BALI EXPLOSION IS PART OF WAR OF CIVILISATIONS
By Safa Haeri, IPS Editor
PARIS 15 Oct. (IPS) The atrocious explosion in the Indonesian island of Bali not only confirms (Samuel) Huntington’s theory of "War of Civilisations", but also that this conflict has entered an active phase", according to a veteran Iranian political analyst, referring to the renowned American political scientist’s "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order".
[In this provocative -- and, as it turns out, prescient -- analysis of the state of world politics after the fall of communism, Mr. Huntington explain how "civilisations" based on culture and religion have replaced nations and ideologies as the driving force in global politics today].
The devastating blast that shattered last Saturday night a popular night club on the "paradise" Island’s world famous Kuta Beach, packed with foreign tourists, most of them Australians, killed more than 180 people and wounded another 300, according to Indonesian officials who blamed Islamist terrorist groups believed to be linked to the "al-Qa’eda" terror network.
The explosion that killed mostly young people shocked the world and was condemned by almost all governments, including the Islamic Republic of Iran and some other Muslim leaders who, nevertheless, found the occasion to blame Washington’s Middle East policy and President George W. Bush’s plans to overthrow the Iraqi dictator.
"Whatever the reason for the savage operation, but there is no doubt that the explosion – the biggest since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States -- that killed so many innocent, young people, would further alienate the Muslims in the world, confirming the view that Islam has become the new evil menacing the humanity", said Mr. Dariyush Homayoon, a former Iranian journalist and minister, now based in Geneva.
"The backward Islamic civilisation, the breeding ground for violent tendencies born from an acute believe in Islam, not only challenges the United States or Israel, but also is targeting particularly the Western civilisation and its values like freedom, democracy, human rights, equality etc, using terrorism as a weapon that, thanks to new western technologies, would create more danger for the free world", he pointed out.
Commenting the Bali explosion for the Persian service of Radio France Internationale (RFI), Mr. Homayoon, who leads a pro-Monarchist movement, said this "conflict of civilisations" would not limit itself to the "criminal and bellicose" operations like the ones in Bali or New York, "but the entire living space of the West, which has become a model of lifestyle in the world, is the target of the Islamist fundamentalism that spans from Iran to Sudan to Philippines, taking various shapes and aspects".
"This is a real war of civilisations. If we try to camouflage it with covers as opposition to American imperialism, to Zionism, to American policies in the Middle East or Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territories – as some intellectuals in Europe and in Muslim communities does – we are failing to pinpoint the roots and are fooling ourselves", he told RFI’s Rahmat Qasembagloo.
Asked if the West has any strategy to harness this wave of Islamist terrorism, Mr. Homayoon answered positively, pointing out that now that the West has become aware of the dangers of this terrorist phenomenon presents for its survival, it has taken proper measures to combat it on a planetary scale.
"The danger was when the world was not paying attention to the fact that any victory, even the slightest one, won by the Islamist fundamentalism would make this inhuman tendency stronger and more generalised" he observed, adding that it seems that finally one has realised where the danger comes from.
"Now that everyone has realised that no one is immune, including Muslim nations that are the fundamentalists’ main objective and must be cleaned from the Western corruption, that after the United states and Australia, the whole of the West and its values must be destroyed, a strategy has been worked out and is in motion", Mr. Homayoon assured.
In the view of Mr. Homayoon, this struggle against international terrorism is waged on a planetary scale and has military and financial aspects, as seen in Afghanistan or in Iraq and further down in Yemen or in the Philippines as well as in Europe, in order to dry down the very roots of the weapons of mass destruction that could reach terrorist organisations in the one hand and their financial structures on the other.
"Though no one can say for sure when this strategy would end and how, but there is no doubt that every single victory achieved would have substantial result, helping mankind breath in safety", Mr. Homayoon concluded.
In an editorial, the left wing French daily "Liberation" noted that the Muslim terrorists aims at sowing chaos and anarchy in Muslim societies.
"By creating the Bali catastrophe, Islamist terrorists not only have singled out world’s largest Muslim nation, but also deprived it from one of its main source of income, which is tourism, and therefore weakening further an already fragile economy", the paper said.
"It is not of much importance to know which of the terrorist organisations is behind the Bali carnage. What is important is that this tragedy is adding to pessimism and fear, hence the need for serious action against Islamist fundamentalism", commented the centre-right daily "Le Figaro". ENDS WAR OF CIVILISATIONS 151002