Us Policy I Middle East Again Islamic Fundametalist

The author is a onetime political-war machine analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense and terrorism analyst with the Country Department. He is currently a security consultant, focusing on the mitigation of mail service-Cold War patterns of terrorism and political violence. Key Characteristics The 1970s - Groups focus on textile harm and limited attacks aimed at killing individuals while an increasing number of urban incidents, using lessons from guerrilla conflicts elsewhere, occur. The 1980s - A distinct motility toward urban-based attacks with a subsequent increase in collateral casualties as well equally a change in targeting methodology; civilians become the target. Superpower conflict in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan becomes a formative period in the proliferation of weapons and emergence of militant, fundamentalist Islam. The 1990s - The trend toward straight targeting civilians continues, and gains even greater currency as ethno-nationalist, religious, and religio-nationalist actors make full the void left past the demise or subtract in leftist organizations. The terminate of the Common cold War and the creation of new states, the leaving of certain states in unstable or anarchic weather, requite impetus to the rise of a new set up of extremists whose credo or motivations let, or fifty-fifty call for, indiscriminate targeting.

Definition of Terrorism

"the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force or violence against individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, ofttimes to attain political, religious, or ideological objectives."
-- U.S. Department of Defense publication

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., the threat of militant Islamic terrorism -- rooted in the Middle Eastward and Southern asia -- has taken center stage. While these extremely violent religious extremists represent a minority view, their threat is real. As pointed out by RAND's Bruce Hoffman, in 1980 two out of 64 groups were categorized as largely religious in motivation; in 1995 almost one-half of the identified groups, 26 out of 56, were classified equally religiously motivated; the majority of these espoused Islam equally their guiding force.

To better sympathize the roots and threat of militant Islam, hither's a closer look at how modern terrorism has evolved in the Center E and South Asia.

The colonial era, failed post-colonial attempts at state formation, and the cosmos of Israel engendered a serial of Marxist and anti-Western transformations and movements throughout the Arab and Islamic globe. The growth of these nationalist and revolutionary movements, along with their view that terrorism could exist constructive in reaching political goals, generated the first phase of modernistic international terrorism.

In the late 1960s Palestinian secular movements such as Al Fatah and the Popular Front end for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) began to target civilians outside the firsthand arena of conflict. Post-obit Israel's 1967 defeat of Arab forces, Palestinian leaders realized that the Arab world was unable to militarily confront Israel. At the same time, lessons fatigued from revolutionary movements in Latin America, North Africa, Southeast Asia as well as during the Jewish struggle against Britain in Palestine, saw the Palestinians movement away from classic guerrilla, typically rural-based, warfare toward urban terrorism. Radical Palestinians took reward of modern communication and transportation systems to internationalize their struggle. They launched a series of hijackings, kidnappings, bombings, and shootings, culminating in the kidnapping and subsequent deaths of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic games.

These Palestinian groups became a model for numerous secular militants, and offered lessons for subsequent ethnic and religious movements. Palestinians created an extensive transnational extremist network -- tied into which were various state sponsors such as the Soviet Union, sure Arab states, as well as traditional criminal organizations. By the end of the 1970s, the Palestinian secular network was a major channel for the spread of terrorist techniques worldwide.

Key Radical Palestinian Groups

(descriptions taken straight from the U.S. Country Department publication "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000")

• Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): The PFLP, i of the original members of the PLO, [1] is a Marxist-Leninist grouping founded in 1967 by George Habash. The group was against the 1993 Proclamation of Principles; participation in the PLO was too suspended. Participated in meetings with Arafat's Fatah party and PLO representatives in 1999 to discuss national unity merely continues to oppose negotiations with Israel. Committed numerous international terrorist attacks during the 1970s, has allegedly been involved in attacks confronting Israel since the beginning of the second intifadah in September 2000. Syrian arab republic has been a key source of safe haven and express logistical support.
• Popular Forepart for the Liberation of Palestine-Full general Command (PFLP-GC): This group, led by Ahmed Jibril, split from the PFLP in 1968, wanting to focus more on terrorist than political action; violently opposed to the PLO and is closely tied to Syria and Iran. The PFLP-GC conducted multiple attacks in Europe and the Middle East during the 1970s and 1980s. Unique in that it conducted cross-border operations confronting Israel using unusual ways, including hot-air balloons and motorized hang gliders. Currently focused on pocket-sized attacks in Israel, the West Depository financial institution, and Gaza Strip.
• Abu Nidal Organization (ANO): Anti-Western and anti-Israel international terrorist organisation led by Sabri al-Banna; left the PLO in 1974. Organizational structure equanimous of various functional committees, including political, military, and fiscal. The ANO has carried out terrorist attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring well-nigh 900 persons. Targets have included the United States, the Uk, France, Israel, moderate Palestinians, the PLO, and various Arab countries. Major attacks included the Rome and Vienna airports in Dec 1985, the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul and the Pan Am flight 73 hijacking in Karachi in September 1986, and the Urban center of Poros day-circuit ship set on in Greece in July 1988. Suspected of assassinating PLO deputy main Abu Iyad and PLO security main Abu Hul in Tunis in January 1991. ANO assassinated a Jordanian diplomat in Lebanese republic in January 1994. Has not attacked Western targets since the late 1980s. Al-Banna relocated to Iraq in December 1998, where the grouping maintains a presence. Financial problems and internal disorganization accept reduced the grouping'south capabilities; activities shut down in Libya and Egypt in 1999.

While these secular Palestinians dominated the scene during the 1970s, religious movements also grew. The failure of Arab nationalism in the 1967 war resulted in the strengthening of both progressive and extremist Islamic movements. In the Center East, Islamic movements increasingly came into opposition with secular nationalism, providing an alternative source of social welfare and education in the vacuum left past the lack of regime-led development -- a primal case is The Muslim Alliance. Islamic groups were supported by anti-nationalist conservative regimes, such every bit Saudi Arabia, to counter the expansion of nationalist ideology. Notwithstanding political Islam, [two] more open up to progressive modify, was seen as a threat to conservative Arab regimes and thus support for more fundamentalist -- and extremist -- groups occurred to combat both nationalist and political Islamist movements.

Meanwhile, in Islamic republic of iran, a turn to revolutionary Shia Islam nether the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini farther eroded the power and legitimacy of the U.S.-backed authoritarian Pahlevi authorities, setting the stage for the Shah's downfall.

The year 1979 was a turning point in international terrorism. Throughout the Arab world and the West, the Iranian Islamic revolution sparked fears of a moving ridge of revolutionary Shia Islam. Meanwhile, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent anti-Soviet mujahedeen war, lasting from 1979 to 1989, stimulated the rise and expansion of terrorist groups. Indeed, the growth of a post-jihad pool of well-trained, battle-hardened militants is a central tendency in contemporary international terrorism and insurgency-related violence. Volunteers from various parts of the Islamic globe fought in Afghanistan, supported by conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia. In Yemen, for instance, the Riyadh-backed Islamic Front end was established to provide fiscal, logistical, and grooming back up for Yemeni volunteers. Then chosen "Arab-Afghans" accept -- and are -- using their experience to support local insurgencies in North Africa, Kashmir, Chechnya, China, Bosnia, and the Philippines.

In the Westward, attention was focused on state sponsorship, specifically the Iranian-backed and Syrian-supported Hezbollah; state sponsors' use of secular Palestinian groups was also of concern. [3] Hezbollah pioneered the employ of suicide bombers in the Eye East, and was linked to the 1983 bombing and subsequent deaths of 241 U.S. marines in Beirut, Lebanon, too as multiple kidnappings of U.S. and Western civilians and government officials. Hezbollah remains a primal trainer of secular, Shia, and Sunni movements. Equally revealed during the investigation into the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, Libyan intelligence officers were allegedly involved with the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command (PFLP-GC). Republic of iraq and Syria were heavily involved in supporting various terrorist groups, with Baghdad using the Abu Nidal Organization on several occasions. State sponsors used terrorist groups to assault Israeli too as Western interests, in add-on to domestic and regional opponents. It should be noted that the American policy of listing country sponsors was heavily politicized, and did not include several countries -- both allies and opponents of Washington -- that, under U.South. government definitions, were guilty of supporting or using terrorism.

