Abstract. Today the most significant issues in Central Asian countries are extremism, political Islam and Daesh which caused the progress in Salafism, terrorism and resulted DAESH (ISIS) which is the back bone of terrorism. Political Islam emerged in Islamic Middle East in 1980’s and the Taliban was the product of political Islam. Al-Qaeda came later and now ISIS or Daesh is the new so called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that claim is going to establish real Islam. The implementation of Islamic law by DAESH, even is not recognized by fanatic reactionary circles such as Salafi in Saudi Arabia. Many of Sunni Muftis do not accept the behaviors of Daesh terrorists in their territory of governing. The Islamic clerics and Muftis believe that this kind of Islam had not been exited in the history of Islam. Those who named themselves ISIS are the creature of Evil and there is no similarity between them and real Islam.
The ISIS is a creature of some circle and centers of powers, implemented wealth and ideology to apply reactionary thoughts to promote their ideas. Eurasia in some extant is going to be the center of extremism in the future. ISIS based on Salafism wants to establish Dar-ol-Islam (the territory of Islam) which within it, lives unmah(the Islamic nation) and the territory has border lines with another territory named Dar-ol-harb(the territory of war) with border lines named Thughur. The clashes of dar-ol-Islam and dar-ol-harb (the land of fighting) will extent from Middle East to Europe especially to Andalusia which in early Islamic era it existed in Iberian peninsula in Spain till 13th. century.
In this article the author is going to hint the governments of the region to work together.
The terrorist group who emerged from the ashes of war of USA against Iraq, has changed the peaceful face of Islam and Islamic values, unfortunately named themselves Islamic state. In second half of 21st. century, with modern world and equipments and facilities, they want fight with non-Muslim area to create a new state. But in the name of Islam they had done many actions which are out of Islamic law and are anti Islam and anti Quranic manners. They are at the same time Islamic extremist that damaged Islam and all Muslim societies hate them.
According to early Islamic society, the areas which Muslims lived there named Dar-ol-Is- lam. The areas beyond Muslim named Dar-ol- Harb. The Muslims who lived in Dar-ol-Islam named Ummanh (Islamic Nation), because according to Quran, there were no difference between Muslims in terms of race and skin colors.
The world is divided into the House of Islam and the House of War, the Dar al-Islam and the Dar al-harb. The Dar al-Islam is all those lands in which a Muslim government rules and the Holy Law of Islam prevails. Non-Muslims may live there on Muslim sufferance. The outside world, which has not yet been subjugated, is called the "House of War," and strictly speaking a perpetual state of jihad, of holy war, is imposed by the law. The law also provided that the jihad might be interrupted by truces as and when appropriate. In fact, the periods of peace and war were not vastly different from those which existed between the Christian states of Europe for most of European history.
The law thus divides unbelievers theologically into those who have a book and profess what Islam recognizes as a divine religion and those who do not; politically into dhimmis, those who have accepted the supremacy of the Muslim state and the primacy of the Muslims, and harbis, the denizens of the Dar al-harb, the House of War, who remain outside the Islamic frontier, and with whom therefore there is in principle, a canonically obligatory perpetual state of war until the whole world is either converted or subjugated [1].
But in the second decade of 20th. century after the collapse of Ottoman empire, the elimination of Khalifah title by the national assembly of new Turkey government, the Idea of Islamic State has been emerged. There were many dispute among Islamic figures in Indian subcontinent, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Iran and some other societies. From that time till now the dispute between Islamic society has not been solved. The Sep. 11 has been given an opportunities for arising the dispute. The leader of Islamic State (Daesh) has established Islamic State which Islamic Ummah is living there and he is the khalifah of Muslim. But it is very interesting that there is no Islamic country who accept his leadership and nobody out of his dominant territory approved his leadership.
It was supposed that if Bin Laden to be killed, al-Qaede will collapse and terrorism will be ended. But as it was clear, the terror in Afghanistan and al-Qaede operating areas still going on. Taliban in Afghanistan, Alshabab in Somlia, Buku Haram in Nigeria, Daesh in Syria and Iraq, all of them introduce themselves as Islamic Jihadists who are fighting for helping to promote real Islam. But according to many Islamic sources and many Islamic religious leaders in several Islamic countries, the terror for spreading Islam is not acceptable in any means. What is happening if the world society does not witness any terroristic attack? Will it be without terrorism? But terrorism has existed from the beginning of world history. During the history, even today, some revolutionaries, political parties, organizations, or some figures, to carry on their political aims, choose terror as a tool to overcome their ambitious, or interest, to remove their rivals. Here extremism appears. What is the extremism?
Extremism means, literally: driving (something) to the limit, to the extreme or the quality or state of being extreme, advocacy of extreme measures or views. Nowadays, the term is mostly used in a political or religious sense, for an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied shared social consensus) to be far outside the (acceptable) mainstream attitudes of society. But extremism can, for example, also be meant in an economic sense.
