Fascists Under The Garb Of Islam

— by Shamsul Islam —

As per the initial investigations by the French intelligence agencies, the massacre at Lion in France by a French Muslim (of the Tunisian origin), who riding a heavy truck ploughed through a big gathering, celebrating French National Day, is reported to have been committed not as part of terrorism commanded bysome Islam-o-fascist organization. It seems to be the work of a volatile petty criminal with little interest in Islam.It may be true, but fact is that juggernaut of the Islam-o-fascists is on the roll marauding different parts of the globe with unparalleled savagery and sadism. They claim to represent ‘true’ spirit of Islam and targetting the West for wrong doing to Muslims.

The Islam-o-fascists who originated in Arabia not only out rightly reject any talk of diversity in the world but also within Islam. Islam originated in Arabia with its holy book in Arabic but spread to different parts of the world because as a religion it adapted itself to different environments and geographical realities. Iran’s conversion to Islam was complete by mid-7th century but former refused to abandon its Persian and linguistic heritage. When Arab caliphs tried to erode it, the Iranian Muslim intelligentsia launched a movement called Shu’ubiyyah to protect and revive their distinctive language and culture, a process known as Persianization. Despite almost a century long persecution the Arab rulers failed to destroy this spirit and allowed sermons in Persian.

South East Asia is another example where Islam merged into local social milieu. In countries like Indonesia almost all Muslims carry Sanskrit names. The national airline is known as ‘Garuda Indonesia’, garuda being a Sanskrit word. In these areas Islam became a permanent fixture due to its flexibility otherwise it would have disappeared long back. The modern Islamic puritans need to recollect that the holiest place in Islam known as Kabah in Mecca, Saudi Arabia was a pre-Islam temple and was chosen by Prophet to show the continuity.

Islam-o-fascists have not only been spilling blood of  innocent children, women and men but also destroying wonderful historic pieces which human civilization created in last so many millenniums. The dastardly  destruction of giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, the greatest symbols of Gandhara art in the world by Talibans in 2001 and One of the most culturally significant pieces of architecture in the world Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Syria in September 2015 only shows this gang is absolutely ignorant of history.

For them it is difficult to comprehend that human civilization did not start with the advent of Islam. It developed in thousands of years. There were conflicts but synthesis was the rule and Islam too developed as synthesis of many cultures and religions. Also, no religion can claim that its followers make a monolithic whole or can be turned into one by some jeehadi army.

The Islam-o-fascists defend their criminal acts arguing that they are fighting to ‘Save Islam/Muslims’ from Christian/non-Muslim adversaries. Their grouse is that in the name of fighting terrorism the West is targeting all Muslims and see what these self-appointed guardians of Islam are doing. They are killing, raping and maiming innocent people who have nothing to do with rulers of any creed or hue. It’s idiotic to think that bombs and bullets are programmed to first verify from the victims his/her religion before striking. The recent carnage at Dacca showed that even if these criminals manually verify every hostage’s religion there would be Muslims who would choose to be killed with other non-Muslims. They forget that on this earth almost everywhere people professing different religions stay and work together.

The leaders of the West, the USA and allies like Saudi Arabia declare their firm resolves to crush Islam-o-fascists after every attack. The mainstream U.S. media goes on to explain these terrorist attacks in the context of the `clash of civilizations’ thesis of Samuel Huntington.It is interesting; those who created jeehadi Islam are also fed up with it. This is West which faced with the rising tide of Arab nationalism,pan-Arabism, Arab socialism and anti-imperialistin 1970s under the leadership of Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party which was led by both Muslims and Christians that the intelligence agencies of the West starting sponsoring ‘Islamic’ organizations which would fight the Arab socialists. When the Arab socialists decided to make Arab world free of totalitarian kingdoms like Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the West ensured their safety and security against any socialist revolution in these kingdoms.

The official facts about how Talibaans were created and nurtured by the West, specially CIA are well-documented in a publication of the Yale University “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia” (author Ahmed Rashid). The revelations are shocking. Under the direct supervision of CIA chief William Casey in 1990s some 100,000 Muslim radicals from 43 Islamic countries in the Middle East, North and East Africa, Central Asia and the Far East were gathered in Pakistan and Afghanistan armed with the latest armoury including stinger missiles in order to fight Communists. We must not forget that USA which killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 in Pakistan was the country whose security agency CIA had flown him in its own plane to Peshawar in 1990s to lead Talibaan.

This terrible fact may not be known to many that ISIS was originally created as Al Qaeda-linked opposition militias in Syria by CIA and military hardware and cash was made available courtesy Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in order to dislodge Shiite regime in Syria. The Chilcot Report released in early July 2016 makes it clear how UK led by Tony Blair fabricated grounds to destroy Iraq.

Islam-o-fascists’ claim to be messiah of Muslims is a sheer lie. When CIA sponsored genocide of progressive Muslims in Indonesia in 1965-66, these were Islam-o-fascists organizations of Indonesia like, Nahdlatul UlamaMuhammadiyah who butchered in collusion with the Indonesian army approximately 1.5 million Muslims, Christians and Buddhists. This genocide ranks as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century. It was no different in East Pakistan during 1969-1971. The Islamist gangs were leading killers and rapists; approximately 2 million killed and 4 lakh women raped. Most of the victims were Muslims but minorities were almost cleansed.

India with third largest population of Muslims in the world would have been a good recruitment place for Islam-o-fascists. But Indian Muslims have never been part of any such project in the past and there is no likelihood of their falling prey to such a nefarious project. It is heartening to know that out of almost 17 crores of Muslims, according to Indian intelligence agencies, less than fifty persons have joined Islam-o-fascist ranks. Indian Muslims despite grave provocations from Hindutva organizations have remained committed to democratic-secular Indian polity. Interestingly, while challenging the Indianness of Indian Muslims Hindutva organizations and Islam-o-fascists are fully in agreement. According to Hindutva discourse, Muslims (& Christians)cannot be part of Hindu rashtra as they belong to foreign religion. Islam-o-fascists too claim that Indian Muslims are Muslims only and not part of Hindu India.  Indian intelligence agencies concur with the fact that radicalization of Indian Muslim youth took place only after the demolition of mosque at Ayodhya. The successful running of democratic-secular India is a guarantee against any poaching of Indians by any brand of theocratic politics.

Shamsul Islam  is a retired Professor of University of Delhi.Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com

For some of S. Islam’s writings in English, Hindi, Urdu & Gujarati see the following link:

http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam

Facebook: shams shamsul

Twitter: @shamsforjustice

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/20/fascists-under-the-garb-of-islam/