After September 11
Archived article from Oct 12, 2001
These essays by Rutgers faculty are excerpted from several sources, including opinion pieces printed in various newspapers and comments made on "Inside Rutgers," a production of RU-TV. "Inside Rutgers" can be viewed in its entirety on the Web at rutv.rutgers.edu.
The roots of terrorism
By Hooshang Amirahmadi
I believe that the movement we call terrorism is part of a larger social movement that began in the 1970s in Iran as a middle-class radical movement. There were two groups -- "the people's sacrificers" and "the fighters for the people." These were groups of the educated middle class who had two causes to fight against -- the dictatorship of the Shah and United States support for that regime. It is important to remember that these were two groups, one secular and one religious, who worked together to overthrow the Shah and take over the American Embassy and create the mess that developed afterward between the two countries.
Over the last two or three decades, the same thing has happened in Saudi society and the Middle East in general. Very rapid economic development created a vibrant middle class, which is educated and quite sophisticated. They have struggled against the Saudi government for two decades. What you see is a movement of secular and religious middle-class radicals that is becoming increasingly global. Their cause includes the Saudi dictatorship, the U.S. support for it and American policy in the region in general, including unconditional support for Israel.
Every social movement has its own extremist, radical, vicious people who move beyond the limits. But we should avoid characterizing everyone who is trying to harm us as a fundamentalist Muslim. This is not a clash of civilizations or a war of cultures. This is really a middle-class radical movement that we have to take seriously to understand its roots and its problems.
We are a great military power and, tactically, military force is justified. But strategically, the United States has to think most seriously about a new vision for the Middle East and for its involvement there. Alongside that vision, the United States must launch an honest public relations campaign in the region, focusing on the middle-class intelli-gentsia's concerns and needs, including political democracy, social justice and an impartial mediation among the Palestinians and Israelis.
Hooshang Amirahmadi is a professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and president of the American Iranian Council. This piece is excerpted from remarks made on "Inside Rutgers," a production of RU-TV.
A complex problem
By Eric Davis
One of the problems in dealing with Afghanistan is that the Northern Alliance and the Taliban itself do not really reflect a large national consensus. In fact, it is very difficult to think of Afghanistan as a nation. It is more a collection of different tribal groups. The only force at the moment that might provide some sense of unity is the exiled king, Muhammad Zahir Shah, who is living in Rome and to whom the Northern Alliance has sent emissaries in an attempt to have him throw his support to them. However, the king is 86, and it is unclear how long he could be an effective political actor were he to return to Afghanistan. There are all sorts of problems with destabilizing the Taliban regime. The question is, what are you going to substitute?
The other problem is that many of the allies who have been helping us in the process are, unfortunately, regimes that themselves are very corrupt and unstable -- two in particular are the Saudis and the Pakistanis. One of the problems with trying to engage in military exercises, although I think it is appropriate to use force to root out terrorist bases, is that while these regimes have committed their resources to us, such actions might in fact destabilize them and undermine the very goals we're trying to achieve.
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