Following the horrific attacks in Istanbul, Indonesia and Burkina Faso carried out by extremists in the name of Islam, a fundamental question needs to be raised. Why are such radical Islamic groups able to recruit locals? Why do they find an audience in Islamic countries who are then maneuvered to attack their own? Is it possible that certain ideologies have crept into mainstream Islamic schools of thought that aide these groups?
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There is absolutely no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemn terrorism and absolutely abhor all extremist groups. However, a recent Pew Research showed that a tiny minority in many majority Muslim countries hold a favorable view of ISIS. Even though the percentage is very low, these turn out to be alarmingly high numbers. For example:
- 9% of Pakistan's population is approximately 1.7 million people.
- 4% of Indonesia's population is roughly 1 million people who support ISIS.
Even if these numbers were halved, it still provides a nourishing breeding ground for terrorism. This is why I believe that the answer must come from within. The Muslim countries must unite against all such factors that drive people to these groups.
Let's look at a few of these factors.
Violent Jihad must be opposed. While the majority of Muslims believe Jihad to be a defensive war fought against religious persecution, there are Muslim clerics who preach violence and terrorism in the name of Jihad. The notion of fighting wars over religions or converting others to your faith through force must come to an end.
As an Imam who works with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Canada, I worked closely on a project here at home. This was exactly our intention when we started a campaign called 'Stop The CrISIS'. It was simply an initiative to unite Canadian Muslims with fellow countrymen against ISIS and the barbarity that they stand for. Loyalty to Canada should be the hallmark of all Canadian Muslims.
Violence and terrorism is carried out in many Islamic countries in the name of Jihad. Therefore, unless all Muslim countries stand united against it and take actions against clerics preaching it, this issue won't go away. Local mosques and clerics will continue to produce people who will get attracted to the message of radicals.
Equality and empowerment of women is another important step against radicals. We have seen some horrific images of treatment of women by these terrorists. It is up to the Muslim leadership and countries to counter this behavior. Standards of treatment of women continue to be very poor in many majority Muslim countries. This must change.
There should also not be any restriction on women in their dressing. The tales of forcing women to wear veils or burqa are disturbing and leave us no better than these terrorists.
To present an example for Muslims worldwide, here is how the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community deals with the issue of veiling. Our Caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, said in his sermon of September 5th, 2014:
However, even if they (women) do not take scarf we cannot bind them to do so. Some of our men have hard-line attitude and resort to rigidity ... Men should remember that they have not been given powers to police others and should restrain themselves. It is not for them to cover the heads of women from outside. Men are commanded to restrain their eyes; they should fulfill their own obligations. There is not even any commandment to forcibly cover the heads of Muslim women let alone non-Muslim women. It is men like these who have hard-line ideas, there may be the odd one among us also, who bring Islam in disrepute.
One of the more fundamental problems we see in many Muslim countries is the issue of blasphemy and free speech. These are issues that put us at par with extremists.
Freedom of speech must be supported. The idea of jailing people for their views should be done away with. The case of Raif Badawi in Saudi Arabia is quite disturbing. Our response to derogatory cartoons or videos shouldn't be mass protests calling out for violence against the perpetrators.
To give an example of the country of my birth, Pakistan, the law of blasphemy continues to be used by extremist clerics to silence their critics. My own community, Ahmadiyya Muslims, has been heavily victimized. If countries like Pakistan continue to persecute minority communities such as Shia Muslims, Ahmadi Muslims and Christians, they will continue to make inroads for groups like ISIS.
When a Pakistani Muslim sees ISIS doing at large what is being done in his community at a smaller scale, the chances of him being attracted to terrorists become significantly higher.
Thus the true solution to defeating ISIS will come from within the greater Muslim Community. The overwhelming majority of Muslims already consider such groups to be a perversion of their faith. But we will need to go a step further to completely dismantle ISIS and take away their ability to attract people. For this, we must identify all such factors that breed extremism in our society.
As long as the governments of Muslim countries do not stand against radical factors and principles prevalent in their own societies and clerics who preach it, ISIS and such groups will continue to find their breeding grounds.
An edited version of this post was originally published in Ottawa Citizen.