Terrorism and Ethnoviolence

There are two hubs to the assault on Afghanistan. One is oil; the other is religion and ethnicity. The religious and ethnic basis of this struggle is critical. It is the individual duty of every Muslim, bin Laden wrote in 1998, "to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military...in any country in which it is possible." (U.S. News & World Report, September 24, 2001, p.56) This is a holy war based on the American presence in the Middle East which has desecrated the sacred places of Islam. There is a "Christian Crusade against Islam....The world is split into two. Part of it is under the head of infidels...and the other half under the banner of Islam." (Reuters, November 1, 2001)

The attack on the twin towers and the Pentagon was an act of ethnoviolence, an act motivated by religious and cultural prejudice designed to do violence to its victims. It was a salvo in a holy war declared by an Islamic sect-- a war against Americans, a war against Christians and Jews. Unlike wars of the past, its boundaries are cultural not geographical. The strategy of a terrorist war such as this is to gain power by inculcating fear and intolerance. Attacks on sacred symbols, such as seats of finance and the government, and on random and innocent bystanders are calculated to move the enemy to increasingly violent and authoritarian responses. The underlying theory of this war is that the U.S. government can be counted on to act like a rogue state internationally and as an authoritarian state internally. In doing so its unilateral and militaristic actions isolates it from other countries while aiding the recruitment of more Muslims incensed by those actions. Internally, the government faces the dual problem of containing public dissent while mobilizing the support of the business elites. The blueprint for these has already been sketched through the administration's "economic stimulus package" and their "Patriot's Act."

One side effect of the events of September 11th has been the mobilization of the American ultra-Right Wing and the white, Christian undercurrent that is its bulwark. One of the first responses to the events was a massive outpouring of anti-Muslim ethnoviolence. Muslims ( and any persons perceived to be Muslims including Arab Americans, Indians, Sikhs, and others) became the targets of verbal and physical harassment, threats, and assaults. Mosques and community centers were bombed, shot at, and vandalized. Within the first month, over 400 incidents were publically reported nationwide, including six murders. Extrapolating from the percentage of unreported ethnoviolent incidents targeting other groups, The Prejudice Institute estimates that about 3,500 anti-Muslim incidents likely occurred in September and October. This is not counting incidents of blatant discrimination, especially in workplaces.

While there are also no estimates of that form of discrimination known as "racial profiling," the Department of Justice has committed the most offensive acts of racial profiling. Approximately 5,000 men throughout the country were asked to "volunteer" for interviews by the police about the September 11 attacks. Those selected were adult males under 33 who entered the U.S. since January 1, 2001 and who visited or came from a country where al Qaeda terrorists had trained. Almost all were from Muslim nations.

Overlaying this was the anti-Jewish rhetoric and ethnoviolence events that followed September 11. While the Trade Center was still smouldering, a charge of an international Jewish conspiracy was spread across the Internet and printed in various forms in Middle Eastern newspapers. The most dramatic charge was that New York Jews had been informed of the pending attack by Mossad (the Israeli intelligence agency) so that they wouldn't go to the WTC that day. "Evidence" for that charge was the further claim that no Jews had been killed in the explosion and building collapse. Subsequently, the text of the anthrax bearing letters called for "Death to the Jews. Death to the Americans. Praise Allah."

From the establishment right, just three days after the attack, came the charge that pagans, abortionists, feminists, and homosexuals were partly to blame for what happened. The speaker, Rev. Jerry Falwell, was being interviewed by Pat Robertson on his religious TV program, The 700 Club. Robertson acquiesced though later he issued a "correction" saying that America had insulted God and lost divine protection. Ann Coulter, contributing editor for the National Review On-Line, was more direct: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

The ultra-Right was not silent and saw the events to be a consequence of the Jewish takeover of the American government William Pierce, leader of the National Alliance one of the largest and most influential right-wing groups, put it all together:

This time...things didn't go smoothly for the Jews and their U.S. bully boy....What happened this week is a direct consequence of the American people permitting the Jews to control their government and to use American strength to advance Jews' interests....The people who flew those planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon did it because they had been pushed into a corner by the U.S. government acting on behalf of the Jews. (Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, #104, Winter, 2001)

The outpouring of anti-Muslim incidents, the reiteration of anti-Jewish conspiracies and control, and the essential ethnocentrism of most commentators is not coincidental to the ongoing terrorism and American jingoistic responses. The consequence of prejudice and ethnoviolence is to maintain group separatism. They keep people apart, making cooperation and conflict resolution difficult. Whether deliberately manipulated or simply part of the social heritage of a society, prejudice and ethnoviolence are a bulwark of authoritarianism and fascism.

Howard J. Ehrlich

(The author is coordinator of The Prejudice Institute and editor of the magazine, Social Anarchism.