Lords of Terrorism

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition was recently announced, without our seeing details of the arrangements being prepared or the goals this coalition will pursue to eliminate terrorism. There is genuine doubt about the establishment of this coalition, because such an undertaking requires a long time and exhausting discussions, requires setting clear foundations for collective action, a clear definition of terrorism and of those who practice it, and also requires putting in place domestic laws in every participating state to cover the state’s activities in this field, and the actions of its security services and army. It is not easy to establish an alliance of this kind overnight, unless the grouping is purely a media event, with nothing to be expected of it on the ground. For this reason, we do not expect any serious action against terrorism from this coalition, particularly since a number of Islamic and Arab states themselves support terrorism, and are themselves accused of being terrorist. To make the picture clearer, I lay before the reader the headings of the most important sources of terrorism, at least in the Arab-Islamic region:

There are a fair number of primary sources of terrorism in the Arab homeland and the Islamic world, and these sources are not confined to ISIS, but encompass a broad spectrum of terrorists who sometimes hide beneath the umbrella of status, power, and media. The most important sources can be summarized as follows:

First: The Arab regimes, accustomed to repressing citizens, plundering their wealth, and pursuing them to reassure themselves of their submission and humiliation.

The Arab regimes are always keen on the continuation of their rule, and always stand ready to follow various devilish and repressive methods in order to be assured of remaining in power and controlling decision-making and money. Since their very birth, these regimes have been extremely keen to develop their security services to be highly effective in confronting the Arab citizen.

The Arab is oppressed, calculating a thousand times before expressing his opinion, because of the spread of intelligence agents in every nook and corner of the Arab homeland. This oppression and these pursuits have produced an Arab generation marked by baseness, submissiveness, and a readiness to flee and hide. This is what enabled enemies, the Zionist entity especially, to seize the necks of Arab soldiers, who could never hold out on the battlefields. It is also what helped the entity enter Arab countries forcefully, carrying out security, normalization, and commercial activities that returned it great benefit.

The Arab regimes left the Arab citizen no room to express himself, and so he decided to take up arms and carry out military activities that inflicted a great deal of harm on the public.

Second: The Zionist entity, which does not hesitate to use force against Arab citizens, particularly in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt.

Part of the Zionist entity’s strategy, from the very beginning, has been to keep the greatest military power in the Arab and Islamic region, so as to be capable of defeating the Arabs individually and collectively. For this reason, the Zionist entity has continually brandished its military capabilities, striking terror into the hearts of Arab governments and the hearts of Arabs generally. Because of this entity’s ugliness and brutality in dealing with the Arab peoples, and because of its enormous destructive capabilities, which have consumed Arab homes and houses in a number of Arab countries, Arab and Islamic organizations developed in order to combat and challenge it, and some of these organizations developed into terrorist movements no longer concerned with fighting the entity but with fighting the Arab citizen instead. The Zionist entity remains a primary wellspring for terrorist movements, because of the terrorism it practices.

Third: The United States, which has left no door unused through which it might terrorize Arabs.

America supported the despotic Arab regimes and still supports them to this day, knowing in advance that they are terrorist regimes that delight in pursuing Arab citizens. America is the one providing every kind of support to the Zionist entity, knowing this entity practices every kind of killing against Arabs, prevents Palestinians from returning to their homes and properties, practices settlement on the land it occupied in 1967, and pursues Palestinians in their every breath. America directly contributed to creating al-Qaeda and creating ISIS, and the rest of the Islamic terrorist organizations, so that they might wreak corruption across the land. America is corrupting, and has contributed, together with Arab states, to manufacturing internal Arab wars, and to manufacturing the war between Iraq and Iran, and America constantly presses to tighten the siege on Gaza and on Lebanese Hezbollah, working diligently to classify the Arab resistance factions among the lists of terrorist organizations.

Fourth: Corrupt clerics, who pump hatred and animosity against the other.

Not all clerics, but there is a large group among them who monopolize paradise, holding a divine mandate to practice excommunication and distribute seats in heaven and hell, inciting strife and racism in human conduct, stirring up souls, and manufacturing rancor. These rely on an obscurantist, fanatical, racist ideology that respects no other and recognizes no human rights for him. These have contributed to producing foolish generations that see no further than the tips of their own noses, unable to accept tolerance and coexistence with the other.

As for the organizations branded terrorist, they are not the primary source but a product. They are terrorist in their practices, but they are not the lord of terrorism. The lord of terrorism is embodied in the Arab regimes and those Western colonial powers, the United States foremost among them, that established and nurtured them. The terrorist organizations were nothing but a reaction to the practices of the true lords of terrorism. Had the Arab regimes reckoned with the consequences of their misconduct and their mistreatment of the Arab human being, all these criminal organizations would never have been born; had the people of the West understood what could result from establishing the Zionist entity, they would never have established it; and had the people of the West thought through the consequences of their colonial actions and ambitions toward Arab geography and wealth, they would have abandoned their traditional policies toward the Arabs.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “أرباب الإرهاب” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.