中東の戦後70年
2018年09月16日
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Chapter 6: Genealogy of Islamic terrorism
6-3(46) Shuddering September 11 attacks
Listing the main terror incidents during the last decade of the 20th century, two Austrian tourists died in hotel bombing in Aden of Yemen in 1992. In 1993 eight people died and more than 1,000 injured by the bombing of New York World Trade Center Building. Furthermore, terrorist attacked on tourists in Luxor of Egypt in 1998. The United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed simultaneously in 1998. In September 1999 two terror attacks in Moscow caused more than 200 dead.
The criminals of these terror attacks were all Muslims. The incidents could be roughly divided into three categories according to the criminal organization and the background of the incidents. One was an attack by a lone wolf fanatic Islamist. Luxor incident was equivalent to this case. The second case was a resistance movement against the central government by Islamic anti-government organizations. Terrorist attacks in Moscow by Central Asian Islamic organizations was this case. Both of two terror attacks were domestic problems by domestic offenders.
In contrast, the terrorist attacks of New York World Trade Centre Building in 1993 and US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 were well controlled and international terrorist activities by the Al Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden targeting the United States. It was "September 11 attacks" that Al Qaeda revealed its nature in early 21st century. It was a famous incident that anyone knew. Let's review the attacks.
In the morning of 11th September 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles was hijacked at 8:14 am. The criminal grasped the control stick and changed the course to the south and crushed into the North Tower of the New York World Trade Center Building at 8:46. At first people could not understand what happened, and many people thought that the small aircraft crashed with the manipulation in error. However, immediately after the American Airlines, United Airlines Flight 175 headed to the same destination from the same airport was hijacked in the same way. It crushed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center Building in a manner to follow. The television news covering the first incident relayed the next incident. Not only citizens of New York but people around the world witnessed live footage. It was a truly unbelievable scene. This made people understand that violent terrorist incident was happened.
Incidents continued furthermore. American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington to Los Angeles was also hijacked at around 8:40. It crashed into the headquarter of the Department of Defense (commonly known as the Pentagon due to a pentagonal star shape). In addition, United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco was hijacked at 9:28, but passengers in the airplane who knew about the incident of the World Trade Center Building tried to stop hijacking and crashed on the ground at 240 KM northwest of Washington DC. It was at 10:03 am. The perpetrators seemed to aim at the White House or Parliament Building. The four terrorist attacks of simultaneous hijackings were the biggest disaster in the history with 3,000 death and 6,300 injuries.
President Bush (then) concluded that the incidents were the crimes committed by Islamic extremist group Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden's subordinate Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was arrested in charge of a planner of terrors. The incident took place in less than two hours from the first hijacking at 8:14 am to the fall of the fourth aircraft at 10:03 am. Prior to this two hours Al Qaeda had spent an enormous amount of time and money for detailed planning and careful preparations including the acquisition of the maneuvering method of a large jet aircraft. The United States had already recognized that Al Qaeda was targeting the mainland of the United States when the World Trade Center Building was bombed eight years ago in 1993. But US Government could not catch in advance the symptom of simultaneous multiple terrorism. Terrors planned and implemented by Al Qaeda were far beyond the predictions of authorities. Nineteen offenders led by Egyptian Muhammad Atta were identified. Eleven of the 19 offenders were Saudi.
This incident triggered US counterterrorism operations. President George W. Bush set the eradication of terrorism as the most important issue of diplomacy and showed a hard line stance that the first-strike for self-defense would be the essential alternatives. The US caused military action against the Taliban regime of Afghanistan, where the Al Qaeda was based in, and overthrew them. Osama bin Laden escaped in a steep mountainous area of neighboring Pakistan. Running away from trackers he called for Islamic extremist groups around the world for resistance. Terrorist activities by his sympathizers took place in many parts of the world one after another. The United States desperately pursued him. At last the special forces raided to kill Bin Laden on the outskirts of Islamabad in May 2011. At that time he was 54 years old.
In the 21st century, it was the beginning of the era of resistance by Islamic extremists.
(To be continued ----)
2018年09月09日
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Chapter 6: Genealogy of Islamic terrorism
6-2(45) Terrorism crosses the border easily
Terrorism is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims (from the Oxford Dictionary). According to the definition of terrorism, there is also a political aim in religious terrorism of Islam. What is the political aim of Islamic terrorism? Many of the targets of Islamic terror is the secular regime regarded as apostates. And their aim is to overthrow the secular regime. That was the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Many terrorist activities of Shiite was aimed at Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, who was a typical secular ruler. Then Iranian Revolution was happened. Ayatollah Khomeini established a ruling system integrating religion and politics called "Velayat-e Faqih". The theory justified the control by religious clerics until the Mahdi appears. After grabbing power, Ayatollah Khomeini called for an uprising of Shiite Muslims who live in the Arab world.
