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.