Religious Faith, Culture and Civilizational Identity Lurk Behind Terror Attacks

ow to sum up the tragic events of recent days? Thousands are dead after two hijacked jets slammed into the twin towers of that ultimate monument to modernity, cosmopolitan identity and consumerist culture -- the World Trade Center in New York. Authorities believe that another jet which crashed into the Pentagon was meant for an even more symbolic target, perhaps the White House or Air Force One. Another plane, believed to have been seized by those bent on similar destruction, was possibly prevented from doing so by the heroism of passengers on board.

   Slightly less conspicuous than the mammoth accumulation of debris and human bodies covering a swath of lower Manhattan is the talk that "this is war," a postmodern Pearl Harbor, and that America has lost a gossamer innocence as it transits from one historical era to another.

   The reality is more complicated than this, however. In a period of less than an hour, events in the real world conspired to obliterate the last vestiges of anti-ideologies proclaiming, as Francis Fukyuama did in his 1992 treatise "The End of History and the Last Man," and advancing the questionable thesis that the accumulated existential baggage of centuries past was somehow no longer relevant, that the end of the cold war would usher in a distinct a-historical epoch. It was to be paradise on earth, the religious and even secular fulfillment of a millennial vision where we would construct the New Jerusalem. The forces that had divided us in the past, everything from language and religion to explicit political ideologies, would evaporate in the face of "the triumph of the West."

   For any who still harbored such illusions, Tuesday's events were a stark wake-up call.

   ¶    Where was God? We note that as with the Oklahoma City bombing or natural disasters of a titanic scale, the human response to crisis seems to manifest a predictable but irrational trajectory. We now are in the midst of a Religious Wallowing, with endless rounds of church/mosque/temple services and clerics once again stepping into their hoary role of trying to explain "why God permits evil" in the world, why the innocent are slain and so often the monstrously guilty romp free and unpunished. Pat Robertson, the Pope, even the Congress and the President of the United States call us to prayer and supplication. There is nothing new here: this is the problem known as Theodicy, how a supposedly all-good and all-knowing God can permit the existence of evil. From the corner preacher to Franklin Graham, or prelates such as Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, we are presented with a laundry list of syrupy nostrums. It is God in his mystery and wisdom, we are told. Less entertaining is the assertion that evil is of human origin. If so, why do innocents suffer, and why does this God permit it? The silence roars.

   Religion, of course, is one of the likely culprits in trying to comprehend why a group of people would scheme for months, even perhaps years as they languish as "sleepers" in deep cover terrorist networks, all with the penultimate goal of slamming themselves and hundreds of their victims into the sides of buildings or moving planes. A similar query may be asked of those Christian Crusaders who nearly a millennia ago set out to invade the "Holy Land" from the ravishing clutches of the infidels. The latter moniker now applies to us in the West, the targets of those who believe in Jihad as the instrument of closure and justice. Like the unarmed phalanxes of Iranian youth flinging themselves into the lines of Iraqi artillery and machine gun fire over a decade ago who believed that they would make the journey from the Earthly to the spiritually favored should they die in battle, Tuesday's terrorists embraced a similar pathetic, deadly illusion.

   The prayer vigils and the more disturbing government-organized outbursts of public religiosity simply mirror the religious fervor of many in the Middle East, who embrace Allah as a linchpin of human existence, and Koranic doctrine as a template for the organization of society. The chilling calls that we "give up some of our freedoms to be safe" reflects a similar cavalier attitude -- demonstrated best, perhaps, by Philadelphia Mayor John Street who is actively working with clergy to organize an "interfaith prayer vigil" -- toward the First Amendment. A terrorist attack is not a suitable excuse to suddenly suspend either the Establishment Clause or, indeed, the rest of our political freedoms.