Key Radical Religious Groups

(descriptions taken directly from the U.S. Land Department publication "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000")

• Hezbollah: Radical Shia group formed in 1982 in Lebanon. Strongly anti-Western and anti-Israeli. Closely centrolineal with, and often directed by, Iran but may take conducted operations that were not approved by Tehran. Known or suspected to accept been involved in numerous anti-U.Southward. terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombing of the U.Southward. Diplomatic mission and U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in Oct 1983 and the U.Southward. Diplomatic mission addendum in Beirut in September 1984. Elements of the group were responsible for the kidnapping and detention of U.S. and other Western hostages in Lebanon. The group too attacked the Israeli Embassy in Argentine republic in 1992 and is a suspect in the 1994 bombing of the Israeli cultural center in Buenos Aires. Operates in the Bekaa Valley, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and southern Lebanon. Has established cells in Europe, Africa, South America, North America, and Asia. Receives substantial amounts of financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid from Iran and Syrian arab republic.
• Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ - Al-Jihad, Jihad Group, Islamic Jihad): Egyptian grouping active since the late 1970s. The EIJ is apparently dissever into two factions: one led by Ayman al-Zawahiri - who currently is in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan and is a key leader in the Usama bin Laden (UBL) network - and the Vanguards of Conquest (Talaa' al-Fateh) led by Ahmad Husayn Agiza. Abbud al-Zumar, leader of the original Jihad, is imprisoned in Egypt and recently joined the group's jailed spiritual leader, Shaykh Umar Abd al-Rahman, in a telephone call for a "peaceful front." The group's traditional goal is the overthrow of the Egyptian Regime and creation of an Islamic state. Given its involvement with UBL, EIJ is likely increasingly willing to target U.Southward. interests. The group has threatened to strike the U.S. for its jailing of Shaykh al-Rahman and the arrests of EIJ cadres in Albania, Republic of azerbaijan, and the United kingdom..
• Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ): The PIJ, emerging from radical Gazan Palestinians in the 1970s, is apparently a series of loosely affiliated factions rather than a cohesive group. The PIJ focus is the destruction of Israel and the creation of a Palestinian Islamic state. Due to Washington's back up of State of israel, the PIJ has threatened to strike American targets; the PIJ has not "specifically" conducted attacks against U.South. interests; Arab regimes deemed as un-Islamic are also threatened. The group has stated its willingness to hitting American targets in Hashemite kingdom of jordan. PIJ cadres reportedly receive funding from Tehran and logistical support from Syrian arab republic.
• Islamic Resistance Motility (HAMAS): Emerging from the Muslim Alliance during the first Palestinian intifadah (1987), HAMAS has get the primary anti-Israeli religious opposition in the occupied territories. The group is mainly known for its utilize of suicide bombers and is loosely organized, with centers of strength in Gaza and certain areas in the West Bank. HAMAS, while condemning American policies favoring Israel, has not targeted the U.Due south. directly.
• Al-Gamaat Al-Islamiyya (IG - the Islamic Grouping, al-Gama'at, Islamic Gama'at, Egyptian al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya, GI): The IG, begun in the 1970s, is the largest of the Egyptian militant groups. Its core goal is the overthrow of the Cairo government and creation of an Islamic state. The IG appears to exist a more loosely organized entity than the EIJ, and maintains a globally present external wing. IG leadership signed Usama Bin Ladin'southward February 1998 anti-U.South. fatwa but has denied supporting UBL. Shaykh Umar Abd al-Rahman is al-Gama'at's spiritual leader, and thus the U.Southward. has been threatened with attack. From 1993 until the stop-fire, al-Gama'a launched attacks on tourists in Egypt, most notably the assault in Nov 1997 at Luxor that killed 58 strange tourists. Also claimed responsibility for the attempt in June 1995 to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Has a worldwide presence, including Sudan, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Austria, and Republic of yemen. The Egyptian Regime believes that Iran, Bin Ladin, and Afghan militant groups back up the organisation.

The disintegration of post-Common cold War states, and the Cold War legacy of a world awash in advanced conventional weapons and know-how, has assisted the proliferation of terrorism worldwide. Vacuums of stability created by conflict and absence of governance in areas such every bit the Balkans, Afghanistan, Colombia, and certain African countries offering ready made areas for terrorist training and recruitment activity, while smuggling and drug trafficking routes are often exploited by terrorists to support operations worldwide. With the increasing ease of transnational transportation and communication, the continued willingness of states such every bit Iran and Iraq to provide support, and dehumanizing ideologies that enable mass prey attacks, the lethal potential of terrorist violence has reached new heights.

