How social science can help: An anthropologist looks at bin Laden

[Susan Ervin-Tripp]

Beyond bin Laden - why are we so hated?
by William O. Beeman Pacific News Service

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island - The United States risks a severe
miscalculation in dealing with the destruction of the World Trade
Center and the attack on the Pentagon on Tuesday. This event is not an
isolated instance of violence. This is not an "act of war." It is one
symptom of a cancer that threatens to metastasize.

The root cause is not terrorist activity, as has been widely stated.
It is the relationship between the United States and the Islamic
world. Until this central cancerous problem is treated, Americans will
never be free from fear.

Merely locating and hunting down a single "guilty party" in this case
will not stop future violence: such an action will not destroy the
organization of terrorist cells already established throughout the
world. Of greater importance, it will do nothing to alleviate the
residual enmity against America.

The perpetrators of the original attack on the World Trade Center in
1993 were caught and convicted. This did not stop the attack on
Tuesday.

The chief suspect is the Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden, or his
surrogates. He has been mischaracterized as an anti-American
terrorist. He should rather be thought of as someone who would do
anything to protect Islam.

Bin Laden began his career fighting the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan in 1979, when he was 22 years old. He has not only
resisted the Soviets, but also the Serbians in Yugoslavia. His anger
was directed against the United States primarily because of the U.S.
presence in the Gulf region, more particularly in Saudi Arabia itself
- the site of the most sacred Islamic religious sites.

According to bin Laden, during the Gulf War America co-opted the
rulers of Saudi Arabia to establish a military presence in order to
kill Muslims in Iraq. In a religious decree issued in 1998, he gave
religious legitimacy to attacks on Americans in order to stop the
United States from "occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of
places." His decree also extends to Jerusalem, home of the sacred
Muslim site the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Bin Laden will not cease his opposition until the United States leaves
the region. Paradoxically, his strategy for convincing the United
States to do so seems drawn from the American foreign policy playbook.
When the United States disapproves of the behavior of another nation,
it "turns up the heat" on that nation through embargoes, economic
sanctions or withdrawal of diplomatic representation. In the case of
Iraq following the Gulf War, America employed military action,
resulting in the loss of civilian life.

The State Department has theorized that if the people of a rogue
nation experience enough suffering, they will overthrow their rulers,
or compel them to adopt more sensible behavior.

The terrorist actions in New York and Washington are a clear and
ironic implementation of this strategy against the United States.

Bin Laden takes no credit for actions emanating from his training
camps in Afghanistan. A true ideologue, he believes that his mission
is sacred, and he wants only to see clear results. For this reason,
the structure of his organization is essentially tribal, or cellular,
in modern political terms. His followers are as fervent and intense in
their belief as he is.

They carry out their actions because they believe in the rightness of
their cause, not because of bin Laden's orders or approval.

Groups are trained in Afghanistan, and then establish their own
centers in places as far-flung as Canada, Africa and Europe. Each cell
is technologically sophisticated, and may have a different set of
motivations for attacking the United States.

Palestinian members of his group see Americans as supporters of Israel
in the current conflict between the two nations. In the Palestinian
view, Ariel Sharon's ascendancy to leadership of Israel has triggered
a new era, with U.S. government officials failing to pressure the
Israeli government to end violence against Palestinians. Palestinian
cell members will not cease their opposition until the United States
changes its relationship with the Israeli state.

Above all, Americans need to remember that the rest of the world has
an absolute right to self-determination that is as defensible as our
own. A despicable act of terror such as that committed in New York and
Washington is a measure of the revulsion that others feel at U.S.
actions that seemingly limit those rights. If we perpetuate a cycle of
hate and revenge, this conflict will escalate into a war that our
great-grandchildren will be fighting.

This is the first in a series by PNS contributor William O. Beeman, a
specialist on Middle East culture at Brown University who has written
extensively on Iran, where the Islamic Revolution began in November,
1978. Beeman has worked for the past four years in Tajikistan, where
he has monitored developments in Afghanistan.