A Lebanese perspective on terrorism

Asia Times carried an interesting interview with a Lebanese ideologue, Yousuf Baadarani, on what terrorism is all about today.

Baadarani repudiates the idea of Islamic terrorism:

Under Islamic law, warfare may be waged between states, or a state may use violence to suppress a rebellion, or defend against an invading army. Islam stipulates that all acts of punishment of civilians are strictly a judicial duty and responsibility.

According to Islamic tenets, no incompetent person or group of people are allowed to take the implementation of these tenets into their own hands. Such an undertaking is considered illegitimate in Islamic sharia unless in certain cases where the individual needs to protect his life.

Baadarani believes that terrorism is not entirely spontaneous but is the result of conflict among the world's major powers:

...no militant group can be formed without being noticed and monitored by the intelligence service of one or all of these countries. It is widely suspected that these countries use terrorist groups for their own purposes.

The greatest source of terrorism in the world is the behind-the-scene political conflict between the major powers to dominate the world. When the political means of one major power faces a deadlock, it resorts to local groups, which it supplies with material resources to terrorize the people in its drive to destabilize a local regime. There is no independent source of terrorism as there is no independent group of terrorists.