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Islamic militants join forces for
global struggle
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - The United States military buildup in
the Persian Gulf and all around Southeast, Southwest and
South Asia is meant for more than merely a powerful
strike on Iraq. The way the US is increasing its forces
in the region shows that US military designs are
enduring and extend beyond Iraq and the US has many more
targets to hit.
But
the military buildup has brought about a reaction in the form
of political parties and underground militant forces. These
militant forces are rapid planning a two-fold strategy: To organize
a strong Muslim backlash that would force pro-US rulers
of Muslim countries either to step down due to public pressure,
or to take an anti-US policy stand; and to open as many
fronts against US interests as possible so that the US
would be forced to abandon its policies.
The
recent US mobilization of troops apart, the US military
bases from Turkey to Saudi Arabia and from Oman to
Jordan have virtually cordoned off the Muslim states.
From Turkey to Egypt there are strong voices of dissent
against a probable US attack on Iraq, but no country in
the region can afford to provide active support for
Iraq.
Recently, the famed former director general
of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence,
retired Lieutenant-General Hameed Gul, opined that in the
future even countries like Iran would not dare to adopt any
active anti-US stance. During an address to a seminar in
Karachi, Gul revealed that new sophisticated US military
bases are now under construction in Afghanistan (Khost,
Sish Bam, Kandahar and Dyodari), Kygyrzstan (Minhas) and
Uzbekistan (Khanabad). Gul was of the opinion that once
these airbases are completed, the US could take on any
country in the region with very little notice, be it
Iran or Pakistan.
Amid these
strong strategic manipulations, there have been calls from
Muslim political groups in several countries demanding that
the rulers stop supporting US designs against
Iraq. On January 1, Guide-General of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Mohammad Ma'moun el-Hodaibi, called on the leaders of
Arab and Islamic countries to rearrange their homes and pressure the
Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference to stand
up to the United States. In his statement,
el-Hodaibi described the US as the heir of Western colonialism.
Then, on January
3, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (United Action Front), an
alliance of six religious parties that won almost 20 percent of
the seats in the Pakistani parliament,
held strong countrywide demonstrations against a US attack
on Iraq.
Well-placed sources in the religious
party Jamaat-i-Islami maintain that these movements aim
to consolidate their efforts so that the campaigns bear
the same theme in every country. The campaigns would
be aimed at forcing Muslim rulers to either take an
anti-US stand or step down. Furthermore, these sources
reveal that prominent leaders of Islamic movements from
Egypt, Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India,
Morocco, Algeria and Turkey will participate in a
meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, scheduled for the third week
of January.
To confirm the meeting, this
correspondent contacted Abdul Ghaffar, the chief of
Jamaat-i-Islami's foreign office, in the United Arab
Emirates. Ghaffar maintained that the reaction of
Islamic movements in the event of a US attack on Iraq
would be natural and indigenous. He refused to comment
on any meeting in Khartoum and termed the existence of
pressure groups as a "conspiracy theory" against the
Islamic movement. However, other sources within the
Jamaat-i-Islami still maintain that a strong pressure
group will be established in Khartoum.
Meanwhile, well-placed sources in Afghanistan
maintain that US designs on Iraq have already caused a
U-turn in the situation in Afghanistan. Guerrilla
activities previously restricted to Khost, Paktia and
Paktika have now been expanded to Jalalabad, Ghazni,
Kunar, Logar, Kandahar and even Kabul.
Sources
said that an alliance of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's
Hezb-i-Islami (HIA), the Taliban and al-Qaeda has
virtually changed the political and military landscape.
HIA and the Taliban have divided the zones, with the
Taliban fighting in Khost, Paktia and Paktika, and HIA in
Kandahar, Jalalabad, Ghazni, Logar and Kabul. The
Taliban and al-Qaeda are using religious sentiments to
attract followers, while the HIA is fighting under the
banner of nationalism.
HIA leaders have refused to
take on Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his administration
and have made it clear to all provincial governors
and administrators that they should sit aside or
join the fight to oust foreigners from Afghanistan. Sources
said that in many places - and especially in Jalalabad
- local administration has turned a blind eye to
visible HIA camps and operations. The same situation exists
in Kabul, where even the International Security Assistance
Force commander has now admitted the presence of
a considerable number of "terrorists".
Sources maintain that this U-turn
was only made possible after the US's attention began
to shift from Afghanistan to Iraq. Moreover, the US plans
in the region have even irked many among the Northern
Alliance, where both former communist and Islamic
elements have sympathies for Iraq for political and religious
reasons. Their strategies mainly aim to engage the US as
widely and as often as they can in Afghanistan.
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