The aim of terrorism: Many experts say clash of cultures behind attacks on United States

09/16/2001

By IRA J. HADNOT / The Dallas Morning News

America has become an inviting target for terrorists. Why are we on their scope?

The United States' list of enemies has been growing since the 1980s along with the perception that it is unjust, arrogant and increasingly acts without regard for other nations, many experts say.

The qualities that produced a superpower – such as a large military and democratic institutions – now handicap the United States among nimble adversaries who don't operate by conventional rules of engagement and don't care about missile-defense systems.

"Here we have the most sophisticated country in the world having its aircraft being taken over by suicidal hijackers with box cutters," says Dr. Boaz Ganor, a counterterrorism expert based in Israel.

Simply put, he says, the conflict comes down to a "clash of cultures."

An effective war against terrorism requires not only international cooperation but a fundamental change in how the United States responds to events such as this week's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he says.

"Nobody is saying that the United States negotiate with murderers. Murder is unacceptable. Terrorism is unacceptable. But America is still looking through an old prism. The fight is over Western values versus the expansion of Islamic fundamentalism."

Dr. Ganor and others point to the work of Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, who in 1996 wrote a controversial book, The Clash of Civilizations. His thesis is that Cold War divisions no longer are relevant.

He found it "more meaningful to group countries not in terms of their political or economic systems" but in terms of their culture and civilization. He wrote that religion will spark future global conflict and a new world order will be composed of "kin countries" banding together to preserve similar interests and values.

He spun a West-against-the-rest scenario.

It is a cultural twist on the "Evil Empire" of the Soviet Union – except evil has dual citizenship. If you are fundamentalist Muslim and follow the Taliban, evil is Christian and comes from the West. If you are American, European or from an allied country, evil is fundamentalist Muslim and comes from Afghanistan.

It is a "tempting thesis" and one that is being revived in light of this week's attack on the United States, says Dr. David Skidmore, a professor of political science and international relations at Drake University.

"But it is too narrow. We're not at war with a civilization. We are dealing with a small group of fanatics who are not representative of the Muslim world," Dr. Skidmore says. "I fear that if we rely too heavily on this type of framework, we will contribute to an ugly and militant mood. There have already been attacks against Arabs and mosques in this country."

He does agree, in part, with this observation by Dr. Huntington:

"The Gulf War left some Arabs feeling proud that Saddam Hussein had attacked Israel and stood up to the West. It also left many feeling humiliated and resentful of the West's military presence in the Persian Gulf, the West's overwhelming military dominance, and their apparent inability to shape their own destiny."

It is an unintended consequence, Dr. Skidmore and others say, that the United States' infusion of money into oil-rich nations has helped arm its enemies.

"In the Arab world, Western democracy strengthens anti-Western political forces," Dr. Huntington writes. "This may be a passing phenomenon, but it surely complicates relations between Islamic countries and the West."

The conflict is ancient – dating to the Prophet Mohammed's conquests beginning in the seventh century and the Crusades in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, when Christians tried to retake the Holy Land.

"It has been hard for Christianity and Islam to forget some of the atrocities and political problems committed by both sides," says Dr. John Norris, chairman of the theology department at the University of Dallas. "But I would strongly disagree that Christian and Islamic civilizations are fundamentally incompatible. In American cities, churches and mosques exist side by side.

"One of the things we have to look at as a nation is why is America considered an unjust nation by Arab countries and is that portrait somehow accurate?"

Moderate Arab countries have come forward to convey remorse and share U.S. condemnation of terrorists' attacks. But American leaders cannot count on those condolences turning into concrete support should they take military action, several experts say.

"There is a perception of a lack of even-handedness on the part of the United States when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict," Dr. Skidmore says. "A decade after the Gulf War, the U.S. is still engaging in air strikes and refuses to seek UN sanctions against Israel for some of its violations."

Coupled with that is the assumption among Arabs that "the United States is all-powerful, is in control and dictates things," he says. "If something happens, it is because the United States wants it."

