Muslims are paramount allies in fighting “jihadism”

Muslims are paramount allies in fighting “jihadism”
by: Abbas Barzegar date: 2006-09-15
http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?sid=1&id=2805
Atlanta, Georgia - Last summer, following the London underground and bus attacks, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in an op-ed piece: "If it's a Muslim problem, it needs a Muslim solution." Almost immediately, his call spread across the global media network. Muslim leaders were summoned to offer answers. Many leaders simply offered that "true Islam" does not stand for such acts of violence and cowardice. Many recognise that Friedman's call was not truly directed at a Muslim audience, but rather at a Western audience frustrated with what it saw as Muslim complacency with so-called jihadism. Such thinking neglected the fact that it was Muslim, not Western, societies that have been most adversely affected by Islamic radicalism, and failed to recognise the great efforts Muslims have taken to challenge these dangers. While Western societies have only recently fallen victim to Islamic militancy, it has been Muslim families, schools, cities and cultures that have been dealing with the much more insidious day-to-day challenges of curbing the enticing persuasions of Islamic militant ideology. In the wake of Cold War policies where Muslim societies like those in Somalia, Afghanistan and Palestine were treated like pawns in a game of chess, trying to argue against an ideology that deceitfully promises empowerment, dignity and eternal reward has for decades been the courageous and consistent work of Muslim religious leaders and the overwhelming majority of their constituents. By recognising these efforts, the Western world might find allies in the fight against this perverted jihadism. The first step in this direction is to recognise that Muslim societies have fought extremism in general within their tradition for centuries and have made such efforts central to the overall vision of creating a just and "God-conscious" social order. Enshrined in the ethical obligation to "enforce the good and eradicate the evil," Muslims in the founding days of Islam succeeded early on in overcoming extremist sects, such as the Kharijites, whose unbridled zealotry threatened the Prophet Muhammad's overall mission. In such cases, sincere Muslims combated these evils with both their hands and their pens. Many sections of the Muslim world today now stand poised to do the same: it is through this aspect of Muslim faith, accompanied by proper Western engagement, that Islamic radicalism will find its greatest threat. In places as insular as Saudi Arabia, whose religious authorities produce some of the most myopic interpretations of Islam, the duty to stop extremist violence has been taken up with a noticeable degree of success. In 2004, the Saudi royal family, backed by the leading Islamic scholars in the kingdom, offered a month-long amnesty to terrorists to turn themselves in or thereafter suffer extermination. The effort led to the surrender of some of Osama bin Laden's top officials within days. What made the amnesty possible was the mediating role of Sheikh al-Hawali, a former senior-ranking theologian at one of the country's leading seminaries, Umm al-Qurra University, who was, ironically, also imprisoned for five years on account of his views against the U.S. military presence in the region. Militant extremists respected al-Hawali as a credible scholar whose words carried the weight of the hereafter. Those regarded as the most authoritative curators of Islamic law - imams, mullahs, sheikhs and scholars - should be employed in the ideological struggle against terrorism, precisely because it is their voices that may be the only ones heard by renegades. Al-Hawali's role might be compared to that of Ayatollah Ali Sistani’s in Iraq and his successful effort at defusing the Muqtada al-Sadr standoff in Najaf in 2004. The creation of a national Muslim council in France designed to codify Islamic law and hold French Muslim citizens accountable to it might serve as yet another example. These cases highlight the fact that the Muslim world has at its disposal institutional resources, the foremost being clerical and legal authority, to curb extremism. These should be considered by all parties concerned about preventing further violence. By recognising that Muslims the world over have strong and sincere ethical commitments toward the eradication of all forms of corruption, vice and extremism, Western leaders and thinkers might find successful partners in places they never imagined. ###* Abbas Barzegar is a graduate student at Emory University. His research focuses on the complexity and cultural, religious, and political diversity of the American Muslim community. This is the third of six articles in a series on religious revivalism and Muslim-Western relations commissioned by the Common Ground News Service (www.commongroundnews.org).Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 26 September 2006, www.commongroundnews.orgCopyright permission has been obtained for publication.


Secularism and Islamism in the 21st Century
By Abbas Barzegar November 06, 2006
The recent decision by Tunisian authorities to reinstitute a ban on the veil in public spaces will surely make great fodder for Islamist activists. Advancing their anti-Western agenda, they will conjure up the memory of Muslim women being physically forced to remove their veils by the regimes of Kamal Ataturk in Turkey and Shah Pahlavi in Iran, reinforcing the image of secularism in the Muslim world as an alien, anti-Islamic ideology enforced by self-serving autocratic regimes. Meanwhile the religious zealousness of those opposed to the ban will reinforce the image of political Islam, or Islamism, in the West as an intolerant, anti-liberal ideology seemingly stuck in pre-modernity.
This event is yet another reminder of the great challenge of our generation to expose the dangers of ideological extremism, whether secular or religious, and find common ground in the mutual commitment to human dignity. It begs the question: How will secular humanism and political Islam coexist in a global community?
Recently, those dedicated to a humanistic worldview have been experiencing the paradox of defending the inalienable rights of religious expression and self-determination in contexts where it is feared that Islamist politics may lead to the radicalization of Muslim societies. Indeed, it would be ironic if the co-option of democratic processes led to the destruction of liberal and universal principles, yet sanity tells us we are far from the 19th-century belief that "some people" are simply "not ready for democracy." Hesitation in applying the inalienable rights of religious freedom and political self-representation destroys hope not only for political reform in the Middle East and the rise of moderate Islamism, but more importantly, it undermines the legitimacy of the democratic project as a whole, leaving radicalism to fill the vacuum.
Tunisian authorities seem to be using secular humanism as an ideological cover to maintain an autocratic political system. Embarrassingly, it is in this light that the Tunisian government - once thought to be a model for Arab development - shares the company of Saudi Arabia, whose use of Islam as a mechanism for preserving an antiquated monarchy has long been exposed.
Similarly, the Turkish law prohibiting the teaching of Arabic to children under 12 essentially mirrors press controls throughout the Muslim world that prohibit society-at-large's access to Western literature. The failing in all cases is a zealous commitment to ideology over and above respect above respect for the fundamentals of human dignity - education, expression, religion and collective will.
The solution in coming decades will not be found in advocating the ideological principles that form the basis of any political or philosophical system, but in a mutual commitment to the rights and values which those systems espouse in the first place. Secular humanism may have to compromise and accept some forms of religious expression in public space, but the pay-off will be an expansion of the borders of tolerance and inclusion.
In turn, political Islam may have to accept constitutionalism, along with its procedures and guarantees, in place of an absolute notion of divine legislation. The official French, Tunisian and British discomfort with some Muslim women's aesthetics seems to be in need of such compromise.
It is precisely at this moment, as Muslims throughout the world feel the brunt of being targeted minorities, that the restrictive Islamic legal codes that discriminate against non-Muslims might be seriously reconsidered. The result of such mutual introspection may be the creation of a new space wherein religious and secular ideologies can coincide in an increasingly complex yet intimately global world. Ultimately, dedication to the "human" in "humanism" alongside an equal dedication to the Islam in "Islamism" might offer solutions to our current series of stalemates.
Abbas Barzegar is a PhD candidate in Comparative Religion in the Department of Religious Studies at Emory University. The Daily Star publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service.