Radical Islam the greatest threat to Democracy?

After all the hooplah following the arrests of the terror suspects in Canada, a lot of chatter has been going around the various news networks regarding the threat that "homegrown" radical islamists pose to "democracy" (another term as vague as "freedom" these days). This claim, I believe, does have creedence and must be addresses but it is not monolithic - to assume that Al Queda is one monstrous octopus-like organisation with operatives everywhere is just naive. The allure of fundamentalist Islam to disenfrachised Muslim youth, in Canada and the E.U. especially warrants open discussion and discourse.

What annoys me is that this problem is a double-edged sword, with only one side being addressed by media outlets. After the Canadian arrests, there is outcry for debate and solutions, however - the other side of the story, the events and actions that truly inspire the terrorists and give them their best reasons lie south of the border and are never talked about.

What about American foreign policy since the first Gulf War. The landing of a huge, American (read: Christian infidel if you're Osama) in the Kingdom of Saud, the home to Mecca and the prophet Mohammed's homeland. The land was defiled by the simple presence of the troops and so the first reasons to strike back are in order.

A few years later, Osama strikes and bombs the American embassy in Nairobi. Clinton responds with a barrage of cruise missilles targetting supposed terrorist training camps as well as a "weapons factory" in Khartoum, Sudan. Most of the missiles fall short of targets, in the words of Gwynn Dyer when I heard him speak before the start of the Iraq War "My eight-year-old daughter with a dart-board and a handful of darts could have done a better job." The missilles instead land in rural Pakistani villages killing civilians (a fact non-challantly passed off by the media as if expected) and the weapons factory in Khartoum was actually making medicine (another oops). If I lived in the mountains of Pakistan, and a bomb killed my family, I'd certainly be angry and sad enough to pledge alleigance to an organisation that promised me revenge against the people behind the bomb. Wouldn't you?

The CIA has a term called "Blowback". It refers to counter-reactions that occur as a result of actions taken by American forces, covert or overt. Along comes September 11th and the whole world gasps at the magnitude of the attack. Where did this come from ask the American people? Why do they hate us? Is printed across Newsweek amongst other rags. Blowback on a huge scale.

To believe that America went to war in Iraq to pursue and wipe out terrorists that were and are a threat to America (the "fight the over there so we don't have to figh them here" argument), is to be ridiculously naive. Saddam Hussein was a secularist, Islamic radicals had been a threat to his government and he was well known within the area for torturing and killing any Islamic terrorists he was able to get his hands on (seeing them as a threat to his leadership).

Iraq has oil, yes, a lot of oil that is easily processable. It also holds a seat on OPEC, and shortly before the Iraq War, Saddam was pressuring the oil-producing nations' organisation to switch their reserve currency from the American greenback to the euro. Now, by proxy, America has the oil, it has a seat on OPEC (they still use the greenback). As Dyer, points out in his book "Future Tense" the Iraq war was illegal (i.e. deemed by the U.N.). He believes it was not only launched to secure oil reserves, but as a show of imperial might by the American government. It was to show other regional powers (E.U., Russia, and especially China) that the U.S. wasn't playing by the rules anymore and would occupy entire regions to secure that their political and economic interests were met.

Take the position, if you will, of an Iranian man middle-aged living in Tehran. You faught in the Iran/Iraq war and have no love lost for Saddam but are aware that the Americans funded and armed your enemy during that time. You watch as countries to the East (Afghanistan) and West (Iraq and Saudi Arabia) are occupied by the imperial military forces of the Christian West. It doesn't help when President Bush describes the operation as a "Crusade". To you, it would seem that the Islamic world is having its very existence threatened by a power on the other side of the world. Now your country is threatened with war if it doesn't stand down and stop nuclear weapons research. Why should you and your country bow down to the Christian invaders? How would you view the actions of America and its allies in your neck of the woods?

The call comes for solutions. Though, personally, I support the presence of a U.N. force to stabilize Afghanistan believing that the Taliban were the shame of the world long before September 11th, I believe the very fact that our troops are seem as allies to the Americans is putting our troops at risk (no matter how good their intentions are). Hamid Kharzai is seen as a puppet of the Americans and his government as well by a large percentage of the Afghan people. Perhaps replacing our troops with peace-keepers from muslim countries would be a start. Bring in Pakistani and Iranian peace-keepers, draw in these countries (Pakistan the lone muslim nuclear power) and Iran close to the U.N. (the ultimate vessel by which a nation may save face in front of its people while negotiating). If the rest of the Muslim world sees the western forces withdrawing from these area and the appearance that the members of Muslim world will help their neighbours when in need - good things could come of this.

Of course, American troops won't withdraw for a very long-time. It would probably take an economic crisis (they're heading for one right now) to do that. For the time being, "to preserve that American way of life" in the words of the President they will be there. That can be translated as securing and guarding oil reserves so that seas of SUVs have sufficient gas to run for another few years.

So before we wonder where all this hate comes from in the muslim world, take a look around and try to understand their position.

Signing off...