Asia fears Islamic backlash to a US attack on Iraq

Asia fears Islamic backlash to a US attack on Iraq

Isabelle Ligner, Agence France-Presse, New Delhi

Asia, home to hundreds of millions of Muslims, fears the region
could be destabilized and its populations radicalized by an
attack on Iraq led by the United States.

Many Asian Muslims already feel they are being treated as the
enemy by the West since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States
and the subsequent global "war on terrorism", said Imtiaz Ahmad,
a New Delhi-based professor and expert on Asian Islam.

"A war launched by the U.S. against Iraq, considered as
arbitrary or motivated by a desire to control oil resources of a
Muslim country, would only strengthen anti-Western sentiment
which has been growing stronger and stronger in the last months,"
said Ahmad.

He said a conflict in Iraq could result in "a breeding ground
for fundamentalist militants" in Asia, even though the continent
-- a crossroads of the world's major faiths -- is traditionally
marked by a great degree of tolerance.

The United States has threatened Iraq with harsh consequences
if it does not allow intrusive inspections into its weapons-
building capacity.

All Asian governments to varying extents rallied behind the
United States after Sept. 11 in exchange securing Washington's
promises of economic or other cooperation.

Many countries have also used the terrorist threat as a
pretext to bolster their own power, knowing the West would be
hesitant to criticize measures, however draconian, designed to
stamp out radical Islam.

But most Asian states have also expressed strong opposition to
a war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, particularly if
the operation is conducted unilaterally by the United States.

Many countries are worried about the repercussions from Muslim
populations at home, while other countries -- notably the two
largest, India and China -- are highly dependent on imported oil
and could see economic damage from a sudden hike in energy costs.

"We are against any attack on Iraq, especially without UN
approval," Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on an
October visit to India.

In a common theme for Muslim leaders, he called on the United
States to intervene more aggressively against Israel in its
conflict with the Palestinians.

"Any attack on Iraq will not be productive. It will only
increase animosity among Muslims and between Europe and America,"
Mahathir said.

Asia is home to the world's three largest Islamic countries.
Eighty-five percent of Indonesia's 212 million-strong population
is Muslim, along with 97 percent of Pakistan's 145 million
people, and more than 80 percent of Bangladesh's 130 million.

Muslims also predominate in Malaysia, Afghanistan, the five
former Soviet republics of Central Asia, and the tiny countries
of Brunei and the Maldives.

A number of Asian countries have large Muslim minorities.
India, led by a Hindu nationalist coalition, has 130 million
Muslims, and this year saw bloody communal riots in its western
state of Gujarat.

The Philippines, which is mostly Christian, also has 3.5
million Muslims in its 80 million-plus population and there are
significant Muslim minorities in Singapore, Sri Lanka and
Thailand.

Compounding concerns about radical Islam in Asia was the Oct.
12 bombing of a nightclub on the Hindu Indonesian island of Bali
that left more than 190 people dead.

The United States and Britain have both declared the Southeast
Asian Islamist movement Jamaah Islamiyah a "terrorist
organization."

Washington alleges Jamaah is linked to Osama bin Laden's al-
Qaeda and says the movement is trying to create through terror an
Islamic state encompassing Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei
and the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

In Afghanistan, Washington is backing the government of Hamid
Karzai, which replaced the extremist Taliban regime that
sheltered al-Qaeda, held responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The United States maintains about 10,000 troops in
Afghanistan. It also has a military presence in Pakistan, the
former Soviet states in Central Asia and the Philippines, whose
government is battling the Islamist movement Abu Sayyaf.

In Pakistan, the United States has pushed the country's
leadership to stop its support for Islamic guerrillas fighting in
the Indian zone of Kashmir, a constant source of tensions between
the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.

But critics say the U.S. presence has provoked further attacks
by Muslim militants. In Pakistan, there have been nine deadly
attacks against Western or Christian targets since Sept. 11.

Fundamentalists also made a strong showing in Pakistan's Oct.
10 legislative elections, in what analysts say was a reflection
of anti-American sentiment that could only grow worse with an
attack on Iraq.

And in the Philippines, an Oct. 17 attack in Zamboanga, the
southern city that is the base for U.S.-Filipino joint forces,
left seven dead and more than 100 injured.