The outbreak of large-scale violence between Israelis and Palestinians has instigated a resurgence of Islamist incitement throughout the Arab world, threatening to completely redefine the state of Arab-Israeli, and possibly even Arab-American, relations for the foreseeable future. While this phenomenon is partially an outgrowth of the religious dimension that the dispute over Jerusalem has brought to the forefront of Arab-Israeli politics, the activities of Islamist groups are facilitated by the authoritarian political climate prevailing in most of the Arab world. Since the only cause for which these governments will freely allow thousands of citizens to assemble in protest is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, public grievances are projected onto Israel and, indirectly, the United States. The level of Islamist incitement is particularly salient in Arab states that have the closest relations with the US, precisely because poor governance is more easily associated with abandonment of Islamic claims to Jerusalem.

In Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood has spearheaded a campaign to annul the Kingdom's 1994 peace treaty with Israel, organizing protests and demonstrations that have attracted as many as 80,000 people in recent weeks. Government laws banning such activities by the Brotherhood have been conspicuously unenforced. Jordanian officials have also made little effort to halt the stream of lectures conducted by Islamist leaders in mosques throughout the country. Moderate Jordanian Islamists who had previously advocated a "nonconfrontational" policy toward Israel, such as MP Abbdallah Akayleh, are now depicting the conflict with Israel as an existential struggle. Growing public hostility to Israel has also filtered into the Jordanian parliament, where 13 MP's submitted a motion last month to abrogate the treaty. Even Parliament Speaker Abdelhadi Majali, who has been an active supporter of the peace process, recently remarked that Israel only understands "the language of death and destruction."¹

The same pattern is evident in other Arab states, where even "moderate," state-appointed religious leaders have adopted extremist rhetoric. In Egypt, the government-appointed Sheikh of al-Azhar, Muhammad al-Tantawi, has called for arming the Palestinians. "Shouting, protesting and condemning is meaningless," he said in an October 13 sermon. "Supplying them with arms is just and fair."² It is also worth mentioning that six members of the Muslim Brotherhood were elected to the Egyptian parliament last month (there were no members of the group in the outgoing parliament).

In Saudi Arabia, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca called on Muslims to launch a jihad (holy war) in the name of Palestinian martyrs and to "support your brothers and not forsake them." Their sacrifice "is the most noble of sacrifices for the defense of Islam," Imam Osama bin Abdullah Khayat told worshipers on October 20. "We are participating today in the Intifada on the ground of al-Quds (Jerusalem) and all the Palestinian territories."³

Omar Bakri Muhammad

The bombing of the USS Cole in Aden Harbor on October 12 has raised concerns among Western and Israeli officials that transnational Islamist networks linked to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, will become more active in the coming months. Indeed, the US has closed 21 of its embassies around the world as a precautionary measure.

Much attention has focused on the International Islamic Front (IIF), a London-based organization linked to bin Laden that has recruited volunteers and raised funds in support of Islamist groups in Chechnya, Pakistan, and other hot spots around the world. The organization's spokesman, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, talked at length about the IIF's activities in support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in an interview last month.

According to Bakri, the IIF is now actively supporting the Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. "We collect funds to be able to carry on the struggle; we recruit militiamen; and sometimes we take care of these groups' propaganda requirements in Europe." The IIF recruited 160 volunteers in Britain last month, he said, and sent them to Jordan, where they are now awaiting an opportunity to infiltrate into the West Bank and join the uprising against Israel. IIF recruits have also been sent in recent months to Lebanon, where they are undergoing training in Palestinian refugee camps (which operate outside the control of the Lebanese government). "In the Ayn al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp , for instance, new mujahidin are being recruited and trained with the aim of opening up another front in south Lebanon." He added that the IIF is also "in touch with Hezbollah and with Islamic movements such as Usbat al-Ansar which are determined to fight for the liberation of Jerusalem."⁴

Although Bakri has denied that the IIF has any link to the attack on the USS Cole last month, he said that he received two phone calls claiming responsibility for the attack from a group called Muhammad's Army. "The caller announced that a US warship in the Gulf of Aden had been hit and he promised a further attack, which then turned out to be an explosion in the British embassy in Sana'a," he said, carefully adding that he does not know the callers. "The mujahid with whom I spoke promised further acts against US and Israeli targets . . . and announced also that their next move will be to capture hostages."⁵

Another group linked to bin Laden, the Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-e-Toiba, formally declared a jihad (holy war) against Israel last month and announced that it was ordering thousands of militants to fight for the "liberation" of Jerusalem. "The decision to wage jihad against Israel was taken by the party's central shura (council)," said the group's leader, Hafiz Said, on October 21. "Over 20,000 activists of Lashkar have already registered their names with the party for war against Israeli forces . . . our suicide squad is also ready to join Palestinian brothers."⁶

Notes

  ¹ Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), 30 October 2000.
  ² Middle East International, 27 October 2000.
  ³ SPA (Saudi Arabia), 20 October 2000.
  ⁴ Il Giornale (Milan), 14 October 2000.
  ⁵ Il Giornale (Milan), 14 October 2000. Bakri described Muhammad's Army as a group "set up in the Caucasus, comprising local and Asian Islamic volunteers who are in action in Chechnya, in Dagestan, and in Uzbekistan."
  ⁶ AFP, 21 October 2000.