The Socialist Aug/Sept 2003 page 10
From issue number 3
http://www.socialistpartyaustralia.org/paper/paper3.pdf
On web site http://www.socialistpartyaustralia.org

The History of Islamic Fundamentalism and its future.
By John Gowland

Following the collapse of the Stalinist states of Russia and the Eastern European states in the early 1990s Islamic fundamentalism has become for the capitalist west the evil force in the world. Capitalism is always in need of an enemy to keep the working masses of the capitalist countries divided and to blur the crimes of capitalism.

Demonising of Islamic peoples.

Muslims have a deep sense of their own history. Born in 570 Mohammed became a merchant trader, trading throughout the Arab world. This gave him a deep understanding of the tribes of Arabia and the outer countries of what is now the Arab world. By 610 Mohammed claimed to have heard the calling. After bitter struggles amongst the waring tribes of Arabia centred around Mecca, Mohammed united all the tribes and started a huge expansion of what is now Saudi Arabia. Mohammed ended the most brutal conduct of war. In a series of politically astute moves he forbade the murder of women and children after the defeat of an enemy. After the defeat of the various armies of what is now Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Egypt he invited the defeated to become Muslims but never forced them. He insisted on respecting the right of “People of the book” Jews and Christians to retain their religion and protected these tribes.

After Mohammed’s death in 632 the Arab armies continued to conquer lands until 1256 AD. The Islamic powers spread from India, Turkey, Spain through North Africa and all of Arabia. There were even traders spreading Islam (meaning submission to Allah-God) as far as Far East Asia. These armies did not just conquer they translated and kept alive the classical works of the Greeks, the mathematics of India the art and culture of many countries. Our numbering system is based on the Arabic numerals as is much of our science. Science, mathematics, art and medicine reached new heights in human history. While Europe and many parts of the world were in the dark ages of extreme poverty and ignorance the Islamic countries spread philosophy, art and languages. Intellectuals, artists and traders were pulled from all over the world to the centres of Bagdad, now Iraq, Damascus in Syria and Cordoba in Spain.

While still feudal in class structure, in terms of its wealth, its geographical scope its tolerance of other peoples and religions the Islamic Empire was the most enlightened up to that time.

Like the Roman Empire before it, the Islamic Empire began to splinter and outstretch itself. With far less cultured European armies attacking from the north, the Crusades from Western Europe (1097-1291), and the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1256, the empire collapsed. The massacre of thousands of men women and children by the European Crusaders in Palestine is taught in every school in the Muslim world. No wonder Bush’s comment about Crusades before the recent invasion of Iraq cut deep into the consciousness of Muslims. For four hundred years this huge empire had an enormous impact on the world. Muslims know this as the Golden Period.

While Muslims all over the world practiced their faith, Islam was no longer dominant politically except in a few small countries. The Ottoman Empire, French and British Colonial powers took over these countries.

It was not for another 500 years that Islam started to be a force in the world. In 1744 Mohammed Ibn Saud, a local tribal leader from the central desert area of Najd of Arabia made a pact with a religious reformer Mohammed Ibn Abdel Wahab. Together they started to dominate and unite the warring tribes of Arabia, just as Mohammed had done more than a thousand years before. Mohammed Ibn Saud started the Al Saud dynasty which is being rocked to its foundation today. Wahabism is what is now known as Islamic Fundamentalism. From the very start there was tension between the political leadership of the Al Saudis and the religious Wahabism. They did found the first complete Islamic state in what is now Saudi Arabia. Wahabism did spread to other countries but only for brief periods. It was not until the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s that Islam made a deal with Mammon (god of money). The USA paid for the exploration of oil in Saudi and a close relationship has been in place ever since. The US dollar has paid for most of the oil in Saudi Arabia. But the capitalists in the USA have created their own monster, yet again.

There are five pillars in Islam, to have total faith in Allah, pray five times a day, go if possible on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca at least once in your life, fast during the holy month of Ramadan (during the daytime) and pay Zakat (charity).

With the rise of a very rich fundamentalist Saudi Arabia there were many billionaires and millionaires aside from the 7,000 Saudi princes and all their hangers on. Zakat is paid based on your conscious but is generally around two and a half percent of your income. That is a lot of US dollars over many decades and it has helped to create Islamic Fundamentalism.

Much of this Zakat has been funded to build and run schools of Islamic study and history. In many third world countries Islamic schools are the only form of education available and parents are concerned to give their children at least some form of education.

