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September
18, 2002, 9:00 a.m.
The
Sky Didn’t Fall
So far, the
naysayers were wrong about the war on terror.
By Amir Taheri
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n the past
week or so you must have read miles of text on things that have happened
in the world since the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington
a year ago this month. Now you may want to read a bit about things that
were predicted but did not happen.
Here are some:
 Afghanistan
did not become another "Vietnam." The overwhelming majority
of Afghans welcomed their liberation from the Taliban and have began rebuilding
their lives in their own, messy but original, way.
The
Taliban and al Qaeda did not fight like lions. Rather, they ran away like
rats and hid themselves in the first caves they could find. Thousands
surrendered without a fight. They showed that they were brave only against
the weak and the defenseless.
The
United States has not acted as a wounded elephant, going on a rampage,
and attacking all and sundry. It has shown unexpected caution, even on
the thorny issue of what to do about Saddam Hussein.
No
Muslim country has fallen to a radical fundamentalist group. On the contrary
there has been a distinct move away from extremist religious-political
discourse. In the Sudan, the military-backed regime has disburdened itself
from its fundamentalist allies and started an internal peace process brokered
by the U.S. At the same time the Turabists have made their mea culpa and
are trying to jettison their violent ideology. In Egypt the Gamma Islamiyah
(Islamic Society) emirs have declared a complete change of strategy, renouncing
terrorism. In Iran the hard-line mullahs are on the defensive, if not
yet on the run. In Pakistan the main Islamist movement, led by Ghazi Hussein
Ahmad, has renounced violence in pursuit of political goals. Even the
Lebanese branch of the Hezbollah has denounced the 11 September attack
and the ideology behind it.
There
has been no "explosion" in the so-called " Arab street."
In the past 12 months there have been 17 small anti-American demonstrations
in the Muslim world, half the number that happened in 2000. Most of the
17 demonstrations took place in two Pakistani cities: Peshawar and Quetta
last November and December. Instead there were also demonstrations of
solidarity with the victims of terrorism in several major Islamic centers
including Jakarta, Tehran, and Istanbul.
Al
Qaeda, or whoever else carried out the September 11 attacks, has not been
able to make another major deadly move. A dozen or so people have been
killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan and 20 people died in another
terror operation in Tunisia. But none could be linked with al Qaeda.
The
so-called "clash of civilizations" did not happen. On the contrary,
more and more people both in the world of Islam and in the West now realize
that they are all in the same boat. There is a rush in the West to read
about Islam and try to understand it. In the world of Islam there is a
corresponding thirst for knowledge about the West that, after all, shares
the same historical space of civilization.
Suicide
bombings have not liberated one inch of the West Bank or Gaza. On the
contrary they have reinforced the occupation. The Palestinian silent,
or silenced, majority knows that an alternative strategy is needed to
achieve independence and statehood.
Despite
an explosion of Islamophobia in many parts of the world there has been
no decline in the rising curve of conversions to Islam, even in the United
States. This shows that people, using their faculty of reason, can distinguish
between what some misguided Muslims do and Islam as a personal faith.
—
Amir Taheri is editor of Politique Internationale and is reachable
through www.benadorassociates.com.
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