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Michael Anbar , PhD, is a professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Buffalo. Formerly a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, he is the author of , published by iUniverse.
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By Michael Anbar
July 11, 2008
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We incessantly worry about Iran?s nuclear development program and the global ramifications of nuclear bombs in the hands of an Islamic fascist regime. This apprehension is primarily based on the supremacist eschatological ideology of the Iranian political leadership. The problem essentially is not the development of atomic bombs by Iran but their potential use.
There are today thousands of nuclear weapons all over the world, most of them much more destructive than those Iran might produce in the foreseeable future -- yet we have little reason to worry about them. The problem is the ideology and not the technology.
There is little doubt that Israel will be a major target for Iranian attack or blackmail once Iran acquires atomic bombs. But the global problem is much larger by far. Even if Iran was prevented from acquiring nuclear warfare capability by a preemptive Israeli strike or otherwise, the existential danger to Israel will not disappear. Israel is being threatened by Islamist ideology more than by Islamist weapons.
The same ideology might prompt the use of other destructive terrorizing technologies to achieve the same goal: Destabilizing and ultimately destroying Israel and all other non-Islamic civilizations. For instance, the coordinated poisoning of thousands of innocent citizens by toxins, or the spread of virulent epidemics in numerous urban centers, might have a far greater devastating effect on an industrial nation than the destruction of a city by a nuclear blast. Even if such terrorist acts were sporadic, they would readily become unnerving, disruptive and destabilizing.
At the same time Iran is enriching uranium and developing long range missiles, it also indoctrinates thousands of Muslim youngsters to become suicidal carriers of weapons of mass destructive terror, whether non-nuclear or nuclear. Islamic potential vectors of unimaginable devastation are also being mass-produced all over the Islamic world -- in Gaza and Ramallah, in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt , in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Algeria, in Somalia, Nigeria and the Sudan, and even in Great Britain, Canada and the US, all with the help of Iranian or Saudi funding.
Many of the millions of the brainwashed children of today are likely to become militant suicidal carriers-of-destruction tomorrow, when crazed supremacist Islamic leaders, following in the footsteps of Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will call them to action. They are more dangerous than a thousand nuclear bombs.
We could destroy the Islamic nuclear facilities and stockpiles by military force, but how could we put an end to the mass production of Jihadists who are being taught to murder all non-believers, Jews, Christians, Buddhists or animists, wherever they might find them? This multitude of inherent murderers does not need nuclear weapons to meet their goal of subduing and eventually eliminating non-Islamic humanity. The Jihadist lethal menace would remain virtually intact even if we were to abolish all nuclear deadly devices worldwide.
Every success of Jihadism enhances the recruitment and mass production of more Jihadists.
Jihadist success is not limited to political or territorial concessions, as it aims at weakening the resolve of non-Muslims to confront Islamic aggression. Terrorism, in all forms, against non-combatants is the weapon of choice to meet this goal and it will continue as long as the ?enemies of Islam? have not accepted Islam?s supremacy. Again, the problem is the ideology and not the technology.
In addition to terror Jihadists use propaganda to instill fear, guilt feelings, hesitation and humiliation in the minds of non-Muslims. Like in the 9/11 atrocity where American aircraft were used to destroy the Twin Towers and damage the Pentagon, Western mass media have been hijacked to serve and enhance the effectiveness of Jihadism by obscuring its intrinsic role in Islam and downplaying its threats. Terror is most effective when it comes as a surprise. By numbing the public, the media help the Jihadists.
Although the Jihadists hope to subdue the world by terror, as they did during the expansion of Islam in the 7th and 8th Centuries, they might realize that this will not happen without a world-wide bloody struggle that might destroy the entire human race. But they are prepared for this. Their religion glorifies death. This is, in essence, the inherent danger of Jihadism for the survival of humanity.
The hundreds of thousands of mosques and Islamic schools that mass-produce the next generation of Jihadists cannot be eliminated by military force or by policing. There must be another way to ensure the future of humanity. One way to fight and defeat Jihadism is to demonstrate the absurdity and futility of Islamic supremacist eschatological ideology to the hundreds of millions of practicing Muslims. However, we cannot rely on reasoning or on the instincts of human survival. We also cannot just ask Muslims to stop Jihadist teachings -- they will never comply since this ideology is inherent in their religion. What we might achieve, however, is to make the practice of Jihad as unattractive as possible.
Jihadism must be fought first of all by depriving the Jihadists of any achievement. Any act of Jihadist terrorism must be responded by inflicting painful punishments not only on the perpetrators but also on all their supporters and sympathizers. There must be an end to religious tolerance when it comes to militant Islam, less we end up with the absurdity of condoning murder of non-Muslims as a religious practice that must be tolerated in a multicultural world.
The ideological confrontation with Islam mandates decisive military defeats of Muslims by non-Muslims, like the 1948 or 1967 Arab-Israeli wars, to demonstrate the futility of Islamic aggression. Military defeats must be followed by absolute intolerance of any further aggression or aggressive ideology, as we did in Germany and Japan at the end of WWII.
There has been no such unmitigated Muslim defeat even in 1967, which was not followed by sufficient resolve of Israel and the West to keep Islamic aggression at bay. Deposing Saddam or defeating the Taliban has not been decisive, either. The prospect of negotiated concessions emboldens the Jihadists, who consider these as victories, as we have recently seen in Lebanon.
All this has allowed the emergence of a generation of victorious Muslims who have experienced a sequence of Islamic political triumphs. This is what fosters, sustains and nourishes religion-driven Islamic Jihad. And this is what has transformed a mere nuisance of some esoteric religious fanatics into an existential menace to the entire human race.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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