The term "extremism" is usually meant to be pejorative: to express (strong) disapproval, but it may also be meant in a more academic, purely descriptive, non-condemning sense.
The main factors for those who do terror are the lack of logic. Injustice, poverty and ignorance are the other main reasons for those who have chosen terror as a tool to access their negative desires, and overcome their satanic wills. Sometimes the terrorism carries a psychological war characters.
Hamid Karzay ex-president of Afghanistan had said that after 10 years of presence, activities and operations, the coalition foreign forces were not able to make security and stability in Afghanistan.
Not only Afghanistan, but also world society, mainly neighboring countries had many challenges with the situation in Afghanistan. Instability, drug trafficking, terrorism, extremity Islamist movement(Taliban and al-Qaede) and so on, made the worst situation in Afghanistan that influenced negatively in the situation of the region, Eurasia as well as world society.
The term of Terrorism with no agreed definition among governments and academic analysts, but almost invariably used in a pejorative sense, most frequently to describe life threatening actions perpetrated by politically motivate self-appointed sub-state group. In short, one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter (Oxford Political Dictionary, first published, 1996).
Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine introduce themselves as freedom fighters. Chechens in North Caucasus named themselves as fighters against so-called Russian occupation. PKK in Turkey who are fighting with central government of Turkey they introduced themselves as Kurdish Democratic movement who they fight for autonomy in frame work of Turkey government structure.
There is no any clear definition of terrorism. It is depends on the view of governments, organizations, and persons who considers the subject. But one thing is clear and it is that killing people and making horror. Threatening civilians and making instability and damaging security of the society.
There Are Two Causes of Terrorism
All terrorist acts are motivated by two things:
- Social and political injustice: People choose terrorism when they are trying to right what they perceive to be a social or political or historical wrong – when they have been stripped of their land or rights, or denied these.
- The belief that violence or its threat will be effective, and usher in change. Another way of saying this is: the belief that violent means justify the ends. Many terrorists in history said sincerely that they chose violence after long deliberation, because they felt they had no choice.
This explanation of the causes of terrorism may be difficult to swallow. It sounds too simple, or too theoretical. However, if you look at any group that is widely understood as a terrorist group, you will find these two elements are basic to their story [2].
From the beginning of 19th. century in Caucasus region, when the Russian army occupied Muslims territories in North Caucasus and captured Iranian lands in Caucasus, the oppressed nations who resisted against foreign invader, some kind of guerillas movements appeared in these areas. Those brave heroes, who were engaged in partisan fighting against Russian armed forces, were supported by local people. Qachaq Nabi (1854-1896) in Azerbaijan, Imam Shamil (1797-1871) in North Caucasus are among who could be mentioned in this regards. These irregular and informal organizations could revenge the oppression and injustice of Russia’s Tsarist regime. Later those partisan became the shelter for oppressed people. They made several night raids upon military bases to get arms and patrons to continue their activities. This is the beginning of terrorism activities in recent centuries, but we know exactly that the roots of terrorism in East, returns back to the Hashashin (assassins) thought in early 12th. century in Persia during Saljughids dynasty by Hassan Sabbah.
He founded a group whose members are sometimes referred to as the Hashshashin or "Soldiers" to protect from attackers outside of Iran.
Let’s come back to the present situation. Often, when particularly gruesome bombing or murders occur, two or three terrorist organization may try to claim credit for the atrocities. There are some best known non-state groups that have employed terrorism in several countries. Many governments also use various forms of terrorism in seeking to achieve their political objectives, including air strikes, mass executions, and imprisonment. Effort have been made by the international community to condemn terrorist activities through the United Nations, but the majority of the world leaders retain sympathy for guerilla warfare and terrorism used for pursuit of political objectives with which they agree [3].
The terrorists of today often become the patriotic leaders and national heroes of tomorrow. This fact makes it more difficult for the national and international communities to combat them.
After arresting Abdullah Ujālān the leader of Kurdistan workers party (named PKK), there were several uprising in Kurdistan of Iraq and Turkey. He has been the hero of Kurd Nation, but from the view of Turkish government he is a terrorist. After the killing of Osama Bin Laden, many fanatics Pakistani Muslim changed the figures and faces of themselves to demonstrate their sensitiveness to him. During the recent parliamentary election of Egypt, a lot of Salafism believers who won a quarter of votes, gathered in Al-Tahrir square in a meeting and shouted that "Oh USA, we are all Bin Laden".
