Genesis of Muslim Fanaticism

Genesis of Muslim Fanaticism

I have refrained from using the term “Fundamentalism ” for a very good reason. Every Muslim is, by definition, a fundamentalist, in as much as he/she believes in, and tries to practice the fundamental teachings of Islam as much as possible. This statement may not be as applicable to the followers of other major religions as the percentage of the followers of the fundamental principles of the faiths does not appear to be as high as among the Muslims. Obviously, a great majority of Muslims are not fanatics. They are tolerant, peace loving and law abiding citizens like the adherents of all other creeds. They only have had the mis-fortune of being identified with a group of extremists by ill informed or biased public media subservient to vested interests.
. One may or may not agree with the teachings of the Prophet of Islam. But he pledged to protect non-believers and asked them to pay a nominal Tax in lieu of military service. (I am sure my fellow Americans, at any rate most of them, would not hesitate if offered this facility) .He declared that persons of faith, Christian, Jew, and Zoroastrian if they did good deeds would go to paradise. He discouraged gender discrimination and ordained human rights, which were quite revolutionary for the time.
Roots of “Muslim Fanaticism” can be traced back 1300 years to Abbasid caliphate. They had wrested power from Umayyad, in the name of the prophet’s family, and were apprehensive of the influence of the family whom the people venerated. In order to secure their survival, the caliphs prevailed upon a leading cleric to introduce the concept that Muslims should love, respect and honor only Allah, that the prophet being only a man like any other should be taken at his word only as far as the message (Quran) was concerned and that Muslims were not obliged to follow Hadith (Prophets sayings). By corollary, all the teachings of tolerance, peace, justice and equality went by the board. A ruler was to be obeyed in all respects, if he did not interfere with the practice of fundamentals of Islam. (Contrast this with the statement of the second Caliph who exhorted the people to correct him if he was wrong, not to obey him blindly and that he was no better than other Muslims).
This was a subtle and fairly successful attempt at undercutting and undermining the prophet’s family, whose leading male members were called Imams. They were any way academically inclined and did not hanker after power. They must have dreaded the disastrous consequences of seeking power even by invitation- the family was nearly decimated at Kerbala.
Having isolated the prophet’s family, Abbasids went after remnants of Umayyads. Non-conformance of official dogma was deemed heretical.
Ordinary Muslims could not stomach the strictures and continued to venerate the prophet’s family, the first four caliphs and his companions. Academicians sifted through the body of Hadith separating the ones prejudicial to the spirit of Hadith or bereft of common sense, with poor context and reference and interpreting Quran in the light of prophets Hadith and example of life (Sunnah).
Mainstream Islam had already divided into Sunnis (the majority) the adherents of The Quran and Sunnah and Shias (twenty percent, adherents of Ali, the fourth and the last caliphs to be elevated to the office by consessus of Muslims). Extremists were on fringes and remained so for about a millennium till Abdul Wahab, a rather way ward cleric, shunned even by his father and brothers, tried to revive the intolerant, exclusionary (excluding nearly all Muslims and believers of other faiths) dogma . No body took any notice of him till he developed a symbiotic relationship with the house of Saud, who was vying with the ruler of Mecca (by the name of Shareef who claimed direct descendence from the prophet) in betraying fellow Muslims, the Turks, to the British and the French.
Wahabism, as the creed came to be known, was limited to Saudi Arabia. Saudis lived a Spartan life; one cannot spread out into luxury on dates and charity of Pilgrims.
Discovery of oil gave Arabs wealth beyond dreams of avarice. They started living it up, indulging in song, wine and women. When Wahabis objected they were paid off and given ample funds to export their creed to the rest of Muslim world. The astute ones adjusted to a life of luxury, the ones with messianic faith spread all over. Those who resisted were exterminated.
Defeat of Turkey in WWI ranks with expulsion from Spain, failure of the 1594 siege of Vienna and 1857 war of independence in India as a defining event of the decline of Muslims . It was the culmination of the decadent path Muslims had been following for several hundred years ; they had relinquished their hold on education, research, commerce, and industry. They slid further into the morass of depression and introspection and crept ever closer to fanaticism. Instead of analyzing causes of their decline they blamed non-adherence to true Islam for their sorry state. At the same time, they adapted all the evils attendant upon sloth and illiteracy. They lost faith in upright existence; dishonesty, bribery, thievery, slavishness, self-pity and low self-esteem governed their life.
This is not with standing many valiant reformers, educationists, and rebels who tried to revive the fortunes of fellow Muslims.
