Suicide Attacks And Political Suicide
On the other side, Arab news agencies lauded terrorists who had attacked on the World Trade Center as martyrs, while certain Muslim writers and intellectuals tried to justify the hijackings and suicide attacks.
The more legitimacy the ‘egocentric’ and ‘exclusionist’ way of the West has gained, the more the hatred of the Muslim world has grown larger and more obvious.
The war in Iraq provided a temporal break, but that lull ended with Monday’s suicide bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A week after the Sept. 11 attacks, I wrote the following lines about the dangers the Middle East and the world at large might face in the not-too-distant future:
1. Globalization of terrorism, and the emergence of a political and ideological current embracing terrorism as its means, backed by mass support from those who feel excluded…
2. Evolution of Muslim identity into an ever-insurrectionist and resistant actor in many conflict-torn regions of the world…
3. Legitimization of terror and violence fed by the global inequality and injustice which grow with each passing day…
The latest bombing incident in Saudi Arabia reminds us once again these risks and dangers.
The overlapping economic and cultural polarization, the politicization of subordinate identities and the ongoing self-rationalization all explain what is going on today but in no way justify it. The threat is apparent: Violence begets violence, and extreme nationalisms and fundamentalist mentalities began to pick up strength.
Here is what one prominent Muslim law professor says: ‘Today one can hear unethical sermons in certain local Muslim communities and student organizations even in the US, sermons which call for a war against the West. This is contemporary orientalism anchored in disappointment, exclusion, hatred and ignorance.’
This situation is the result of an impoverished, suppressed and excluded culture’s claim for difference, and it is being further incited by the US’ hard-headed policies to take advantage of and radicalize the Muslim world.
The only real way to bring an end to terror would be addressing and alleviating the feelings of subordination and lifting the suppression. Otherwise, Muslim political culture will grow even more violent.
