OTHER VIEWS
Finding The Silver Linings
he recent "Second National
Student Conference on the
Palestine Solidarity
Movement" conference in
Ann Arbor was, as expected, an ugly
display of anti-Israel rhetoric ("Rallying
For Israel," Oct. 18, page 20).
Speaker after speaker denounced
Israel as a racist state that wished to
oppress the Palestinians. Hardly a word
was uttered in favor of a peaceful future
or against terrorism. Instead, the
speeches were filled with comparisons
of Israel to Nazi Germany and South
Africa under apartheid.
Was the conference a success? I think
it failed miserably.
Its goals were to build momentum
on campus for the campaign to divest
from companies doing business with
Israel and to gain positive public expo-
sure through the media for that cam-
paign and for the de-legitimization of
,
David Gad-Harf is executive director of
the Jewish Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit.
Israel.
The attendance for the conference,
and especially for the strategizing ses-
sions, had to be disappointing to con-
ference organizers.
The pro-Israel forces effectively and
creatively pre-empted the conference,
rallying hundreds of students and others
on campus to their side. The University
of Michigan president stated her strong
opposition to divestment, and her col-
leagues at Wayne State and Michigan
State universities quickly joined her. The
media coverage focused at least as much
attention, if not more, on the pro-Israel
response to the conference, and the two
Detroit daily newspapers editorialized
against divestment.
While I wish the conference had
never occurred, especially at a universi-
ty so highly regarded by the Jewish
community, I do see a number of "sil-
ver linings" to that dark cloud.
First, Michigan's three major
Michigan universities and two major
newspapers are on the record against
divestment. The pro-divestment cam-
Militant Islam's New Strongholds
Philadelphia
he recent bombing of a
nightclub in Bali, Indonesia,
killing at least 183 and injur-
ing hundreds, fits into a larg-
er pattern. Militant Islam used to be
mostly confined to Middle Easterners,
but in recent years, it has spread to
Muslims in other parts of the world.
This can be seen especially in the
cases of Indonesia, Bangladesh and
Nigeria, three countries with a corn-
bined population of 494 million inhab-
itants. Their Muslim population of
378 million constitutes about a third of
the global Muslim community
• Indonesia: This Southeast Asian
country, 88 percent Muslim, hosts
Islamist efforts to impose Islamic law
(Shari a) through both legal and violent
means.
On the island of Aceh alone, more
than 6,000 lives have been lost in fight-
ing between the Islamist "Free Aceh
Movement" and government forces.
Asian intelligence sources believe this
group may be an Al\ Qaida affiliate.
The goal of these and other radicals,
CNS News reports, is "to turn the
T
trN
10/25
2002
36
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle
East Forum and author of 'Militant
Islam Reaches America." E-mail:
Pipes@MEForum.org
world's most populous Muslim country
into an extremist Islamic state by 2003."
Muslim-Christian tensions have led
to a full-blown religious war on other
islands. In Sulawesi, Islamists have
deployed roadblocks, armored bulldoz-
ersand rocket launchers, thereby isolat-
ing the indigenous Christian commu-
nity. They have also systematically tar-
geted Christians, forcing them to con-
vert, circumcising their children, burn-
ing churches and other buildings.
In all, Muslim-Christian clashes in
Indonesia have killed 19,000 since
1999 and left 600,000 displaced from
their homes.
• Bangladesh: Islamists in this 83
percent Muslim country of South Asia
aspire to establish a true "Islamic
Republic of Bangladesh" with a consti-
tution based on the Sharik. The goal,
says the head of one group, is to "pur-
sue a slow, but steady policy towards
Islamization of the country" — much
like Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Not surprisingly, Al Qaida has tenta-
cles in Bangladesh. "Harakat ul-Jihad
Islami, Bangladesh" was reportedly
established with direct aid from Osama
bin Laden in 1992 and calls itself the
"Bangladeshi Taliban." The group
claimed responsibility for attacking
U.S. government offices in Calcutta,
killing five policemen in January
paign will have to look else-
The divestment issue is by
where for fertile ground to
no means dead, even in
boost its cause.
