War on Terrorism
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WAR ON TERRORISM (thanks to Michael Flanagan for submitting this article)
He was angry that Western troops walked the streets of his Muslim country -- so angry that he called for sustained and bloody military action to "chase the enemy out of our land." When Kemal Ataturk said those words, he sounded remarkably like Osama bin Laden, but the year was 1921 and the Turkish leader was referring to British, French and Italian forces that had helped defeat the Ottoman Empire and were stationed in Istanbul. In a bid to marshal Muslims to his cause and justify his war against the United States, bin Laden is now citing that period, saying that the Islamic world "has been tasting humiliation and degradation for more than 80 years." For many Muslims, the Ottoman Empire represented the last great period of Islamic power, a time when a single entity ruled over the Middle East and beyond without Western interference. "It was the last broadly recognized Islamic state with legislative power in the Sunni Muslim world," says Joel Beinin, professor of Middle East history at Stanford University. The Ottoman Empire, which began in the year 1290, stretched at its height from North Africa to Hungary and parts of Russia. New mosques paid tribute to Islam and the Caliphate -- the religious and legislative authority believed to be the successor to the Prophet Mohammed -- was centered in Constantinople. After Ottoman rulers were defeated in World War I -- and after Ataturk himself dissolved the Caliphate in 1924 -- the modern Middle East was created. Before that, the borders of present-day Iraq didn't exist on a map, nor did Jordan, Syria or even Saudi Arabia, parts of which were ruled by Ottoman fiat for centuries. "There was never another attempt anywhere else to replicate (the Caliphate), " says Henri J. Barkey, a Middle East expert and professor of international relations at Lehigh University. Muslims in the Middle East scrupulously study the Ottoman Empire, said Beinin. No wonder, then, that bin Laden invoked its demise during his speech, which was broadcast across the Middle East and then around the globe. Bin Laden made another statement that was more obscure, at least to many Westerners. The whole world needs to know, he said, "that we never shall accept that the tragedy of Andalucia would be repeated in Palestine. We cannot accept that Palestine will become Jewish." He was speaking of the end of Muslim rule in Spain. Until the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century, Muslims dominated the Spanish peninsula for 700 years. "It was interesting that he made a reference to Andalucia," Barkey says. "That obviously is still a wound they haven't recovered from, and it happened 500 years ago." There is irony in bin Laden's recollections of Muslim Spain and the Ottoman Empire, because during both periods, Jews and Muslims co-existed relatively peacefully. In Muslim Spain, for example, Jewish scholars wrote and spoke Arabic and worked side-by-side with Muslim scholars; the great Jewish thinker and doctor Maimonides was born and raised in Cordoba. Under Ottoman rule, Jews established great learning centers in Istanbul, Salonika and other cities, and were prolific writers, doctors and diplomats. "There was a lot of co-existence," says Beinin. "The Ottoman Empire was a multiethnic, multireligious society, though to be sure, Muslims were on the top. We should not have the view that this was a nation of equality. But within that structure, lots of Christians and Jews became fairly prominent." For this reason, it would be a mistake to view bin Laden's videotaped message as a kind of sacred text. Scrutinized by academia, his speech contains several contradictions -- contradictions that bin Laden is likely not aware of. "There are many holes in the arguments he's making," Barkey says. "How did the Muslims get to Andalucia? They didn't just get on an American Airlines flight and fly to southern Spain. They had to conquer it. So, conquering is fine, but losing conquered territory is not fine?" Another hole: It was Ataturk, a Muslim general rebelling against foreign occupation, who later ended the Caliphate and introduced Western practices to Turkey. Ataturk eliminated the constitutional provision naming Islam as the country's official religion, introduced the Western calendar and the Latin alphabet (which replaced Arabic), and encouraged women to run for public office. To Jean-Robert Leguy-Feilleux, a professor at St. Louis University who is an expert on terrorism and the Middle East, bin Laden's speech was a sign of how desperate he is to retain the mantle of Muslim hero in the face of overpowering U.S.-led military power. "He has always tried to be at the vanguard of the Islamic movement," says Leguy-Feilleux, "and he's trying to remind the Islamic world that he's the only one pushing (the West) hard." Leguy-Feilleux believes bin Laden may tape another speech in the next few weeks, at which point he may clarify some of his earlier points. Whatever bin Laden says, the Saudi fugitive will undoubtedly spin more facts to suit the needs of his jihad. "Let's keep in mind," says Leguy-Feilleux, "that we're likely to hear (from him) again." |