Boston Globe Editorial -Nihilists without borders
Boston Globe Editorial -Nihilists without borders
Copyright by The Boston Globe
Published: June 17, 2007
In what seemed an attempt by Al Qaeda to stoke sectarian hatreds in Iraq, powerful explosions Wednesday destroyed the two minarets that were left standing after the bombing last year of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra.
This second bombing of the shrine seems to be having the desired effect; in the days since then, Sunni mosques have come under attack, as Iraq's civil war rages on.
Desolating as Iraq's sectarian conflict may be, it can mask a more encompassing regional conflict, in which Islamist bands in the mold of Al Qaeda are challenging the established order of the larger Middle East.
Those bands are pursuing their nihilist fantasies not only in Iraq, but also in Lebanon, Gaza, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
In the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, army troops have been conducting a running battle with one such group that calls itself Fatah al-Islam.
These multinational jihadists succeeded in infiltrating Narh al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp, but now have strange bedfellows lined up against them - including both the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and the Hezbollah-led opposition that is trying to bring that government down.
The Palestinian factions that are killing each other in Gaza - Fatah and Hamas - have also taken a common stand against the jihadists in Tripoli. So have the Arab states, Israel, Iran, the United States and the European Union.
This abhorrence for the radical gang in Tripoli does not mean the disparate parties who share it will become allies any time soon. But it does illuminate their awareness of a common enemy and a common threat.
This spring, Islamist extremists pursuing an Al Qaeda or Taliban agenda were issuing death threats to Palestinian women who appeared on television without being covered from head to toe. These fanatics, who scorn Hamas for accepting the Western heresy of democratic elections, have also assaulted Internet cafés in Gaza and stores selling alcohol.
The Saudi authorities broke up Al Qaeda cells this spring that were preparing terrorist operations against the government and oil installations.
Other jihadist groups have been infiltrated and captured in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and Algeria.
There is a revelatory lesson in all this urban warfare and jihadist violence: From Baghdad to Beirut and from Gaza to Kabul, these recruits to the ultimate in reactionary cults threaten the existing states in the Muslim world far more than America or its Western allies. They are one side in a conflict centered within the Muslim world. Contrary to President George W. Bush's notion, this is not America's long war against terrorism but the Islamic world's conflict with itself.
Copyright by The Boston Globe
Published: June 17, 2007
In what seemed an attempt by Al Qaeda to stoke sectarian hatreds in Iraq, powerful explosions Wednesday destroyed the two minarets that were left standing after the bombing last year of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra.
This second bombing of the shrine seems to be having the desired effect; in the days since then, Sunni mosques have come under attack, as Iraq's civil war rages on.
Desolating as Iraq's sectarian conflict may be, it can mask a more encompassing regional conflict, in which Islamist bands in the mold of Al Qaeda are challenging the established order of the larger Middle East.
Those bands are pursuing their nihilist fantasies not only in Iraq, but also in Lebanon, Gaza, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
In the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, army troops have been conducting a running battle with one such group that calls itself Fatah al-Islam.
These multinational jihadists succeeded in infiltrating Narh al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp, but now have strange bedfellows lined up against them - including both the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and the Hezbollah-led opposition that is trying to bring that government down.
The Palestinian factions that are killing each other in Gaza - Fatah and Hamas - have also taken a common stand against the jihadists in Tripoli. So have the Arab states, Israel, Iran, the United States and the European Union.
This abhorrence for the radical gang in Tripoli does not mean the disparate parties who share it will become allies any time soon. But it does illuminate their awareness of a common enemy and a common threat.
This spring, Islamist extremists pursuing an Al Qaeda or Taliban agenda were issuing death threats to Palestinian women who appeared on television without being covered from head to toe. These fanatics, who scorn Hamas for accepting the Western heresy of democratic elections, have also assaulted Internet cafés in Gaza and stores selling alcohol.
The Saudi authorities broke up Al Qaeda cells this spring that were preparing terrorist operations against the government and oil installations.
Other jihadist groups have been infiltrated and captured in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and Algeria.
There is a revelatory lesson in all this urban warfare and jihadist violence: From Baghdad to Beirut and from Gaza to Kabul, these recruits to the ultimate in reactionary cults threaten the existing states in the Muslim world far more than America or its Western allies. They are one side in a conflict centered within the Muslim world. Contrary to President George W. Bush's notion, this is not America's long war against terrorism but the Islamic world's conflict with itself.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 8:01 AM
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