Several foreign-policy experts say the United States has refused to "go along" with accords, treaties and conferences other countries, even its allies, strongly support. Among the issues are global warming, land mines, an international criminal court, children's rights and racism.

"We haven't been very cooperative and now we want the world to cooperate with us in combating terrorism," says a former senior intelligence official. "We're a target at the very moment when there are only a few countries that we can truly count on."

A reliance on technology rather than human intelligence has made America more vulnerable, says Edward Djerejian, founding director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

"Intelligence capabilities can't depend solely on satellites," the former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria says.

"We need people on the ground. We need a political, social and cultural context for terrorism. Only infiltration will yield the kind of information that thwarts their efforts. And that is nearly impossible in such a closed society."

Clash of civilizations

These "fault lines," Dr. Huntington argues, are replacing Cold War political, economic and ideological boundaries as the new flash points for crisis and bloodshed. As people define their identity in ethnic and religious terms, they are more likely to make an "us" vs. "them" division between themselves and people of different ethnic backgrounds and religions.

If Dr. Huntington is right, Dr. Skidmore says the only effective solution is tolerance and understanding.

"If we have to strike, it needs to be a prudent and responsible action. When the American people say they support [military] action no matter whether there are civilian casualties, they are not thinking about their neighbors or family members dying."

If this nation's hubris hasn't made it a target, then its innocence certainly has.

"Americans are in shock because they haven't had to live this nightmare like people in Ireland or Israel," Dr. Ganor says.

It seems inexplicable to Americans, he adds, that human beings would turn jet aircraft into suicide bombers and murder thousands of helpless civilians.

"But for the terrorists, it's a holy war, and the motivation for such brazen acts is that they will be richly rewarded in heaven," he says. "The United States represents the culture of the infidel."

One aim of modern terrorism, Dr. Ganor says, is to get world leaders to change their political views and make concessions.

"America has not been the only recipient of this kind of violence as pressure – and the resulting democratic dilemma," he says. "How do you fight terrorism and not hurt democratic liberal values?"

In the aftermath of Tuesday's carnage, nearly every member of President Bush's Cabinet said the country needed to act, but in a way that safeguards the sense of justice and preserves the freedoms American citizens cherish.

Moderate Arab states

Dr. Ganor says it may be fear that prevents countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who want no part of fundamentalism, from denouncing and helping to defeat Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, who have been blamed for the U.S. attacks.

"It is not that the United States has to change its values. It is that the moderate Arab states have to raise their voices and say the entire Muslim world will neither accept nor succumb to the violence of Islamic fundamentalism," says Mr. Djerejian.

Will that happen before the United States suffers another attack?

"There is no question, this administration has to move quickly," Mr. Djerejian says. "No one bullet is going to be the solution. There are too many facets to this. Strike blindly and there will be an endless cycle of violence."

Yet hesitation might be a sign of weakness, Dr. Ganor says.

"Bin Laden is a resistance hero to many people. If he is involved, and I don't know who else could have pulled something this sophisticated off, then taking him out does not end antipathy towards the U.S. It strengthens the cause among his followers.

"I know that Dr. Huntington's analysis of global conflict has been hotly debated, even called stereotypical and biased. But I believe that we are in the midst of a collision of cultures. Religion is at the heart of it, and it has been politicized."

Some would say on both sides.

Mr. Bush has declared the situation "a monumental battle of good versus evil." Saddam Hussein called American leaders devils and said its evil policies were the reasons for the attack.

"It is unwise to start talking good and evil," Dr. Norris says. "All wars seek to portray their position as divinely inspired or a just cause.

"If the United States retaliates, my goal as a Christian should be to regret the deaths that may come about on either side. And pray there is no more bloodshed. It is one thing to regret, and quite another to rejoice at some one's death."

The Koran's concepts of peace, justice and truth are compatible with Christian tenets, he says.

"For centuries, civilizations have learned to co-exist. There have been painful periods.

"That must be a lesson from this terrible week, in which Americans have learned to live with fear, anger, confusion ...."

And being targets.