Trying to find the reasons that militant Islamist groups, such as al Qaeda, declared war the United States and other western nations is no easy task. A good way to approach this question would be to look at the reasons that these Islamist groups stated in declaring their war. The next logical step would be to evaluate the validity and truth of these statements. If the reasons have some factual basis, one can assume that these were the true reasons behind their declaration of war. If these reasons have no factual basis, one can assume that there are other unstated reasons that must exist.
A factor that underlies Islamists reasons for attacking America is the Middle East’s cyclical history with Western intervention. It is necessary to establish this context because even if it is not well known in the West, one can be sure that their own is well known by Muslims. Furthermore, one cannot possibly attempt to understand the modern history of the Middle East without establishing this context.
After the 18th century, the once great Ottoman Empire suffered continued defeats and loss of lands to the European powers. This continued until the Ottoman Empire’s final demise after World War I. The fundamental Islamist movement rose out of the ashes and humiliation of these defeats. It is also important to keep in mind that each of the above mentioned incidents was followed by idealistic claims of bringing democracy and peace to the region but actually resulted in the installment of corrupt and undemocratic regimes, or in the case of Israel, a democratic regime displacing the existing Palestinian population.
The first example of this would be Napoleon’s statement in 1798 to the Egyptian people: “I have not come to you except for the purpose of restoring your rights from the hands of the oppressors”. Another would be the European victors of WWI, in this case the British working under League of Nation mandates in Iraq after World War I: “Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators…”1 In both of these cases, the native populations resisted foreign control. One could add to the list the creation of Israel and partition of Palestine, and the huge array Cold War intervention by the Soviets and the West.
The Cold War pitted the US against secular nationalism in the Middle East, which the US worried would ally itself with Communists. In response, according to journalist Peter Bergen, the US allied itself with the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most ideologically extreme elements in the Middle East, so they would combat this secular nationalism.2 This article was written using more than a dozen interviews with government and non-government officials and newly declassified documents. Al Qaeda, it turns out, is an offshoot of the Brotherhood.
The final example would be the most recent invasion of Iraq. The words of Donald Rumsfeld, unknowingly, echoed the words of past would-be conquers: “Unlike many armies in the world, you came not to conquer, not to occupy, but to liberate, and the Iraqi people know this”.3 This was not missed by the Muslim world.
All these factors have come together and left the people of the Middle East with a clear idea of Western intentions. This recent history of the Middle East is not so easily forgotten by those that have suffered through it. These memories are not quick to fade, even more so because of the long standing tradition of oral story telling in Islam.
Osama Bin Laden is the leader of al Qaeda, the most prominent Islamist group that has declared war on the west. In several interviews done with eminent British journalist Robert Fisk, he talks about the reasons that he was angered with and eventually declared war on the United States. And as Fisk points out, “history-or his version of it- was the basis for almost all of his remarks”.4
One of the reasons Osama Bin Laden stated for his declaration of war was the fact that the United States is a close ally of Saudi Arabia. In fact, Bin Laden sees Saudi Arabia as an extension, even “colony” of the United States. He seems this as an example of the United States attempting to control the Middle East. For example, he blames the Saudi government for financing Iraq with $25 billion dollars during the Iran-Iraq war. He also cites the $60 billion dollars Saudi Arabia paid in support of the Coalition Allies during the Gulf War, “buying military equipment which is not needed or useful for the country, buying aircraft by credit”, while at the same time creating unemployment, high taxes and a bankrupt economy. The Saudi Government defaulted on its contracts to Saudi businessmen, at tune of about 30 percent of Saudi national income inside the kingdom. This caused prices to go up, the cost of electricity, water and fuel to increase. Funding for education and government farming programs were also let run dry.
Furthermore, Bin Laden states, because of the Gulf War, there were US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was the birthplace of Islam, and holds two of Islam’s holiest cities, Mecca and Medina. Immediately after the US troops were stationed there, there were protests inside Saudi Arabia by the religious leadership, or Ulema, which demanded US troops be removed. This transgression against Islam, in their eyes, was intolerable.
Another reason for Bin Laden’s declaration of war is the perceived US support for Israel. In 1996, 10 days after an attack on US military complex, Bin Laden explained of the reasons behind it. “The explosion in al-Khobar did not come as a direction reaction to the American occupation but as a result of American behavior against Muslims, its support of Jews in Palestine and of the massacres of Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon- of Sabra and Chatila and Qana- and of the Sharm el-Sheikh conference”.What it boiled down to is that for Bin Laden, “there is no difference between the American and Israeli governments or between the American and Israeli soldiers”.
Lastly among Osama Bin Laden’s reasons are the sanctions that were placed against Iraq after the first Gulf War. “We as Muslims have a strong feelings that binds us together…We feel for our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon…When sixty Jews are killed inside Palestine all the world gathers within seven days to criticize this action, while the deaths of 600,000 Iraqi children did not receive the same reaction.”
