Chapter Eight: The Umbrella Effect

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Chapter EightThe Umbrella Effect
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Jihad Moves to Central and Southeast Asia
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Jihad Moves to Central and Southeast Asia

• The impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union on
  Central Asia
  
• The Stans (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
  Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan) moved into
  self-government
  
• The new Russian Federation wanted nothing to do
  with their old possession in Central Asia
  
• The new governments ended up with authoritarian
  regimes far removed from the common people, which
  led to unrest across the region, and the climate
  became ripe for religious radicals to gain
  influence

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Jihad Moves to Central and Southeast Asia

• Three groups that grew in Central Asia after
  1991
  
• The Hezb-ul-Tahir
• A Palestinian organization that moved to Central
  Asia to preach conversion to Islam
  
• The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
• Proposed a violent jihad against Islam Karimov,
  the dictator of Uzbekistan
  
• Ethnic Uighars from western China
• Organized to revive an eighteenth-century state
  in Chinas Xing Xian (New Frontier) province

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Jihad Moves to Central and Southeast Asia

• The Jihadists move to India
• Much of Indias terrorist problem centered on
  Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed territory along the
  Indian and Pakistani border
  
• Indias and Pakistans internal problems
• India was concerned with growing terrorism
  fostered by Pakistani groups, its own internal
  Jihadists, and Sikh terrorists (the Sikhs are a
  religious group combining monotheism with
  precepts of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism)

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Jihad Moves to Central and Southeast Asia

• The Jihadist movement in Southeast Asia
• Jihadist groups began forming in Indonesia in the
  early 1990s
  
• Lashkar Jihad
• Formed to fight Christians in the East
• Jamaat Islamiyya
• Formed with the purpose of placing Indonesia
  under strict Islamic law

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Jihad Moves to Central and Southeast Asia

• The Philippines
• Religious and ideological rebellions were
  repeated themes
  
• The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)
• Seeks an independent Islamic state
• Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
• Seeks to create an Islamic state under strict
  interpretations of Islamic law
  
• Abu Sayyuf
• Claims to be part of the Jihadist movement, but
  is most closely associated with criminal
  activity, and seems more interest in money than
  religion
• The New Peoples Army
• Hopes to turn the Philippines into a communist
  state

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Jihad Moves to Central and Southeast Asia

• Ethnic Chechnyans and Russians
• Chechnyan rebels should not be lumped with other
  Jihadist movements
  
• Chechnyans are engaged in a legitimate war of
  independence and are not like other Jihadist
  terrorists

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Sunni Jihad from Africa to the West
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Sunni Jihad from Africa to the West

• The Algerian Civil War
• In 1992, an Islamic party won the national
  election in Algeria
  
• The Algerian military took control of the
  government and voided the elections
  
• The military coup ended in the Civil War, during
  which more than one hundred thousand people died
  between 1992 and 2002

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Sunni Jihad from Africa to the West

• The path of the Jihadist groups
• The Muslim Brotherhood
• Started in Cairo in 1928 under the leadership of
  Hassan al Banna
  
• By 1951, after al Bannas assassination, the
  movement grew violent, partly because of the
  influence of Sayyid Qutb
  
• Qutb was executed in 1966, and the Brotherhood
  returned to its original mission of peace
  
• Al Qaeda
• Moved to Sudan in 1992, and found willing
  partners in the north
  
• In some cases, Jihadist groups shared training
  and members with al Qaeda

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Sunni Jihad from Africa to the West

• Jihad in the international arena
• Qutb advocated of revolutionary reform inside
  government, but he argued it was necessary to
  confront and defeat infidel government not under
  the rule of Islamic law
• Jihadists sought to impose Islamic law on the
  world
  
• As a result, Jihadists used Africa as a
  springboard to the West
  
• Hezbollah (Party of God)
• Spawned in Lebanon after the Iranian Revolution,
  which culminated in the overthrow of the secular
  shah of Iran
  
• Hezbollahs purpose is to spread the Islamic law
  of Shiite Islam

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The Metamorphosis of Hezbollah
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The Metamorphosis of Hezbollah

• Shiite beliefs
• One of Mohammeds decedents must return before
  God judges humanity
  
• Mohammeds power flowed through his heirs
• Mohammed had twelve direct heirs, or imams, and
  that the last imam was taken directly to heaven

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The Metamorphosis of Hezbollah

• The birth of Hezbollah
• Secular Syrian Baathists wanted to establish
  control in Lebanon
  
• Lebanon was locked in a multifaceted civil war
• Secular Palestinians in the Palestine Liberation
  Organization (PLO) moved into the Shiite areas
  of southern Lebanon
  
• The Syrians backed the southern Shiites in the
  civil war, pitting the Shiites and the Syrians
  against the PLO
  
