Radical Islam more about Arab nationalism than religion, expert contends

Islamic terrorist groups, in particular al Qaeda, are driven more by pan-Islamic nationalism than by religious fervor, a leading scholar asserts. In formulating their response to the September 11 attacks, US officials have underestimated the depth of nationalist sentiment in the Middle East, thus potentially increasing the difficulty of containing the terrorist threat, the scholar adds.

Olivier Roy, a senior researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, told EurasiaNet that the US attack against Iraq "deepens the extend of this [Arab nationalist] backlash," underscored by reports that thousands of men from across the Middle East and Central Asia have volunteered to go to Iraq and fight against US forces.

"It’s purely emotional right now," Roy said. Because most Middle Eastern and Central Asian states feature closed political systems, in which authoritarian leaders tend to stifle free expression, the main outlet for Arab nationalist feelings is anti-Americanism, which widely viewed as virtually synonymous with anti-imperialism. Roy stressed that Arab nationalism did not pose an immediate threat to the US plans to oust Saddam Hussein, but could greatly complicate efforts to foster regional stability over the medium and longer term.

In attacking Iraq, Roy suggested, the United States may be creating more problems for itself than it is solving. "What will happen in five or six years, it is difficult to know," he said.

"The United States can make good decisions for bad reasons, or bad decisions for good reasons," Roy continued. "But there is a discrepancy in the way Washington views the situation, and in what is the actual process at work. Sooner or later, this discrepancy can lead to problems."

Roy examined recent trends at a round-table forum, titled Radical Islam: A Middle East Phenomenon or a Consequence of the Globalization of Islam?, held April 2 at the Open Society Institute in New York. Roy maintained that radical Islam is effectively a misnomer, saying that radicals are instead utilizing religion as a cover for essentially political acts.

"[Osama] bin Laden doesn’t care so much about religion," Roy said. In examining bin Laden’s statements, "if you replace ‘jihad’ with the word ‘revolution’ you would have purely political speech. Looking at the content of his speeches, they are modern, anti-imperialist discourses."

Roy compared contemporary Islamic radicals with leftist radical groups of the 1970s, such as the Red Brigade in Italy and the Baader-Meinhof gang in Germany. He asserted that political considerations fueled the September 11 attacks.

"The violence that we see now has little to do with Islam, it’s nationalism," Roy said. "These guys are fighting American imperialism, they are not fighting Christianity."

A significant number of al Qaeda members, especially non Saudis, are "born-again" Muslims, defined as those who have recently embraced Islam, and many of whom have lived the West and had lengthy exposure to Western culture. Mohammad Atta, the reputed ringleader of the September 11 attacks, became a born-again Muslim while living in Hamburg, Germany, Roy noted. Between one-third and a half of those in terrorist networks are those who could be characterized as born-again Muslims, Roy estimated.

A vital, if currently underappreciated trend is that radical Islam is developing in the West and is being exported to the Middle East and Central Asia. Roy cited the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which calls for the non-violent reestablishment of an Islamic caliphate across the Middle East and Central Asia, as an example of the current trend. Hizb is based in London, but its supporters are increasingly active in Central Asia, working underground to undermine established authority in the region. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"London is the Mecca of radical Islam," Roy said, adding that those willing to engage in radical activity, including terrorism, "don’t convert for Islam, they convert for political purposes."

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/recaps/articles/eav040303.shtml