De colonization followed WWII. Muslim countries became independent – essentially in name only- they had no power, little education, commerce, or industry. Three “sovereign” nations Egypt, Syria, and Jordan supported by rest of the Arab world, failed to thwart the attempt of stateless Jews at colonization of Palestine. There were, of course, good reasons for Jewish victory. Egyptian army had guns, which failed to shoot. Syrians were worse and Jordan’s king was in league with the Jews. Arab grandees actively aided and abetted
The 1951 Coup de tat brought Nasser to power in Egypt. It was the time of Non-aligned movement. Nehru, Soekarno and Tito stood tall. Nasser joined them. In 1956 he wrested control of Suez Canal from the Anglo-French company, stood eyeball to eyeball with English and French and made them blink. France, Britain and Israel attacked, easily overwhelmed the Egyptian forces but had to retreat ignominiously at the behest of Russian and American leaders. We took out a procession to protest the aggression in Karachi and went to the Pakistan Prime ministers house. All Muslim countries basked in Nasser’s glory, but did little to promote education, industry, commerce or freedom of expression and thought, democracy or good governments. Dictators came and went, kings fell and were restored, corruption and dishonesty became rampant.
Come 1967, Israel again defeated the combined Arab force and dealt another crushing blow to Muslim Psyche.
1971 civil war in the then East Pakistan culminated in ignominious surrender of Pakistan Army to arch rival India. That was televised through the world. That was another horrendous demoralizing event.
In 1973, Egyptian Army gave a more credible performance than any Arab country’s forces had for a thousand years, surprising Israelis and eliminating more than half of its Air/tanks force within forty-eight hours. (The feat was exceeded in 2006 by Hezbollah of Lebanon who with stood the might of Israeli armed forces and made them sue for cease-fire). Moshe Dayan, Israeli defense minister was reported to have said that nothing could stop Egyptian march into Tel Aviv. Inexplicably, Egypt halted its advance .
Muslims were trampled upon everywhere, be it Kashmir, Palestine, India, Algeria, Ethiopia, or East Pakistan.
It would be surprising if fanaticism festering for centuries would not finally break open. Its time came when Zia of Pakistan over threw ZA Bhutto. He had messianic delusions of restoring glory days of Islam. Zia, not an intellectual by any means, was nevertheless a very shrewd operator and saw the opportunity of redemption when Russians went into Afghanistan, and seized it both hands. The country on the brink of economic collapse, was flooded with US dollars, Zia a pariah after executing Bhutto, was lionized by western leaders (much like Musharraf after 9/11). Arms poured in, Mujahideen and Al Qaeda were trained by Pak-American forces and CIA spent hundreds of millions in perception management. USA fully avenged Vietnam defeat and drove Soviet Union out of Afghanistan with the help of Mujahideen, Al Qaeda and Pakistan, as they themselves had been driven out of Vietnam by Vietnamese with the help of China and Russia.
But Al Qaeda under the aegis of Osama bin Laden another messianic leader came to haunt Americans. He had been the chief beneficiary of American largesse, had already forsaken a life of luxury, used his hundreds of millions of dollars to build a world wide fanatical organization; it had the resources, the weapons, the personnel and above all missionary zeal. They spread their wings, fought in Bosnia, Sudan, Algeria and developed sizable following in Pakistan, Indonesia and other Muslim countries .
Big powers use all available agents, regardless of their moral and religious persuasion USA had no compunction in going to bed with Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussain. But after the end had been achieved, both were discarded and predictably behaved like jilted lovers. World trade towers were initially hit in 1993. American Embassies were attacked in Pakistan and Africa, a US navel ship was suicide bombed and American/western/Israeli interests targeted all over the world before 9/11 catastrophe.
There are reasonable doubts as to the identity of 9/11 hijackers. The Yemini/Saudi hijackers had very low-level pilot training and the exploit would be akin to a high school science student piloting a jumbo jet. But right or wrong, result of perception management or not, given wisdom is that Al Qaeda operatives perpetrated the dastardly deed. USA forces went after the organizers of the outrage and successfully demolished Al Qaeda structure, driving Taliban into caves or extinction and installing a puppet regime in Kabul. Of necessity they left the rest of the country to warlords or remnants of Taliban. (Either Afghanis truly detested Taliban or Americans do not venture outside Kabul, resistance to US occupation was initially low grade. Taliban have regrouped. Pakistan Army intelligence is reportedly using them as card up their sleeves to be shown if American pressure gets too much even for their pliant posture).
God save us from men of messianic vision. Bush wanted to rid the world of terrorism and spread liberty and democracy into bargain. He chose not Saudi Arabia, where all the Al Qaeda and Taliban funds came from or Iran, which openly defied it, but Iraq, which was secular and openly hostile to fanatics . He may have been sensitized by the taunts that his father had left the work half finished. The most cogent reason-if that is not an oxymoron- Bush gave for the war was that “the guy tried to kill my father”. US forces easily overwhelmed Iraqi army and the lesser Bush seemingly finished the job his father had (wisely) left undone. With great fanfare he even announced “Mission Accomplished on board a US ship.
Not being overly bright or surrounded by people known for their insight, he did not plan for long occupation or an exist strategy (stragery in his terms) and doesn’t appear to have listened to his generals who wanted a much larger force.
Terrorism does not exist, grow and multiply in a vacuum. Largely due to self inflicted wounds, taken advantage of by western imperialist interests, devastated by an uninterrupted chain of disasters spanning over the last five hundred years, Muslim psyche has been unrecognizably distorted and this together with West’s neo-imperialistic campaigns, has spawned the hydra-headed monster of terrorism which feeds on hatred, injustice, poverty, illiteracy, and fanaticism. Attacking Afghanistan, going into Iraq demolishing Palestinian houses, arresting operatives here and there or freezing bank accounts, do not amount to more than cutting off one Hydra head. Two will sprout in its place.
