Islamic terrorism holds deep roots

CAIRO, Egypt - From the primitive brutality of slitting a child's throat in an Algerian village, to the sophisticated complexity of hijacking four U.S. airliners and crashing them into America's military and financial hearts, Islamic terrorists have wreaked havoc worldwide for years.

As the United States prepares to confront what President Bush described as "this enemy (who) hides in shadows," its global nature complicates any action.

U.S. officials identify Osama bin Laden, the leader of a terrorist network based in Afghanistan, as a prime suspect in last week's attacks. Bin Laden already is accused of masterminding bombings of a U.S. naval destroyer in Yemen last October, of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and of U.S. military installations in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996.

But focusing on one leader ignores the many breeding grounds for more recruits throughout the region.

Three years ago, Dr. Saad Edin Ibrahim, an Egyptian expert on Islamic movements, described Egypt's campaign against homegrown terrorists as successful.

But without correcting the problems that inspire terrorism, he warned, the result is like "mowing the grass ... the roots are still there."

Islamic fundamentalism has plagued many countries in the region, several of them U.S. allies. Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia have all battled Islamic groups.

Those groups seek to overthrow regimes they judge as "un-Islamic." They have developed elaborate theories holding that the governments are from "the jahiliyya," or pre-Islamic state of paganism. In this view, national leaders who are deemed non-believers or infidels must be killed; an Islamic state, adhering strictly to Quranic law, must be created; women must wear veils and stay at home.

Political, social and economic conditions often inspire movements. The Arab world is virtually a "democracy-free zone," with only a few countries politically freer than a decade ago. The economies of nearly all are weak; jobs are limited, and pay is low.

All of this combines with high birth rates and a largely young population to brew explosive discontent.

Those who feel powerless to change politics or society often turn to religion, and many eventually find their way to extremist movements.

In Lebanon, the terrorist group Hezbollah operates extensive charitable organizations: hospitals, construction companies, farming cooperatives. Supplanting absent state services, those offer escape from poverty - along with a message.

In southern Lebanon last year, as Israel withdrew its army and ended an 18-year occupation, Hezbollah handed out tents and water to the homeless. The Lebanese government was nowhere to be seen.

Although Hezbollah's sporadic attacks on Israel can drag Lebanon back into war, its appeal has risen to heroic, cult-like status: It forced the enemy's mighty military to retreat; its gun-toting, God-fearing young fighters defend the land, the people, the faith; it cares for the destitute.

"Religious faith," one guerrilla insists, enabled Hezbollah to drive Israel from Lebanese soil.

'A DOG'S LIFE'

In the besieged Gaza Strip, the most densely populated corner on earth, support for another group, Hamas, runs high. Scores of Palestinians languish in tightly packed refugee camps; children run barefoot through narrow alleys strewn with garbage. The stench of sewage fills the air.

Unable to defeat their enemy, Israel, many here turn to Islam as the solution.

In Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon, even more squalid refugee camps seethe with anger born of hopelessness.

Typical of that is Mohammed Abu Radyanan, 22, born in Lebanon's Shatila camp and orphaned at age 5. His parents and sister were among the 1,000 to 2,500 Palestinians killed in 1982 during Israel's invasion of Lebanon, when the Sabra and Shatila camps were attacked by Lebanese Christian Phalangist forces. Radyanan survived Lebanon's civil war, then the "War of the Camps," when refugees fought the Shi'ite Amal militia in Beirut, Tyre and Sidon.

He describes his existence as "a dog's life."

"You can't find anything here but despair and misery," he declares. "I lost my life. I lost everything."

Such personal frustration, combined with political discontent, is a rallying cry in refugee camps and the decaying slums of teeming cities.

Issues that are real, imagined or exaggerated - the liberation of Jerusalem, the suffering of Iraqis under a decade of economic sanctions, the presence of U.S. troops at Muslim holy sites, the decadent influence of vulgar Western culture, the repression of Palestinians by Israel - raise public support for terrorist groups that are seen as the only forces that can strike back successfully.

They also radicalize some individuals to become tools of mass murder.

MARTYRS IN ISLAM'S DEFENSE

"The expression of martyrdom is the expression of despair," explains Bahghat Korany, a political science professor at American University in Cairo.

"This is how it is explained to them: The world is against you and you don't have a chance for justice on this earth, and the best way to contribute to the cause is to die."

Although suicide is forbidden by Islam, radical religious leaders issue fatwas, or rulings, granting absolution.

