Since Sept. 11, terrorist activities by Islamic fundamentalists and the military actions taken by the United States in the Middle East have dominated political discussions both domestically and abroad, and remain prominent in media coverage. Students constantly receive information through presidential speeches, political debates, and newspaper headlines, but last night they were presented with a view of the state of the Middle East from what might have been a new perspective.
U.S. Naval Lieutenant Stephen Murray, BC '03, shared his military history and experiences as an intelligence analyst working in Iraq and other areas of the Middle East, as well as his own personal views on terrorism and the factors that fuel anti-American sentiment. The presentation was sponsored by the Boston College Republicans.
Since Murray joined the Navy after graduating from BC, he has worked in intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance in Iraq and in Korea, and has also spent time in Qatar. There, he said, the often contradictory clash of traditional local and modern Western cultures can be seen on the sidewalks, where one can find McArabia sandwiches at a McDonald's down the street from an ancient mosque. While American businesses may be present commercially, Murray said that not all are similarly accepting of American cultural ideas.
"They have Victoria Secret ads up and at the same time women are walking by fully covered. It's just a really strange contradiction," Murray said.
The golden arches of McDonald's might be a visible sign for some of the extent of American influence, Murray said, but many terrorist groups question the actual power of the United States and believe that it is within their power to influence U.S. foreign policy concerning the Middle East.
"al-Qaida views the United States as a 'paper tiger,'" Murray said. "The U.S. looks tough on paper but if you can inflict enough casualties and cost them enough money, they will quit, and that's what a lot of terrorist groups believe."
Murray said that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups in the Middle East often target two groups, which he called the near enemy and the far enemy. The near enemy includes local Arab leaders who they feel are corrupting Islamic values, such as President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. These leaders often have closer associations with the United States and, many terrorists believe that if they force the United States to withdraw from the Middle East, Islam would return to its former purity, Murray said.
"They [the terrorist groups] want to take them out but they view the far enemy - the United States - as their main obstacle to doing that," Murray said.
Terrorist groups often try to gain support using tactics or arguments that portray the United States and other Western states as a corrupting influence, Murray said. They focus recruiting efforts on either directing attention to incidents that might fuel anti-Western sentiments and large demonstrations, such as the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, or capitalize on preexisting fears about the perceived negative influences of American culture.
"When they [people in the Middle East] see Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, they don't have a lot of experience with American women so they think that this is the American ideal of how women should be. For them, that is their greatest fear, that their daughters and sisters will end up like that," Murray said.
He said, though, that these recruiting efforts aren't necessarily targeting individuals who might not be well-educated or wealthy.
"For Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups, their strengths are their level of education. It's really a myth that the people in these organizations are poor and uneducated. That's simply not true," Murray said.
In recent months incidents of terrorist activities has declined, but Murray attributed this to the "winter lull" that occurs every year due to the harsh climate and predicted this would soon change.
"You're going to see in these coming months more and more attacks as they come out of the mountains after their winter lull and try to continue their objectives," Murray said. "They are already starting."
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