VOA标准英语2013--War On Terror Focuses Too Much on Extremists, Scholar Says

 

War On Terror Focuses Too Much on Extremists, Scholar Says

French troops fighting al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists in Mali have helped restore order to areas overrun by an ethnic¹ Tuareg rebellion. But local leaders, like Moussa Ag Oumeytta, say solving the crisis means improving the quality of rural life.

"What brought on all these problems is poverty and the lack of development in the north," he explained.

That's a challenge as the international community faces new threats in Africa, according to French President Francois Hollande.

"In the instability in the Sahel, there is a risk that all unresolved conflicts can fuel terrorism," he noted². "We need to work more urgently to resolve the suffering of the population over 30 years."

In his widely discussed book The Thistle And The Drone, Islamic scholar Akbar Ahmed examines the fight against terrorism from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen and Somalia, from the southern Philippines to Mali and Nigeria.

"All of them reflect larger tribal³ groups which have problems with the central government," he explained. "All of them reflect areas where there are serious economic problems in terms of their natural resources. And all of them suggest that we are still misreading the relationship that they have with Islam."

In Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram militants⁴, Ahmed says the government is focusing on Islamic fundamentalism to distract attention from its failures in development.

"Framing it in a different way, the central government is able then to draw in the United States and Europe with the result that it does become a kind of jihad, a kind of Crusades, a kind of confrontation⁵ between the West -- Christianity -- and Islam," the scholar said.

Ahmed said central governments too often make enemies of whole ethnic groups.

'When that happens, from say 100 or 500 or 5,000 criminally-inclined individuals, you are then including five or 10 or 15 million people of the tribe. And that's a disaster. It's a disaster for the nation," he added.

And the international community.

"Just when Afghanistan seems to be dying down, when Pakistan seems to be moving along the path of democracy with another election coming up in the country, you have now the United States and Europe being sucked into another war on terror," noted Ahmed. "And that whole cycle seems to be starting again in the Sahel."

Ahmed said breaking the cycle means rethinking the war on terror.

"If the problem is stemming from tribal culture and codes and customs, then surely the solution also lies in them, not in religion and looking at the verses of the Koran," he said.

Ahmed recommends efforts to resolve tensions between weak central governments in former colonies and minority ethnic groups at their peripheries⁶. 

1 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

2 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

3 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

4 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

5 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

6 peripheries   

n.外围( periphery的名词复数 )；边缘；周围

参考例句：

• The peripheries are lined by respiratory epithelium. 表面是线性排列的呼吸道上皮。 来自互联网