Terrorist leaders such as bin Laden seem to offer devout Muslims a chance to change their lives and obtain the rewards of paradise. "The whole idea ... is that you become a martyr when you die in defense of Islam," says Korany. "If Islam is threatened, you have to be ready to do all things to defend it, including sacrificing your life."

Hezbollah was the first Islamic group to sanction suicidal attacks. In 1983, with stealthy precision, its suicide bombers killed 241 U.S. Marines and 100 French paratroopers in Beirut, in attacks just seconds apart.

Bin Laden's 1998 suicide attacks on two U.S. embassies also required critical timing.

Those cases refute the doubts, expressed by many Egyptians and Palestinians last week, that Arab terrorists could conduct operations as sophisticated as the attacks on America.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip also use suicide bombers. In a videotape obtained by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in June, Ismail Al-Maswabi, a Hamas terrorist, coldly proclaimed: "I am a live martyr." Explaining he was avenging Palestinian deaths, he calmly called on "Muslims all over the world" to join in a jihad, or holy war. He warned Israelis: "If you possess airplanes and tanks, we possess men who love death as much as you and your soldiers love life."

Al-Maswabi exploded a bomb, killing himself and two Israeli soldiers in Gaza, hours after recording the message.

POPULAR SUPPORT

"No fighting underground can operate without popular roots and a supportive environment that is ready to supply new recruits, assistance, hiding places, money and means of propaganda," Israeli journalist Uri Averny says. "Terror attacks always testify to the public mood."

He sees "no patent remedy for terrorism. The only remedy is to remove its causes."

In the 1990s, Egypt launched a harsh crackdown, arresting thousands of suspected Islamists and executing 100. It set up special security courts to try the suspects, over the criticism of human-rights groups.

Many Egyptian radicals fled and joined bin Laden's network. Ayman Zawahiri, Egypt's most-wanted radical, became a bin Laden lieutenant.

As in other countries, many Egyptians who become terrorists are highly educated, according to Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic movements at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. Most want to strike out at their own government and the government that supports them - the United States, he says.

The links spread widely.

U.S. officials have accused terrorist cells in Yemen of bombing the USS Cole last year in the port of Aden. Yemeni officials contend that some of the suspects are tied to Egypt's Islamic Jihad.

Jordan has a long counter-terrorism relationship with the United States. In December 1999, Jordanian officials working with U.S. authorities arrested a number of suspects linked to bin Laden who planned to disrupt millennium celebrations in the United States. Last year, 22 men were convicted of that plot.

Algeria's fight against Islamists has been the longest and bloodiest, with more than 100,000 people killed in its civil war. Whole villages have been butchered by knife- and ax-wielding terrorists trying to destabilize the country.

Some of the Algerian Guard Islamic group were reported to be linked to bin Laden as part of the millennium attack on the United States; several were arrested crossing the U.S.-Canadian border.

TECHNOLOGICALLY SAVVY

Although terrorism has operated internationally for years, Tuesday's attacks raised the specter of the global suicide bomber who melts into various societies, waiting to strike.

What has changed from the past is that today's terrorists take advantage of Western technology.

In a destitute suburb of Beirut, Mohamed Hijazi, who heads the technical department of Hezbollah's Al Rassoul Al Azaam Hospital, points to sophisticated U.S.-made diagnostic equipment. "We are not against American technology," he declares, "just (American) policies."

Korany, of Cairo's American University, says the new trans-national terrorist groups distort Islam. He calls them an "anti-system Islamic movement" that draws on rising anti-Americanism fueled in Arab streets by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"America has provoked immense hatred throughout the world," Averny, the Israeli journalist, explains. "Not because of its might, but because of the way it uses its might."

Foes of economic and social globalization blame the United States for the gap between Arab rich and poor. Many Arabs are especially frustrated by U.S. support of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

Some Muslim leaders routinely tell their followers that the United States supports the domination of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem and elsewhere. Still others blame the United States for backing leaders of Arab regimes they despise.

In this atmosphere, bin Laden rallies Muslims from around the world to his cause.

"We are starting the 21st century in a very bleak way ... the scars are global," Korany contends. "Our first objective is to isolate this group," then examine the root problems that breed new terrorists.

In spite of Tuesday's assault on U.S. targets, he adds, bin Laden's network threatens more than the United States: It threatens a way of life worldwide.

"(It is) either order or chaos," Korany declares.