Muslims
are angry and the West fearful: Is there a way out of
the
endless suspicion? Columnist Patrik Etschmayer calls for a
Muslim
'enlightenment.'
News, Switzerland
Life as Terror Warning: Time for a 'Muslim Enlightenment'
"In a globalized world,
moderate Muslims will continue to be reticent as long as Islam fails to
experience its own enlightenment as occurred in the West 300 years ago. …
Unfortunately, no such movement is anywhere to be seen. Meanwhile in the U.S.,
a counter-enlightenment by fundamentalist Christians seems to have been
established under the 'Tea-Party' name."
The latest terror warning for
Europe comes at a time when memories of the terror attacks in Madrid and London
have just begun to fade. Though one would be better served to think back to the
attack on the
hotels in Mumbai two years ago, as they are the ones currently being
showcased as models for effective terrorism.
“Effective terror” might
sound like quite a cynical expression, but with such a cynical method of
conflict like terrorism, effectiveness is of critical importance. In Mumbai, it
allowed a handful of well-trained combatants keep the city in suspense for
three days until special forces were able to kill the last of them.
In the end, ten Pakistani
attackers killed at least 166 people and virtually paralyzed one of the largest
cities in the world. The already-strained relations between India and Pakistan
were subjected to additional stress and any rapprochement between the two was
successfully torpedoed for some time.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Even if in the end, nine out
of ten attackers ended up dead, the fact remains that Mumbai was one of the greatest
"successes" of Islamic terror, because they had clearly fulfilled
their mission: to sow death, despair, fear, hate, insecurity and mistrust. So
it’s no surprise that Osama bin Laden has, according to reports by U.S.
broadcaster NPR, authorized attacks modeled after Mumbai on various European
cities, and that he has consented as such via courier to friendly terror
cells.
But this “success” - and to
call such murder and manslaughter success turns one’s stomach - has also
caught the attention of Western intelligence agencies. According to the Web
site The
Long War Journal, which specializes in Islamic terror, for some time
now, a number of intelligence agencies have had their eyes on Muslim converts
from Europe who trained to become terrorists in Pakistan before being returned
home.
A key person in this whole
affair appears to be Ahmed
Siddiqui, an Afghan-born German citizen who was arrested last July and
whose path to jihad began in Hamburg’s Taiba
mosque, a house of prayer previously known as the “Al-Quds mosque" in
which a certain Mohammed
Atta frequented at the beginning of the last decade. Siddiqui joined the
struggle, was a guest of various Pakistani and Afghan terror networks and due
to his nationality and connections, seems to have been given information about
attacks planned in Europe - information he presumed to have revealed to
interrogators.
The credibility of his
statements is still being debated, but no major objections are apparent. The
fact that nearly a decade after September 11, this Hamburg mosque still seems
to be a focal point of Islamic terrorism, doesn't put the authorities in a very
good light - even if this house has finally been shut down [on September 2,
2010].
Likewise, this gives rise to
voices who say that Islam is incompatible with our society and is a permanent
threat. The terror alerts give credence to such expressions just like the
attacks committed in this decade, even if they occurred years ago.
The wedge driven between Islam
and the rest of the world by these attacks and plans not only hardens the revulsion
toward Islam, but very successfully quiets more moderate and reformist Muslim voices
who would like to push religion out of everyday life, but who are made to feel
almost like traitors.
In a globalized world, this
problem will persist as long as Islam fails to experience its own enlightenment,
as occurred in the
West 300 years ago - an enlightenment that by no means was without pain or
bloodshed. Unfortunately, no such movement is anywhere to be seen. Meanwhile in
the U.S., a counter-enlightenment by fundamentalist Christians seems to have
been established under the “Tea-Party” name.
Terror,
fear and insecurity are all murderers of free thought, friends of suppression,
promoters of hate, and gravediggers of freedom. The medieval thinking of
Islamists and fundamentalists of all stripes has the chief goal of leading the
world back to a place where the light of knowledge is snuffed out and only one
book is allowed to exist.
Posted by
WORLDMEETS.US
Therefore,
these terror alerts shouldn't only remind us of horror, but of a world in which
such horror doesn’t exist; it should remind us of the possibility that fear could
be overcome, as improbable as that may seem. But without that hope, life becomes
just one big terrorist warning.
