THERE has been a wild cry about Islamic fundamentalism associated with acts of terrorism since the demise of the Cold War. Western politicians, writers and media, plus their politico-ideological proteges in the Third World, are presenting a frightening scenario — as if the sky has fallen and the world is under its debris, moaning the menace.
Undoubtedly, this has caused perils in some parts of the world. Meanwhile, the pertinent question arises that what factor has led to the creation of this monster, and why these quarters remain unmoved and raise no eyebrows over the post-Cold War western, particularly the American, new version of intensified terrorism in its open gunboat diplomacy?
Afghanistan has already been brought to its knees by turning it into rubble after the savage aerial military invasion on the pretext of combating terrorism. The most-sophisticated warfare reflected a sort of computer game, and along with it, the height of skills in warfare technology. To save its skin, the military establishment of Pakistan, the old comrade-in-arms of Uncle Sam, has joined the United States-led coalition against international terrorism. The Musharraf military regime has reversed the strategic gear of the GHQs by joining others to stone the sinner, Taliban, created by the ISI.
While the US has embarked upon the specific game of controlling oil and gas reserves in Central Asia and constructing pipelines from here to the Pakistan sea coast, India is anxiously sharpening its teeth to bite Pakistan on the charges of cross-border terrorism in Indian-controlled Kashmir and other parts. It has deployed more than half-a-million troops along the common Indo-Pakistan borders. This outstanding dispute might trigger a nuclear holocaust in South Asia.
Indiscretion of different ruling cliques of Pakistan, whether civil or military ones, could be easily gauged from the fact that they could not even muster support for a genuine cause despite serving the West. Pakistan was brought into the fight between two Giant global arrivals — the East led by USSR and the West by USA. So much so that Pakistan’s indiscreet relationship with the West not only played havoc with the democratic institutions, but also ruined the economy. Now, when the Soviet Union has ceased to exist as a force to reckon with, and Pakistan’s proxy role against the Soviets is no more on the anvil in the changed post-Cold War scenario, Washington’s strategic partnership with Islamabad had gone topsy-turvy after the 1987 Geneva Accord that led to the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan.
Despite the temporary calm over the hullabaloo against terrorism, the charges of sponsoring terrorism against Pakistan have been very serious. America’s most elevated ideologue, John Foster Dulles, in his treatise in the 1950s, had underlined the importance of religion, notably the militant Islamic holy war in the Muslim countries against the infidel communist, anti-imperialist nationalist and democratic forces. Islamic forces in Muslim countries were provided with sufficient fund and support by the US. All US administrations — from President Eisenhower to George Bush (father of President George W. Bush) — carried on the policy laid down by the Dulles’ doctrine in this respect. President Ronald Regan was more vocal against the Soviet Union, about which he had termed it as an “Evil Empire”. Pro-West Islamic forces were deputed to oppose Egyptian government under Gemal Nasir, Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Libya, PLO, Indonesia and others in Muslim countries, and they were encouraged to employ terrorist acts.
Before the western war against Afghanistan under the Communist government, there was no Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism either in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The former US National Security Advisor to President Carter, Zbiniew Brezenziski, recently confessed that he had pressured the former US President for the creation of Mujahideen (holy warriors) in 1979, in order to bring Russians into Afghanistan. The objective was the bleeding of the Soviet Union by inflicting military wounds and thwarting the ongoing social order in Afghanistan. During the Soviet military presence (1979-87), guerrilla warfare was organized by the American CIA and the Pakistan military establishment’s ISI. The name of the game was Islamic Jihad (Islamic holy war), although both theoretically and politically, it was not Jihad. Pakistan, under the military regime led by Gen Ziaul Haq, the blue-eyed boy of the US, played a significant role because of Pakistan’s geographical proximity. Several groups of Mujahideen cropped up and were organized and trained to fight “Soviet occupation”. Instead of resistance to foreign troops in Afghanistan on the kernel of national outlook or patriotism, religious fanaticism and its subsequent outcome of terrorism were encouraged and patronized by foreign players in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan and Central Asia were eyed by the British Empire as the region of its influence during Czarist Russia in the 19th Century and the very beginning of the 20th Century. The turn of tide in the region following the crumbling of the Soviet Union made western powers knit their new strategy accordingly. Thus, they left Afghanistan and the Mujahideen in the lurch.
