http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=your%20say&subclass=general&story_id=529999&category=Opinion&m=11&y=2006
Islam needs a leader to stem spread of militancy David Barnett NOBODY seemed to understand that the year 1923, when Kemal Ataturk staged a revolution and made Turkey into a secular republic, was a turning point in history. But it was. Not because Ataturk, who won the Dardanelles campaign, banned the burqa and the fez, and the wearing of beards. Not because he embarked on a reform program to lead Turkey into the modern world. But because, as part of that reform process, he abolished the caliphate. That's the bit that nobody talked about, nobody wrote about, nobody wondered about, as they would had the emerging Italian nation gone a step further than merely abolishing the papal states, but the papacy as well. What would have become of the Catholic Church without Rome? What became of Islam without the Caliph of Istanbul? Nothing much, for 30 years, until colonial rule was lifted, and then the Muslim states erupted into revolutions, into coups against elected governments, into violent nationalism, and finally into terrorism. Ataturk's decision, taken in the cause of secular, democratic government, has worked against that principle just about everywhere except Turkey itself, and sometimes there it has been touch and go. You see, there is no single spiritual leader to look to for all Muslims and, for the West, there is no single person to talk to. The unintended consequence was that firebrand imams were given their heads. As far as Australia is concerned, there is nobody to sack Sheik Taj Al-Din Hilali as Imam of the huge Lakemba mosque except a council composed of his acolytes. They don't want to do it, and Sheik Hilali doesn't want to go. Were the sheik and his council to borrow any adviser from any political office on either side of politics at federal or state level, his advice would inevitably be: sit tight and wait for it to blow over. That's just what they seem to be doing. Governments spend a lot of time endeavouring to identify unintended consequences, which are not the same as the cons in pros and cons. Of course taxpayers will object if taxes go up. But what if the consequence on an export tax on agricultural exports is to price them out of international markets, as happened to Argentina when Juan Peron was running the country. The law of the unintended consequence is iron-clad, immutable and inescapable. It is that whether or not your decision achieves what it sets out to achieve, it will also lead to some other consequence or consequences that you failed to predict, perhaps could not predict, and might well not want. Did Hitler, a landscape artist in his youth, intend his destruction of the Jewish population of Germany and of much of the rest of Europe to leave behind a cultural, scientific and intellectual desert. Try naming a painter of international reputation, or a conductor or composer, or a scientist or a writer of the past 50 years. While Ataturk's decision to abolish the caliphate seemed like a good idea at the time, the consequence that Ataturk neither intended nor foresaw, is that in the absence of a head of the Islamic faith, there is no doctrinal discipline, no ability to modify dogma to adapt to modern times, and nobody to sack Sheik Hilali and all the other imams preaching hatred. Islam does not have a pope, nor even an archbishop with primacy in his country. The West must deal with secular leaders, whose ability to negotiate with the imams is limited. Pakistan actually bombed a madrassah the other day. At the very time when Turkey is seeking entry to the European Union an event that would crown Ataturk's modernisation Muslim terrorism around the world is arousing memories of the Turkish conquest of the Balkans that took them, in the 16th and 17th centuries, to the gates of Vienna. If Sheik Hilali sits tight, which seems to be his intention, it would seem quite possible that he will survive. It could well be that Turkey fails to gain admission to the European Union, which is always finding reasons for delay. Christian and Jewish victims of Muslim terrorism will continue to die in their hundreds and Muslims will continue to die in their thousands. As unintended consequences go, that's an impressive total. David Barnett is a Canberra writer. +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