Zakat has also gone to support millions of families in abject poverty. Islamic organisations such has Hamas and Islamic Jihad who operate mainly in Palestine and Lebanon have diverted huge amounts of money not just to funding the uprising against the Israel state but to fund schools and support for families who have lost family members. In countries where there is no or very poor education, health and other social security, Islamic organisations are the only source of support. But that is not the main reason for the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in the 20th and 21st centuries.

During the 1950s and 1960s Arab counties having gained independence from colonial powers established regimes based on Arab Nationalism often with a much distorted socialism. The Baathist (from the Arabic word renaissance or rebirth) movement which was dominant in Iraqi and still is in Syria has been unable to address any of the problems of Arab people. There was some nationalisation of industries but these industries were controlled and milked by monarchs or despotic leaders in republics. There remains mass poverty in most Arab countries. The Arab Communist Parties under orders from Moscow offered no independent socialist solution but rather propped up the secular nationalists. This opened up opportunities for Islamic funamentalist groups to grow. The CIA both trained and supplied weapons to Islamic groups, including Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to resist the Soviet Unions occupation. After the retreat of the Soviet Union in 1982 many of the Islamic fighters became heroes in the Muslim world. Osama bin Laden kept up the network of communication. A series of training grounds and network of fighters was formed in Afghanistan. It is from this period that these terrorists internationalised their cause and started direct propaganda and attacks upon the US. Yet again the capitalists in the USA created their own nightmare. The continual invasions of the US military into Iraq on two occasions on Saudi soil and the USA support for Israel against the Palestinians will continue angering Muslim youth internationally and bring fresh blood into the terrorist movement

The capitalist countries of the USA, Europe and Japan have exploited the poorer nations with vengeance. They have driven down the price of raw materials often the only commodity these countries have. The capitalist countries have dished out loans that have to be paid back many times over in interest and come with strings attached to by USA or British arms sales and even on condition that cuts are made into the most basic health and education budgets.

Capitalism has impoverished billions of people, kept them or driven them into poverty. The armies of the powerful nations and mainly the US have invaded country after country, supported local dictators who have repressed their own people. Now capitalism has reaped its sowing.

A Saudi Arabian survey taken shortly after the September 11 attacks reported that 95 percent of educated Saudi men between the ages of 25 and 41 backed bin Ladin’s cause.

In Indonesia the biggest Muslim country in the world with hundred million Muslims and on the doorstep of Australia, there is mass disquiet about the role of the US military invasion of Iraq. However the Islamic tradition in Indonesia as in many countries in the Far East is not Wahabist. The majority of Indonesians are more secular and don’t have the experiences and traditions of Wahabism. However reports say the Indonesian clerics are the leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah group and there remains significant cells of the group who have direct links with Al- Qaeda.

Lately, there have been reports the United States is considered sending troops to Indonesia. But now, the government there fears an anti-American backlash in The history of Islamic Fundamentalism and its future the world’s most populous Muslim country.

Marxists opposes all forms of terrorism. Marxism fights for the liberation of the working masses but they must liberate themselves. Creating socialism can not be done for the working masses by some minority.

Terrorism also brings down the state police and army on the organisations of the working class and gives the capitalists an excuse to destroy these organisations. However it is no good just describing terrorist’s organisations like Al Qaeda, (Arabic word meaning “the base”) as just evil as the capitalist media continually rant. Terrorist acts are the acts of frustrated and angry people that feel powerless against overwhelming injustices and force. Whilst Muslim people feel they are increasingly marginalised and brutalised these terrorists organisations and attacks are likely to grow and increase.

Whereever poverty and oppression takes place there will be reaction to it. For many of the poorest people internationally Al-Qaeda represents a resistance to the dominance of the US capitalism. There have even been cases of Indigenous Australians converting to Islam.

In this respect the leaders of the former Labor and Social Democratic Parties are responsible. They have climbed into bed with capitalism and have given up any fight for a better world other than the nightmare of capitalism. The Australian Labor Party has hardly voiced opposition to the invasion of Iraq

Marxists are completely opposed to any attempts to subject people to religious laws against their wishes. While defending the right of everyone to practice the religion of their choice Marxists stand for the complete separation of church and state.

Islam or terrorism is not a solution to the problems of poverty, exploitation and oppression. Only socialism with total mass democracy can plan the world’s resources to end forever the living nightmare. By John Gowland of capitalism. Islamic Fundamentalism complicates this process for Marxists. With an understanding of their history and struggle Marxists can approach the Islamic masses with an understanding of their plight and struggle to fight shoulder to shoulder for the building of international socialism.

See also The rise of fundamentalism at CWI site. http://www.worldsocialistcwi. org/eng/2001/0101.html

See also Why Marxism opposes terrorism CWI site. http://www.worldsocialistcwi.org/eng/2001/0915b.html