The Soviet withdrawal brought in an interim Afghan government led by Sibghatullah Mujadidi, that was later replaced by the second Afghan interim government headed by Burhanuddin Rabbani. It faced internal problems caused by the rival groups, each claiming itself as the genuine and deserving ruler of Afghanistan. The Burhanuddin interim government was poised to have its own agenda free of foreign dictates to make Afghanistan an independent and non-aligned country. He tried to assert to follow independent internal and foreign policies that perturbed both the US and Pakistan. His government went on cultivating good relations with India and Iran. Of course, the Indian factor in the Afghan policy made Pakistan uneasy, while the new element of a better-placed relationship between Kabul and Teheran made the US panicky. Both the US and Pakistan tried to exert pressure on the Burhanuddin government to follow their dictates — the main forces to matter in the whole orgy of civil war, bleeding of the Soviet Union and ultimately withdrawal. It declined to follow outside interference after Afghanistan had got rid of foreign intrusion.
Ostensibly, the Taliban became a political force overnight that toppled the Burhanuddin government like a house of cards and replaced it one of their own. What the Taliban did for the next five years was a nasty road-map prepared by Pakistan and the US. Moreover, despite abandoning the Mujahideen groups, the US expediently used them in Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechnya. When the Yugoslav leaders did not yield to the American perception in the Balkan for US hold and influence, Washington hatched a plan for the disintegration of strong Yugoslav federation on the basis of religion. Bosnian Muslim leaders were tempted to secede from Yugoslavia on the excuse of injustice to Muslims there, and the Muslim population was used as canon fodder for US interests in the region.
A similar situation was created in Kosovo, a largely Muslim-populated Yugoslav province. American schemes were implemented with the backing of the United Nations, yet Bosnian Muslims have not been given their due territorial share according to the ratio of their population. Separatist movement, with guerrilla terrorist acts, were ruthlessly suppressed by the central authority of Yugoslavia, that was publicized as a human rights’ abuse to tarnish the political image of the Yugoslav leadership.
Most Mujahideen groups have now become a burden and nonsense for the US after the end of the Cold War, as they have the illusive dream to carry on the Jihad against foreign, particularly American dominance in Muslim countries, after the US changed global and regional strategy. They accuse the US of all kinds of evil out of vengeance, flexing their muscles against American tyranny.
Contrary to the Jihad of the Islamic Mujahideen, the ongoing struggle in Indian-held Kashmir makes the West worried, as India is an important South-Asian country, one that could now serve in a befitting manner as a pawn on the chessboard of western powers. India still remains a reserve force for them to encircle China, as it is becoming an eyesore for them because of its surging economy and its place in regional as well as international politics. Since there are two UN resolutions on the plebiscite of the Kashmiri people, it is not a bilateral issue between the two contesting countries. With the exception of the Maldives, India’s relationship with other countries in the region has been very bitter. Though there is no bickering between New Delhi and Beijing at the moment, as they have frozen the dispute temporarily, the Bhartiya Janata Party government, ideologically a Hindu fundamentalist party (not the Hindu Nationalist Party as taken in the West), has been very vocal against China — considered enemy number one for India in the words of Indian Defence Minister, George Fernandes.
There was no religious fanaticism, intolerance and terrorism in the garb of holy war in Afghanistan and Pakistan before the Afghan imbroglio following the arrival of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other such terrorist organizations are a creation of the US.
THERE has been a wild cry about Islamic fundamentalism associated with acts of terrorism since the demise of the Cold War. Western politicians, writers and media, plus their politico-ideological proteges in the Third World, are presenting a frightening scenario — as if the sky has fallen and the world is under its debris, moaning the menace.