• The Israelis invaded Lebanon in 1982 to drive the
  PLO from the south. This led to an alliance among
  Irans Revolutionary Guards, secular Syrian
  Baathists, and southern Lebanese Shiites
• As Shiite militias resisted the Israeli
  invasion, one group began to form in the shadows
  of the civil war. It centered around a
  nonorganization- a governing council to share
  ideas, plans, and money, but designed to
  disappear and leave autonomous groups to carry
  out attacks under a variety of names. They called
  themselves Hezbollah, or the Party of God

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The Metamorphosis of Hezbollah

• The Umbrella organization of Hezbollah
• Overhead, Syrian and Iranian money and supplies
  poured into the movement
  
• Below the umbrella, several Shiite cells
  operated autonomously and received money,
  weapons, and ideas through hidden channels linked
  with the spiritual leaders
• The leadership formed alliances with two Lebanese
  Shiite groups, Al Dawa and Islamic Amal

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The Metamorphosis of Hezbollah

• Leadership of Hezbollah
• Sheik Mohammed Hassan Fadallah
• Charismatic spiritual leader
• Abus Musawi
• Provided loose connections to Iran
• Hassan Nasrallah
• Practical miltarist

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The Metamorphosis of Hezbollah

• The developmental phases of Hezbollah
• Phase one (1982-1985), the umbrella covered many
  terrorist groups
  
• After 1985, Hezbollahs leaders wanted to develop
  a revolutionary movement similar to that which
  gripped Iran in 1978 and 1979
  
• Narsrallah began changing the structure of
  Hezbollah in 1985
  
• He established regional centers, transforming
  them to operational bases between 1987 and 1989
  
• Hezbollah on the warpath
• The marine barracks bombing
• Kidnapping campaign in Beirut

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The Metamorphosis of Hezbollah

• The third phase came in 1990
• Nasrallah created a regional militia by 1990
• Hezbollahs militia soon found itself in trouble
  Squabbling broke out among various groups, and
  Hezbollah was forced to fight Syria and Islamic
  Amal
• The fourth phase brought the organizations from
  the shadows
  
• By 1995, Hezbollah developed strong political
  bases of support in parts of Beirut, the Bekaa
  Valley, and its stronghold in southern Lebanon
  
• When Palestinians rose against the Israelis in
  2000, Hezbollah embraced their cause, and its
  transformation was complete. It was a
  nationalistic group with a military wing, and its
  stated goals were to eliminate Israel and to
  establish an Islamic government in Lebanon

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The Current State of Hezbollah
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The Current State of Hezbollah

• Hezbollahs three directorates
• The political wing, the social services wing, the
  security wing
  
• Each directorate is subservient to a Supreme
  Council, currently headed by Hassan Nasrallah
  
• Hezbollah receives funding from Iran

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The Current State of Hezbollah

• Hezbollahs tactics
• The primary tactic is bombing
• Suicide bombing
• Radio-controlled bombs
• Hezbollah international
• The Supreme Council denies its existence
• The international section has cells in several
  different countries, including the United States,
  and maintains an extensive international finance
  ring partially based on smuggling, drugs, and
  other crimes

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A Sympathetic View of Hezbollah
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A Sympathetic View of Hezbollah

• Hezbollah had no intention of spreading the
  Iranian Revolution they merely wanted to defend
  their community
  
• They are a religious and political organization
  supporting a guerrilla army, and the purpose of
  the army is to defeat Israel
  
• The main focus of Hezbollah is social service in
  the form of education, health services, and
  social security

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A Sympathetic View of Hezbollah

• Hezbollah guerrillas believe that fighting the
  Israelis is not an act of terrorism
  
• Most Arabs find Hezbollah to be a source of
  inspiration
  
• Hassan Fadlallah condemned the September 11
  attacks as un-Islamic, refusing to call the
  hijackers martyrs and maintaining they
  committed suicide while murdering innocent people

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A Critical View of Hezbollah
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A Critical View of Hezbollah

• Hezbollah is a terrorist organization because
• The suicide attacks it carried out against
  civilians and peacekeeping forces
  
• Its kidnapping rampage from 1983 to 1990
• 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight
• Two bombings in Argentina in 1992 and 1994
• Hezbollah has been responsible for a campaign of
  suicide bombings, the murders of Lebanese
  Christians, international arms smuggling, and a
  host of international criminal activity

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A Critical View of Hezbollah

• Hezbollahs uncompromising political stand, and
  critics contend that it exists for only two
  reasons to impose a Shiite government on
  Lebanon and to destroy the state of Israel
• Alasdair Soussi says Hezbollah exports its
  revolutionary ideals , claiming that contacts
  exist between Hezbollah and the Iraqi resistance
  movement
• Jessica Stern points out that Hezbollah interacts
  with other terrorist groups around the world

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A Critical View of Hezbollah

• Hezbollah is part of the Jihadist network, but
  its origins and reasons for existing are found in
  the struggle over Palestine
  
• Hezbollah provided a model for the formation of
  an international umbrella of terrorist
  organizations. The international section remains
  a conglomeration of like-minded semiautonomous
  groups