How Dangerous are the Islamists?
|
By Nader A. Hashemi
Recent graduate of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
|
12/06/2002
|
Almost
every month the threat from the Warsaw Pact diminishes but every
year, for the rest of this decade and beyond, the threat from the
fundamentalist Islam will grow. It is different in kind and degree
from the cold-war threat. But the West will have to learn how to
contain it, just as it once had to learn to contain Soviet
Communism.
*Sunday
Times, 10 June 1990
"Islamic
fundamentalism…is at least as dangerous as communism was. Please
do not underestimate this risk."(1)
So
stated Willy Claes, former Secretary-General of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), in a recent interview. Similar remarks
have been made by prominent politicians and world leaders on nearly
every continent. Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany claimed "the
danger of fundamentalism...is one of the greatest dangers we are
facing today."(2)
French
Defense Minister Francois Leotard declared: "Islamic
fundamentalism is as dangerous today as Nazism once was."(3)
On
the African continent, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe promised
African countries "are taking steps to prevent destabilisation
by the fundamentalist element of Islam."(4)
Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, in a statement of support for Yasser
Arafat, urged the West to be more forthcoming with financial aid;
"otherwise all the Palestinians will become
fundamentalists."(5)
Israeli
leaders have frequently spoken on the issue. Former President Chaim
Herzog, speaking before the Polish Parliament, cautioned that
"the disease [of Islamic fundamentalism] is spreading rapidly
and constitutes not only a danger to the Jewish people, but to
humanity in general."
In
light of this near ubiquitous attention and apprehension surrounding
the emergence of Islamism on the world stage, do the activities of
Islamist groups pose a threat to international security? If so, to
what extent?
