editor emeritus, appears Thursday in World and Sunday in the A-section. Email: hsiddiq@thestar.ca