The region of Afghanistan -- information technology is non a country in the conventional sense -- has, particularly since the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, emerged equally a terrorist training ground. Pakistan, struggling to residuum its needs for political-economical reform with a domestic religious agenda, provides assist to terrorist groups both in Afghanistan and Kashmir while interim as a further transit area between the Center Eastward and Southern asia.

Since their emergence in 1994, the Pakistani-supported Taliban militia in Afghanistan has assumed several characteristics traditionally associated with state-sponsors of terrorism, providing logistical support, travel documentation, and training facilities. Although radical groups such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, and Kashmiri militants were in Afghanistan prior to the Taliban, the spread of Taliban control has seen Afghan-based terrorism evolve into a relatively coordinated, widespread activity focused on sustaining and developing terrorist capabilities. Since the mid-1990s, Pakistani-backed terrorist groups fighting in Kashmir accept increasingly used training camps within Taliban-controlled areas. At the same time, members of these groups, every bit well equally thousands of youths from Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), accept fought with the Taliban confronting opposition forces. This activity has seen the rise of extremism in parts of Pakistan neighboring Afghanistan, further complicating the ability of Islamabad to exert control over militants. Moreover, the intermixing of Pakistani movements with the Taliban and their Arab-Afghan allies has seen ties between these groups strengthen.

Since 1989 the increasing willingness of religious extremists to strike targets outside immediate country or regional areas underscores the global nature of contemporary terrorism. The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Heart, and the Sept. eleven, 2001, attacks on the World Merchandise Center and Pentagon, are representative of this trend.

Key Groups in the New Stage of Militant Islamic Terrorism

(descriptions taken straight from the U.S. State Department publication "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000")

• Al-Qaeda (The Base): Established by Usama Bin Ladin (UBL) circa 1990, Al Qaeda aims to coordinate a transnational mujahideen network; stated goal is to "reestablish the Muslim State" throughout the earth via the overthrow of corrupt regimes in the Islamic world and the removal of foreign presence - primarily American and Israeli - from the Middle East. UBL has issued three anti-U.Due south. fatwas encouraging Muslims to take upwards artillery confronting Washington'due south "imperialism." Al Qaeda provides fiscal, manpower, transportation, and training support to extremists worldwide. In February 1998 bin Ladin issued a argument under the banner of "The World Islamic Front for Jihad Against The Jews and Crusaders," saying it was the duty of all Muslims to impale U.S. citizens, civilian or armed forces, and their allies. Allegedly orchestrated the bombings of the U.Southward. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, on August seven, 1998. Claims to have been involved in the 1993 killing of U.S. servicemen in Somalia and the December 1992 bombings confronting U.South. troops in Aden, Yemen. Al Qaeda serves as the core of a loose umbrella system that includes members of many Sunni Islamic extremist groups, including factions of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), the Gama'at al-Islamiyya (IG), and the Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM). The group is a prime suspect in the Sept. eleven attacks likewise every bit the UsSouth Cole bombing.
• Armed Islamic Group (GIA): Having initiated terrorist activities in 1992 following Algiers refusal to accept a democratically elected Islamist government, the GIA has conducted multiple mass killings of civilians and assassinations of Algerian leaders. While nowadays in areas such as Yemen, the GIA reportedly does non target the U.S. direct. Yet, it is possible that GIA splinter movements or personnel may become involved in anti-U.S. action.
• Aden-Abyan Islamic Regular army (AAIA): The Aden-Abyan Islamic Ground forces is allegedly affiliated to the Yemeni Islamic Jihad and has been implicated in acts of violence with the stated goal to "hoist the banner of al-Jihad, and fight secularism in Yemen and the Arab countries." Aden-Abyan Islamic Ground forces leader Zein al-Abideen al-Mehdar was executed for participating in the December 1998 kidnapping of 16 Western tourists. Four of the hostages were killed and some other thirteen hostages were freed when Yemeni security forces attacked the place where the hostages were existence held. In March 1999 the group warned the U.S. and British ambassadors in Republic of yemen to get out immediately.
• Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM): Formerly part of the Harakat al-Ansar (HUA), the Pakistani-based HUM operates primarily in Kashmir. Long-time leader of the group, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, in mid-February stepped down; the popular Kashmiri commander and 2d-in-command, Farooq Kashmiri, assumed the reigns. Khalil, who has been linked to Bin Ladin and signed his fatwa in February 1998 calling for attacks on U.S. and Western interests, assumed the position of HUM Secretary Full general. The HUM is linked to the militant group al-Faran that kidnapped v Western tourists in Kashmir in July 1995; one was killed in Baronial 1995 and the other four reportedly were killed in December of the same year. Supporters are by and large Pakistanis and Kashmiris and also include Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan state of war. The HUM trains its militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Jaish-due east-Mohammed (Ground forces of Mohammed): The Pakistan-based Jaish-eastward-Mohammed (JEM) has greatly expanded since Maulana Masood Azhar, a former ultra-fundamentalist Harakat ul-Ansar (HUA) leader, formed the group in February 2000. The group's aim is to unite Kashmir with Pakistan. It is politically aligned with the radical, pro-Taliban, political party, Jamiat-i Ulema-i Islam (JUI-F). The JEM maintains training camps in Afghanistan. Most of the JEM'south cadre and cloth resources have been fatigued from the militant groups Harakat ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) and the Harakat ul-Mujahedin (HUM). The JEM has close ties to Afghan Arabs and the Taliban. Usama Bin Ladin is suspected of giving funding to the JEM. Group past this name claimed responsibleness for the USS Cole attack.
• Lashkar-i-Taiba (LT) (Army of the Righteous): The LT is the armed fly of the Pakistan-based religious organization, Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI)--a Sunni anti-U.S. missionary organization formed in 1989. One of the three largest and best-trained groups fighting in Kashmir against India, information technology is not connected to a party. The LT leader is MDI chief, Professor Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. Almost all LT cadres are foreigners--mostly Pakistanis from seminaries beyond the country and Afghan veterans of the Afghan wars. The LT trains its militants in mobile training camps beyond Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Afghanistan.

