A "Clash of Civilisation"?

By Brig (Rtd) M Abdul Hafiz
The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
PERSPECTIVES

At the end of eighteenth century the Russians, in their long process of empire state building intruded into what is today the North Caucasian republic of Chechnya - then an idyllic abode for the meditating Sufi branch of Sunnite Muslims. The Russian intrusion however portended the period of a protracted conflict between the two peoples and their faiths with none ever reconciling to another. Immediately on their annexation by Russia the Chechens rose in revolt led by Sheikh Mansoor, a Naqshbandy saint. Tsar's army took fifty years to bring the Chechens under control. But they could never be humbled into total submission.

After more than two centuries' of intermittent war between the Russians and Chechens the conflict is now seized on by the believers in the 'clash of civilization' propounded by Samuel Huntington who said in 1993 that cultural and religious fault lines would be most likely source of conflict in post-Cold War world. A prototype of such conflict was readily found in the growing friction between the West and Islam. They now tend to treat Russia's war in North Caucasus to be a case in point. To them the 'clash of civilisation' had already been there in Caucasus right from the beginning in miniature and now with the expanding scope of the conflict it has taken its classical form. It is believed that the war in Chechnya is today fought by Muslim militants of several countries under the influence of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi born coordinator of international network of the Islamic terrorism. That gives the conflict in Chechnya its tenor and texture of civilizational clash.

So far, Huntington's theory applied exclusively to the west with whom a resurgent political Islam clashed - and clashed violently at times. During the past decade the United States alone bore the brunt of international terrorism for its alleged crimes against Islam: propping up Israel in Arab heartland, inhumanely starving the Iraqis and desecrating with its presence the land of Islam's holiest places during the Gulf War. In retaliation, the Islamic militants allegedly struck at New York's World Trade Centre, American base in Dhahran and the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in a series of deadly bomb blasts. Now it also seems to be the turn of Russia - an inferior version of western culture under Greek orthodox church.

Recently the Russian government has blamed terrorists from the country's Muslim south for a series of bomb blasts in Moscow and other cities which claimed over 300 lives. This is apart from their secessionist war in Chechnya. To make a common cause with the west, Russian Prime Minister (now acting President) told President Bill Clinton during the former's recent visit to United States that both of their countries faced the common enemy - the international terrorism. As evidence that both anti-Russia and anti-US terrorists have one common source, the officials in Moscow have pointed to the alleged involvement of Osama bin Laden both in Caucasus and urban bombing. They insist that Bin Laden, while not instigator of urban bombing has offered financial help to its perpetrators. And the fighters under Laden have certainly been active in Chechnya and Dagestan.

Another factor that brings Chechnya conflict closer to the notion of civilizational clash is its multinational involvement. Since the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991 emissaries from the Arab world especially Saudi Arabia, flooded into Caucasus and Central Asia to exploit the spiritual and economic vacuum in the area. These preachers of faith initially acted peacefully. But they gradually began to arm themselves and set up semi-autonomous enclaves with local followers in Caucasus to enforce Sharia. Can they be without a role in on-going war in Chechnya? All thoughtful Muslims - whether the proud mountain clans of Caucasus or the outsiders - tend to find cause in Chechnyan war to wipe out the rule of foreign infidels.

Shamil Basaev, the military leader of Chechnyan resistance himself is a man of mission. Trained in Soviet Union he later said that his life's mission was to wage holy war against Russia not only for his Chechen people but for Muslims oppressed elsewhere in Russia. He fought ruthlessly against Russia in the Chechen war of 1994-96 which forced Russia to grant Chechnya greater autonomy just short of independence. What however worries the Russians more is his pan-Russian mission of jihad. Khattab, another fighter of Basaev camp is an Arab who fought the Russians in Afghanistan and earned prominence in Chechnya for his prowess. He was one of those 15,000 volunteers who came from all over Middle East to fight against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and later returned home duly battle hardened. Many of those Afghan-veterans are believed to be in Chechnya in search of new Islamic cause to fight. It is the presence of these elements which helps to explain why Russia regards its own Islamic adversary in Chechnya so dangerous.

Still the conflict in Chechnya is anything but a clash of civilization. Because a clear-cut battle line is yet to be drawn between Islam as a civilization and a counter force. Islam is certainly an element in the crisis looming on Russia's southern rim. But there are also other dynamics of conflicts in the prevailing war in Chechnya. A lot of grey areas surrounding the crisis make it disputable as purely Islamic issue. Even if there are supports in bits and places for an Islamic cause in Chechnya or elsewhere there is no Pan-Islamic support base. In fact the Muslim countries are notoriously divided in their perception of Muslim cause whether it was in Palestine, Bosnia or Chechnya and their response to them is characterised by abysmal apathy and insensibility.

As a matter of fact the governments in Muslim countries lend indirect support to Russia by not taking up Chechnya issue in international fora, not even in the Organisation of Islamic Conference. Iran as the current chairman of the organisation presented in the OIC rather the Russian case. A Shi'ite Iran with her bitter memory of Shia persecution in Taliban-held Afghanistan has been openly supportive of Russian standpoint on Chechnya. Kamal Kharazi, Iran's foreign minister, has promised 'effective collaboration' with the Kremlin against what he has described as 'terrorists' in Chechnya bent upon destabilising Russia.

The 'victims' of so-called Islamic terrorism are themselves circumspect in distinguishing between their current adversaries in Chechnya and Muslims in general. According to former President Boris Yeltsin, 'the terrorists are enemy with no faith or nationality'. Like President Bill Clinton who recently refused to target Islam as an adversary in his drive against international terrorism even if it was the handiwork of some militant Muslim groups, Mr Putin also firmly rejected the view that the 'bandits' Russia was fighting could be described as Islamic.

That the west in general is discreet in dealing with Islam and even its own Muslim minority grows out of its fear of a Muslim backlash the world over. So its policy is to divide and deal piecemeal. There are six million Muslims in the United States who constitute certain political weight and the government is increasingly conscious of their clout. Russia has 18 million Muslims which is a force to reckon with. By fanning anti-Muslim emotions the Russians are likely to spark secessionist trend in other Muslim majority areas like Inghushetia, Tatarstan and Bakshir. So the Russian authorities are very careful about labelling Chechen rebels as Islamist and instead they prefer to call them international terrorists or mercenaries under the cover of Islamic slogans. Or else a common Muslim front may emerge in Russia much to the embarrassment and predicament of Russia.

Notwithstanding a highly mixed up scenario in Chechnya where multiple factors like geopolitics, religion and ethnicity combined with each other to fuel a protracted conflict, the clash of civilization is, however, not unknown to history. It is that clash which catalyses change and brings about rise and fall of civilization. The time is not as yet ripe to challenge the civilization symbolised by advanced western countries; neither is there a countervailing force to match it. The clash is however inherent in the process of history and it will erupt elsewhere, if not in Chechnya.