My submission is that it is not a problem of Muslims alone. All humans in the world are in the line of fire. Extremist, intolerant and benighted version of Islam has taken hold of the imagination of Muslims from Indonesia the USA.
Let us look at a few worst affected countries. Israelis for all their power live under siege, not sure if they or their children would come back from work or school unhurt or even alive. Precious resources, human and other, are being wasted into non-productive defense.
Nearly three thousand five hundred young Americans are already dead in Iraq; tens of thousands have been maimed. Cost in men and material is immeasurable. Civil liberties, Human rights, the very constitution of the country has been compromised, all in the name of self-inflicted paranoia. Over half a million Iraqis have lost have lost their lives, more than three million have been injured and one in eight is in miserable exile. The country, once the most advanced in education, technology and health care, has been bombed to stone age.
Tony P for Poodle Blair has been forced to resign but not before he took Britain for a ride and had his own comeuppance in 7/7. 7/7 was befittingly on a much smaller scale.
Terrorism is a state of mind brought on, not only by fanaticism, but also in a greater measure by desperation. Palestinians, Iraqis, and Al-qaida cannot take on their respective foes head on, so they send suicide bombers, which are morally no different from air bombing and cause corresponding “collateral damage”.
There are legitimate grievances, national devastation, poverty, illiteracy, exploitation of resources, virtual colonization, neo- imperialistic domination by global corporations which own western governments and treat third world governments as virtual serfs, and many other injustices which have to dealt with before terrorism can be brought to heel. Sheer brute force is certainly not the answer.

The term was actually coined in the nineteen fifties to describe orthodox Christian groups in the USA
His detractors point at the institution of slavery, commodification of men and women of captured territories, polygamy, marriage of children, lower social and legal status of non-Muslims, discrimination against women in inheritance and as witness in a court of law, slaughter of Jews of Madina who had functioned as fifth columnists in Muslim ranks as marks against him. But a person has to be judged under the norms of his/her times. The Prophet, by example and word, gave a lesson of tolerance, peace, justice, equality and non-compulsion in faith. He signed a treaty with his foes that Muslims will go to Mecca for pilgrimage unarmed, and after Mecca surrendered with out a fight, he did not seek vengeance even from people who had killed his close relatives, tortured his followers and had forced him and his adherents to flee the city .
I have a clear recollection of my mother’s father telling his friends that he would rather break bread with a Kafir than with a Wahabi. My elders used to whisper that so and so had become a Wahabi as though he had contracted a particularly foul disease. We had a syncretic culture in which Hindus visited Muslim Sufi shrines to “pray” for the saint’s intervention on their behalf with the Almighty, attended, in certain cases even led the Moharram procession and Muslims celebrated Holi and Deevali.
Muslim women observed strict Purdah at the time, there was no free mixing of boys and girls and marriages were invariably arranged. People still found Wahabi doctrine too intolerant.
About five hundred years ago Mullahs had declared printing press as creation of the devil. To be fair Christian clerics had issued an identical edict, but the followers of that creed were resurgent and discarded the teachings.
Clerics of all faiths had ordained that the printing press was an invention of the devil. And religious books could not be printed. By corollary any printed material was a devil’s product. European renaissance ignored the verdict. Jews found printing good for record keeping. Only Muslims listened to Mullahs and education did not spread among them for at least four centuries.
H.S. Suharwardy of cherished memory. Someone asked the PM, why didn’t all the Muslim countries get together and counter attack. His succinct response 0+0+0+0=0 still sticks to memory).
It is widely believed that more than the voluminous influx of American men and arms it was Israeli threat to nuke Cairo and Damascus that stopped Arab forces in their track. In a brilliant maneuver Israeli army circled and cut off the supplies of Egyptian army. Egyptian, bemused by unexpected success, had failed to look at their flanks and were able to snatch defeat from jaws of victory. Arab government had to sue for a humiliating peace.
Bhutto had delusions of grandeur too; he was the prime mover of conference of Islamic countries, initiator of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb program and paid for the effort with his life.
Role of Al Qaeda in Iraq-Iran war is not certain. Saddam Hussain would certainly not countenance them, but their chief patrons, the Saudis did bank roll Iraq, which USA had encouraged, assisted and used as a proxy to avenge humiliation of hostage crisis and loss of great assets and bases in Iran). Al-Qaida wanted America to repay them for services rendered by leaving the Holy land, assisting the Palestinian in regaining their homeland (and preferably throwing Jews into the red sea.
The reasoning may have been that it would be easy pickings. The country had been emasculated by the first gulf war, its airplanes, were not allowed to fly over two thirds of the country and whose Army was a credible threat only to its own civilian population-Like armies. The planners had deluded themselves into believing that the public would receive them with open arms. They did enact the farce of public adulation.
I am indebted to Arundhata Roy for the apt term.