Poverty encourages fundamentalism to grow

Muhammad Nafik, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Understanding Islam and fundamentalism has become a widespread preoccupation since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11 last year. German Muslim scholar Bassam Tibi, a professor of international relations at University of Gottingen, was in town last week as a speaker of an international seminar on Islam and the West. Excerpts with the Syrian-born scholar follow: Question: What is the image of Islam and Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedy in the United States?

There are some misconceptions about Islam, which existed prior to the tragedy. The Sept. 11, 2001 event gave credibility to these misconceptions, such as Islam being perceived as a religion of war and radicalism.

It is important in the West to distinguish between Islam and political Islam. Political Islam is an interpretation of Islam which may incorporate these misconceptions, while Islam is a religion of tolerance, peace and mutual understanding. Political Islam is a politization of Islam it makes out of Islamic face and the political ideology of confrontation.

I have made more than 2,000 interviews with fundamentalists and I have concluded that they believe they are the true Muslims but others like you and I are not.

When we come outside the world of Islam, you have an Islam and Islamism that is the ideology of political Islam. Islamism comprises a minority among Muslims but it is a threat to followers of other religions and Muslims themselves. Will fundamentalism or Islamism grow in the future?

A French scholar says Islamism will be on the decline. This is not true. Islamism is there and its best breeding ground is conflict. If there is a conflict -- be it economic, social or political -- they (the fundamentalists) will use it to get support. If the United States goes ahead with its plan to attack Iraq, the fundamentalists would be very happy. They can mobilize support against the West, using this as a lame excuse.

Therefore, I am against the plan to attack Iraq because if this happens, there will be a crisis in the Middle East and this will help cultivate fundamentalism as they get support from other people. The economic crisis is also a source of breeding for fundamentalism.

Take Algeria or Morocco, where poor people who are jobless intellectuals have been offered help from the fundamentalists to solve their problems provided that they support the establishment of an Islamic system. Therefore, in the short term there should be no military confrontations between the West and Islamic states like Iraq. Poverty and unemployment also support fundamentalism.

Since Sept. 11, fundamentalism has been growing. I have talked to young people, even those in the European Diaspora, who are not integrated and have problems. They consider Osama bin Laden the Che Guevara of Islam. This is very dangerous as bin Laden is not a true Muslim because his understanding of Islam is not in line with a peaceful and tolerant religion. Could you further explain religious tolerance in Islam?

There is a Western rule of democracy that we agree to disagree. You have your own position and I have my own position. This is similar to Prophet Muhammad's hadith (traditional collections of stories related to his words and deeds): "Diversity in the Muslim community is a sign of well-being." But many fundamentalists, like bin Laden, do not practice the hadith and say "you disagree with me, you are kafir (infidel)". It is not Islamic.

So it is now important to educate people on Islamic noble values to enable them to know which is Islamic and non-Islamic. What is the effective strategy to counter fundamentalism and terrorism?

There are short and long term strategies needed to deal with fundamentalism. In the short term, education is very important to make people aware that fundamentalism is a threat to Muslims and their countries. In the long term, we need to design economic and social policies to improve living conditions.

But I think the military approach to fight fundamentalism will only have a little impact.

To counter terrorism in the West, there is a dual strategy, which is through a dialog and security approach. The majority of Muslims are peaceful. You should have a dialog with Muslim communities and have to take a security approach against terrorists because we cannot talk to them.

So, peace talks for Muslims and security action for terrorists. Those who are violent, we have to stop them and those who are not violent, we can talk to them and try to educate them that Islam is not a religion of hate.

Are fundamentalists also terrorists? If not, how can we differentiate between both?

There are fundamentalists who are not terrorists and there are fundamentalists who are terrorists. So you cannot fight fundamentalism only with military means. To distinguish them, you should ask them several questions. You can ask fundamentalists whether they agree with the use of force or violence to pursue their goals. If they say "yes", they are terrorists.

The West says the war on terrorism is not the war on Islam. Do you agree with this?

It is true because many Islamic states are fighting against terrorism as well. They include Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey, which are all very important Islamic states. Without these three Islamic states, the war on Afghanistan could not have been possible.

Do you believe that Bin Laden was behind the terrorist attacks on New York and Pentagon last year?

There is enough evidence. The Sept. 11 tragedy was prepared for five years in Germany, not in the Islamic world. The Al-Qudus mosque in Hamburg was the place where Islamists there used to meet. There was a connection between these people and Afghanistan. They had regularly flown to Afghanistan. They received money from the bin Laden connections and military training as well.

Three of the pilots in the four planes (involved in the attacks) came from Hamburg. And there is evidence that they were related to the al-Qaeda network. They (the attackers) were Arabs living in Germany. So the evidence is there ... This is also what most young Muslims believe in Europe. But elderly Muslims there believe that the attacks were not the work of Bin Laden. They say it was the conspiracy against Islam by Israeli intelligence in order to urge America to fight against Islam.