West Asia At War: Repression, Resistance and Great Power Games

by Talmiz Ahmad

The principal groups representing activist Islamism – the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas and Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan – condemned the attacks as being ‘against all human and Islamic norms’. The spiritual guide of Hezbollah, Mohammed Hussain Fadlallah, said he was ‘horrified’ by these ‘barbaric crimes’, which were ‘forbidden by Islam’.93 Fadlallah said Al Qaeda should have distinguished between ordinary Americans and their leaders, that the struggle was against US hegemony, and that ‘civilized Islam’ did not approve of pre-emptive attacks on innocent civilians. Bin Laden, in his view, had displayed poor understanding of political matters and had not made an objective cost-benefit analysis before the attacks, thus exposing Muslims the world over to considerable harm. Finally, he asserted that there was no parallel between the 9/11 attacks and the Palestinian ‘martyrdom’ operations against Israel; the latter was an occupation force in Muslim lands and oppressed Muslims, which justified the attacks on them.94