Facts and Myths
"East has been almost a European invention ... "[..]
presupposed an unchanging Orient, absolutely different from the West (the reasons for this change from one era to another) ...
"[...] The East 'orientalist', "could have been created by another relationship that was not the policy of master-slave relationship?"
(Edward W. Said, "Orientalism")
A constant of all imperialist domination has been the creation stereotypes about the oppressed, to justify their subjugation. From the Roman Empire barbaricus was a duty to enslave, "to the dangerous" Islamic "(with the pump in the pocket) waving U.S. imperialism and its junior partners in Europe. All these scarecrows have been created by that "the political master-slave relationship, which indicated the great Palestinian intellectual Edward W. Saïd (1935-2003).
After the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989/91, "Islamophobia" was replacing anti-communism in the media circus and ideological West. And it came to height with the bombing of the Twin Towers in 2001, which gave the desired pretext for the U.S. to launch neo-colonial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Thus, imperialism was spent to renovate an old stereotypes about the Orient "Islamic" essentially unchanged, frozen in the "religious fanaticism" and incapable for centuries, almost genetically, "progress" and "civilized." In addition to the versions offered by illiterate Yankees series and movies, these racist myths also disseminated to more public religious movements, for example, the hodgepodge of Huntington about the "clash of civilizations." [1]
Al-Qaeda and the currents of "fundamentalist" Islamic have been just perfect for the masters of the West to put the myths of "Islamophobia" in the forefront of popular sectors in the U.S. and Europe, especially among the middle classes going from bad to worse with the capitalist crisis and need a bogeyman to fear and hate.
The paradox of this is that it was imperialism, particularly the U.S., who was instrumental in the emergence of "political Islam"-and especially of "Islamic fundamentalism" - in the last decades of the twentieth century.
A course of two centuries toward modernization and secularization that was interrupted
Indeed, the so-called "Muslim world" (in which the Arabs have an important but minority), far from being immutable ideologically and politically, followed in the past two centuries a marked course toward modernization, secularization and secularism. This trend was interrupted in the late twentieth century, especially in the '80s and '90s, the strengthening of current policies that are demanded of Islam, with more or less extreme positions. In a small minority in relation to secular nationalism and even to the left, came to have mass influence in some cases.
should be noted, first Instead, the emergence or strengthening of religious fundamentalism in those years is not exclusive to the Muslim world. It was a global phenomenon.
Simultaneously, India exploded Hindu and Sikh fundamentalism. In the U.S., a component of the "Conservative Revolution" Reagan was the epidemic of Christian fundamentalism with more reactionary sects and preachers, televangelists unbearable. This global phenomenon
political-religious ideology was part of a reactionary stage, with widespread losses in the labor movement and mass, culminating in the collapse of the former USSR, the capitalist restoration in the (alleged) socialist countries and neoliberalism reigns everywhere.
Losses, ideological and political vacuum, and action of imperialism
to the emergence of "political Islam" in general and of Islamic fundamentalism in particular, have combined a variety of factors, some common to those who pointed and specific. The main ones were:
• Bankruptcy and disasters of radical secular nationalism, which also called themselves "socialist", whose ultimate expression was the Nasser regime in Egypt. Secular nationalism were, in turn, an overwhelming mass support. Also, initially tried promote economic development and gave an independent reaching concessions to the workers and popular masses. This support was losing the rhythm of economic failure, corruption of the state apparatus and relapse in the misery of mass sectors.
• The left parties but also developed strong in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and other countries, never struggled to be an alternative to the inevitable disaster of secular bourgeois nationalism. Hegemony of the communist parties obedient to Moscow, he applied the line for the "progressives" of the bourgeoisie that dictated the Kremlin. In 1979, the military occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet Union was added as a factor of political turmoil and immense prestige of socialism versus the masses.
• Amid the growing political and ideological vacuum, Islam traded with the decisive support of the U.S. through its main agent in the region after Israel, the billionaire oil monarchy of Saudi Arabia. Since the mid-'50s, after failing in their attempts to attract Nasser, USA defined as the axis of its policy to promote Islamist currents against secular nationalism and the left.
The "political Islam" ... in part, Made in USA
The "revival" "political Islam" was not of course a graft from another planet. But, in its complexity, must be aware that anything had a strong "Islamic" means the direct or indirect action of U.S. imperialism. [2]
This covered many areas. For example, while the secular nationalist governments were increasingly unable to meet the needs of the masses, from the oil states will finance a billion dollar network of "charities" operating from Islamic mosques. It came to the most deprived masses and less political and cultural level.
Another item-is facing the middle class and bourgeois sectors was set up networks of "Islamic banking" (which supposedly does not charge interest, forbidden by the Koran). Large U.S. banks, such as City and Chase gave operational support. These "Islamic financial sectors" were preachers of neoliberalism and privatization ... preaching that had audience with the failures of statist nationalism.
The war in Afghanistan
But the leap was the jihad (holy war) against the Soviet occupation in 1979. There is "born" Osama bin Laden and passed to the most extreme face of "political Islam."
From the works of Charity of the mosques and loans of the "Islamic banks", was passed to organize the first international Islamic army in history, thousands of fighters who came from Morocco to Malaysia, speaking dozens of languages. Osama is laid by the CIA at the head of recruitment and organization of the force.
His appointment was no accident. As a person, Osama reflected the close association that existed between the "fundamentalism", the Saudi state and Washington. The bin Laden is one of the richest families in Saudi Arabia, closely linked to the monarchy as a works concessionaire. Moreover, as partners Bush family since the '60s were in close relationship with the American establishment.
After the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1989, the mujahedin gathered by Osama dispersed in various countries, where many continued to operate, but now beyond the control of imperialism that had armed and trained.
Meanwhile, the collapse of the former USSR had also changed the game of Washington and the governments of Muslim states in relation to these increasingly angry "holy warriors." Terrorist actions in Afghanistan were doing before, now began to make in other countries. In the '90s, it was growing. September 2001 it was just the peak of this climb.
-----------------------------------------------
--------------------------------- Notes: 1 .-
Huntington, Samuel P. " The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1996. English edition of Paidós there.
2 .- This was, of course, contradictory elements: Iran, a predominantly Shia, a minority branch of Islam, developed a strong political movement that played a key role in the overthrow of the Shah's pro-US regime in 1979 and since then has had more friction or less strong with the U.S.. But at the same time, after the 1979 revolution, the clerical unit ended up playing a role arch-reactionary, crushing the labor movement and the Iranian left.
By Claudio Testa
0 comments:
Post a Comment