After Saddam's Call, All Eyes on Asia's Angry Young Muslims

After Saddam's Call, All Eyes on Asia's Angry Young Muslims
Analysis - By Marwaan Macan-Markar - IPS - 4/3/03

BANGKOK, Apr 3 (IPS) - Just like U.S. President George W Bush did before him, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has, in a manner of speaking, used the 'are you with us or against us' approach to international politics to rally Muslim support behind his cause.

That stark position to the world's more than one billion Muslims, majority of whom live in Asia, was conveyed this week when Saddam invoked 'jihad' in a way not used hitherto.

''Don't give them a chance to take a breath until they withdraw and retreat from Islamic land,'' a statement attributed to Saddam declared, referring to the U.S.-led invasion on Iraq. The statement was read out Apr. 1 by Iraqi Information Minister Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf.

''The aggression that the aggressors are carrying out against the stronghold of faith is an aggression on the religion, the wealth, the honour and the soul and aggression on the land of Islam,'' it added. ''Therefore 'jihad' is a duty and whoever dies will be rewarded by heaven.''

In making this call, Saddam Hussein was attempting to portray Washington's military ambitions on Iraq not simply as a conquest of Arab lands - which he had made a strong case for earlier and one that resonated with the people of the Arab world - but one of U.S. hegemony over an Islamic land.

It was also a further testament to Saddam's rapid metamorphosis from a leader who has a record of suppressing Islam in Iraq to becoming a vocal defender of the faith. Saddam's ruling Baath Socialist Party has always advocated the country's Arab credentials over its Islamic heritage.

Thus far, the early reaction in some corners of the Muslim world in Asia affirms the potency of Saddam's characterisation of the U.S.-led war on Iraq, given that it has a broader appeal and hence one that Asian Muslims angered by Washington's military adventure can relate to.

In Pakistan, for instance, a number of 'mujahideen' (Islamic fighters) who learnt the art of warfare in Afghanistan, have already responded to Saddam's call to arms. Some reports claim that these 'mujahideen' are on their way to join an estimated 4,000 fighters from 23 Arab countries willing to defend Iraq.

Furthermore, close to an estimated 100,000 people gathered in Pakistan's south-western city of Quetta this week to lend their voices to a call to wage a holy war in Iraq.

In Bangladesh, too, initial signs suggest a spike in the number of Muslim volunteers determined to join the ranks of the besieged Iraqis, with one group being quoted in press reports estimating that the Islamic fighters willing to join the 'jihad' could be in the thousands.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, where 95 percent of its 230 million people are adherents of Islam, the Islamic Defenders' Front had begun collecting names of Indonesian fighters who wanted fight for Iraq when the call came.

For these Islamic fighters, the Koran has a verse that could soon be applicable to their mission: ''Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!''

Saddam's cry of 'jihad' also puts Asia's moderate Muslim leaders in a dilemma. Before the U.S. invasion began, talk of 'jihad' and Asian Muslims joining Iraqi forces in a holy war to protect Baghdad was dismissed by two leading voices of moderate Islam.

''It's a stupid idea,'' Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told reporters in mid-February when the cry went up in anticipation of the U.S.-led invasion. ''If we go to Iraq just like that, I don't see any benefit from it apart from merely venting our anger.''

Indonesia's Islamic leaders, including those belonging to Nahdlatul Ulama, a 60-million strong group of moderate Muslims, objected as much. They even rejected a plea supposed to have been made by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for Muslims to wage a holy war to defend Iraq from the U.S.-led invasion.

As recently as Monday, moderate Muslim voices from Malaysia were quoted in a Malaysian newspaper about the 'jihad' debate that had been simmering as a result of the U.S.-invasion on Iraq.

''Warfare in Islam is only justified in cases of self-defence, never conquest,'' Chandra Muzaffar, a Malaysian human rights activist and head of the JUST World Trust peace group, told 'The Star,' an English-language daily in Malaysia. ''Muslims cannot engage in torture, brutality, humiliation or demonisation of their enemies.''

''To engage in acts of terrorism against indiscriminate civilian targets is 'haram 'and totally forbidden in Islam. It is a mortal sin,'' Farish Noor, a Malaysian academic, was quoted as saying in the same paper.

But even if Saddam's cry attracts more radical Asian Muslims, a question that looms ahead is as significant: Will he eventually succeed where the defeated -- and still missing -- Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar failed?

Omar, too, went down this road, when Washington launched strikes on the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan to rid it and also the al Qaeda network it was giving cover to.

He invoked the holy war argument to attract Islamic fighters from the Arab and non-Arab Muslim world to strengthen the Taliban's ranks in taking on the U.S.-led troops who attacked Afghanistan in October 2001, in retaliation for the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks.

On that occasion, the 'mujahideen,' many of who had previously trained in Afghanistan, hailed from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Pakistan. They joined Islamic fighters from Sudan, Algeria and the Middle East.

Yet all the sound and fury generated by this Muslim call to arms failed to stall the rapid success of the U.S.-led forces in driving the Taliban government out in November.

With U.S.-led troops poised to take over Baghdad, Saddam may be setting up Asia's angry young Muslim men tempted to wage a 'jihad' in Iraq and get them to suffer the same fate as the volunteer fighters who went before them in Afghanistan.