A lot of Chechen families named their new born sons, Shāmil, refer to Imam Shamil of Daghistan the Imam of mountainous Muslim territory called Imamāmistān, and Shāmil Bāsāyev, assassinated Chechen rebellion's commander. The use of terror tactics by groups that seek to achieve political objectives has many historical precedents, but growing dependence on modern transportation facilities and easy access to weapons and explosive devices have encouraged its use in recent years. Yet, the frequency and magnitude of terrorist activities remains small in contrast to the wide publicity received by terrorists.
Daesh, the Al-Qaide followers, is a modern terrorist organization, has a very complicated structure. It has created a communication network all over the world in a spider web system that even a most powerful country such as USA cannot destroy it. They are financed and supported by several persons or structures and even religious leaders. This made it difficult to have any operation against them. They are hidden enemy. In the territory that they have captured between Syria and Iraq, they established some kind of government. They collect taxes from business sector in occupied area, export energy, do drug trafficking, human trade and so on to get revenue to govern. Many terrorist fighters have been gathered around them from many part of the world especially from Islamic countries as well as Eurasia. Central Asian Muslims joined them and some Chechen rebels joined them to transfer their experiences of fighting with classic Russian army.
The modern terrorism by Daesh is a very complicated terrorist activities that engaged world community, The scope of their terror covers East Asia to west Africa, Middle East and Europe. They attract and employ many skilled expert from Muslim and non-Muslim volunteers to join them. Many of them has been attracted by the attraction of Islam religion and some others are adventurer as well as those who are interesting to find a source of income.
Among terrorist fighters of Islamic State from Eurasian region there are both extremist Muslim and adventurer and seeking for job person. The economic factor plays most significant role in attracting youth from Central Asia and Caucasus. Because many of labour migrants who emigrate seasonally from the region to Russia to work in economic sectors, after the EU economic and political sanction against Russia upon Ukraine crisis and Crimea, they lost their job and no they changed their destinations from Russia to Middle East.
Islam-phobia recently has been very active according to Daesh terrorist activities. In terms of Islamic world, many Islamic research centers believe that Daesh has been created by West (as some US authorities confessed) to resist against Shia’a development. They created a group of so-called Islamic State to make separatism among Muslim countries. Anyway, Islamic leaders and religious leaders and prominent figures announced that Daesh is not an Islamic establishment, but it is a Zionism form of Islam to destroy the name of Islam. If we take into account that there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, that's 23 percent of the world's population. And somewhere close to 1.6 billion of these Muslims have not committed an act of terror, nor have they directly facilitated any terrorist act. So it's absolutely true to say that (in the context of terrorism) not only are most Muslims peaceful, but almost every Muslim alive bears no direct culpability for terrorist acts.
More Muslims live in Asia than in the Middle East, according to Pew Research. India and Pakistan have about 350 million Muslims between them; the Middle East-North Africa region has 317 million. There are 43 million Muslims in Europe, and 3.5 million Muslims in the United States. There are more Muslims in Indonesia than in any other country in the world, although Pakistan will have that distinction by 2030 [4].
Islam, a religion of mercy, does not permit terrorism. In the Quran, God has said: “God does not forbid you from showing kindness and dealing justly with those who have not fought you about religion and have not driven you out of your homes. God loves just dealers” (Quran, 60:8).
The Prophet Muhammad (peace upon him) used to prohibit soldiers from killing women and children, and he would advise them: “... Do not betray, do not be excessive, do not kill a newborn child”. And he also said: “Whoever has killed a person having a treaty with the Muslims shall not smell the fragrance of Paradise, though its fragrance is found for a span of forty years”.
Also, the Prophet Muhammad has forbidden punishment with fire. He once listed murder as the second of the major sins, and he even warned that on the Day of Judgment, “The first cases to be adjudicated between people on the Day of Judgment will be those of bloodshed”.
Muslims are even encouraged to be kind to animals and are forbidden to hurt them. Once the Prophet Muhammad (p.h) said: “A woman was punished because she imprisoned a cat until it died. On account of this, she was doomed to Hell. While she imprisoned it, she did not give the cat food or drink, nor did she free it to eat the insects of the earth”.
In light of these and other Islamic texts, the act of inciting terror in the hearts of defenseless civilians, the wholesale destruction of buildings and properties, the bombing and maiming of innocent men, women, and children are all forbidden and detestable acts according to Islam and the Muslims. Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy, and forgiveness, and the vast majority have nothing to do with the violent events some have associated with Muslims. If an individual Muslim were to commit an act of terrorism, this person would be guilty of violating the laws of Islam [5].
Allah, the Most High, said: “And do not kill those souls whom Allaah has prohibited unless [justified by] a due [legal] right”. And those souls that Allaah has prohibited, it is referring to the life of a Muslim. And it is referring to everyone who has an agreement with the Muslims, and likewise those non- Muslims who have been given right of safety by the Muslims. The Messenger of Allaah said, in an authentic hadeeth reported by imam al-Bukhari, “Whoever kills a non-Muslim who has an agreement with the Muslims then he will not smell the fragrance of Paradise” [6].
