Devil’s Game

How the USA helped to unleash fundamentalist Islam

by Dr phil Henriette Hanke Güttinger

In 2005, Robert Dreyfuss published, in English language, the first complete investigation of a secret area of US foreign policy: the support given to fundamentalist Islam since WW2 until today. The British Empire had already used fundamentalist Islam to achieve imperial interests. Dreyfuss bases his hard-hitting analysis on research in archives and interviews with politicians and staff of the secret services, the US Department of Defense and the State Department. Dreyfuss skilfully succeeds in making his readers understand the ups and downs of Near East history, full of facts, since the beginning of the British influence until the time after the 2003 Iraq war. He does this in vivid detail. In the following, we will outline selected aspects of this fundamental work.*

Fundamentalist Islam as a Tool of the British Empire

By the end of the 19th century, Great Britain was the largest colonial power. India was under British rule, and in 1882, the British influence set roots in Egypt. In central Asia, the Russian Tsar was to be driven back in favour of British interests. In 1885, an important meeting of the British secret service, representatives of the British foreign office, and a certain Jamal Eddine al-Afghani took place in London. Among other things, they discussed forging a British-led panislamic alliance among Egypt, Turkey, Persia and Afghanistan to oppose tsarist Russia. Under the auspices of the British Crown and with the support of the leading British orientalist E.G. Browne, Afghani would subsequently lay the theoretical foundations for a right leaning panislamism that was to span the entire Muslim world as a political and social movement.

Observant Muslim by all appearance, in reality Afghani was an atheist and a mason of the Scottish Rite. For him, religion was simply a tool to achieve interests of power politics. Mohammed Abduh, an Egyptian panislamist and a disciple of Afghani’s founded the Muslim brotherhood, which was to dominate fundamentalist Islam during the 20th century. Abduh as well was on the side of England. When Egyptian nationalists in the army revolted against British rule, Abduh sided with the British. This, according to Dreyfuss, was the pattern that was to make fundamentalist Islam valuable to the British, and later to the US.

Like his teacher Afghani, Abduh was a free thinker. Having been appointed as Mufti of Egypt by the British in 1899, he interpreted the Sharia (islamic law) for all of the country. He also was a member of the Egyptian legislative assembly. Dreyfuss illustrates, with a vast amount of facts, how fundamentalist Islam was developed by Afghani‘s successors up to the present time. This is why he calls Afghani Osam bin Laden‘s great great great grandfather.

British Alliance with Saudis and Wahhabites

As the gasoline engine and cars were developed at the end of the 19th century, the demand of crude oil increased sharply, and Persia, Iraq and Arabia became interesting for the British. Persia was under British influence already. Now the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq were to be brought under control as well. On the Arabian Peninsula, the British relied on an Arabic desert tribe, the Ibn Saud family. This family was closely connected to fundamentalist Wahhabism. Beginning in 1899, the British protectorate Kuwait served the Ibn Saud family as a basis from which they could conquer the Arab peninsula. They used beduins as warriors, inspiring them by religious slogans. In 1902, the Sauds conquered the pro-Osman city of Riyadh.

World War 1 offered the British an opportunity to drive out the weakened Osman empire from the Arabian Peninsula. The British forged an alliance with the future Saudi king and the Wahhabites. In a first treaty in 1915, England recognized Ibn Saud as independent sovereign over the Nejd area on the Arabian Peninsula. Saud in turn deferred to British protection and followed their orders.

In a brutal campaign, the Saud family and their Beduin warriors conquered the Arabian Peninsula, with the support of British advisors. 400,000 dead and injured, 40,000 public killings, and 350,000 amputations were the consequence of this campaign. In 1927, Great Britain recognized the complete independence of the Saudi kingdom, the first fundamentalist Islamic nation. This is how the British created a basis for fundamentalist Islam from which it can operate to this very day. The British seized control over Iraq and trans-Jordan after WW1, by appointing the sons of the Hashemite family from Mecca, who considered themselves as descendants of the Prophet, as kings in the British protectorates Iraq and trans-Jordan.

Securing the Empire by means of Fundamentalist Islam

After WW1, the British sphere of influence extended from the Mediterranean Sea to India. In Egypt, in Iraq, in Trans-Jordan, Arabia and Persia, the rulers in power were dominated by the British. A possible danger for British interests came from nationalist and left-leaning movements, which strived for national independence, British withdrawal and a democratic constitution. It was to keep these movements at bay that the British supported fundamentalist Islam. In Egypt, Hassan al-Banna could build the Muslim brotherhood with financial support form the English Suez channel corporation. The Egyptian king, with support form the British, used the Muslim brotherhood and their terror to oppress the Egyptian nationalists and communists. In Palestine, the British supported Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem. Hassan al-Banna and Haj Amin combined pan-Islamism with Wahhabite orthodoxy. Financed by Saudi Arabia and supported by the British, they forged a radical Islamic right with a terrorist wing, which was to gain worldwide influence during the 20th century.

