By Wesley Strong
On Tuesday March 4th, Professor Yonah Alexander and Spanish Ambassador Javier Ruperez visited CCSU as part of the Middle East Lecture Series run by CCSU History Professor Norton Mezvinsky. Yonah Alexander is the director of Terrorism Studies at the Potomac University and is a world renowned expert on terrorism. Javier Ruperez is considered to be one of the best experts on terrorism as a former head of the UN Anti-Terrorism Unit. Presenting viewpoints that were “middle of the road”, Alexander and Ruperez demonstrated their expertise in the field by agreeing with and supporting the UN definition of terrorism. Both speakers stated openly that it was not important to consider the root causes argument, an argument that there are specific reasons for an individual’s participation in “terrorist groups”.
The positions of both speakers are the official positions of the UN and most of he westernized world in regards to terrorism in all of its forms. In a PowerPoint presentation that looked like it belonged on a conspiracist webpage, Dr. Alexander speedily attempted to demonstrate why the audience should believe his point of view while conveniently skipping over the more text-intensive slides. The speakers were challenged on the root causes argument, though they waivered little as they retreated into the UN position which disregards the root causes argument entirely without providing an reasoning to do so. The speakers were addressed in regards to State Terrorism to which they adamantly responded saying that there is no such thing as State Terrorism. The Speakers stated that since governments are governed by international law that they are accountable for their actions. This means that when the US bombs civilian housing as we have many times, it is an act of war while if anyone else commits those acts they are terrorists. State actors cannot be terrorists by this definition, even if they commit the same acts as those they classify as terrorist.
Based from the fact that there is no universal definition of who a terrorist is, as it is more defined as a level of power rather than by actual acts, the argument can be made that terrorism in and of itself is simply another threat to western or capitalist hegemony that in order to be conquered must be labeled as terrorism. In the United States the definition of terrorism has certain consequences. We are bombarded by images of the “Arab terrorist", much like we have been bombarded by images of the “black rapist” for years. This has a multiplying effect of diluting the perception of reality in which we perceive Arabs as terrorists. This has lead to many court cases over that fact where Imams were detained and not allowed to fly in the United States as they were considered threats. This was because Imams are required to wear a traditional garb and stick out as a “stereotypical Arab or terrorist”. The question of course is who the real evil is. As the US continues a foreign policy that includes an utter disregard for Sudan, while further occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as unrelenting support for Israel - a state that has one of the worst human rights records, there is little question over who is the victim and who is the perpetrator. The classification of terrorist only became a popular classification after the fall of the Soviet Union, when using the classification of communist or socialist would no longer be applicable. In fact, the US government has recently passed a bill in the House of Representatives that equates violence from political organizations with violence from radical religious organizations – HR1955/S1959. The house version of the bill, HR1955, passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 404 in favor, 6 against, with 22 missing. The bill defines Homegrown Terrorism as any group that attempts to use force or violence to change the minds of America. Force is defined as intellectual power or vigor, or a logical argument as well as the use of influential action to forward social goals.
This is the beginning of a slippery slope back into McCarthyism and the Racism of the Jim Crow years. As our state continues to support Racist actions and depicts the Arab world as terrorists and people out to kill Americans – much like their depiction of communists under the USSR – there is little recognition from the people to that end of the similarities between the classifications of groups of people to be considered not “American”. In order to maintain its hegemonic and ideological rule in the world, the United States needs to continue to create evil. The nations of the Middle East have not been killing themselves for centuries and in fact were one of the most advanced civilizations prior to the involvement of the West in their affairs. This is not to say that they were perfect, but there certainly were no suicide bombings, Improvised Explosive Devises (IEDs), or any other commonality of violence at the time. You could even make the point that terrorism is a violent response to oppression brought on by the west in the form of occupation, genocide, and racism. When poor people have no means through which their voice can be heard and listened to, what else can they do but resist? This does not mean that the ends justify the means, but we certainly need to be clear about why terrorism exists.
So the next time that you see a news report of terrorists bombing a bar, remember that the US has continually bombed schools, orphanages, hospitals, mosques, union offices that they said they weren’t going to touch, and media headquarters of non-US media companies that criticize the US and Western hegemony. Remember that the resistance against Apartheid in South Africa was called a terrorist resistance because they bombed several bars that had a high population of state and military employees. Remember that the Sons of Liberty committed what in modern times would be called terrorist acts by tarring and feathering tax collectors, not to mention the Boston Tea Party. The question is what terrorism is and what resistance is. The US and the West strive to continually blur the line so that groups that are trying to build a better world are equated with Al-Qaida. Talk about slippery slopes.
a Video about HR1955
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wJsovPRTEM
HR1955 GovTrack General link - It was not working when this article was poster
www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1955
HR1955 GovTrack Full Bill Text link
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955
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