Terrorism Never Leaves Its Own People

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

America is intensifying its efforts these days for what it calls fighting terrorism, working hard and diligently to build an international coalition made up primarily of Arab states to counter terrorism, ISIS especially. It is noteworthy that America speaks against terrorism with a full mouth, constantly accusing others of terrorism as though it were far removed from it, with no relation to its spread and its expanding scope at the global level. It always acts as guardian of the world, quickly issuing rulings classifying others, describing them either as terrorists or as supporters of terrorism. Through its activity, America tries to send the world a message that it alone is innocent, and everyone else is the criminal.

Defining Terrorism

A long debate has raged on the international stage over the definition of terrorism, and America has always tried to monopolize that definition, refusing to convene an international conference to reach an internationally accepted definition. Arab states such as Iraq under Saddam Hussein and Syria under Hafez al-Assad worked to push toward convening such a conference, but America always refused, fearing the definition might encompass the conduct of certain states, Israel foremost among them. America wanted to monopolize the definition in order to remain the one whose political mood dominates the world, rejecting a scientific inquiry into the definition. For this reason, internal American bodies, such as the State Department, the Defense Department, and the White House, set their own definitions, all focusing on terrorism as a violent act carried out by armed organizations to achieve political ends.

The American definitions serve the American point of view, which is, at its core, hostile to every liberation movement in the world. It appears America is hostile to the freedoms of peoples and individuals, usually resorting to political and philosophical arguments to justify this hostility, which quickly turns into armed action and wars. Liberation movements constitute a legitimate target for American financial, military, security, and political strikes, and a definition had to be crafted that American policy, and the policies of dependent states, whether European or Arab, could be guided by. For this reason, the American definition is rejected, and does not address the problem of so-called terrorism on the international stage.

Terrorism is every act resting on direct or indirect force, violent or non-violent, that strips others of their rights, or stands between them and obtaining their rights. Force is a basic element of this definition, but it is not a condition that it be used directly to inflict direct material or physical harm — it can be used for threats and warnings, or for imposing economic and financial sanctions, or manufacturing a frightening, deterrent psychological and moral atmosphere in one way or another, with the ultimate goal of seizing others’ rights, controlling or plundering them, and preventing them from carrying out the actions necessary to achieve or obtain their rights. This definition excludes every action organizations or states might take with the aim of restoring violated rights or plundered wealth. Right belongs entirely to whoever defends himself and safeguards his rights, and no right belongs to whoever violates the freedoms and rights of others.

Based on this definition, colonialism is terrorism, and the traditional colonial states practiced it violently against colonized peoples, plundering the wealth of nations, and still practice the very same things through various creative methods. The United States represents the greatest source of terrorism in the world, because it behaves like a reckless, thuggish official, carrying his weapon on his back, distributing death here and there without the slightest sense of responsibility. The United States represents the highest degree of Western colonialism, embodied in cultural and intellectual domination over nations, and the use of both military and economic weapons against whoever refuses to offer loyalty and obedience. Indeed, the conduct of the United States confirms it is a Nazi state cloaked in silken humanitarian statements. Hitler wanted to control the world by force of arms and embody the superiority of the Aryan race over the whole world, and the United States is no less significant in this field, except that its military appetite is somewhat less severe than Nazi Germany’s. America went to Vietnam for no real reason, killing people, demolishing homes, and burning tree and stone, and headed to Afghanistan, wreaking corruption across the land, and its actions there ended with the spread of Islamic jihadist organizations everywhere. And whatever it went to Iraq for ended in the opposite result. Did these jihadist organizations, described as terrorist, really emerge spontaneously, as a mere reaction, or was there someone who created, funded, and armed them? History will answer this question, and the United States now stands in the dock. And who, if not the United States and its Arab agents, created the Sunni-Shiite strife across the Arab homeland and the Islamic world, preparing the appropriate environment for mass killing and criminality?

Despotism Is Terrorism

Within this definition, political despotism is terrorism, because it uses force against citizens to subjugate them, extort them, and prevent them from expressing themselves and choosing the system of government they see fit. Despotism uses force — the force of its security services — to oppress people, terrorize them, and strip them of their rights, and most Arab regimes fall within this classification. The Arab regimes have spread corruption, tyranny, defeat, humiliation, and abasement across the various parts of the Arab homeland, so that the Arab homelands have become fair game, their wealth plundered, their honor a subject of mockery and ridicule. To this day, after all the suffering the Arabs have endured, most Arab ruling regimes still do not recognize people’s freedom, give no weight to their rights, and people’s wealth is squandered at the gambling table.