Israel’s actions in the occupied territories have been well documented by human rights groups such as Amnesty International. “Killings of Palestinians by Israeli security services or settlers have led to suicide bombings and the deaths of Israeli civilians. These have led to waves of arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, torture and unfair trials[by Palestinian Security forces]. The Palestinian population have been the main victims of such violations…the Occupied territories have become a land of barriers, mostly erected by Israeli security services, between town and town and village and village.”5
Since the start of the second Intifada, the Palestinians have been subjected to extreme collective punishment at the hand of the Israeli army. These responses took three main forms: illegal killings, tortures, and house demolitionsi. According to the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the occupied Territories, B’Tselem, 3,386 Palestinians have been killed since September 2000, 1,008 of them were classified as combatants, and 676 of them were children. During the same period, 992 Israelis were killed, of those, 309 were security forces and 118 were children. Amnesty International writes that “Israeli security services have routinely tortured Palestinian political suspects on the occupied territories”6. B’Tselem counts that 4170 Palestinian homes have also been destroyed since the beginning of the second Intifada.ii
Regardless of their portrayal in the Western media, these actions are given prominent coverage in the Arab press. Even former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak would seem to agree that the conditions of the Palestinians are conducive to extremism. “I would have joined a terrorist organization…”7 was Ehud Barak’s response when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.
Israel is not the only US ally that has been condemned by human rights organizations. No one would doubt the close ties between the Saudi Kingdom and the United States that have existed since Saudi Arabia’s inception. Neither can one doubt the abuses of the Saudi regime. According to a 2005 Human Rights Watch report, “human rights violations are pervasive in Saudi Arabia”8. They are not alone. Egyptians still suffer under an undemocratic regime, fixed elections, routine torture and political violence. Similarly situations exist in, Jordan9 and Pakistan and other US allies in the area.
It would be impossible to contradict the statement that Iraq, suffered horribly under UN sanctions during the 1990s. It was estimated that 1.5 million women and children died during these years. In 1996, The United Nations Children's Fund estimated that around 4,500 children under the age of five are dying here every month from hunger and disease. UNICEF stated in 1999 “if substantial reduction in child morality throughout Iraq during the 1980s had continued through the 1990s, there would have been half a million fewer deaths of children under five in the country as a whole during the eight-year period 1991 to 1998”10. Denis Halliday, the former head of the UN's humanitarian program in Iraq stated that “I recently met with trade union leaders [in Iraq] who asked me why the United Nations does not simply bomb the Iraqi people, and do it efficiently, rather than extending sanctions which kill Iraqi people.” In 2000 Halliday wrote “here we are in the middle of the millennium year and we are responsible for genocide in Iraq”. 11His words leave little room for interpretation or debate.
After evaluating Osama Bin Laden’s remarks, and looking for factual validity behind his reasons for declaring war on the United States, it would seem like the reasons he has given have some factual basis. In numerous polls done on the subject, these grievances resonate with the experiences of the Middle East with the West12. Therefore, one can surmise that his stated reasons are in fact the reasons why Islamists groups declared war on the West.
A recent defense department report concurs with this conclusion. It states: “Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states”13.
My Personal Analysis
All of this flies in the face the opinion of President George W. Bush. According to him, the Islamists “ hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government.... They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”14 Instead of addressing the well known issues that antagonize Muslims worldwide, Bush’s actions only play into the extremists’ hands, and, for example, have created a terrorist recruiting camp in Iraq beyond Osama Bin Laden’s wildest dreams. Ironically, Iraq didn’t get the terrorists used in Bush’s original justification to go to war with Iraq until after that war was over. These have been the reasons that Islamists groups declared war on the West, and it is the continuation of these policies that continues to fuel support for their war.
1 Rashid Khalidi, "The United States and Palestine" in Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East(Boston: Beacon Press, 2004) pg 37.
2 Peter Bergen, “The Wrong War: Backdraft: How the war in Iraq has fueled Al Qaeda and ignited its dream of global jihad.” Mother Jones Magazine. July/August 2004 Issue
3 Ibid 1.
4 All Osama Bin Laden quotes from the chapter, “One of our brothers had a dream…”
Robert Fisk The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005)
5 www.amnesty.org/resources/pdf/ combating_torture/sections/section2-1-2-2.pdf
6 http://www.btselem.org/english/Press_Releases/20060104.asp
7 Bill Maxwell "U.S. Should Reconsider Aid to Israel". St. Petersburg Time. December 16, 2001
8 “Human Rights Overview: Saudi Arabia”http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/saudia12230.htm.
9 “Human Rights Overview: Jordan”http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/jordan12225.htm
10 “THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN -1998” www.unicef.org/sowc98/sowc98.pdf
11 Denis Halliday “Time to see the truth about ourselves and Iraq”. The Guardian. August 2, 2000.
12 Pew Global Attitudes Project : “Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics” http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?PageID=809
13 “Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication, November 29, 2004” http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf
14 George W. Bush “Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People”, September 20, 2001. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html
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