International law fights terrorism in the Muslim world: a Middle Eastern perspective.

• Author: Hassanien, Mohamed R.

INTRODUCTION

The September 11 terrorist attacks ignited global interest in the Muslim world; (1) hence the region has become a primary concern for the international community, with national security bolted to the forefront of the American foreign policy and that of the rest of the world as well. (2) Six years after the attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC, the American perspective has been the prevailing one in most of the writings about International law and terrorism. However, the Middle Eastern approach toward international terrorism needs to be explored carefully in light of the globalization that is taking place everywhere.

The Muslim world--in the post-September 11 era--has been the scene for major American operations whether in Afghanistan or Iraq. (3) Consequently, Muslims consider the U.S. to be the major threat to them. (4) The populace in the Middle East contemplates the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan and the current tension between Iran and U.S. as major reasons to root in rather than uproot terrorism in the Middle East. After almost four years of the war on Iraq, international terrorism has proven to be a pervasive and unconventional enemy, making it evident that the use of force is no longer the most effective tool in combating it. Free trade, economic development, strengthening international law and engaging the Muslim world could equally solve the problem. These tools have to be considered in the American portfolio of combating international terrorism.

America, as a global power, has to realize that engaging other parts of the world, including the Muslim world, in the war on terror is a must. International terrorism has two sides; (5) Shibley Telhami described the terrorism phenomena as having two sides, the first is the demand side, where international trade law could be relevant. (6) As free trade agreements are more than liberalizing certain markets, they have a lot of economic and political ramifications that may defuse the causes of terrorism in the Middle East. However, this paper does not propose that free trade is the ultimate solution for terrorism in the Middle East, but rather suggests that free trade is one of the tools that may provide a way out of the problems that besiege the region. But it would be meaningless or even harmful if it is not accompanied with political reform in the region. (7) The strengthening of international treaty law, the law of armed conflict, and engaging the Muslim world in the fight against terrorism can also help combat the supply side of terrorism.

This paper presents a Middle Eastern perspective for what may be the best course in the global war on terrorism. Part one illustrates the reasons why terrorism is more prevalent in Middle East now and the stance of Islam on terrorism. The second part explores the role of free trade in the development of the Middle East, applying the case-study of the Middle East Free Trade initiative (MEFTA) and highlighting the major developments of this initiative and the current challenges and opportunities awaiting countries in this region. Part three is devoted to exploring the norms embodied in international law which relate to international terrorism, and how the U.S. and the Muslim world could jointly work toward improving the stance of international law norms on terrorism.

1. TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST

   Two polarized approaches compete in the debate on the causes of terrorism in the Middle East. (8) The first one focuses on the root causes, which are simply: poverty, ignorance, and lack of political expression, which create a breeding ground for terrorist groups. Consequently this approach calls for a certain set of priorities in dealing with terrorism, which are political, social and economic development in the Islamic world. This theory is called the demand side of terrorism. (9) The second approach denies any economic-socio reasons for terrorist attacks; it rather presents the threat as a mere security issue, and dealing with this would invoke intelligence, protection and coercive action. (10) This is the supply side. (11) Proponents of the first approach argue that the U.S. is trying to combat an ideology -created in intense poverty and in a desperate environment- by using military force. Ideology can only be defeated by a similar or stronger ideology and by eliminating all the conditions where violent ideology grows. Proponents of the second approach explain that September 11 hailed primarily from an either upper or middle/well connected class in their countries.

   In this article, I propose that terrorism with its two sides (demand and supply) should be tackled in international law. The first part will uncover the political and economic situations in the Middle East, and how the U.S. and Muslim World perceive each other. It will provide an analysis of how Islamic law could be useful in the war on terrorism.

   1. Politico-Economic Conditions in the Middle East

      A complete understanding of why terrorism has a fertile environment in the Middle East cannot take place without taking into account the political and economic framework of the countries in this region. The cultural and the historical development of the Middle East should be highlighted as well. In his article, Origins of Terrorism, Herbert Kitschelt described The Middle East as a region which "appears to be trapped in a vicious circle of low growth, bad institutions of governance, and resistance to economic globalization." (12) President Bush in the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment of Democracy, announced that "[i]n many Middle Eastern countries, poverty is deep and it is spreading, women lack rights and are denied schooling. Whole societies remain stagnant while the world moves ahead. These are not the failures of a culture or a religion. These are the failures of political and economic doctrines." (13)

      Countries in the Middle East are suffering from daunting challenges; the ability to absorb the labor force, creating jobs and the increasingly competitive nature of the global economy, particularly China, India and the Philippines, (14) low levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), lack of technology, industrial incompetence, high levels of government investment and ownership, and the high costs of doing business. (15) After the oil boom in the 1970s, the Middle East economies shifted from diverse agricultural and textile markets to single commodity exporters. Great optimism marked the economies of the Middle East in the early 1990s because gulf war ended, the Madrid conference brought Israelis and Palestinians together for the first time, and countries in the region started to adopt IMF and World Bank recommendations. (16) Tarek Yousef reasoned why political leaders in the region have been reluctant reformers despite the region's potential. It was obvious to the elite that pursuing economic and political reforms simultaneously threatened the existing political order. (17) He argued that as a result, top down management of economic reform replaced earlier efforts to generate support for economic reform by opening the political arena. (18) Jonathan Macey and Ian Ayres argued that the true stumbling block to economic reform in the Middle East is a divergence between the incentives of rulers and entrenched elites and the interests of potential entrepreneurs. Economic liberalization will have a democratizing effect, thus threatening the political and economic insiders. (19)

      On the political scene, highly undemocratic and stable regimes exist at the same time. (20) For instance, the Arab world is unique in the prevalence of long lived, undemocratic regimes consisting largely of monarchies. (21) Islam with its principles of Tauheed, consultations, Ijma and Ijtehad, (1) possesses a strong pluralistic tradition. However, leaders in the Muslim world are disinclined to embody these ideas and principles in their political structure. (22) On the ground, authoritarian governments predominate in the Muslim world; moreover, most regimes in the region are apt to corruption, patronage, and clientalism. (23) There is no accountability of public authorities and they remain, in large part, unresponsive if not incompetent to meet public needs. (24) Governments in the region have used and will continue to use their talent for the co-optation of potential political opposition to consolidate their authority. (25) Consistently ranked among the worst regimes in the world in their refusal to uphold their citizens' political freedoms, human rights, and civil liberties, the authoritarians in this region are quite effective at clamping down on both secular and liberal opposition and Islamist groups. (26) Most governments in the Middle East believe in risk free democracy; (27) they organize elections that they are not going to lose. In terms of rule of law, governments are reluctant to facilitate rule of law projects that foster real political liberalization. (28) When it comes to economic development, the ruling elites rationally oppose economic development because it would lead to social changes that may threaten their hold on power. Unlike developed countries, slow economic growth is compatible with the rational self interest of the leaders in the region; growth would alter the balance of power between the rulers and potential rival coalitions and increase the probability of political change. (29) Muslims' influence was increasingly diminished in the sixteenth century. Continuous defeats at the hands of Christian Spanish isolated Muslims from society or turned them into slaves to Christians. As the eighteenth century came to a close, Islamic civilization eclipsed. (30)

      The breakdown of the Othman Empire brought about independent Muslim states administered by corrupt and inefficient national regimes, which were frequently subservient to the prior colonial powers or to the new neo-imperial power, the U.S. Muslim masses were oppressed by foreign...