DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
On the 10th anniversary of al-Qaeda, experts on radical Islam said al-Qaeda has reshaped the structure of world relations and will continue to gain strength as long as the U.S. dominates the region.
According to Egyptian daily Al-Fagr, experts consider Feb. 22 to be the group's 10th anniversary, as the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders -- later known as al-Qaeda -- came into being on that date in 1998.
Speaking to al-Fagr, Moroccan expert on militant Islam, Dr. Mohamed Darif, said al-Qaeda has reshaped the structure of world relations, noting that before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the main conflict was between the Eastern and Western blocs.
Now it is between powers that claim to be fighting terrorism, led by the United States, and other countries that the first group claims to be harboring terrorism, Darif said.
"Thus, terrorism has become the whip the United States uses against any country that doesn't follow the superpower in the new world order, and this is what's happening with Syria, Iran, and North Korea as well as Iraq before the invasion," the Moroccan scholar told the daily.
Darif added that the very existence of al-Qaeda has forged unlikely alliances between specific countries that had a long history of disputes and disagreements.
Egyptian political analyst and expert on political Islam, Diaa Rashwan, said al-Qaeda has caused a major change in foreign relations, as the degree of security coordination between countries is unprecedented in history.
He said the future of al-Qaeda is strongly linked to the United States foreign policy in the Middle East, adding that it is only when the U.S. gives up its plans to dominate the world that al-Qaeda will start getting weaker and losing ground.
"If the United States stays in Iraq and keeps threatening other countries in the region, al-Qaeda will gain more bases and more supporters since it will remain the main resistance force against the West," he told al-Fagr.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid). |