In response to the request of Ayatollah Khomeini, Hezbollah of Shiite organization stood up in Lebanon. In addition to the conventional terrorism against Israel, Hezbollah extended the terrorist activities against Americans, especially military officers. Israel and the United States are the same enemy for Hezbollah. In 1983, the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut was bombed by terrorist attacks, and 241 US soldiers were killed or injured.
In Egypt, antipathy against Egyptian President Sadat who concluded historical peace treaty with Israel has ignited religious consciousness. He was assassinated by the officers of the jihad group in 1981. Furthermore, Sunni terrorist group Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden activated terrorism throughout the Middle East. Al Qaeda carried out a bomb terror aimed at US soldiers in Aden of Yemen in 1992. Austrian tourists got involved in the incident.
Shiite terrorism led by Iran and Sunni terrorism led by Al Qaeda spread in the Middle East to North Africa. The United States beyond the Atlantic Ocean was the next target of Al Qaeda. The bombing of the World Trade Center Building in New York in 1993 was the first terrorism in the main land of the United States. It was a prelude of catastrophic September 11 attacks in 2001.
Constraints such as artificial borders or geographical five continents separated by the ocean are meaningless in religious terrorism. And in the modern information society connected by the Internet, a sense of solidarity propagates widely and with high-speed. The 1990s was an epoch-making era when Islam terrorism began to spread over the world. It was a characteristic of religious terrorism to easily cross the border regardless of states.
(To be continued ----)
2018年09月02日
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Chapter 6: Genealogy of Islamic terrorism
6-1(44) The roots of modern Islamic terrorism
According to Oxford English Dictionary, "terrorism" is " the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims." The motive of terrorism can be divided into three categories: ethnic conflict, religious conflict and ideological conflict. As mentioned before, ethnic conflict is a problem of "blood", speaking in modern terms, the confrontation of DNA. And the conflict of ideology is the problem of "political belief". The conflict of religion is the problem of "generosity".
The Kurdish independence movement was a terrorism caused by the ethnic conflict in the Middle East. Ethnic terrorism is very common throughout the world. It probably will take place in the future continuously because DNA is eternal. However, after the World War II, the international community based on the nation states made ethnic conflicts smaller and regional.
Terrorism caused by confrontation of ideology had occurred frequently in various places of the world during the Cold War. Che Guevara (Ernesto Guevara) born in Argentina, Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro of Cuba were terrorists of socialist ideology against Cuban dictatorship. The terrorism based on ideology is the product of principal. Therefore, different from the ethnic or religious terrorism, ideological terrorism has the character to spread all over the world. Ideological terrorism has almost diminished after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 when liberalism and capitalism kicked socialism and communism. It was just Prof. Francis Fukuyama said in "The End of History and the Last Man".
Religious terrorism used to penetrate geographically in width rather than ethnic terrorism because religion itself has the character to penetrate beyond ethnic boundaries or borders. In the era of imperialism and colonialism in Western Europe, Christian missionaries had been doing missionary work as the front of invasion. Although the missionaries would not have been conscious as the invaders, they treated the native religions as being inferior to Christianity under the name of "God" or "Christ". There were many terrors by the native religious powers against the invasion of Christianity.
There are three types of religious terrorism depending on opponents. One is a conflict with infidels, the second is conflict with ideology, and the third is sectarian conflict within the same religion. From the Muslims’ point of view, the conflict with infidels appears as a conflict with Judaism or Christianity which are the same monotheism. In logics, "Jehovah" of Judaism, "God" of Christianity and "Allah" of Islam are the same one because the supreme existence of monotheism is one only. In fact, Islam teaches that Allah, God and Jehovah are exactly the same one. But Judaism and Christianity older than Islam recognize each other as Old Testament and New Testament, but they never accept Allah of Islam. Thus, the religious conflicts have been continuing for centuries in the form of Jewish-Christian union versus Islam.
In the 20th century, Islam was challenged by political ideology. Communist atheism was exactly the dogma of the devil for Islam, which denied the supreme existence of Allah. For Muslim the hostility to atheism is so big as to be compared with the Christian who was brain-washed by liberalism and capitalism. When communism grabbed the power, Islamic forces resisted with terrorism. The Afghan conflict was exactly such case.
