By Supna Zaidi
On May 13, 2008, nine bombs went off in Jaipur, India killing eighty men, women and children. I wondered to my great frustration how these blasts did not make the international news circuit like the London or Madrid bombings. Is it because the victims were brown Hindus and Muslims or because India is not part of Europe or North America?
Then I realized something worse. The international community still does not truly understand that Islamic fascism is a singular, international movement because it's ideological. Osama bin Laden could be caught and publicly executed today, but the violence and militancy, and anti-westernism would not end today. One Jaipur blast suspect arrested by local law enforcement is a member of the Bangladesh-based terror group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). Non-state actors like HuJI - Al-Qaida, Hizbollah, or Hamas internationally; smaller groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba , Tehrik-e-Jafria, etc. in Pakistan, Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, or Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesia to name just a few have absorbed the goal regardless if the founders remain leaders or not. Flipping the newspapers today alone, any reader can see the following:
1. Pakistan foolishly trying to appease Islamic militants in the FATA region;
2. Islamic groups in Indonesia trying to force the secular government to ban the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim community resulting in the same group being attacked and one of their mosques being burned down;
3. Hizbollah winning veto power in the Lebanese parliament after the heaviest fighting since the Lebanese Civil War, which ended in 1990
4. OPEC increasing oil prices 400%. President Bush went begging to Saudi Arabia to drop barrel costs. Saudi Arabia, which funds Islamic fundamentalism through madrassah funding and global Wahabbi proselytizing does not care about high oil prices. Consequently, commodity prices are soaring, airline costs are skyrocketing, and its hard to get rice and bread if your in the third world. So, this doesn't just hurt American car drivers, but increases inflation in the Muslim world, fomenting frustration and anger and potentially increasing the influence of religious parties throughout these regions since they provide social services more reliably than the government (ex: Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt).
Consider these examples on the heels of the following incidents and issues since 9/11:
1. France's secular policies attacked by Muslim demand for hijab in schools;
2. Calls for Shariah courts in England, Canada, and the US;
3. Riots in France's ghettos;
4. Honor killings in Germany, and other European countries by Turkish immigrants and other Muslim citizens;
5. London bombing;
6. Madrid bombing;
7. Van Gogh Murder and Danish cartoon reaction globally;
And it becomes evident that America's foreign policy concerns are not just America's alone. The list can go on and on, but so long as the world thinks either that this is strictly America's problem or that it would all just go away if America left Iraq, the list of murder, intimidation and violence will only get longer. So, let me be the first to say that if all Americans stop driving our cars tomorrow, the United States will still be tied to the Middle East, and the Middle East will still be tied to the United States. Obviously, oil is a factor and the failure of the Bush administration to articulate an alternative energy policy in the last eight years will be a historical mar on it, but global trade does not rely on one commodity alone. Technology, the Internet, and the slow but steady increase in the global standard of living has forever tied individuals from North America, Europe to the Middle East, India, China, Latin America and Australia.
Therefore, it would be wise if countries opposed to Islamic Fascism convened as FDR, Churchill and Stalin did in 1941 at the Atlantic Conference against Nazism to make a strong public statement. In 1941, the result was the Atlantic Charter - a joint declaration on August 14, 1941, declaring among other principles:
1. All peoples had a right to self-determination;
2. There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare;
3. Freedom from want and fear;
Today, the following countries need to meet to issue a joint public statement confirming that the secular principles of free speech, assembly, religious equality as well as gender, racial, and economic equality for all its citizens and between its citizens:
1. Canada
2. UK
3. France
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. Denmark
7. Turkey
8. Jordan
9. Iraq
10. Afghanistan
11. Pakistan
12. Indonesia
13. India
14. Morocco
15. Tunisia
16. US
When the US seeks European or other foreign support against Islamic fundamentalism, these countries pause and wonder if they should - mistaking the issue to be narrowly about oil or Israel. But the Indonesian example is not about oil or Israel. It is about freedom of religion. The Van Gogh murder and Danish cartoon incidents in Denmark were not about oil or Israel. They were about freedom of speech. The domestic violence, as illustrated by honor killings, now prevalent in Europe is not about oil or Israel. They are about women's rights, Human rights that every person should be confident in, which piggybacks on the demand for Shariah for Muslims in non-Muslim countries. Such permission would only further ghetto-ization of Muslims in the West because European laws governing human rights, family law and women would be ignored.
The global community must act now, debate with each other and decide on a course of action.
(The writer is editor-in-chief of Muslim World Today and an attorney in New York. She can be reached at sapnaz@yahoo.com).