[1] Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Al Fatah
The PLO was founded in 1964 equally a Palestinian nationalist umbrella organization committed to the creation of an independent Palestinian country. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, militia groups composing the PLO vied for command, with Al Fatah -- led by Yasser Arafat -- condign dominant. Al Fatah joined the PLO in 1968 and won the leadership role in 1969. In 1969 Arafat assumed the position of PLO Executive Commission chairman, a position he nonetheless holds. Al Fatah essentially became the PLO, with other groups' influence on PLO deportment increasingly marginalized. Al Fatah and other PLO components were pushed out of Jordan following clashes with Jordanian forces in 1970-71. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 led to the group's dispersal to several Eye Eastern countries, including Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, and others. The PLO maintains several military and intelligence wings that have carried out terrorist attacks, including Force 17 and the Western Sector. Ii of its leaders, Abu Jihad and Abu Iyad, were assassinated in recent years. In the 1960s and the 1970s, Al Fatah offered preparation to a wide range of European, Center Eastern, Asian, and African terrorist and insurgent groups and carried out numerous acts of international terrorism in Western Europe and the Centre Due east in the early on-to-middle 1970s. Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles (DOP) with Israel in 1993 -- the Oslo Accords -- and renounced terrorism and violence. The organization fragmented in the early 1980s, but remained the leading Palestinian political organization. Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO -- read Al Fatah -- leadership assumed control of the nascent Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

[ii] Political versus Fundamentalist Islam
Political Islam, as opposed to fundamentalist or neo-fundamentalist Islam, posits a worldview that can deal with and selectively integrate modernity. In contrast, fundamentalist Islam calls for a render to an ontological form of Islam that rejects modernity; groups such as Al Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad are representative of fundamentalist Islam.

[3] A Note on State Sponsors of Religious Terror Groups
Different the "secular" national, radical, anarchist terrorism sponsored past states such as Libya, Syria, Iraq, Cuba, North korea, and backside the scenes past the former Soviet army camp, most of the Islamic terrorist groups have never been sponsored past states. Many Egyptian organizations emerged from the Egyptian domestic landscape. Algerian groups besides were not sponsored by foreign states. Hezbollah certainly can exist viewed equally an Iranian surrogate, but other movements, while open to state assist, remain operationally and ideologically independent.

abode +  introduction +  interviews +  timeline +  islamic terrorism
lessons from the 1980s +  links & readings +  video +  discussion +  tapes & transcripts
press +  credits
frontline privacy policy +  FRONTLINE +  pbs online +  wgbhphotograph copyright © reuters newmedia inc./corbis

web site copyright 1995-2014 WGBH educational foundation

halcombagentic.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/target/etc/modern.html

Share this post