By Sid Ahmed Ghozali
European Voice, 8-14 March – Islamic extremism is no longer only a threat to the Islamic world. Its ominous presence now looms over Western Europe. While the problem is getting more is getting more pervasive, a solution seems even more evasive. But do not jump to the conclusion that the clash of civilisations is inevitable.
It can be averted, but only with bold initiatives by European policy makers which have been missing for decades.
By Sid Ahmed Ghozali
European Voice, 8-14 March – Islamic extremism is no longer only a threat to the Islamic world. Its ominous presence now looms over Western Europe. While the problem is getting more is getting more pervasive, a solution seems even more evasive. But do not jump to the conclusion that the clash of civilisations is inevitable.
It can be averted, but only with bold initiatives by European policy makers which have been missing for decades.
In dealing with growing Islamic violence, policing systems and intelligence methods offer at best short-lived remedies and these actually backfire in the long term. What is needed is a socio-political solution. In real terms, the only viable option is to encourage and support, within Islamic societies, democracy, tolerance and modernity as the antidote to religious violence.
This conclusion is not based on academic, ivory-tower discussions. The bitter reality of governing a country faced with this threat taught me the lesson the hard way. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Algeria faced a major challenge from extremists Islamists who sought to impose their mind-set and way of life on Algeria.
It was apparent that the unrest and violence was not solely indigenous, and that foreign instigation was involved. It took us a while to see Tehran’s tentacles, which was surprising because Algeria at that time ostensibly had one the best relationships with the Iranian regime in the Arab world.
But in reality, Tehran’s mullahs used Algeria’s goodwill to foment Islamic extremism and to export their belligerent version of Islam there. As Prime minister I had to make a tough choice: immediate economics benefit versus the future of my country. At the end of the day, I severed ties with the Iranian regime to prevent it from adding to the violence and stop it from meddling in Algeria’s domestic affairs.
Now Europe has reached the same crossroads in dealing with Islamic extremism. As Tehran rushes towards acquiring nuclear weapons while spreading its virulence throughout the Islamic world and even Europe, the time has come for a new policy. For 16 years, the West, particularly the EU, sought the chimera of moderates within the clerical establishment.
While trying to placate Tehran it sold out the Iranian opposition, namely the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), the principal Iranian resistance movement, a democratic, anti-fundamentalist, modern Islamic organisation.
For years, Iran’s rulers demanded that the EU marginalise the resistance to win the mullahs’ favour, and EU diplomats disgracefully acquiesced by blacklisting the PMOI in 2002 in return for lucrative commerce. This policy, not surprisingly, played into the hands of the Iranian extremists – and the end result is the crisis now facing the international community.
On 12 December 2006, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg overturned the EU’s decision to brand the PMOI as terrorist. During the court session, at which I happened to be present, the EU’s counsel was unable to provide any evidence, even in camera, making any connection between the PMOI and terrorism.
To the contrary, the court said that the PMOI “set itself the objectives of replacing the regime of the Shah of Iran, then the mullahs’ regime, by a democracy,” thus providing a perfect opportunity for the EU to jump-start a new approach on Iran, and also to side with a democratic Islamic movement.
But to the shock and disbelief of many observers, the Council of ministers defied the court order and announced on 30 January that it was keeping the PMOI on the EU’s “asset freeze list” of persons, groups and entities involved in terrorists acts unless it can document reasons to remove it from the list.
Once again, the EU offered an olive branch to Tehran’s mullahs and sent the worst possible message to Islamic fundamentalists – a message of submission. When will EU politicians stop being held captive by short-term economic gain?
If the EU wants to avert another full-blown crisis in the Middle East, it must block Islamic extremists’ intent on spreading their message of hate. The first step should be to remove the fetters from the PMOI and allow it to lead freedom-loving Iranians away from the oppression of the mullahs.
* Sid Ahmed Ghozali is a former prime minister and foreign minister of Algeria.