   ¶    We ignore the important subtext behind Tuesday's terrorist assault at our own peril. The rhetoric of militant Islam, while it includes specific denunciations of Israel, is directed at a still larger target, namely Western culture. The best of the Enlightenment tradition -- an emphasis on the individual as the quintessential unit of social organization; the primacy of individual rights, civil liberties, and restraint on the power of government; a secularism which confines and "disestablishes" organized religion; and now, a pervasive consumerist/materialist culture with all of its virtues and faults -- remains at odds with the Islamic theocratic agenda (and, indeed, that of many Christians). Osama bin Laden and other Islamic militants decry the permissiveness of American and western lifestyle in general, their "degenerate" character which allows a high degree of expression from alternative subcultures, traditions, fads and points of view. Ironically, the same reforms which over past decades have permitted greater latitude for "outre" expression and participation, everything from gay rights and bohemian rebellion to a greater role for females and so much more draw the wrath of the mullahs. Ironically, both western religious groups like the Vatican, and their Islamic counterparts in the mosque share common enemies -- the virtues, excesses, and contradictions of modernity and western civilization. For bin Laden, it is not just a church or the Pentagon which becomes "the enemy," but centers of financial trade, a shopping mall, a movie theater and even women who dare step out in public.

   ¶    We also risk the consequences of ignoring what in the intelligence community is known as "blowback." Even Sadham Hussein was partially correct when, in response to the Trade Center attacks, he remarked that America was reaping the consequence of past actions and policies. The deep historical roots go back centuries, but closer to our own time are, to varying degrees, the consequences of western imperiums, the establishment of the State of Israel and subsequent policies which have permitted the expropriation of Arab properties, and the desire of various Arab/Islamic leaders to use the "Palestinian question" as a distraction from their own ruthless efforts to achieve dictatorial and semi-feudal rule. Osama bin Laden, Hamas, the various Hezbollah or "holy warrior" organizations throughout the region all have flourished in this geo-political soil. Assessing the role of bin Laden and Islamic fundamentalism, writer Michael Moran noted in 1998 that bin Laden "is viewed as a hero by millions in the Islamic world," and personifies the adage: Reap what you sow.

--   Cultural and political dislocations have created an Islamic "sub-caste" of refugees who are vulnerable prey for Muslim fanaticism and religious fundamentalism. The ruthless Taliban regime, for instance, now governing Afghanistan and playing host to bin Laden was incubated in the sprawling network of "madras" refugee camps along the Pakistan border. Children and adolescent males were indoctrinated to a lethal combination of Koranic verse and teachings about the heroism of political violence and martyrdom. They, too, absorbed the Pan Islamic paen which cries for the establishment of regional theocracy as a prophylactic against the corrosive and "sinful" cultural pollution of the West. Bin Laden, a former Saudi businessman and heir to a sizable fortune, broadcasts a message which resonates with many of his fellow Muslims, that the presence of U.S. troops and foreign business interests on Middle Eastern soil "pollutes" the sacred geography of the Islamic faith.

--   Let's not forget "Blowback," a term in intelligence parlance whereby an operative or an operation suddenly turns on its creators. Bin Laden typifies this principle, and whether it is the bombing of Khobar towers or the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, we now live with the unfortunate legacy of this foreign policy debacle.

   When America decided to intervene in the Afghanistan conflict of the late 1970s and repulse the Soviet invasion which installed a rump government in Kabul, Islamic fundamentalism because the weapon of choice. Bin Laden, who otherwise might have lived out his life as a prosperous Saudi business tycoon, answered the call for "holy war" against the godless Communist invader. By 1984, he was using his own financial resources and aid from the Central Intelligence Agency and other secret services to operate the shadowy Maktab al-Khidamar or (MAK), a transmission belt for arms and cash from outside vendors to the Afghan "freedom fighters." American and other western money and weapons flowed quickly into the hands of the Mujahadeen, a loose coalition of Islamic guerrilla groups united in their antipathy against the Soviets.

   Also working closely with MAK and the CIA was the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Agency) of Pakistan's military command. With the eventual withdrawal of the Soviet army, civil war erupted. The Pakistan government threw its support behind a rag-tag band of young, semi-literate Islamic mullahs who came pouring out of the "madras" network of refugee camps. They became known as the Taliban.