Despotism is injustice itself, and injustice breeds a reaction that gradually develops into violence. Naturally, injustice breeds oppression, and oppression breeds revenge, and no revenge expresses itself more powerfully than taking up arms. The Arab regimes have oppressed people until they ignited civil wars — wars still coming for those Arab countries where people have not yet turned to fighting one another. But who sponsored, supported, and encouraged these Arab regimes of oppression? The colonial states, the United States of America especially. America is the sponsor of Arab despotism, the one that provided every kind of support to the Arab security services so they could remain capable of continuing to subjugate their peoples and keep them under control. America has treated our countries as fair game, ignited strife within them, and recruited many of our sons into its service and the service of the regimes of despotism, under the pretext of democracy and human rights. Being from Palestine myself, I see every day American policies crystallizing into oppression and the squandering of Palestinian rights, carried out by Palestinians who mouth national slogans.

Despotism and Terrorism to Tear the Arabs Apart

Before its temporary military withdrawal from the Arab countries, Western colonialism entrusted the task of controlling the Arab peoples to agents who took their orders from it, tracking and overseeing them from a distance. Colonialism found the best means of keeping the Arabs torn apart and weak lay in installing ignorant, weak rulers who favor their own private interests and the interests of their tribes over the interests of the Arab nation. For colonialism’s own purposes, it was necessary to keep the Arabs weak and marginalized, so that they would never rise again to rebuild their civilization and become a strong rival to Western civilization. The West succeeded in this to the point that Arab rulers were not content merely with tearing the Arabs apart into tribal fiefdoms — they also worked to strike national unity within each individual Arab country, in cooperation with Western colonialism. The ambition of Arab unity was crushed, then they crushed the ambition of preserving national unity, and now the Arabs merely hope that a single city or a single village might remain united. Sykes-Picot fragmented Arab homelands such as Syria and Iraq, but the despotic Arab rulers tore apart what was already torn, and continue stirring internal strife through their refusal to recognize the Arab human being’s right to freedom and dignity.

Terrorism is necessary in order to keep the Arab terrified, cowardly, and fearful for his daily bread. For this reason, enormous budgets had to be allocated to the Arab security services so they could practice their contemptibility against the Arab citizen, and Israel had to be supported, so that it remains the greatest power in the Arab-Islamic region, spreading terror everywhere. For this reason, it was inevitable that an Arab-Israeli alliance would be forged, integrating the forces of terrorism in the region. And if we are to explain the reasons behind the emergence of jihadist organizations in the region, we find that the Arabs’ defeats before Israel constitute the greatest generator of these organizations.

Israel Is a Terrorist State

Since the 1970s, America has been trying to remove the charge of terrorism from Israel, and this may be the primary reason America has refused to search for a global definition of terrorism. America has pushed hard toward strange religious interpretations designed to stir internal strife, particularly within the ranks of Sunni Muslims, and for this reason it is no surprise that every jihadist organization described as terrorist belongs to the Sunnis. Arab states cooperated with America and promoted devilish religious ideas that turned Islam into a bloody, deviant religion in the eyes of many peoples of the earth. And instead of Islam being a fundamental factor in unifying the nation, it has, at times, become a factor of fragmentation.

Israel is the greatest den of terrorism in the world, and were it not for its existence, none of these wars would have broken out in the Arab-Islamic region, none of this blood would have been shed, no homes demolished, no lives lost. It operates under the sponsorship and support of the United States of America. Why does the Palestinian people still live in camps under harsh conditions? Why does Gaza remain under siege? Why does part of the Palestinian people remain under occupation? The reason is Israel and those who support it, in East and West. Occupation itself is terrorism, and America, like several Arab regimes, provides every kind of support to the occupation. Israel’s practices, across various levels, from Palestinians’ freedom of movement to their right to water, building, and development, fall within the category of terrorism, and if the world is to repel terrorism and end the existence of terrorist entities in the region, it must begin with Israel first, then with the Arab regimes allied with it. America and its partners, in their recent terrorism-fighting campaign, are getting the address wrong, getting the target wrong. Israel is the foremost address of terrorism, and this address could never have persisted without American support itself. So can America fight itself and its own protégé first, before speaking of ISIS and the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations?

States Seeking American Support

There are states in the Arab-Islamic region now seeking American support to repel organizations classified as terrorist. To these states we say: they are trading one terrorism for another, harsher one. It is like someone who wants to remove a criminal by force from the one who taught him crime in the first place. Stop — America is not a help but a wrecking tool, and whoever supports terrorism cannot easily rid himself of it. And if the Arab regimes are to rid themselves of terrorism, they must first recognize the freedom of the Arab citizen, and change their political conditions according to what this recognition requires, and second, they must stop supporting Israel, which will never stop igniting strife and wars.

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