The Jakarta Post, August 11, 2004
Muslim states to help fight terrorism
Raden Ayu Nurfini, Jakarta
When addressing a conference of the World Council of Churches in Kuala Lumpur on
Aug. 3, Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi hammered home a
plethora of messages which raised the eyebrows of many political analysts.
He touched on the core of the global debate on the war against terror and injected a
new sense of realism into the matter. He attempted to remove the barrier blocking
what he described as the "Christian West" from seeing the Muslim world with benign
eyes. And he tried to put the debate in a realistic perspective, though his arguments
may encounter severe criticisms from the targets he was aiming at.
The essence of his message was that the war against terror must not be directed at a
certain religion. He was actually suggesting that when you fight terror, what you have
to do is to punish the terrorists because of their crimes, but not because they are
believers of a certain religion.
Using Badawi's logic, as he described it highly diplomatically, the "Christian West"
needs to understand that the war against terror "must not be fought in the name of
religion." This statement was perceived to have come not just from the leader of a
Muslim nation, but more importantly from the chairman of the Organization of the
Islamic Conference (OIC) which embraces about one billion people on earth.
As such, nobody should be so naive as to trivialize the prime minister's statement. In
fact, it was an elegant representation of the track that counterterror measures should
have gone along.
Only days before Badawi made his remarks, he had visited U.S. President George
Bush in Washington to fine-tune his perceptions with the superpower's leader. And
interestingly, only four days after Badawi aired his warning, President Bush redefined
his War on Terror (WOT) terminology during a campaign address, saying that
America had actually defined the terminology wrongly. It wasn't a war on terror, Bush
said, but rather "a struggle" against adventurers who wished to shake the tranquility of
the global order.
This was the second correction Bush has made over the past year. The first was
when he transmitted the message to Muslim leaders while on a visit to Bali earlier this
year that he would no longer use the term "crusade" against political adventurers
aiming to boycott U.S. interests around the globe.
With Badawi's definition, as introduced at the WCC meeting, the governments and
peoples of Muslim countries must be pro-active in the war against terror to the extent
that misleading perceptions about the religion can be rectified. Using this same
premise, if a political adventurer who happens to be Muslim, Christian, Hindu or
Buddhist carries out acts of terror while hiding behind religious symbols, he or she
must not be perceived as representing his or her religion, albeit a fact that this may be
easier said than done. Likewise, the response toward such adventurers must not
carry the connotation of targeting a certain religion.
Badawi must have thought that a lack of this kind of understanding in the West is to
blame for the complications that have arisen ever since Osama bin Laden started
waging his so-called, yet narrowly-defined, "holy war" against "unbelievers"
everywhere.
If Badawi's lengthy remarks can be summarized in one line, perhaps Billy Joel's lyrics
would best serve the purpose -- "(I take you) just the way you are." And Badawi
emphasized this point when he cited a passage from the Koran which says "to you
your religion, to me my religion." This was the reason why Badawi deemed it
necessary to tell the world that "religions must bring out the best in us and not the
worst."
But why has Bill Clinton accused George Bush of instigating terror across the globe?
Because under Bush, America's foreign policy has been perceived as a policy of
attacking the problem rather than solving the problem. Shall we speculate that the war
against terror would produce more significant results if a Democrat were to become
the president of the United States? Even if that could not happen, why is it that
America is not winning the war? And what are the mistakes?
If a terrorist hides behind the symbols of a religion, what should be done is to get (or
force) religious leaders to bring him out and let them punish him for hijacking the
religion; but not punish the religious leaders with misleading public opinions and
dangerous generalizations. This is what Badawi meant when he said that "the war
against terror must not be fought in the name of religion."
Wise philosophies apart, the reality today is that the world is haunted by increased
threats of terror. Even such staunchly Muslim countries as Saudi Arabia, the United
Arab Emirates and its Gulf neighbors, Pakistan, and lately India, which is home to the
world's second biggest Muslim population after Indonesia, are facing increased terror
threats.
The biggest challenge now is whether the OIC can pass Badawi's message across to
the Western media which, since the 9/11 tragedy, have painted a negative image of
Islam despite the fact that some Muslim governments have been making serious
efforts to combat terror.
Given present geopolitical realities, Arab nations cannot be expected to play
significant roles. It is Indonesia and Malaysia that must take the lead given their
higher degree of foreign policy independence as compared to the Arabs.
In the light of this, President Megawati Soekarnoputri's recent meeting with King Fahd
on the Iraq issue needs to be followed up by enhancement of OIC cooperation so as
to drive the Muslim world as the locomotive rather than the wagon for stamping out the
threat of terrorism.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's July 6 comments could be taken as a
good starting position. Moderate Muslims have a decisive role to play in clearing the
dust off the canvas and bringing forth a more benign image of the religion as it actually
is. Their pro-active contribution could help reduce misleading generalizations and
misunderstandings of the religion, which have led to the dangerous assumptions on
which America has defined many of its responses to terror around the world.
The wise foundation which Prime Minister Badawi has laid down should be respected
and gratefully responded to by America and all its military and political allies. If the
war against terror is to succeed, it must not be a priority of the United States alone.
Let the Muslim nations take the lead with the full backing of the U.S., Britain and all
their military allies, and we can finally entertain hopes rather than illusions about
winning the war.
The writer (rayu@asiamail.com) is a political analyst residing in Jakarta.
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