In the post-Sept 11 (2001) climate, terrorism inspired by religious fanaticism continues to be a real threat to peace and understanding across cultures. Yet the 'war against terrorism' continues to ignore the genesis of terrorism.

It has become an opportune cover for the tightening of hegemonic grip by the world's dominant hyper power, for its client regimes to step up repression, and a justification for Islamophobes to go into a frenzy of demonising Islam and marginalising Muslims.

It does not help that on the other hand, Muslims continue to be apologists for terrorists who act in the name of Islam, or persist in a denial state that terrorism is today a largely Muslim problem.

The failure to go into the roots of terrorism and to honestly deal with the problem is perhaps, on the one hand, deliberate for those who use 'war on terrorism' to further their interests.

On the other hand, it represents a lack of insight into the real nature of terrorism, that it destroys not only its victims, but also its perpetrators and their apologists.

Continuing from my last article, Albert Camus was among the few writers whose views was consistently lucid on the question of political violence and terrorism - from his involvement in the Resistance movement to his denunciation of state terrorism in the USSR, and in the last phase of his political engagement, his critique of the partisans of the Algerian War.

Political violence

'Rflexions sur le Terrorisme' is another posthumous book by Camus after his autobiographical novel 'Le Premier Homme'.

Unlike 'Le Premier Homme', it is not exactly a new work but rather an anthology of excerpts from his previous work - novels, essays, plays, and letters that convey the writer's ideas and philosophical reflections on the subject of political violence and terrorism.

Quite likely, the impetus for the bringing together these excerpts into one book was the headline- grabbing phenomenon of terrorism.

It seems to have become the main political method of people who seek to understand the world through the prism of religious extremism and to seek the legitimacy of this method in religion.

Whether this is another attempt to cash in on readers' appetite in genuinely wanting to understand terrorism or to confirm their prejudice on Islam is hard to say, but I would think that the people involved in putting the book together are above that.

I do not intend to review the book because many do not have access to it due to the language, but rather to offer readers a glimpse of Camus' writings on the subject, for a great number of his works are available in English.

As Jacqueline Levi Valensi wrote in a lengthy introduction to the book: "We do not pretend to gather together all Camus' writings concerning terrorism ... we hope to encourage the reader to read or re-read Camus."

Crux of terrorism

Valensi, a Camus scholar and President of L'Assoction des tudes Camusiennes, also selected the texts and made brief introductions to each to enlighten readers on the historical context of these writings.

Antoine Garapon and Denis Salas, two eminent French jurists who have written works on justice and democracy, have also contributed an essay each on Camus and the question of terrorism in the context of today's geopolitics.

These texts were selected from the works of Camus that were written between 1943 and 1958. They are deemed most illuminative of Camus' thoughts on the question of political violence and terrorism.

They also bear testimony to the lucidity of his unwavering commitment to justice, liberty and human dignity. They were reflections on issues that animated the political debates of his day, but if one were to ignore its temporal context, it could easily appear as if he had written them for today's generation.

Camus constantly reminds us that, whatever the cause that we are defending, it will always be dishonoured by the blind massacre of innocents, which is what terrorism is all about in its crux.

Admirable and logical this position may be, one may argue that we need not be reminded of this timeless, universal moral principle.

But for those who care to admit it, man is generally a morally weak creature. In the hurly-burly of political debate, ideological loyalties and the spectre of today's politics of violence in which a religious justification has been summoned, one can creatively justify the unjustifiable.

Camus paid the price of isolation and derision from his peers for going against the fashionable wisdom of the intellectuals of his day by staying true to the stirrings of his conscience.

Consistent stand

To facilitate readers in referring back to the original works, the texts are arranged in chronological order, beginning with excerpts from two of the four 'Lettres un Ami Allemand' (Letters to a German Friend).

This was initially published clandestinely during the Nazi occupation when Camus was editor of the underground resistance newspaper Combat, and ending with articles and letters that were a testimony to his isolated, much derided position on the Algerian war.

Throughout, Camus' moral conscience on the issue of political violence and terrorism shines clear and consistent.

His Combat editorial of Aug 8,1945 expressed horror and apprehension at the terrifying perspective of modern science's capacity for total destruction when the US dropped atomic bombs to end the war with Japan. Almost all other journalists in Paris marvelled at this new technological prowess.

Camus also chose to convey his moral position through fictional characters in his novels and plays.

An excerpt from the novel 'La Peste' (The Plague) is a monologue by one of its main characters, Tarrou, whose genesis of his moral conviction, political engagement and opposition to capital punishment reflected that of the writer's.

In a excerpt from Act II of 'Les Justes' (The Just Assassins) Camus, through the character of Kaliayev articulated his position that in the struggle against injustice, the murder of innocents can never be justified. (See previous column).

There is also an excerpt from 'Ni Victimes Ni Bourreaux' (Neither Victims Nor Executioners), the title of a series of six articles written in 1946 in Combat.

In the post-war world of rising tension between the Soviet and Western blocs, Camus warned of the threat of terror and dehumanisation by "ides absolues", "messianisme sans nuances" and "l'utopie absolue" - Camusian expressions that don't require translation.

A believer in socialism, he was critical of both capitalism and communism, but especially of the latter when he learned of the Soviet gulag and show trials.

His criticism of state terrorism of the communist regime was elucidated further in his book 'L'homme Rvolt' (The Rebel) whose publication in 1950 so angered the fashionable Left Bank intellectuals. Obviously a number of excerpts from 'L'homme Revolte' are included in the selection.