   Bin Laden soon extended his organization to include Islamic fundamentalists from refugee camps throughout the region, including Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and of course Pakistan. After a split with his CIA paymasters within MAK, he formed al-Qaida, composed mostly of veteran guerrillas from the Afghanistan civil conflict. Individual al-Qaida operatives then began forming other fundamentalist entities or worked closely with existing organizations. The results included the massacres by the GIA in Algeria; the attacks on tourists within Egypt by the Gamat Islalia, and attempts to establish a "pure" religious state; and the Shiite attacks on the Khobar Towers and the Riyadh bombings of 1996.

   ¶    Despite the hyper rhetoric of "being at war" or the description that America is "under attack," the stark fact remains that the WTC and Pentagon bombings are not unique in the human experience or especially recent history. Would we use comparable words in describing, say, the U.S. bombing of Belgrade, or the attacks on Iraqi targets which have been similarly bloody? How do we feel about the cruise missile attacks on bin Laden's mountain redoubts in Afghanistan which took a liberal toll of innocent victims, yet seem to have had little impact on his network? None of this justifies the slaughter on Tuesday; but perhaps we need to try to step back and understand how at least a good portion of the world perceives these developments from what to us is an enigmatic and alien perspective. We also risk more of the same if we concentrate only on symptoms, not the root causes and underlying factors which fueled the passions of Tuesday's terrorists. Along with the images of the smoldering ruins in New York City, perhaps we need also to remember the news broadcasts that showed throngs of Palestinians celebrating in the streets.

   ¶    We keep returning to that part of the world, the Middle East, a cauldron of religious passions. The Middle East, Palestine, and specifically the city of Jerusalem remain ground zero in a profound and dangerous intersection of conflicting faiths, cultures and identities. A small sliver of real estate, the Temple Mount, is the focal point of Islamic, Jewish and Christian heritage which could erupt at any moment. The "end of history" gurus see these geopolitical fault lines as increasingly irrelevant, when in fact they may well define the future. Forget Fukuyama. In the 1980s, theorists like William Cleveland were warning that the new political dynamic was, as he titled one book, "Islam Against the West" with Muslim faith, culture and identity challenging the Western canon. Samuel P. Huntington is even more prophetic in his 1996 work, "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order." Our future history, far from being over and ended, is instead a confrontation between Western, Sinic and Middle East civilizations where language, culture and religious belief play greatly pronounced roles.

   ¶    The attacks have had the curious effects of stimulating a one-dimensional discussion of "good versus bad Islam." We are cautioned against "stereotyping" all Muslims as religious fanatics or automaton followers of Osama bin Laden. The caution is well justified, but it tends to stifle the emergence of a related debate. As Islamic religion in all of its forms (Shiite, Sunni, Sufi) percolates throughout the West, will Muslims -- as the price of accepting their inclusion into society -- also support the core values of this culture? Will "respectable" Islamic organizations embrace the idea of separation of church and state? There are troubling suggestions that they will not. Islamic groups have supported legislation such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and in some cases even displays of the Ten Commandments and other public religious rituals. Despite the sanguine musings of Bill Moyers during a recent "interfaith" roundtable, Islamists are profoundly conservative in many of their social opinions, and view with hostility many of the same institutions and practices which also offend their Christian brethren. We have had over two centuries of conflict with various Christian groups over the issue of role of religious faith in the public square. Do we now face a comparable struggle involving Islamic belief both domestically and internationally?

   ¶    There may be reason for optimism, though, as Enlightenment ideas and consumerist culture (with both its faults and virtues) percolates throughout the world and even the Middle East. The mullahs and potentates see "Western culture," everything from movies and television to the internet and causes such as rights for women, as a diaphanous threat. It is, but with a Janusarian character. As analyst Fouad Jami remarked during a news interview yesterday, there is a duality in how America and the West are perceived. Our "decadence" is alluring, yet easy to denounce. Many of those who publicly eschew us would , paraphrasing Fouad, grab at the opportunity for a green card and a chance at the American dream and lifestyle.

   ¶    Religion remains very much part of the problem, and it is questionable that hoisting the banner of "religious diversity" will somehow defeat the alluring cry of Jihad. Ultimately, the solution to religious terrorism is global enlightenment and the spread of secular culture, and all that it emphasizes -- individual rights, liberation for oppressed groups, equality of the sexes and races, restraints of the power of both church and state, and above all an ethic which stresses human and not "spiritual" values.

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