Remember the Algerian hostage crisis in In
Amenas early this year. An Al Qaeda affiliate led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar killed
more Japanese and Asians than Americans and Europeans working at the natural
gas joint venture site. This incident is symbolic to show that Islamic
extremists are enemy to anyone beyond Christians and Jews. The threat of radical
Islamists is universal. In high school and college world history textbooks, the
authors focus primarily on the Islam-West clash as typically seen in the
Crusade. Throughout the history, Islam and the West frequently antagonized each
other in the Battle of Tours, the Reconquista of Iberia, the Fall of Constantinople,
and the Siege of Vienna. Furthermore, 19th century colonialism has led to the
spread of anti-Western sentiments in the Islamic world.
In view of long and bitter Islam-West
conflicts, it is widely believed that Middle East Muslims hate Americans and
Europeans, but not Japanese and Asians. This is a sheer myth as shown in the In
Amenas massacre. In the eyes of radicals like Belmokhtar, any non-Muslim outsiders
are kaffir aliens. Moreover, from a literal understanding of the Koran, most of
the Japanese and Asians are more pagan than Judeo-Christian Americans and
Europeans, as both are not people of the Book. For example, many Japanese were brutally
killed by Islamic extremists, even though they were not acting with Americans
or Europeans, nor were they associated with Christianity, when they were
attacked. The most noticeable case is the shooting of Japanese diplomats,
Counselor to Britain Katsuhiko Oku and Third secretary to Iraq Masamori Inoue
were shot dead near Tiktit, shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein,.
For further understanding of the threat of
Islamic extremist from history. Islam fought against kaffir civilizations other
than the West. The most noticeable one is the destruction of Buddhist holy land
in India. It is commonly understood that resurgence of Vedism as Hinduism among
Indian rulers and grassroots. When Chinese (Tang) Buddhist monk Xuanzang stayed
in India to study Buddhism philosophy under the reign of Emperor Harsha Vardana
in the 7th century, Buddhism had been already in decline. However, it is
Islamic radicals who vandalized and delivered the final blow to Indian
Buddhism.
Islamic invasion to India was intensified
by the Ghaznavid Empire in the 11th century, which led to Islamification of the
subcontinent and iconoclastic assault to Buddhist civiilzation. The most fatal
raids were the destruction of venerable insttutions of Buddhist intellect,
including Nalanda University (where Xuanzang studied Buddhism philosophy and
Sanskrit) in 1193 and Vikramasila University in 1203 by Muhammad Bakhtiyar
Khilji during the Ghorid rule. Coincidentally, it was after 1,500 years since
Gautama Siddhartha expired when the Latter Day of the Law begins, according to
Buddhist theory in the early Middle Age. In this concept, the Latter Day,
people respect Buddha’s teachings, but no longer follow them, which leads to the
end of Buddhism and social disorder. It is the iron fist of Islam that
devastated Buddhism and brought the Latter Day to the real world in India.
Strangely, unlike European knights,
Buddhist kings and lords in Asia hardly thought of recapturing Siddhartha’s
birthplace and other holy lands in India from Muslim seizure. This is partly
because there were neither the pope of the Roman Catholic nor the Byzantine emperor
of the Eastern Orthodox to urge kings and lords to organize a multinational
coalition for religious cause in the Buddhist sphere. However the notion of the
Latter Day of the Law spread among Buddhist nations across East Asia. The
Latter Day theory had significant effects on the Buddhist thoughts.
In Japan, the impact was not just religious
but political. It was widespread of anxiety to social disorder that led to the
rise of samurais. War lords like Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoritomo
took over power from the emperor and aristocrats when Islamic warriors were
expanding their dominions in India. Therefore, I would like to stress the point
of my argument again that it is too dangerous to trivialize the threat of
Islamic extremists only for Americans and Europeans, considering the above
mentioned history. European launched the Crusade but Asians didn’t. That does
not belittle the danger of radical Muslims.
Now, I would like to discuss the peril of
Islamic radicalism in presentday context. Taliban is notorious for iconoclastic
ravage to bomb the Buddhas of Bamiyan in2001. Having spent several years in Guantánamo,
Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef published a memoir “My Life
with Taliban” in the United States in 2010. According to his book, Japan sent an
official delegation that accompanied a Sri Lankan Buddhist group to stop Taliban
from devastating the Buddhas. The Japanese delegation even said that they
respect Afghans as forefathers of Buddhist civilization and requested to
preserve these venerable cultural heritage.
In reply, Zaeef told them to convert to
Islam if they respect Afghans (“Japan offered to hide Bamiyan statues, but
Taliban asked Japan to convert to Islam instead”; Japan Today/AFP; February 27,
2010). The Japanese are too naïve to believe that they do not hate us as much
as Americans and Europeans. For extremists like Taliban and Al Qaeda, kaffirs
are kaffirs.
In view of such intolerance to other
religion and civilization, American conservatives and Indian policymakers are
extremely skeptic to the Good Talian Theory. Indians are highly alert to
Pakistan’s ties with Taliban and still resented with the Mumbai attacks in
2008. But it is quite likely that their historical experience of Islamic invasion
to the subcontinent has inflicted psychological impacts on their attitude to
extremists. In 2010, MP (Lower House) Manish Tewari, then-Spokesman of the
Indian National Congress (INC), stated clearly that he did not believe in good
Taliban as two Sikhs were beheaded by them (“There is no good Taliban: Congress”;
Economic Times; February 23, 2010).
Despite the request from the Obama
administration, India is still concerned with giving legitimacy to Taliban if
they are included in Afghan peace talks. After the meeting with Secretary of
State John Kerry in Delhi this June (“India's concerns over talks with Taliban
won't be overlooked”; New Indian Express; 24 June, 2013), Indian External
Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said that the Singh administration would
accept Taliban’s participation in Afghan peace talks as long as India’s redline
is respected at he ASEAN Regional Forum in Brunei early July (In change of
stance, India supports talks with Taliban;Times of India; July 3, 2013). The
redline is that the only legitimate government to represent Afghan sovereignty is
democratically elected Karzai, not Taliban.
However, oppositions like BJP criticize the
idea of talking with terrorists (“BJP cautions US against peace talks with
Taliban.”; Indian Express; July 24, 2013). Apparently, Indians are more sensitive
to the danger posed by Islamic terrorists than Americans and Europeans. In his
recent visit to Mumbai, Vice President Joseph Biden articulated that Taliban
must cut ties with Al Qaeda, in order to ease anxieties of India. However, Lisa
Curtis, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, comments that Biden
must assure that the United States will not make a secret deal with Taliban
after 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan (“Biden seeks to assure India on
Afghanistan, presses on trade” Reuters; July 24, 2013).
In view of history and presentday
international politics, we must change commonly believed perception that the
threat of Islamic extremism is for Americans and Europeans only. Once I heard a Japanese TV anchorman suggested
that Japanese people stay away from Americans to travel safely when they go to
the Middle East. I have no doubt that Indians will laugh scornfully at such a
poorly educated remark. They have historical experience in the horror of Islamic
extremists, which is deeply embedded in their minds, and no less catastrophic
than 911 terrorist attacks. Those religious fanatics are utterly merciless to
kaffirs regardless of race and nationality. Remember In Amenas!