#8
Obshchaya Gazeta
No. 42 2001
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal
use only]
THE CIVILIZED WORLD MUST CHANGE OR LOSE
The St. Petersburg school of Oriental studies, which ranks among the most respected research institutes in the world, has amassed some really precious knowledge that is sorely needed by society at this stage. The school's experts have been offering consultative services to their colleagues and politicians alike since the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Its deputy director Yefim REZVAN, who is a leading authority on Islam, and who found a priceless VIII-century Koran manuscript, provides an insight into current developments.
ORIGINS. Subsequent developments in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington completely tally with a scenario that was written by Osama bin Laden and his cronies. Let's face the facts - the latest disaster was conceived by that old-time US-Soviet confrontation. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan, with the United States setting up the Taliban movement and equipping its soldiers with Stinger Manpads (Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems). The CIA-conceived structure, which was supposed to fight the Soviet system, eventually became something uncontrollable.
Bin Laden used monies (that were inherited from his father) to set up two large camps for training Arab mercenaries when the Afghan war began. The CIA had also patronized bin Laden back then; incidentally, it provided Afghanistan's Mujaheddin with up-to-date weapons systems, monies and intelligence data through bin Laden.
Right now, bin Laden is fighting a war against the materialistic world outlook and Western mercantilism, which are perceived by him as the most serious challenges facing Islam today. At the same time, Islamic radicals so far owe all of their victories to Western technologies and monies.
GOALS. These people want to create a huge Moslem state ranging from Egypt to Central Asia, regarding this as their main goal. Bin Laden has repeatedly said that Western countries contain the seeds of their destruction, e.g. nuclear power plants and planes needed to bust them, labs and their deadly viruses, as well as people craving for money.
Pakistan has already developed its own atomic bomb. The Taliban keeps attacking Peshawar today. Our Central Asia and Persian Gulf countries, which will be targeted later on, boast technological and material resources. Moreover, the West completely depends on their oil. The modern Islamic world has created the required pre-conditions enabling entire nations that voice anti-Western sentiments to join hands and to fight side by side. Imagine a new Islamic state headed by radical extremists. This would drastically alter the present-day global political system, also making the entire 21st century completely unpredictable.
MONIES. Mosques all over the world make it possible to collect monies. However, few people know anything about the disbursement of such monies. Add to this protection rackets being imposed by Islamic radicals on numerous companies operating in the Middle East; their list includes US companies, which paid off their "clients," thus financing the latest terrorist attacks on US territory. Illicit drug trafficking should also be mentioned here. The Kosovo liberation army is swarming with drug barons, drug pushers and drug couriers, who continue to poison the whole of Western Europe. The monies thus derived are used to finance the aforesaid army. The West was ready to turn a blind eye on all this for the sake of attaining its own political goals. However, it has already become crystal clear that the Kosovars, as well as the Colombian drug mafia, must also be dealt with ruthlessly and consistently.
Everything is now being done to freeze Moslem radicals' financial assets; however, they will, at best, lose 50 percent of their monies. The Middle East boasts a rather effective money-transfer system dating back to the Middle Ages. A person takes an attache case full of dollars somewhere, subsequently learning some code there. He then transmits that code to a man 3,000 km away, who will receive a similar brief-case in exchange for that code. The undercover banking system operates without a hitch, stipulating cash settlements alone.
FIFTH COLUMN. Afro-Americans are quite eager to embrace Islam. World-famous heavy-weight boxer Cassius Clay changed his name to Mohammad Ali a long time ago, with many people viewing this as a return to basics. Louis Farrahan has set up an extremely powerful fundamentalist organization. The Old World keeps witnessing similar trends. France is populated by Algerian and other North African nationals; Germany has its own Turkish diaspora. Europe's Islamic policy reminds one of that ill-fated Western appeasement policy with regard to Adolf Hitler. Kosovo and Bosnia are reminiscent of Poland Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s.
Bin Laden has his own secret agents and centers in every country of the world, Russia included. All you have to do is visit some madrasahs (religious schools) in republics with a predominantly Moslem population and listen to their teachers. Those schools are financed by the Arab world, with Mideastern countries also training their preachers. Hundreds of young Russian Moslems study elsewhere, subsequently preaching another kind of Islam and thus joining the national fifth column.
Moslem radicals, who began to view Russia as a tremendous testing range with the onset of the Chechen war, would like to try out new technologies and to accomplish their objectives here. The Western press considers bin Laden's cooperation with Chechen bandits as some revelation. But the thing is that bin Laden had visited Khattab's base back in 1999.
PUBLIC RELATIONS. All of the world's television channels showed bin Laden's speech that was taped prior to the beginning of US air strikes. It was just like broadcasting Hitler's speech over Soviet radio June 22, 1941. Never before did the world witness such a large-scale PR campaign free of charge.
Internet surfers can browse through thousands of Islamic web sites at a time when Christian sites can only be counted by the dozen. An all-out propaganda war is now being waged by well-educated people inside Internet, imposing specific standards and doctrines. 90 percent of such colorful web sites are owned by radicals, who are thus trying to convey their orders to people with the help of historical-cultural methods.
We must learn to win PR campaigns, using the entire might of contemporary civilization for this purpose. What we need is books, TV shows, radio broadcasts and international conferences. Every Chechen house must have radio receivers and TV sets, too, because lack of radio and television serves to kill Russian citizens. Every dollar now being invested into ideology would prove to be more cost-effective than each dollar being received by the defense industry.
TRUE ISLAM. The religion of Islam, which is absolutely devoid of any aggression, preaches tolerance instead. Prophet Mohammed regards Christians and Jews as the Holy Scripture's adepts, who, therefore, can't be confronted on the battle-field. An orthodox Moslem considers the Gospel, the Tora and the Koran to be one and the same text. Islam has accumulated a multitude of arguments against a disease, which is often called "neo-Wahhabism," during the many centuries of its existence. The relevant Islamic heritage contains all what is needed to disprove radical Islamic concepts. Such works must be translated, printed and popularized, thus making it possible to defend Islam against those specific forces, which keep destroying it from within.
Propaganda is now seen as the ultimate weapon. One billion Moslems now live on this planet; consequently, we are now struggling to win the sympathies of 20 percent of the world's population.
FUTURE PROSPECTS. We are now witnessing inter-related global developments. A destructive trend has now set in, with quite a few people saying that this serves Moslems right because they alone should be blamed. Consequently, bin Laden might well receive an extremely attractive opportunity for effectively maneuvering between specific centers of power. Russia, which keeps furnishing the Northern Alliance with weapons and food, thus invests into its future regional positions. Meanwhile Pakistan, on whom the United States still relies, says that the Northern Alliance must not be aided. Some present-day contradictions will be aggravated in the future. Consolidated action is the order of the day.
Dozens of countries and their cities are still unaffected by air strikes. Nonetheless, the current war, which continues to engulf the entire world, may serve as a model for future conflicts. The third global information war has now got underway.
How long will that consistent US policy last? I do hope that such a policy will be implemented for quite a while. However, current US air strikes against Afghanistan are tantamount to an attack against the Antarctic. All Afghan wars are fought with the help of Kalashnikov assault rifles, Stinger Manpads and rocket launchers. Mountain areas account for 50 percent of the entire Chechen territory. For its own part, Afghanistan boasts nothing but mountains. One must rely on the local populace for the sake of winning a war in the mountains. Pushtu tribes constitute the main "secret weapon". Even if bin Laden is killed, he would then turn into a martyr for the radical Islamic cause.
Transcript by Marina TOKAREVA.
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