This Washington Post article describing the burgeoning grass roots activism in Saudi Arabia ?a place that typically forbids popular political expression?has a tone of cautious optimism. Gathering signatures for petitions, holding meetings, preaching to visitors in the Kingdom?s malls, and other peaceful, acceptable forms of protest could lead to the creation of new civic activities and avenues of protests to provide an alternative to terrorist violence ? itself a form, however unacceptable, of political participation.
Supporting this argument were comments made at a gathering of religious clerics in Bahrain on March 22 to discuss the Muslim reaction to the cartoon insults against the Prophet . The gathering, which included hardliner clerics like Yusuf Qaradawi and Salman al-Awdah , stressed that one of the goals of the conference was to communicate to Muslims that the violent protests that took place in some countries were inappropriate responses to the cartoon controversy. Conference spokesman Sheikh Adel al-Muawda was quoted in AFP: ??We?want to educate Muslims about the ways of securing their rights while avoiding negative practices,? such as the violent cartoon protests, he said. ?The ulema attending the conference will underline that Sharia [Islamic law] bans such practices.??
If the cartoon controversy can create new procedures for handling Islamist complaints that are supported and endorsed by top Islamic authorities like those attending the Bahrain conference, then perhaps these new political groups will take away the terrorists? steam. The flip side is that things could develop in the other direction. Such activism could fuel Islamist passions and hostilities toward the West even further, producing an environment ripe with potential terrorist recruits.
This is the same debate revolving around the activities of Islamist groups operating in Europe ? most notoriously Hizb ut-Tahrir . Some say that the groups, which do not carry out acts of violence, provide Islamists with a political vent for their anger. Others say that they act as ?conveyor belt? organizations, providing the ideological indoctrination to fill the ranks of future terrorist cells. There has been evidence to support both arguments. The same two forecasts could apply to anti-western Islamist activism in the Muslim world.
Salman al-Awdah, a radical Sheikh who has preached violence against the United States and its interests internationally, was among the more prominent figures at the Bahraini conference. Somewhat cryptically, al-Awdah described what he believed was the purpose for the gathering: ?This conference is held to guide the anger among Muslims.? Coming from one of Saudi Arabia?s most notorious religious figures, the statement does not necessarily conjure images of peaceful demonstrations or petitions. It illuminates the risk that some may seek to exploit inflamed emotions in order to deepen Muslim hostility toward the non-Muslim world and make retributive acts of violence more palatable to a greater number of people.
Sadly, such a surge of Muslim grassroots activism has been reserved only for the ?crimes? of the West, while a deafening silence has been the norm for the international Muslim response to terrorist attacks, beheadings, violence against women, and the many deficiencies and crimes of Islamic world governments. This is partly because a relative few in this one billion-strong community have the stomach for self-criticism and partly because Islamic countries clamp down heavily on political and social protests that can lead to domestic divisiveness.
One thing may be predicted with certainty: it is only anti-western political protests that will be permitted in places like Saudi Arabia. All social and political complaints will have to be articulated in anti-western terms, even when the real subject of animosity may be domestic policies and government. The United States and western world allies will continue to absorb anger originally meant for Muslim world governments. The 9/11 attacks and other acts of terrorism, however, should remind us that being a scapegoat for Muslim world problems can have consequences more dangerous than just protests and slogans.