COMMENTARY Fight authoritarianism to fight
al-Qaeda By Ehsan Ahrari
A
newly issued report by the United Nations about al-Qaeda
paints an ominous, yet realistic, picture of its
continued search to acquire capabilities to produce
chemical and biological weapons. The only reason that
the terrorist organization has not been able to use such
weapons, according to the report, is "a lack of
technical know-how". The world body urges member
countries to identify individuals and organizations
linked to that entity, impose travel restrictions,
freeze bank accounts and prevent their access to arms.
What is of utmost concern for the UN is that
al-Qaeda has attained popularity in a number of Muslim
countries, especially among the youth, as a result of
their mounting anger toward the West. But the report
fails to go to the heart of the problem underlying the
popularity of al-Qaeda. It is the prevalence of
authoritarian rule that, in the final analysis, has
created an environment of obscurantism, and an overall
depressed state of economic development that nurtures
despair, and promotes a frame of mind that sympathizes
with the apocalyptic perspectives of that organization.
It is a slight exaggeration to state that the
world of Islam is angry with the West. To be more
precise, that anger is focused at the Bush
administration. Polls reported by the Pew Center
regularly underscore that a majority of Muslims admire
the United States as a democracy, and they unfailingly
differentiate between the current government and the US
as a country. Every time one thinks about the causes of
that anger, one is reminded of the "chicken and egg"
adage: which preceded which? What intensified that
anger? Were the September 11 attacks the culmination of
that anger, or were US policies toward Muslims since
then the fuel intensifying that anger? No persuasive
answer can emerge by raising those questions.
The Muslim anger may also be aimed at their
current standing in the community of nations. It takes
no genius to conclude that in the hierarchy of nations,
Muslim countries are close to the bottom of the barrel
in terms of industrial development, scientific
achievement, innovative capabilities, scholastic
achievement, and military power. In my estimation, all
those maladies are intrinsically linked to the
prevalence of authoritarianism, or, put differently, to
the absence of democracy.
Democracy as a system
of government promotes and nurtures human creativity in
the realms of the sacred and the profane. It establishes
an environment in which critical thinking becomes a
sine qua non of daily life. That is one reason
why educational systems in democratic countries have
proven their superiority over those under the former
communist systems. That is also why the US and Western
Europe remained in the lead in industrial development,
and even in creating a democratic alliance system (North
Atlantic Treaty Organization) that adroitly adapted
itself to cope with the radically altered international
security environment of the post-Cold War era.
No one claims that a democratic system is
perfect, far from it. But it is fully equipped to bring
about changes when necessary, without imploding the
political system and thereby resulting in the countless
loss of human life. The authoritarian systems are
antithesis of that. They are close, inward-looking,
paranoiac, driven by the personality cult of the ruler,
intellectually suffocating, since critical thinking
often leads to charges of treason, especially when it is
directed toward the regime and its ineptness. All these
characteristics are integral aspects of many Muslim
countries.
But the Muslim youth might also be
misplacing their anger on the US. Not that the Bush
administration has not earned more than its fair share
of the blame by either postponing an earnest endeavor
for the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict - a core
Muslim issue - or by having a lukewarm approach toward
its resolution. In this regard, Muslim youth are no
different from the American youth. According to one
survey, only 21 percent of Americans follow
international news closely and 65 percent admit to
having a "lack of background" to comprehend the nuances
of international events. The focus of Muslim anger
should be the authoritarian rulers, whose chief fixation
is regime survival, even if it means depriving millions
of their citizens their right to become full
participants in an exceedingly globalized world and to
enjoy its benefits as their counterparts in industrial
societies are enjoying.
The backwardness of
Muslim polities in the realm of scientific knowledge is
one reason why al-Qaeda has not yet been able to carry
out a deadly chemical or biological attack. As an
apocalyptic entity, it has attempted to acquire
technical know-how to use chemical-biological weapons.
In fact, in the immediate aftermath of the September 11
terrorist attacks on the US, there were rumors that it
was vigorously seeking to acquire, or had even attained,
the ability to produce a "dirty bomb" - a conventional
explosive such as dynamite packaged with radioactive
material that scatters when the bomb goes off. Dirty
bombs could be miniature devices or as big as a truck
bomb.
A UN mission is preparing to visit
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in order to seek further
cooperation in drying up financial resources of that
multiheaded monster. As much as the world body respects
the sovereignty of its members, at least this time it
should seriously consider violating that principle and
strongly urge its authoritarian members to democratize
their polities, modernize their institutions, and
especially their education systems to train their
citizens to compete in the ever-changing job markets of
the globalized world. That might be the most potent
strategy to confront al-Qaeda.
Ehsan
Ahrari, PhD, is an Alexandria, Virginia, US-based
independent strategic analyst.
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Dec 5, 2003
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