Michigan. The people who
Second, after a long period
want to distance America from
of dormancy, the campus pro-
Israel will look for other places
Israel advocacy movement was
to sell their divestment idea, or
mobilized. Hundreds of previ-
they may discard it and find
ously inactive students partici-
another way to undermine sup-
pated in the planning and
port for Israel. We must not let
DAVID
implementation of various
GAD-HARF down our guard, thinking that
events and strategies. This
we've slain the dragon. Instead,
Community
bodes well for the future
we need to use the experience
Views
organizing that will surely be
at the University of Michigan
needed on campus.
to build a stronger, more effec-
Third, the Jewish community's
tive, and more encompassing pro-Israel
response reflected the kind of collabo-
advocacy infrastructure.
ration and communication that are so
We have all of the necessary ingredi-
essential during times of crisis. The
ents — superb Hillels, imaginative
Jewish Community Council worked
pro-Israel student organizations, effec-
closely with the Detroit and Ann Arbor
tive Jewish advocacy organizations and
Federations, the University of Michigan
supportive federations. We must now
Hillel, various pro-Israel student organ-
marshal our combined energy,
izations, the Anti-Defamation League,
resources and talents to capitalize on
the American Jewish Committee and
these assets and build an enduring
with Laurence Deitch and Andrea
partnership on behalf of Israel.
Fischer Newman, two members of the
Let us not wait for the next crisis.
university's board of regents.
Let's do it nOw. ❑
Since Sept. 11, 2001, thou-
of this West African country
sands of Al Qaida supporters
have adopted or announced
plans to adopt some version of
have taken to the streets of
Dhaka after Friday prayers,
Islamic law in 12 of Nigeria's
touting posters that read:
36 states since 1999.
Implementing Islamic law
"Osama is our Hero," while
burning effigies of President
means forbidding such prac-
tices as the construction of
George W. Bush.
churches, music performanc-
Meanwhile, members of
DAN IEL
minority religions have suffered
es, the wearing of pants,
PIP ES
drinking alcohol, and riding
from ghastly violence, includ-
Spe cial
ing collective terror. The
Comm entary in mixed-gender taxis. Forced
conversions to Islam are
Nation reports that some
reported, as well as coerced
Buddhists and Christians were
divorces of Muslim women from
blinded, had fingers cut off or hands
Christian men. Vigilantes enforce
amputated, while "others had iron rods
nailed through their legs or abdomen."
Islamic law via punishments that
include stoning, flogging and the
Women and children have been
chopping off of hands.
•gang-raped, often in front of their
Solidarity visits from Sudanese,
fathers or husbands." In addition, hun-
Pakistani, Saudi, Palestinian and Syrian
dreds of temples were desecrated and
Islamists tie Nigeria to the wider forces
statues destroyed; thousands of homes
of militant Islam. Freedom House con-
and businesses looted or burned.
cludes that Nigeria is undergoing a
As for Hindus, the human rights
process of "Talibanization."
organization Freedom House reports
they have been subject to "rape, torture
That militant Islam and its compan-
ion violence have spread from the
and killing, and the destruction of their
Middle Eastern core to the periphery of
cultural and religious identity at the
the Muslim world is of great concern.
hands of Muslims."
In one indicative step, Islamists
It means that the enemies of the
United States, moderate Islam, and of
sometimes force Hindu women to
dress in the Islamist fashion.
civilization itself are far more numerous
• Nigeria: Disregarding both the
and entrenched than previously
Nigerian constitution (which stipulates
thought. This implies that the current
war will likely be longer, bloodier and
a separation of church and state) and
more demanding than most people
demographic realities (only 50 percent
of the population is Muslim), Islamists
imagine. ❑