Thursday, December 13, 2007

Bomb Blasts in Algeria

What has created the conditions for the growth of Al Qaeda, whose Maghreb branch took responsiblity for the bomb blasts in Algeria that killed 26 and wounded 177? "For a long time, in Algeria as well as in other Muslim countries, European and North American governments led by their oil interests entertained the most ambiguous relations with the extreme right political forces working under the cover of Islam" ("Bomb Blasts in Algeria: A Call from Concerned Algerian Citizens to Citizens' Organizations, Progressive Parties, and Unions," MRZine, 13 December 2007).

Those who understand this problem as a question of secularism versus "political Islam," however, miss the point. The Islamic Republic of Iran, among whose mortal enemies are international terrorists of the Al Qaeda variety, was among the first to condemn the terrorist attacks in Algeria: "Iran Condemns Algeria Bombings" (Press TV, 11 December 2007).

The real battle is not between Islamists and secularists but between builders and destroyers of civilization.

The way the empire and AQ-type terrorists, the aforementioned destroyers of civilization, are carrying on, pretty soon, the only oasis of calm in the whole MENA region will be Iran, "a 'strong nation,' one whose major components, if not all, of both popular classes and ruling classes, do not accept the integration of their country into the globalized system in a dominated position" in the words of Samir Amin ("Political Islam in the Service of Imperialism," Monthly Review 59.7, December 2007).

No comments: