The failure of the unilateral approach pursued by the big powers in fighting terrorism has led other countries to adopt a collective approach to confront the menace.
Recently, the world witnessed a series of international meetings and initiatives, all geared toward formulating a more productive strategy for fighting terrorism that would in the end lead to the desired goals. The aim is to take the battle against terrorism to wherever the menace might exist. There is now consensus among countries of the world that terrorism has no religion and should not be linked to issues of conscience, expressing an opinion or being involved in politics.
The first international gathering in this regard was the African Union summit held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, last month in which African leaders discussed means for fighting terrorism as a matter of extreme importance to the African continent.
This was then followed by the International Conference on Terrorism held in Riyadh during the first week of February. It was the first conference of its kind at the universal level, attended by delegates from 55 countries and 7 international organizations as well as a host of experts.
The third high-level world meeting was held in Munich, Germany, the third round of an international conference on security policies.
A quick glimpse would show that although great hopes were pinned on these gatherings, they were less effective in achieving their objectives.
The international efforts directed toward the fight against terrorism can briefly be chronicled as follows:
— Since the beginning of the 1990s and with the involvement of the United Nations, members of the world body started showing concern over the rising phenomenon of international terrorism. The UN General Assembly issued a number of resolutions condemning terrorism and calling for combating it.
Over this period a number of conventions and agreements were agreed:
1. The Organization of the Islamic Conference treaty on fighting international terrorism adopted by the OIC ministerial council of foreign ministers at its conference held in Burkina Faso on June 29,1999.
2. The Organization of African Unity agreement on preventing and fighting terrorism adopted by African leaders on April 14,1999.
3. The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism adopted in New York on Dec. 9, 1999 and came into effect on 10 April 10, 2000.
4. The United Nations Convention Against Organized Crime, adopted in Palermo, Italy on Dec. 15, 2000.
5. The United Nations Convention Against Corruption, adopted on Dec. 9, 2003.
Unfortunately, all these agreements and conventions have for several reasons failed to achieve the desired objectives. The two most important reason are: First, the big powers refused to agree to convening an international conference on terrorism that could serve as a platform for expressing the different points of view and opted instead to work independently. Second: The world continues to lack an international center or forum that could serve as an administrative body and think-tank for the study and analysis of all that is related to the fight against terrorism. The result was that the exchange of information and expertise on terrorism continues to be conducted on bilateral levels.
It is because of this that I think the initiative launched by Crown Prince Abdullah calling for the establishment of an international center to combat and pre-empt terrorism is extremely important.
The initiative presented at the opening of the Riyadh conference represents the first positive step in the fight against terrorism. It was a timely call without which all efforts against terrorism would prove ineffective.
Prince Abdullah emphasized the need to combat arms smuggling, drug smuggling and money laundering to make the war on terrorism successful, saying it would be difficult for the world countries to prevail in their war on terror if it does not include a decisive confrontation with these three criminal networks. He said the proposed center which should group experts from different nationalities and cultural and religious backgrounds should exchange and pass information instantly in a manner compatible with the speed of events. This would help prevent terror attacks before they occur.
This initiative did not come from vacuum. It is a translation of the Islamic principles and teachings that oppose all forms of violence and oppression and rejects the enslavement of humans or curtailing their freedom. All these are crimes severely punishable under Islam guarantees people’s right to live in peace and security. This is what distinguished Islam from other religions.
