Attack on Iraq would aggravate anti-West feelings: Scholars

Attack on Iraq would aggravate anti-West feelings: Scholars

Muhammad Nafik
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

Muslim scholars joined the mounting opposition to any intention
by the U.S. to attack Iraq, saying it could further encourage
radicalism, feelings of hatred and enmity against the West and
the U.S. in particular.

Any such military strikes would also worsen the long-standing
conflict in the Middle East and create more complicated problems
in the world, including hurting the international oil market,
they added.

"The impact would be very negative. America should keep out of
people's lives in Iraq and other countries," Mahmoud Ayub, a
professor from Temple University in the U.S., told The Jakarta
Post.

Speaking here on the sidelines of a three-day international
seminar titled Islam and the West one year after Sept. 11, which
will conclude on Friday, he said that should the U.S. be allowed
again to attack Iraq, the world's superpower would seek another
strike target among the Muslim nations on the pretext of its war
on terrorism.

"The U.S. should not interfere in the affairs of any sovereign
state. Therefore, any proposal to attack Iraq should be blocked,"
Ayub said. "It is an irresponsible policy," he added.

Bassam Tibi, a Muslim scholar from Gottingen University in
Germany, said an attack would increase radical movements and
further inspire hatred and enmity against the West.

"If the U.S. went ahead with a plan to hit Iraq,
fundamentalists would be very happy. They could mobilize support
against the West. Therefore, I am against any such plan to attack
Iraq," he said.

He told the Post that military action would foment a political
crisis in the Middle East, which, he said, could ignite the rise
of radicalism.

Former defense minister Juwono Sudarsono also voiced a similar
objection to any U.S. plan to strike Iraq in its stated attempt
to prevent it from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

"An attack on Iraq would create a series of more unexpected
troubles in the world, which should be avoided," he said, before
addressing the same seminar organized by the Center for Languages
and Cultures of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University
(UIN).

"For Indonesia, the immediate impact is that oil prices would
soar as the international oil market would be affected by the
strikes," he added.

Juwono said the Middle East conflict involving Israel and
Palestinians would evolve into a more complicated problem should
the U.S. go ahead with a plan to attack Iraq.

"This would become the longest-lasting dispute on earth. I
hope the U.S. will not go ahead with an attack," he added.

Juwono also said that toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
from power through the strikes would not solve the problem, but
would instead create new instability in the Middle East. He did
not elaborate further.

The professor, from the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia,
did not rule out the possibility of rising radicalism and
fundamentalism against the West if an attack on Iraq took place.

He refuted the antiterrorism campaign as the reason the U.S.
has given to justify military strikes on Iraq, saying, "Israel is
the true terrorist backed by America".

However, Juwono did urge Iraq to be transparent on the issue
of weapons of mass destruction.

Opposition also came from former president Abdurrahman Wahid,
who urged the U.S. to drop its plans, as an attack would further
hurt Iraq and other Muslim states.

"I think that Iraq wishes neither to be instructed, nor
attacked by the U.S.," he said, declining to comment further.

The Indonesian government has repeatedly objected to plans to
attack Iraq as a sovereign state.

Juwono said the U.S. government should win the approval of the
UN Security Council before deciding to launch attacks on Iraq.

Germany please check -- I'm not sure if Germany is a member of
the Security Council. It's not a permanent member, but might be a
"revolving" member and France, two influential members of the
Security Council apart from the U.S. and Britain, have voiced
objections to any plans for military action.

U.S. President George W. Bush is trying to solicit world
support for the plan.

Early on Thursday the White House released a 22-page
indictment of Saddam Hussein, accusing him of seeking weapons of
mass destruction and backing terrorism in a "decade of deception
and defiance," AFP reported.

The document focuses on Iraq's violations of UN resolutions
aimed at disarming Baghdad, but makes no new allegations.