And when communism lost power the sectarian confrontation has appeared as a new stream of terrorism. Sectarian conflict among the same religion was conflict over "legitimacy". The disruption and confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites of Islam occurred just before the Prophet Muhammad died. Sunnis disputed the legitimacy of the teachings of Islam. On the other hand, the Shiites raised the legitimacy of the prophet's genealogy. However, both parties have stopped their struggle shortly. Generally speaking, Shiites were inherited in Iran of the Persian nation, and Sunnis were handed down to the Arabs.
The purpose of Osama Bin Laden was to deploy Islamic fundamentalism in other Muslim countries. He thought that the liberalism and democracy of Western European countries devastated the sublime value of Islam. He had strolled Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa one after another. He also utilized the Internet which has been prevailing at that time. He agitated the masses by returning to the fundamentalism in Muhammad era.
Al-Qaeda spreads into the Islamic world by ramification. And the anti-government terrorist organizations self-nominated the name of al-Qaeda in various regions or countries. They were "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)", "Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)”, “Al Qaeda in Iraq”, “Jemaah Islamiyah” in Indonesia, “Abu Sayyaf Group” in the Philippines, etc. Furthermore, a lone wolf terrorist declared himself as a sympathizer of Al Qaeda in a crime statement. The name of Al Qaeda became a famous brand of Islamic terrorism. People looked on Osama bin Laden as hero of Islam.
(To be continued ----)
2018年08月26日
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Chapter 5: Two calendars (Gregorian & Hijri)
5-7(43) Two books of prediction: “The End of History and the Last Man” & ”The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order”
In the 1990s, the last decade of the 20th century, two books were published by a political scientist in the United States one after another, and they had the great reputation. One was Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" in 1992 and another one was Samuel Huntington's "The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order" in 1996. When the end of the century was approaching, abnormal literatures which predicts the end of the world used to be published such as "Harmagedon" or "The predictions of Nostradamus". But two books were the papers on civilization by renowned scholars. The assertion of the two papers were quite different.
The Middle East has been at the mercy of history as a crossover point of East and West civilizations. In that sense, both books suggested important points for the history of the Middle East, although two books covered all over the world.
Professor
Professor Huntington cited the seven civilizations as
the main civilization of modern age; Western Europe civilization, Islamic
civilization, Confucian civilization, Hindu civilization, Orthodox Church
civilization, Latin American civilization and Japanese civilization. It is
interesting that Huntington regards Japan as an isolated civilization. In sense
of folklore and geopolitics, it should belong within the category of Far East
Asia. Among these seven civilizations, the Western European civilization is the
newest one starting from the industrial revolution in the 18th century. The
Western European civilization focused on the ideology such as liberalism and
capitalism. In contrast, the
Islamic civilization is a religious one originated by Muhammad in the 14th
century. The Orthodox Church civilization is also a civilization rooted in the
religion of Christianity.
Once there had been four ancient civilizations in and along Egypt, Mesopotamia, Yellow River and Indus. Yellow River civilization in China was the mother of Confucian civilization. And Indus civilization in India was the mother of Hindu civilization. But Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization had no successors. They only remained their names as an archaeological civilization.
Latin American civilization and Japanese civilization were related to ethnicity. For Japanese, however, the name of civilization sounds somewhat different, and “Japanese culture” sounds more popular.
In general, "civilization" and "culture" are used in almost the same meaning. According to Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of civilization in English is: ‘The stage of human social development and organization which is considered most advanced.’ And that of culture is: ‘The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively’ or ‘The ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society.’ It seems that culture has more wide meaning than civilization.
Prof. Fukushima's "The End of History and the Last Man" was written in the age when the Berlin Wall was fell down in 1987 and the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991, and The United States became the super power in the world. Socialism and communism were driven out and liberalism and capitalism became the de facto standard. His book was a child of the age. Meanwhile, it was sure that Huntington wrote "The clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order" under strong influence by the drastically changing history of the Middle East. They were the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the invasion and withdrawal of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during 1990 to 1989, and the Gulf War in 1991.
These two philosophic books were born in the paradigm shift of dramatically changing history. Just around that time, neoconservatism was emerged in the United States. The roots of neoconservatism dated back to the 1930's. And it grew up as a theoretical pillar of the political party which opposed to the Detent (Release from tension) with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Jewish lobby in the United States supported the neoconservatism.
