ARE THERE ANY ANSWERS TO A WORLD FULL OF TERROR?
Canberra Times, Australia
June 29, 2006 Thursday
THE NATION state is not what it used to be. Demographics from Europe,
chronic guerrilla warfare in the Middle East, a terrorist pandemic
and now the World Cup football tournament are all telling us that.
In The Netherlands’ four largest cities, Muslims under the age of 14
now outnumber Dutch children under the age of 14. Demographers amuse
themselves forecasting the year in which Muslims will form a majority
in specific countries, or in all of Europe.
By some counts it is surprisingly close. Eurabia may be only half a
century away. Given that there are thought to be some 20-25million
Muslims within an overall European population of 240 million, that
would appear to be pushing it, but it is still a lot. They riot. They
plot, and commit acts of terrorism. They are determinedly different
in dress and demeanour. Do they give their loyalty to the countries
in which they live, or to the Umma, that is to say the concept of a
Muslim nation transcending national borders? Can we even generalise?
The imams preach hatred and some listen. Others do not. Ahmeds change
their name to Alan, and Mohammeds to Mike, Mick or Michael, so they
can fit into a society to which they wish to belong.
They are also uncompromising. After their defeat in World War II,
Germany and Japan tried peace, and profited enormously. Israel won wars
in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, but not the peace. Muslim terrorists
wage never-ending guerilla warfare against their enemies in Israel,
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraqis are happy with the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime.
They have elected a government, and they are developing their security
forces. But while this has been proceeding, more than 2000 American
soldiers have been murdered by terrorists, who act on behalf of a
cause, not a country.
They fight a war of random assassination against the government of
Iraq and against America and its allies, while the security forces
conduct police operations to winkle out the perpetrators of these acts
of guerilla warfare, as if they were burglars, or hit and run drivers.
The terrorists kill whoever they can, regardless of nationality,
religion, gender and age, but Israel and the Americans must not kill
a bystander. Australia is engaged in just such a dilemma. A patrol
shot up a vehicle that, behaving like a suicide bomber, drove between
their armoured cars, so that now Kim Beazley wants Australian troops
withdrawn from Iraq.
The nature of war is something else that has changed. It is no longer
industrial war, as we have learned to call wars between countries
employing conventional armies massed for deployment on a battlefield.
Instead, military strategy has merged into negotiation. Soldiers live
among both the people they defend and their shadowy enemies.
Success is to be achieved through the combination of police action
against terrorists, through diplomacy and negotiation, through the
involvement of the United Nations, through NATO as a forum, or the
European Union.
Soldiers have become peacekeepers, trained in restraint as well as
in attack.
As a result, Australian soldiers finally have something to do.
Instead of the boredom of barracks life they are deployed in Iraq,
Afghanistan and the islands to our north.
Muslim migrants constitute an Arabic speaking Diaspora which is only
one of half a dozen. Centuries of persecution created the Jewish
Diaspora. The Turks drove the Armenians into the world 80 years ago.
Lebanese Christians fled from civil war that, on and off, has gone
on for 50 years. The Greeks just travel. So do the Chinese and the
Indians.
Six Croatians helped the Australian soccer side hold Croatia to a
draw and thus to gain a place in the final 16 World Cup contestants.
The Croatian side included three Australians. The French noted that
most members of their soccer side were black.
Does this matter? Not in sport. Does the emergence matter of
international communities of businessmen sharing a language and a
culture and dealing with each other across national boundaries? How
can it be anything other than beneficial? But what about an
international community characterised by religious intolerance,
imbued with triumphalism, determined to hold themselves apart,
and given to violence? Now there’s a challenge, whether you preach
multiculturalism or assimilation.
David Barnett is a biographer of John Howard. He farms in the Yass
district.