Putting Terrorism in Perspective: Is It All Based On History?

By Philip Shaw M.Sc.

What do Canada and the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas have in common? Well, Canadians might think not much. While both went through elections last week, the similarities seem to end there. Since then western governments have been scrambling to rationalize the fruits of democracy with the tyranny of terrorism. Do the two solitudes meet?

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada cannot accept Hamas as long as it continues to support terrorism and calls for the destruction of Israel. He also added “for a nation to be truly democratic, that nation must renounce terrorism.”

However, Palestine is not just any country. Israel controls almost everything in that region. Western countries are going to have to come to grips with the popular election of a group, which has been responsible for many terrorist strikes in that part of the world. How to do that will be the difficult part.

From a Canadian western perspective this seems a long way away. I met Stephen Harper during the last federal election campaign. In fact I had almost a 30-minute face to face, toe to toe with him earlier in 2005. I’m sure when he talked with me terrorism was the farthest thing from his mind.

In Canada, like many countries in the western hemisphere terrorism isn’t top drawer. However, there was a time when I was a young elementary school student when terrorism was alive and well in Canada.

From 1963 to 1970, the Front de liberation du Quebec committed over 200 violent political actions, including bombings, bank hold-ups and at least three deaths by FLQ bombs and two deaths by gunfire. Targets included English owned businesses, banks, McGill University and the homes of prominent English speakers in the wealthy Westmount area of the city. On February 13, 1969 the Front de libération du Québec set off a powerful bomb that ripped through the Montreal Stock Exchange causing massive destruction and seriously injuring twenty-seven people. In 1970 the FLQ kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross. A week later they abducted the Vice-Premier of Quebec, Pierre Laporte and killed him. Canada deteriorated into what we called the October crisis.

There were bomb threats at school. There was a lilt in the air that Canada was coming unglued. At the end of the day, it didn’t. The terrorists were caught, exiled to Cuba. Today, many of them live peacefully back in Quebec.

That episode in Canadian history seems a long way away from the Hamas victory in last week’s Palestinian election. Yes, some members of the FLQ were trained by Palestinians in Jordan. However, does this example lend wiggle room for western governments to learn and engage political groups like Hamas? Or is that just too radical to consider?

In fact western governments do just that. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs of Fatah attack Israel, but western governments have subsidized Fatah. The US works with Shi’ite and Kurkish groups in Iraq who both have large powerful armed wings. At one time the Irish Republican Army and the African National Congress were armed and dangerous. Now it is a completely different story.

That doesn’t absolve these groups from their heinous disregard for human life. It doesn’t absolve them from their killing ways. It is what it is. Western engagement of groups that support terrorism and killing will never find resonance on the streets of Toronto, London, Sydney and New York.

For some of you that might seem very hypocritical. You say Hiroshima. You say Abu Graib? You say Guatanamo Bay? You say the 1988 shooting down of the Iranian Airbus by the Americans? You say the Beslan school massacre. You say , you say, you say, you say.

So can we make sense out of it, or is all of this unavoidable. In the great scheme of things a grand jesture of reconciliation might be in order. However with leaders like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Iran, President George Bush of the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, it is unlikely to happen. Our cultures, history and grandfathers are just too different to understand each other.

Later this month (Feb 20) I will be taking part in a live classroom discussion at the University of Windsor speaking about terrorism, politics and poverty. I will be speaking to students of Dr. Fay Patel about some of the nuances of how these three things are embedded within our world society. It will be a microcosm of the last two months of East West here at cktimes.ca.

Is it all based on history? Is hope on the way? Thinking of the 9/11 hijackers hurtling toward the windows of the World Trade Centre certainly muddied the water.

Let us not Deceive, Again!

A.K. Enamul Haque PhD.

When I wrote our regular East West column for January 2006, I had no idea how Phil was going to react. In fact, the way it works for our column is simple. When Phil writes the first part, I reply and when I write the first part he replies. Our writings are independent and we try to reflect on the topic through our cultural and social lenses.

However, our experience in the last few years was mostly an academic exercise in raising global awareness on many international issues from which we could learn a lesson. Dealing with terrorism, environment and poverty is a major challenge for all of us. Many of us are not sure on which one comes first. It’s like the chicken and egg question. Who comes first?

Many often wonder whether it is poverty that brings in terrorism or whether terrorism leads to poverty. However, the story is not that simple. Why poverty breeds terrorism? The little that I know of the culture and people, I can then say that poverty is not going to entice terrorism. Millions of poor people in Bangladesh lead a very simple life. Many of them are deprived of the basic human dignity but they are not terrorists. A beggar, for example, leads an undignified life but not a threat to any one. There are similar examples. Poverty alone is not sufficient to pose a threat to society.

Here comes the importance of education. Human craving for knowledge is very old. It is through education we ignite power in people’s mind. So education has been established as a basic human right. When formal schooling or secular education systems fail to reach the millions of people, it does not mean an end of learning. A more religious education system fills in. After all, our present secular
education system is derived from the religious education system.

It is at this point; I believe that society at large needs to take account why the secular education system is not reaching the millions. Many villages in Bangladesh have schools but no teachers. School buildings are useless unless teachers are there to provide the service. This is mostly because of remoteness, the low salary and also a very low morale of the schoolteachers. Much of this could be traced back to the inability of the governments to improve conditions at the schools. Many public schools are not even adequately resourced. Since the government funds most of these schools, communities do not find an opportunity to get involved. Education system becomes unaccountable and also purposeless.

On the other hand, religious institutions are well integrated in the society and have full participation from the communities. As a result, religious education is thought to be owned by the people. They are accountable to the community. Consequently they run a fully blown academic program, which sometimes are purely religious in nature or sometimes mixed. From the academic point of view, there is no centralized control and so it remains at the mercy of individual schools to determine the quality of education. Depending of the specific conditions of the society it might entice people against other religious groups, countries or even communities.

At the end, the failure is clear. The secular method of education has failed and so it has been possible for religious schools to become a dominant player. Now superimpose a) sanctions, b) lies, c) injustice on this. You will find the reasons for popular uprisings in the Muslim societies.

My humble request to all, who are there to promote religious harmony and secular thinking, is that we look at the failures first. We should not aggravate the scenario by further isolating them from the secular groups.

In Iraq, it has failed. Iraq was a secular country and yet sanctions, lies and injustices have finally transformed them into a more religious or sectarian society. In Iran, let us not start lying again. This week, US Secretary Condoleezza Rice has started it again by telling the world that Iran and Syria are to blame for the current uprising against Denmark and the West. Please hold your tongue and think before you speak. People are not blind. Let us not deceive them again.