The speech by Barry Goldwater who was the Republican presidential candidate in 1964 was enthusiastically supported by conservatives. Senator Goldwater told that; "The radicalism for defending freedom was not a vice in any way, and the moderatism in search of justice was not a virtue in any way". The conservatism became the mainstream of the Republican Party;
During the Republican governments from President Ronald Reagan in 1981 to President George H. W. Bush in 1993, people of the United States confirmed the correctness of his country and was convinced that they were chosen by God and given the mission for world peace. The United States made the Soviet Union to withdraw from Afghanistan and promoted reunification of the East and West Germany. The United States supported Iraq of the secular regime in the Iran-Iraq war. In the field of economy, they forced the others the globalization through free trade. The power of the United States became unbeaten in the world.
This scenario was exactly same as Prof. Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man". Prof. Fukuyama never said that history would end. He said that the world after the Cold War was the beginning of the final chapter of history where democracy and market economy might be unified to the one ideology. Having claimed such a kind of eschatological argument at the end of the 20th century has made his book the best-seller.
The United States overthrew the Hussein dictatorship in Iraq in the Gulf War. Rulers of the Arab and Muslim countries trembled. The United States intended to materialize Prof. Fukuyama's idea in the Middle East in the coming 21st century. However, it was Prof. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order" that challenged Prof. Fukuyama's idea. It was unfortunate that the 21st century started from the 9/11 terrorist attacks that support Prof. Huntington's prediction.
(To be continued ----)
2018年08月19日
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Chapter 5: Two calendars (Gregorian & Hijri)
5-6(42) Israeli prime ministers received Novel Prize twice
There are several international prizes awarded to those who contributed to world peace, such as the United Nations Peace Medal and the Ramon Magsaysay Award of Philippine. But it is sure that the Nobel Peace Prize is the best one in view of the high degree of recognition or its long history. In November 1901, the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded by Henri Dunant of Switzerland who founded the Red Cross, and since then the prize has continued over 116 years till International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded in 2017.
Israeli Prime Ministers had won twice in this honorable Nobel Peace Prize. Initially it was Menachem Begin in 1978. It was a joint award with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. After the Ramadan War in 1973, the two politicians concluded the bilateral peace treaty regardless of opposition of all other Arab countries. The second one was Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres in 1994 when Rabin was Prime Minister and Peres was Foreign Minister (later he became Prime Minister). And Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO), co-won the prize with them. After the Gulf War, the momentum of dialogue between Israel and Palestine was born. By the mediation of Norway, the so-called "Oslo Accords" was concluded between them. It was the historical event that Israel and PLO approved each other. That was the reason why they received the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel Peace Prize in the past was shared fifty-fifty by individuals and organizations. In case of individuals they were mostly civilians such as peace activists or philosophers. There were very few politicians, and they were not the top politicians of the state like president or prime minister. Furthermore, even if he or she was the top of the state, most of them were already retired from active service at the time of winning prize like the former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato of Japan. If counting the number of winners country by country, Presidents of the United States were awarded multiple times. They were Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in1919, Jimmy Carter in 2002 and Barack Obama in 2009. But US ia a very rare case.
Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel laureate, told that the peace prize would be given to;
"The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: /- - -/ one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
(Excerpt from the will of Alfred Nobel)
And in hopes of reconciliation and peace between Sweden and Norway, Peace Prize is awarded in Norway. As a result, the Nobel Prize in five categories of physics, chemistry, physiology / medicine, literature and economics is awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, whereas only the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway.
What is the meaning of the Nobel Peace Prize given to the Middle East peace talks? The reason of awards were the peace building efforts in the Middle East. There was no doubt that three Israeli politicians made a great effort for the peace with Palestine in spite of the strong domestic opposition. Nobody would object against the decision of the selection committee that Israeli politicians were deserved to the Nobel Peace Prize.
However, may the peace issue in the Middle East after the World War II be limited to the problem between Israel and Palestine? The post-war logic about the Middle East in the Western politics put on stress too much on the viewpoint of peace between Israel and Palestine. They gave retroactive consent to the fact that Israel won the war four times. The results of the construction of the Jewish home land in Palestine and independence of Israel that caused the conflict in the Middle East was replaced to the peace problem in the region. The intention of Western Europe was likely in the plot to wrap it in cachet with the Nobel Peace Prize. Norway's mediation brought Nobel Prize in 1994. It looked like self-praised by Norway.
It was true that the war between Israel and Arab countries was over after the Ramadan War in 1973 and the Nobel Peace Prizes in 1978 and 1994. But it could be hardly to say that the peace had come in the Middle East. The political situation in the Middle East has been deteriorating furthermore since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
(To be continued ----)
