"...an utterly corrupt new religion called environmentalism..."
If the history of this planet's climate over millions of years is any guide, we are about to enter a new ice age.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper indicated in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he wants to see the United States become a Muslim country.
For Europeans, the war on terror is a different battle
By Amira Ibrahimovic (07/19/05)
La Liberation, one of France's main newspapers, recently carried an editorial that has been reprinted in several languages across the continenent.
In it, Jacques Amalric expresses a widely held European belief that al'Qaeda is not so much a organization, but more a "banner under which a fanatical group ideologues sell their strategy".
Europeans are frustrated by the actions of the American government, and in many cases our own governments, in regards to establishing a consensus on the driving forces of terrorism, and their ultimate goals.
In Europe, the goals of this group are not considered to be the destruction of the West, or of European civilization, but rather a combination of several lesser goals. Many of these goals, oddly enough, Europeans support as well (for example, the removal of totalitarian regimes in the Middle East, many of which are allies of the United States - most notably, Saudi Arabia).
Simply put, Europeans believe that happy people don't blow themselves up - and if Europe can do what is right in the Middle East and Africa - regions that are as messed up as they are largely because of outside (European) influences - then all will be well and good.
History shows us that, while flawed, this view is not completely wrong.
The Christian Science Monitor, an American newspaper well-respected by religious Europeans, investigated the idea of Islamic fundamentalism, and terrorism, in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Bosnian Muslims like myself, known locally as Bosniaks, are Ottoman-era converts and thus far more European than most Muslim immigrant communities in Western Europe. A young girl in Bosnia-Herzegovina with blonde hair and blue eyes, drinking a glass of wine, is just as likely Muslim as anything else.
A typical street scene in the predominantly Muslim district of Ferhadija, Sarajevo.
During the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, between 150,000 and 250,000 (most of them Muslim) civilians were killed, many in concentration camps. This enraged Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East, more than 2,000 of whom came to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In some instances, they fought alongside - and under the command of - the Bosnian Army (most notably in and around the city of Zenica); little more than a conglomerate of municipal police forces, young Muslim and Catholic men, and Orthodox Christians desperate to maintain the multiethnic, cosmopolitan face of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In most instances, however, they fought independent of Bosnian influence.
Charities and orphanages, funded by interests in the Middle East, began opening across the country. They quickly filled with widows, orphans, and the injured - most of whom, under the guidance of aid workers, began wearing traditional Arab clothing and praying in Arabic.
It was a dangerous situation, but Bosnians - especially Bosniaks - were desperate. Alija Izetbegovic, the Muslim President of Bosnia-Herzegovina, confessed years later, "We were being massacred, and so we took whatever help was offered."
It was help that, in the end, we could have done without. In June of 1993, in the Bosnian city of Tuzla, a group of Arab fighters beat - to death - three Muslim women whose husbands were Jewish. Even then, faced with genocide, the Bosnian government did not deport the Arab fighters for several more years.
Bosnia-Herzegovina was forever changed. Where, before the war, it was possible to imagine Muslims, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Jews as a single people - now not even Muslims were a single people, split between those who viewed the title "Muslim" or "Bosniak" as an ethnic/cultural term, and those who viewed it as a religious term.
This is where the United States found an opportunity, and stole another from Islamic fundamentalists.
Following several highly publicized massacres - including a bomb attack on a marketplace in Sarajevo, a bomb attack on downtown Tuzla that killed more than 50 teenagers, and massacres in the cities of Srebrenica and Zepa - the United States decided to act.
The Serbian Army was defeated in a few short days and the United States led a global effort to help rebuild Bosnia-Herzegovina - and give our people back the beautiful, European country we had lost. The United States acted and won the hearts and minds - and the lives - of Bosnian Muslims, Catholics, Jews, and moderate Orthodox Christians.
Bosnians - of all faiths - found a new friend to turn to. Arab charities now faced competition from American-funded hospitals and refugee camps.
The article in the Christian Science Monitor was titled, "In rebuilt Bosnia: No terror toe-hold" (http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0324/p01s01-woeu.html).
It is an idea that reflects European ideas about the best way to combat the war on terror, and an idea that - at least in this instance - was proven fruitful. Bosnia-Herzegovina, thanks to the United States and the United Nations, will never be any more of a terrorist haven than any other European country.
It is relevent to other regions as well. For Israelis, the terrorist group Hamas is nothing more than just that - but, for Palestinians, it is the group that provides their wives with healthcare, provides their children with an education, and provides their grandparents with pension cheques. Support for Hamas among average Palestinians is as much based on their own well-being as on a hatred for Israel and the quality of life dictated by the Isreaeli military.
We should be the ones funding hospitals and orphanages, building playgrounds for children, and providing schools with text books. We should be the ones winning their trust, their admiration, and eventually their support. Terrorist leaders - usually wealthy, upper-class men from countries considered allies of the United States (Osama bin Laden is a notable example) - are nothing without their foot soldiers, and these foot soldiers are almost always persecuted people from oppressed areas; regions of the world where life offers no other happiness than a fleeting moment of revenge.
These people are just as likely to join us as they are to join the terrorists; all we need do is offer them that chance.
In areas of Baghdad where American troops have walked through the streets, meeting the people, listening to their concerns, helping them to rebuild their homes - the stories reaching us via the media are stories of triumph and of victory. Tips from Iraqi civilians about insurgent movements and plans have been pouring in from these areas; American soldiers have even married local women - something that in more devastated areas of the country would probably result in the murder of both.
In Muslim areas of Serbia-Montenegro (a region known as the Sandzak), schoolbooks depict American soldiers as heroes. In Kosovo, the main street in the capital city of Pristina is Bill Clinton Boulevard. 'Amerika' and 'Klintona' are popular names for baby girls. 'American Cola', a local rip-off of Coca Cola, is sold in every cafe and restaurant.
Albania, the poorest country in Europe, spent millions of dollars sending it's young men and women to work alongside American forces in Iraq. Polls conducted in the country show that a majority oppose the war, but the same majority also supports helping the Americans.
Arab columnists in Western Europe - though disgusted by the turn the war in Iraq has taken, and the revelation that the reasons for the war were falsified - praise the United States for removing Saddam Hussein from power.
This is how Europe intends to fight the war on terror - by stripping terrorists of all their social and charity-related power, by ensuring that for the people of the Middle East, Africa, and other regions of the world - terrorists are simply that, and nothing more.
This is where Europeans feel that the United States, and the American people, have fallen into doing exactly what the terrorists want them to do. It is a common sentiment in Europe that, yes, Osama bin Laden killed thousands of innocent American civilians - but more of the real damage done to the United States, you did to yourselves.
"Your people have killed, they have tortured. They have invaded a country on false pretenses and created a terrorist haven when none existed before. That, I am sad to say, is more than Osama bin Laden could have done with 10,000 planes."
But, together, we are stronger.
Coupled with the American resolve to bring the terrorist leaders to justice, it is a formula that could truly ensure victory in a war that has all the signs of being as futile and meaningless as the American 'war on drugs'.
All we need do is to recognize each other's efforts and instead of trying to disprove the other, and insisting on doing things our own way, to decide together: You know what? We need to win this war, and trying to do so in different ways is a good way to increase our chances of success.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Amira Ibrahimovic
Amira Ibrahimovic was born in Pocitelj, a small Muslim village in the vineyard-lined valleys of Bosnia-Herzegovina. She studied political science and theology at the University of Mostar, where she now lives with her husband and two daughters.
Ed Note: Amira has agreed to offer all of us a different perspective of Europe and the USA as seen from there.
Send Feedback To Amira Ibrahimovic
Site: http://aviewfromeurope.ws
UPSSA
United Progressive Socialist States of America
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