Destroying terrorism will require new world order

CONDEMNING al-Shabaab (of Somalia) and Boko Haraam (of Nigeria) for committing atrocities, or blaming Islam which provides them with religious succour won’t solve the terrorism problem.

Smoking causes the deaths of five million people annually worldwide and terrorism causes the deaths of only 20000 people. What is required is a balanced response and not panic-driven, American-styled overkill.

The only way one can destroy terrorism is to drain the swamp.

The incessant violence, wars, invasions and terrorism in the Middle East and Africa derive their fuel from a set of complex inter-related factors – historical, geo-political, economic, moral and resistance to change.

It definitely does not derive from the “72 virgins for jihadees” or “Islam’s jealousy of the west” or Samuel Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations” hypotheses. In fact, many youth in the Islamic world are not jealous, but in love with American culture – their films, music, hip-hop, clothes, fast foods, Coca-Cola, iPhone and roller skating. This to me, is not a clash, but rather an assimilation of cultures.

Islam arrived in seventh century Arabia when the known world was on the brink of a moral and social abyss. The Prophet then proceeded to mitigate tribalism, strengthened the institution of marriage and family, freed women from slavery (actually gave women the right to own property 1300 years before the west did), established a benevolent state, established private property rights, etc.

Within one hundred years, the seeds he planted led to the birth of the Abbasid Empire, which lasted for 500 years, and which fuelled “the Islamic Golden Age” in mathematics, the sciences, technology, the arts and culture.

There is a long list of words in the English language derived from Arabic such as algebra, chemistry, algorithm, alcohol, sugar, coffee, cafe, zero, tariff, azimuth, average, etc.

The Muslim world then provided the cultural icons to the world the same way America is doing today.

Do terrorists achieve any of this? Of course not, this was the very antithesis of extremism, anarchy and terrorism.

The Taliban ban women from attending school, yet the Prophet Muhammed said: “knowledge is incumbent on both male and female”.

Boko Haraam (which means Western education is illegal) is not obeying the Shariah when the Prophet Muhammed again said: “Seek knowledge from here unto China”.

After the Mongols destroyed the Abbasid empire in 1258 AD, at about the same time a new empire, the Ottoman Empire was born, which again provided stability in the Middle East.

The main cause for the decline of the Ottoman Empire, from the 1650s to the 1920s, had been its inability to change and adapt to new social, economic, political and technological realities emanating from Europe. Change and reform was resisted at every turn by the Ottoman clergy until the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in 1919AD.

Also, Muslim children spent too much time on religious education and soon the Christian subjects of the Empire pulled ahead in terms of development. Britain, France, Russia and the erstwhile Austro-Hungarian Empire thus targeted the “sick man of Europe” and hungrily eyed its huge territories in Europe, Africa and Asia. Most of the conflicts we see around the Middle East today are the result of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.

Although Somalia and Afghanistan were not part of it, ripple effects were felt there too. The power vacuum left by the demise of the Ottoman Empire have allowed Western powers and Russia to impose imperial control over the region and thus fuel further instability, divide-and-rule tactics, proxy wars, regime change and terrorism.

There were great expectations when the youth of Islam rebelled against the existing power structures and hoped to achieve political expression through the ballot box instead of terrorism. But the inability of fundamentalist Islam, represented by groups like the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and An Nahda of Tunisia to reform is the main reason why the Arab Spring has ground to a halt.

The youth are aware that Islam is the solution, but Islamist philosophers are unable to translate Islamist principles of compassion, equity, justice and moderation into practical solutions and institutions. Rather, the gullible youth are attracted to the extremist ideologies of al-Shabaab, Boko Haraam, al Nusra of Syria and al Qaeda, which have a message – fight oppression and establish an Islamic theocratic state. They have a practical solution, the moderates do not.

But this is a fallacy since Islam is not a theocracy and neither have existing theocracies such as Iran and Saudi Arabia delivered on compassion, equity, justice and moderation.

Even now worker remittances to Somalia are being targeted by governments worldwide, the poor in Somalia will suffer, while the terrorists will find other means of transferring money. A permanent solution can only arise when both the West and the Muslim world go through fundamental moral, social and political reforms.

From the West, what is required is a change in mentality, morality and leadership. What is required is to guide the world towards a new world order based on justice, equity and equality; and not self-interest alone. A world where all peoples and nations are treated as equals and a move away from colonialism, racism and imperialism. In addition, the UN Security Council and its veto is a mechanism which amplifies extremism is in dire need of renewal.

The everlasting conflict between Israel and the Arabs on the one hand (a conflict which breeds terrorists) and the non-resolution of the Syrian civil war are a direct result of the use of the Security Council veto by the Americans and Russians respectively.

From the Muslims, what is required is a change in mentality as well. A revolution to democratise and unite their societies, educate their peoples (spend less time teaching religion and more time teaching mathematics and science), to continue the reforms instituted by Prophet Muhammed to free women from slavery and remove the scourge of poverty and tribalism.

Additionally, they need to bridge the Sunni-Shia divide and remove other non-Islamic cultural practices such as female genital mutilation and honour killings.

I personally doubt that both the West and the Islamic world will undertake this journey anytime soon, therefore Islamist inspired terrorism will be with us for some time to come.

Naushad Omar is a resident of East London