Muslim connection

Having the privilege of viewing the Cold War from the vantage point of history, today's generation may think it obvious that Camus' positions on these issues should appeal to reason.

However, in the highly charged atmosphere of the 1950s, even the finest minds could become clouded by ideological loyalties.

At any rate, the Cold War polemics that had so hurt Camus are already dated and probably of not much interest to today's readers.

However the selection of texts that form the major part of 'Reflexions'- other than those from 'L'homme Revolt', i.e. articles that he wrote at the height of Algerian war - retains much of its freshness when set against the continuing political violence in Algeria today, the spectre of globalised terrorism, 'war against terrorism', and the tragedy of Palestine.

In all this, Islam is inextricably linked by virtue of the Muslim actors, while the rest of the Muslim world vicariously share the trauma and burden of responsibility on account of the fraternal connection.

These texts were largely selected from the third volume of 'Chroniques Algeriennes - Actuelles III' (Algerian Chronicles) published in 1958 after he won the Nobel Prize.

Many of these were initially written for the magazine L'Express in 1955 (three of the excerpts in 'Rflexions' are available in English in the collection, 'Resistance, Rebellion and Death' by Justine O'Brien (1961).

In these articles, letters and speeches, Camus attempted to make the two adversaries - the Algerian nationalists (FLN) and the French (settlers and government) - realise that the only way out of the murderous conflict was mutual comprehension, dialogue and rejection of FLN's terrorism on French civilians and the government's repressive excesses on suspected nationalists.

"As they stand, these texts sum up the position of a man who, faced very young with the misery of Algeria ... cannot approve a policy of preservation or oppression in Algeria. But I have long been alert to Algerian realities and cannot approve either, a policy of surrender that would abandon the Arab people to an even greater misery and tear the French in Algeria from their century-old roots...", he wrote in the preface to 'Chroniques Algeriennes'.

These texts were a culmination of his philosophical, moral and political reflection on terrorism and political violence, and at the same time an evocation of his visceral attachment to the country of his birth.

Unsuccessful appeal

To Camus, terrorist acts and counter-repression are two purely negative forces, promising each other total destruction without any future but a spiral of anger and madness. He criticised the opinions of both France's Left and Right.

"Most often the Right ratified, in the name of French honour, what was most opposed to that honour. And most often the Left, in the name of justice, excused what was an insult to any real justice ... .," he wrote.

"The truth, alas, is that a part of French opinion vaguely holds that the Arabs have in a way earned the right to slaughter and mutilate while another part is willing to justify in a way, all excesses. To justify himself, each relies on the other's crime."

In a letter that Camus wrote to Aziz Kessous, an Algerian socialist - among the very few who, like Camus, cherished the idea of reconciliation of Arabs and the French - the writer spoke of his responsibility to remind Frenchmen of their errors and the obligations of their great nation. He said they must not reciprocate xenophobic massacre with similar brutality.

Arabs like Aziz were urged to show their people that terrorist massacre of the civil population cast doubts on the political maturity of men who are capable of such acts. This would only serve to reinforce anti-Arab sentiments, valorise their arguments and silence the liberal French who genuinely seek reconciliation.

Camus' intervention was no doubt too late, too little to persuade the two adversaries to agree to peaceful co-existence.

Disturbed by the spiral of terrorist violence and government repression, Camus went to Algiers in 1956 to appeal for a civilian truce, urging both sides to at least spare the innocent civilians if they were unable to come to a dialogue.

Needless to say, Camus failed in his efforts at bringing about reconciliation. In the end, he was seen as a traitor not only by the French Algerians and the right wing - because he did not sing the praises of French Algeria - but also by the Paris Left Wing because he did not support the violence of the FLN.

After his appeal for truce floundered, Camus resolved to remain silent about Algeria until the encounter with the Arab student when he was in Stockholm nearly two years later for the Nobel Prize ceremonies.

Redressing injustice

Camus' efforts may have come at a stage when the course of the war had become inexorable, and his refusal of Algerian independence was criticised by the Left as his failure to rise above his sentimental attachment to the land of his birth where his family still lived.

However to Camus admirers, all this did not obscure his lucidity on the immorality of political violence and terrorism.

Just as the collapse of communism vindicated Camus, the continuing violence in Algeria today makes one feel that perhaps they should have heeded the appeals to reason of "the secular saint", as some have cynically labelled him.

Violence begets violence, and the former revolutionaries have become practitioners of state terrorism. To a certain extent, the tragedy of Palestine bears some of the elements of the Algerian war.

Though many Muslims see it as a purely religious war, it is in many respects another colonial war, albeit one taking place in the land of the prophets and where one of Islam's holiest sites is located. Only the oppression, atrocities and humiliation differ in scale.

In this case, the oppressors have had the unique distinction of being victims of xenophobic violence themselves in Europe just years earlier, cleverly harnessing this to the full to sway the sympathies of the world's public opinion in their favour.

At the same time, Muslims have had to carry the unpleasant burden of little-diminished western prejudice and ignorance despite globalisation and the information age.

In the face of such seemingly insurmountable odds, it is all the more imperative that in our quest to redress this injustice, our actions be guided by morality and not religious passion. After all, morality forms basis of every religion.

Muslims must not be provoked by the crimes and inhumanity of their oppressors, for, reciprocating these ignoble acts will only play into the hands of the Islamophobes and see our cause being undermined.

In these troubling and challenging times, we could perhaps take a leaf or two out of Camus' rflexions.

Note: 'Rflexions sur le Terrorisme' by Albert Camus pp 250 is published by Nicholas Philippe, Paris 2002.