In fact, the question, “what causes terrorism?" is not quite the right question to be asked, because we will never be able to answer it. We cannot say that the presence of one factor provokes terrorism in the same way that we can say with scientific certainty that certain toxins cause diseases [7].
As we mentioned before, in some communities especially in very poor Islamic society, the people call some terrorist as the hero of the nation. At the same time they are terrorists according to international law. Those people who named these terrorist groups as hero, certainly belong to low layer of societies with less knowledge. If we take into account the situation for Al-Qaeda and Taliban (in Afghanistan) especially the partisan of Bin Laden in Pashtunistān, we will find them poor, illiterate and oppressed people. Let the people improve their livelihood and change the situation as a normal standard, they will learn how to establish a civil society. In the West the nations are enjoying life in a best level that nobody in Pakistan and Afghanistan tribal areas can dream. They saw it via satellite TV and they compare their situation with them. At last, they recognize that their situation has been created by them. So they decide revenge, thus they produce drugs, join terrorist groups to fight with Western World. All of them conclude that the main responsible is West. Today more than before the world is going to be smaller and as McLuhan said it is going to be a World Village. The common responsibility calls us to find a resolution for Afghanistan issue.
Producing criminal action movies especially by American film companies, pave the way of training terrorism. An international watchdog structure should control these issues. In last decades, the movies were better than today and had a little cases of hostilities and even when they had the scene of killing. But today, in several western and Eastern movie productions, one hardly can find a movie without hostile scenes. The singing and the text of those, contain the subjects of war, crime, hostiles, revenge, assassinations and so on. How we could expect that our youth will not practice that way. These kinds of cultural productions are the trainers for future terrorism agenda.
For those seeking to deal with terrorism, the main problem is whether to adopt a policy to counter-violence against them, or to undertake political compromises that might placate them [3].
Every military actions or operations consist of philosophy of existence, military base, personals, monetary founds and field of operations.
The Islamic State’s monetary resources come from tax collection, drugs trafficking, human trade, sex trade, illegal energy export from occupied areas and so on. These are quietly haram (prohibited to sell and buy) in Islamic law. Annually they collect millions of dollars from these ways. It is a certain reason that Islamic State is not an Islamic society. If the production of drugs could be decreased, the follow of their revenues will cut considerably. We have to find the procedure. There is a complicated network for drugs including cultivation, harvesting, processing, trade and consumption. The main role is played by farms and farmers. Those farmers are Muslim people. If they justify and understаnd that according to Islamic Sharia it could be Harām (prohibited) (because any acts results hurt to Muslims, it is harām and should be left), then they have to change their productions. Working in terrorist group for Muslim people is haram, and it should be ratified by Islamic leaders from Islamic society like Central Asia and Caucasus as well as Islamic areas of Russian Federation like North Caucasus, Volga region and Siberia. There is an Islamic law which the Muftis ratify and called Fitva. If any Mufti in Islamic World ratifies any five and name some acts and behavior “haram” all Muslims of the society should obey. It should be approved by Islamic leaders and prominent religious figures in Islamic Center such as al- Azhar, Mecca, Medina, Najaf and also in international bodies, that the terrorist attack and joining to Daesh and other terrorist groups are haram, or the cultivation of opium (kuknar), there will be many changes. Of course, United Nation has done some plan to replacement of opium with other crop, but few developments have been happened.
We hope that the mass media in Eurasia have powerful influence on the public opinion and it has a soft power potential to carry on about the clearance of the youth mind to understand the dangers of so-called Islamic State (Daesh) and avoid joining Islamic State. It is better to call it “satanic State”. Very hard working is needed to remove this “black spot” from the peaceful face of Islam and at the same time human society.
REFERENCES:
- House of Islam and House of War. Available in: http://www.jewishvir- tuallibrary.org/jsource/History/daralislam.html
- http://terrorism.about.com/od/causes/a/causes_terror.htm
- The international relations dictionary, p. 204
- Marc Ambinder, 8 facts you need to know about Islam and terrorism, January 22, 2015. Available in: http://theweek.com/articles/534929/8-facts-need- know-about-islam-terrorism
- What Does Islam Say about Terrorism? Available in: http://www.islam- guide.com/ch3-11.htm
- Islam is Against Terrorism And The Islamic Legal Rulings On Terrorist Acts And Those Who Commit Them. Available in: http://www.islamagainstextrem- ism.com/articles/klpog-islam-is-against-terrorism-and-the-islamic-legal-rulings- on-terrorist-acts-and-those-who-commit-them.cfm
- http://terrorism.about.com/od/causes/a/causes_terror.htm