The Age [Australia], March 28 2003
Osama must be laughing
March 28 2003
By Fawaz Gerges
[Photo: Osama bin Laden "must be laughing in either his grave or cave".]
The US-led invasion of Iraq has blurred the lines between mainstream, liberal and
radical politics in the world of Islam and has dissipated much of the empathy felt by
Arabs toward America after the September 11 attacks.
Perhaps most alarming, US policy towards Iraq has alienated many of the important
moderate voices, both secular and religious, which until now had been unwilling to join
militant anti-American forces.
Cairo's Al Azhar University - the most respected institution of religious learning in the
Muslim world - has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, advising "all Muslims in the
world to make 'jihad' against invading American forces". The statement warned that
Islam itself is the direct target of the "new crusaders' invasion", aimed at humiliating
and subjugating Arabs and controlling their resources.
Given the university's historical and religious symbolism and weight, this ruling is
likely to resonate with the faithful.
Prominent Muslim clerics and political leaders have echoed Al Azhar. Mohammed
Sayed Tantawi, a reformist who, as the grand sheik of Al Azhar University, was one of
the first clerics to condemn the September 11 attacks and to dismiss Osama bin
Laden's jihadi credentials as fraudulent, ruled that attempts to resist an American
attack are a "binding Islamic duty", and he asked Arab leaders to block any
aggression against Iraq.
Maligned previously as a pro-Western reformer, despite his support for Palestinian
suicide bombers, Tantawi's new stance shows the extent of the realignment.
Moderates and radicals now appear to be united and determined to oppose the
American war.
The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt - a mainstream Islamist organisation
with membership numbers in the millions - called on his followers everywhere to join in
jihad in defence of Iraq. The Muslim Brotherhood has not been considered militant
since the 1970s, when it disavowed violence and agreed to play by the rules of the
political game.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, whose organisation had been moving away
from militancy in recent years, was even more explicit: Americans "will not be met in
this region with roses, flowers and perfumes. They will be met with arms, martyrdom
and rifles."
The big questions now are: how will the new calls to arms be translated in operational
terms, and will the battlefield be limited to the Iraqi theatre?
Bin Laden must be laughing in either his grave or cave. His strategic goal was to
mobilise Muslims worldwide to heed his call for jihad. But his apocalyptic nightmare
initially fell on deaf ears. Then, leading Muslim clerics cautioned young men not to be
swayed by the calls for jihad from fringe groups such as al-Qaeda and said that only
legitimate institutions and accredited scholars should be heeded.
Yet what was unthinkable 18 months ago has happened. The US has alienated those
in the Islamic community who were its best hope. The challenge now is to limit the
damage.
Fawaz Gerges is a US-based professor of Middle East and international affairs and
the author of the forthcoming The Islamists and the West (Cambridge University
Press). This article first appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
Copyright © 2002 The Age Company Ltd
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