Global Security Concerns - Project Gutenberg Consortia Center

fierce repression by secular government forces (most of them former communists). This
repressive environment has set the stage for major confrontations in this region.
• Indonesia and Malaysia have Muslim majorities, and the governments are
nominally Islamic. The actual tradeoff between Islam and secularism in government has
varied over the years, and fundamentalist movements are active in both countries. The
Malaysian government has banned the Al-Arqam Islamic sect, while Indonesian Muslims
clash with Catholics on East Timor.
• The tajdid (Muslim reawakening) is having a profound impact on politics in
Nigeria. Southern Christian elements insist on a separation of religion and government,
while northern Muslims call for the introduction of shari’a law throughout the country.
• Turkey’s 70-year-old secular government, a key stabilizing influence on the Middle
East, the Caucasus, and the Balkans is experiencing increasing pressure from
fundamentalist groups. Secularists have suffered attacks from Islamists, and the
fundamentalist Welfare party won the March 1994 municipal elections in Turkey’s
largest cities.
Islam as a Global Threat
When the cold war ended, some Western observers suggested that aggressive Islamic
fundamentalism would replace the Soviet threat. This view posits the rise of Islamic
governments as a threat, perhaps even monolithic, where a “nation of Islam” will rival the
threat formerly posed by the Soviet bloc. The evidence supports this view. Islam is
presently the most active agent of violent and nonviolent political change among world
religions. In addition to the prevalence of conflict involving Islamic groups, Islam has
two salient characteristics that make it an extremely effective instrument of political
transformation. The first is its overt rejection of secular government.
The idea of a non-Islamic government is inconsistent with the Islamic faith. The
Koran specifies that the world will be at peace only when Islam becomes the world’s
religion. 13 Islamic tolerance is reserved for Jews and Christians only since Islam
acknowledges the authenticity of such Jewish and Christian personages as Adam, Noah,
Jesus, and others. This acknowledgment does not imply a right to equality or selfgovernance
for these peoples. 14 The Koran allows no room for tolerance of non-Islamic
political systems. Islamic intolerance stems from the principle that Islam represents both
the truth and the law to its followers. That is, when Muslims establish a government, they
install the religion of Islam not just as a moral code but actually to identify laws that
restrict the populace. In some Muslim countries, the government creates laws in
accordance with Islamic principles. In Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan shari’a has
been proclaimed the law of the land. It is based directly on the Koran, Islam’s holy book,
as well as Islamic traditions. It encompasses aspects of life from personal finance to table
manners. Islamic use of religion as a legal system could be contrasted to Western
Christianity, where biblical stories sketch a moral code that Christian fundamentalists
promote as a guide for secular lawmakers. For secular lawmakers, religious exhortations
are only one voice taken into account as laws are created. In Islam, religion is in theory
the only voice.
The impact of this aspect of Islam is that the only acceptable government to a
fundamentalist-minded Muslim is one adhering strictly to Islamic principles. In their
most extreme form, these ideas negate the need for modem state boundaries and
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