The colour of terrorism
Dismissing this murderous act as the work of “a lone madman” ignores
a more detailed study of the killer’s motivation
BY IBRAHIM HEWITT
A
few years ago, the respected Cambridge scholar TJ Winter, also known by
his Muslim name of Abdal Hakim Murad, gave a fascinating lecture to
humanities staff and students at the University of Leicester. The title
was ‘Islam and the threat of the West’, turning on its head the more
usual – then and now – ‘Islam and the threat to the West’.
It was a novel approach which, in a nutshell,
illustrated that historically, aggression has been directed more from
Europe to the Muslim world than the other way round. His evidence for
such a view was impeccably sourced.
I thought about Abdal Hakim’s talk this morning as I
read the reports coming in of the dreadful bombing and shooting in
Norway wherein, of course, there was speculation that these two events
were “Islamic terror-related”. No doubt we will learn more over the
coming days but the early signs are in fact that the perpetrator was a
“blonde, blue-eyed Norwegian” with “political traits towards the right,
and anti-Muslim views”. Not surprisingly, the man’s intentions were
neither linked to these “traits” nor to his postings on “websites with
Christian fundamentalist tendencies”. Any influence “remains to be
seen”; echoes of Oklahoma 1995.
Interestingly, this criminal is described by one unnamed
Norwegian official as a “madman”. He may well be but this is one way
that the motivations for heinous crimes can be airbrushed out of the
story before they have the chance to take hold in the popular
imagination.
Closing the book
In 1969, for example, Denis Michael Rohan, an Australian
Christian who set fire to Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, was dismissed as
a “madman” and sent for psychiatric treatment; end of story. The
right-wing fundamentalists plotting to destroy the mosque, and the
nearby Dome of the Rock, lived to fight another day. I suspect that that
is what will happen with the Norwegian bomber/ shooter; his right-wing
links and Christian fundamentalist contacts will be dismissed as
irrelevant. This, we will be told, was the work of a “deranged” person
“acting independently”. Ergo the only organised “terror threats” to
civilisation are still “Islamic-related” and the focus of anti-terror
legislation and efforts must remain in the Muslim world and on Muslim
communities in Europe and the USA.
If we allow this to happen, we will be doing the world a
great disservice, not least because the new right is on the rise across
the West – and Oklahoma was proof that its followers are capable of
immense destruction.
Neo-Nazi immigrants from eastern Europe have even been
active in Israel where the government, while deploring such far-right
activity in its midst, is actually edging ever more to the far right on
a daily basis. Ministers advocate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians
in order to purify Israel as a “Jewish state”; precious human rights for
which the world has struggled are overridden in the name of “state
security”; criminals in uniform are allowed to get away, quite
literally, with murder.
All of this takes place with the collusion of western
governments which are themselves showing right-wing tendencies towards
doublespeak on matters of respect and tolerance for minorities. If you
are even remotely “different” in Europe today, especially if you are a
Muslim, you are eyed with suspicion and must go out of your way to
“prove” your loyalty to a state which, if the truth was made known,
would get rid of you if only it had the guts to pass the necessary
legislation to do so. In some cases, such legislation is virtually in
place in the guise of “anti-terror” measures.
All of this is backed by a vociferous and influential
right-wing media which supports Israel, right or wrong – and a
pro-Israel lobby which acts as if it is untouchable. Given the political
context across the West, it probably is.
Attacks against the left
It is significant that the target of the Norwegian
“madman” appears to have been the left-leaning Labour Party, both in
Oslo and on the island where the shootings took place. Across Europe,
the left has been forming alliances with Muslim groups to fight fascism
and racism of all kinds and it cannot be a coincidence that The
Politics of Multiculturalism in the New Europe, a collection of
essays from across the continent, published in 1997, concluded almost
without exception that “the challenge” facing Europe was the presence of
large Muslim communities in “our” midst. Anyone who claims therefore
that the perpetrator’s “right-wing traits” and “anti-Muslim views” or
even links with “Christian fundamentalist” websites are irrelevant is
trying to draw a veil over the unacceptable truths of such “traits” and
expecting us to believe that right-wing ideology is incapable of
prompting someone towards such criminality.
Of course, that idea is nonsensical. Right-wing ideology
was behind the Holocaust; it has been behind most anti-Semitism and
other racism around the world; the notion of Europe’s and Europeans’
racial superiority – giving cultural credibility to the far right – gave
rise to the slave trade and the scramble for Africa leading to untold
atrocities against “the Other”; ditto in the Middle and Far East.
Ironically, it is also far-right Zionism – far from the socialist myths
of Zionist pioneers in the 1930s and before – which has been behind the
ethnic cleansing of Palestine throughout the 20th century, right up to
today, as a specific policy to be pursued – by military means if
necessary.
This is well documented and yet ignored by our political
masters. In the context of the latest apparently far-right atrocities in
Norway, it is equally ironic that the word in English for a traitor who
collaborates with an enemy power stems from Major Vidkun Quisling who
ruled Norway on behalf of Nazi Germany during the second world war.
We dismiss this “madman” as a one-off “not linked to any
international terrorist organisations” at our peril. If nothing else,
history has shown us that such ideologies are transnational across and
beyond the West, with catastrophic effects on the rest of the world. We
have been warned.
(Education and media consultant Ibrahim Hewitt is the
chair of trustees of the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund and
is senior editor of the Middle East Monitor. He is also a trustee of
Creative Arts Schools Trust. This article was posted on the Al Jazeera
website on July 23, 2011.)
Courtesy: Al Jazeera; http://english.aljazeera.net