The main political support and funding of the Muslim brotherhood came from Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabites, who perceived a danger to their own dominance and the whole Near East from Abdel Nasser‘s nationalism and also from communism. The British embassy, and later also the US embassy in Cairo had regular contacts with the Muslim brotherhood, even though they were aware of their violent character.

Fundamentalist Islam as a tool of the USA during the Cold War

After WW2, the Near East moved into the center of world politics. On one hand, this was due to its location south of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, two thirds of the oil reserves were concentrated around the Persian Gulf. To assert their hegemony, the USA planned a chain of anticommunist Islamic countries along the southern border of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the goal was to prevent these countries form moving towards independence and using the natural resources domestically. The USA believed that they could achieve both goals by means of fundamentalist Islam: The Muslim brotherhood was available.

Saudi Arabia Becomes a Basis for the USA

The Californian Standard Oil and the Texas Oil Company, which would later form the Aramco (Arab-American Oil Company), received an oil concession from the Saudis in 1933. They urged the US government to drive the British out of Suadi Arabia. During WW2, President Roosevelt declared to Lord Halifax, the British Ambassador: “The Persian oil is for you. We have the Kuwaiti and Iraqi oil. The Saudi Arabian oil is for us.‘‘

In 1943, Roosevelt proclaimed that Saudi Arabia was from then on under the defense screen of the US. He said “the defense of Saudi Arabia is vital to the defense of the United States.”

After Roosevelt, all US presidents continued this policy. In 1944, the first US soldiers were stationed, and in 1945, the military collaboration between the Saudis and the USA was agreed, and in Dhahran on the Persian Gulf, a large US airbase was constructed. Saudi Arabia became a bridgehead for the USA in the Near East.

The Muslim Brotherhood as Allies

After WW2, the USA viewed the Muslim brotherhood, which was notorious for its acts of terrorism, as a useful ally in the cold war against the Soviet Union. The Muslim brotherhood fought against marxists, progressive students, trade unions, Arab nationalists and socialists, the Baath party and all modern secular trends in the Muslim world. In 1953, President Eisenhower received Said Ramadan, one of the leaders of the Muslim brotherhood, in the White House.

Arafat never interested in the refugees problem

By the way, Arafat was never very interested in the refugees problem. He was much more concentrated on Jerusalem. I saw him once saying to the current president of the Palestinian Authority, “Leave me alone with your refugees. What we need is Jerusalem.“ See, he was not very keen on making much of a progress in the question of refugees. Arafat was, and remained until his last day, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, (...).

Shlomo Ben-Ami, in: «The slippery Road of Real Politics into the Desaster», in this issue of Current Concerns

The Muslim Brotherhood as a Tool of Western Intelligence

In the early 50s two nationalists in Iran and Egypt gained a large influence: Mohammed Mossadegh and Gamal Abdel Nasser. In 1953, Mossadegh was democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran. He nationalized the Anglo Persian Oil Company (APOC). Neither the British nor the USA accepted this. In close collaboration with the politically most influential among the Ayatollahs, the MI6 and the CIA organized a secret operation: Led by Ayatollah Kashani, who was on the CIA payroll, the Shiite mullahs (among them Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) mobilized the masses in the streets against Mossadegh. After Mossadegh‘s ouster, the Shah was brought back to the throne and the Iranian oil industry was re-privatized. Five large American oil companies obtained 40% of this oil industry at the expense of the British share. The same mullahs that returned the Shah to the throne in 1953, financed by the USA, led the masses to oust the Shah in 1979.

In Egypt, Nasser, the leader of the free officers, dethroned the pro-British King Faruk in 1952, and seized power himself. This coup of liberation from the British Empire found a tremendous echo in the muslim world, and the sparks of revolution threatened to spread to Saudi Arabia. The British Empire and the USA feared for their political influence and their grip on the oil. MI6 and CIA attempted to oust Nasser in a covert operation. They used the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt to mobilize the street against Nasser, but to no avail. Nasser expelled the leader of the muslim brotherhood, who found refuge in Saudi Arabia. When Nasser died in 1970, Anwar Sadat came to power. As a former member of the Muslim brotherhood, he made an alliance with Saudi Arabia, suppressed the Egyptian left, brought the Muslim brotherhood back to Egypt and came to good relations with the USA and Israel.

