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<br> <b><font color="#993366"><font size=+2>WOMEN'S NETWORKS: ISLAMIC
VIOLENCE AND TERROR</font></font></b>
<br><b><font color="#993366"><font size=+2>by Montserrat Boix - Journalist*</font></font></b>
<p> Europe and the United States seem at last to be resolved to fight
against Islamic terror and bring to an end some networks, which they
themselves have been nourishing. From the sphere of feminist networks and
political activism for women's rights we know a lot about the situation
that we have been denouncing over the last decade concerning the aggressions
of these radical fundamentalist groups against countless women in
different Muslim countries (Afghanistan, Sudan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan) who have been brutally assaulted and on numerous occasions
killed.
<p> Up until now the West had been deaf to these denunciations. Thousands
of people in the heart of Western civilization (New York) have had
to die in
<br> order for the international community to react and consider putting
an end to these situations of privilege, which these fundamentalist
leaders have
<br> enjoyed and continue to enjoy.
<p> For over four years the international organization WLUML (Women
Living Under Muslim Laws) have been denouncing the presence and in
some instances the
<br> protection by the West of certain individuals such as Anuar Haddam,
first of all member of FIS and afterwards member of the Algerian
GIA - a group which
<br> at the moment is being investigated due to its links with Ben
Laden and is responsible for countless terrorist attacks in Algeria - who
today is processing his political asylum papers in the USA.
<p> It was in 1993 after the first terrorist attack on the Twin Towers
when for the first time the United States began to fear that the
"monster" which in the 1980's they had been feeding - via Pakistan
in the fratricidal Afghan fighting - was beginning to turn against
them in an uncontrollable manner. The United States reacted by cutting
off funding and mobility of numerous groups that made up the
Islam International but the USA did not act in a decisive way perhaps because
they hoped to overcome difficulties and continue to manipulate such
movements that could be very "useful" in their actions on the ground.
<p>France had to bear the hijacking of a plane in Algeria and afterwards
become the victim of a bombing campaign on the Paris metro (July 1995)
before it was able to weigh up and gauge the real threat posed by maintaining
such networks on its territory. Up until then it had always seemed worth
France's while. Indeed, France maintained excellent relations with the
Sudan regime in spite of the fact - documentation exists - that it was
in this country that the first meeting of Islam International took place
and that Sudan in the last decade had been one of the focal points for
the training of Islamic terrorists and one of the last countries before
Afghanistan to play host to Ben Laden and his entourage.
<p> But Sudan paid France dearly for its ambiguity and tolerance towards
the radical Islamic movement allowing the secret services to hunt inside
Sudanese territory for "Carlos" one of the most historic and most sought
after terrorists. The arrest of "Carlos" was considered to be one of the
greatest successes of the French secret services in recent years. it seems
nobody worried about the price that would have to be paid for this.
<p> And it was France who after the terrorist attacks of 95 alerted
the Spanish about the movement of Islamic radicals in Spain. Up until now
Spain did not consider these Islamic networks to be particularly dangerous
given that they only used Spanish territory for "passing through" and not
as their base. France had then to remind the Spanish government of its
problem with ETA. France would be prepared to control ETA terrorism within
its territory if Spain controlled the Islamic radical networks within its
own.
<p> One could continue with numerous examples of hypocrisy in international
politics where these networks, which finally seem to be severely castigated,
<br> have been used as common currency. The Israeli security services
for years stoked up Hamas because they considered the PLO and Arafat to
be the "true
<br> enemy". a view that is very far from the one held now. Both Europe
and the United States were ambiguous towards and tolerant of the
radical Islamic
<br> movement in Algeria so that they could exert pressure on the
Algerian government.
<p> Great Britain is at present the key European centre of Islamic
networks where Pakistanis and Saudi Arabians have established their main
communications headquarters (press, radio, television) This country and
Germany have harboured many of those expelled from France and Belgium in
recent years.
<p> And what is to be said about Saudi Arabia, directly responsible
for the funding of many Islamic groups who under the cover of offering
supposed humanitarian aid to the poorest of Muslim countries have been
working to reinforce some of the most recalcitrant fundamentalist Islamic
movements in the world? Is it just coincidence that Saudi Arabia
and Pakistan are two of the only three, until yesterday, defenders of the
Taliban in international politics?
<p> Countless documents drawn up by international women's groups bear
witness to the denunciations of all of this in recent years. Denunciations
that not
<br> only fell on deaf ears but also suffered attempts of being silenced
through the use of pressure and threats.
<p> Western governments are the prime responsible ones for the creation
of these big and small monsters that now it is attempted to fight against.
The West never cared when the Talibans attacked Afghan women's rights,
when they assaulted them, when they killed them, it has looked in the other
direction while in Algeria the radical Islamic groups have kidnapped, raped,
killed and ripped to pieces scores of women - the latest aggressions taking
place barely two months ago - when in Bangladesh many women have
to live with their faces scarred by the acid thrown in their faces by fundamentalists.
<p> And now. Is an end to western hypocrisy going to come to an end
with the resounding measures about to be taken against the terrorism of
the radical Islamic networks? Will they be compatible with measures of
justice? It does not seem that the carpet-bombing of a people, the Afghan
people, who in the last years have been the prime victim of a regime which
has been indirectly tolerated and harboured. There must be another way
of achieving justice and the ones who have all the information to hand
know that there is.
<p> Montserrat Boix
<p>Journalist TVE - Specialist in the Arab world and Islamic movements
<br>Coordinator of Mujeres en Red - Spain
<br><A HREF="http://www.nodo50.org/mujeresred/">http://www.nodo50.org/mujeresred/</A>
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