The Muslim Brotherhood against Syria

Until the 70s, the USA increased their influence in the Near East steadily. Only Iraq, Syria, the PLO and Libya escaped their influence. With the help of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf monarchies, the USA attempted to get these areas under their control, too. With tacit agreement of the USA, Israel and the Jordanian King Hussein, who was on the CIA payroll, supported the Syrian Muslim brotherhood in a combined clandestine operation. The Muslim brotherhood attempted to oust the Syrian government of Hafez Assad, but had no success.

Israel found Hamas as a tool against the PLO

The muslim brotherhood in Gaza and the West Jordan areas fought against the Palestianian Liberation Organisation (PLO). In the early 80s, Israel, under Begin, Prime Minister Shamir, and Minister of Defense Sharon, supported Ahmed Yassin‘s Muslim brotherhood against the PLO. In 1986, Yassin founded Hamas with support from Israel. In contrast, moderate Israelis like Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak sought a solution with the PLO. Whenever they came to an agreement and a significant step towards peace was ahead, Hamas would stall the peace negotiations by means of violent attacks. This pattern was repeated in 2000. Barak and the PLO had come closer to peace in new negotiations. But Sharon provoked massive reactions of Hamas with his visit to the temple mountain. In consequence the peace process remains stalled to this very day.

From the Barrier Islam to the Sword Islam

Initially, the USA intended to contain the Soviet influence by means of a barrier of Islamic, anti-communist countries at the southern border of the Soviet Union. But beginning with the Afghanistan war in the early 80s, the USA used fundamentalist Islam as a sword against the Soviet Union.

The Holy War against the Soviets

The Jihad against the Soviet Union was to be carried out in the central Asian Soviet republics and in Afghanistan. By means of militant propaganda from Radio Liberty, the USA attempted to instigate the Islamic minorities in the central Asian Soviet republics against Moscow. This was without success. In Afghanistan however, a Jihad against the Soviets would ensue. In the traditional Afghan society, Islam played an important role as a matter of personal faith, but had little to do with politics. This changed when Afghan students who had studied at the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo returned to Afghanistan in the early 60s. They had connected with the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood and accepted their ideas. At the University of Kabul they attacked modern, leftist and communist students. In the early 70s, the Afghan Islamic Movement formed around this core and began to infiltrate the army. In 1973, Prince Muhammad Daoud dethroned the Afghan king and proclaimed the republic. The Islamic right opposed this openly, supported by Pakistan’s Zulfikar Ali Butto and the Shah of Persia. The CIA also supported the Islamic resistance. In 1978, the Daoud government was ousted by a Socialist coup, and the new government entered a treaty of friendship with the Soviets. In March 1979, the Afghan Islamic right began a coordinated revolting the Northeast. The revolt was supported by the CIA indirectly, through the Pakistani secret service ISI. The USA hoped to provoke the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan. By the end of 1979, the revolt had gained control of three fourths of the country. The Soviets invaded and Jimmy Carter‘s Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski smirked: “This secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect to lure the Russians in the Afghan trap. [...] The day when the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: ‘We now have the opportunity to give the USSR their own Vietnam War’”.

During the 80s, Muslims were recruited for the Jihad against the Soviets. In training camps, they were trained in guerrilla warfare, and then brought back into Afghanistan. According to the CIA, 300 000 Mujaheddin were in arms, among them 3,500 warriors from 34 countries. After the withdrawal of the Soviets, Afghanistan was destroyed, and the population was starving while the different warlords fought against each other about hegemony. There were hardly any moderate forces left in the country, because during the Jihad, the Mujaheddin had also killed left and moderate Afghans along with the Russian soldiers.

The Inheritance of the Jihad

Dreyfuss assumes that the USA were so absorbed by their war through intermediaries against the Soviets that they had no regard what kind of forces they had unleashed with their support of the Jihad: A radical armed Islam that was going to have a worldwide effect after the war was over, for instance on the Balkan. It is worthwhile reading Jürgen Elsässer’s book “How Jihad came to Europe” in this connection. He explains how the ‘Afghan alliance’ between the USA and the mujaheddin was revived on the Balkan in the 90s. “Thousands of mujaheddin fought in Bosnia and the Kosovo in the 90s. Armed by the Pentagon, smuggled in and supported by US intelligence. The Balkan was the deployment zone for the Jihad.”

The War against Terrorism

Dreyfuss also gives due attention to the war against terrorism. He shows that Samuel Huntington‘s theory of the clash of civilizations served as a pretext for the neoconservatives and the bush administration to extend the US sphere of influence beyond the Near East into Pakistan, Central Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Sea area. Moreover, Dreyfuss displays a profound knowledge of neoconservative politics of interest and power.

Robert Dreyfuss. Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam. New York 2005, ISBN 0805076522