No Such Thing As Islamic Terrorism
By Sabria S. Jawhar
3 September 2015
This week Jeddah’s Effat University hosted a discussion panel with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) as their guest. The discussion featured a vast cross-section of Saudis from the public and private sectors and universities and included students and professors.
This writer was honored to be part of the discussion group, but more pleased that the ECFR had an opportunity to speak with Saudi women and the new generation of Saudis who will determine our country’s future.
It was also gratifying to see the ECFR acknowledge the role Saudi Arabia is playing as a leading power in the region.
It was refreshing that the council did not make the mistake that so many western visitors make when they come to Saudi Arabia: Mainly carrying a list of demands for the Kingdom to make changes, implying that we are responsible for every single global problem from terrorism to the lack of assimilation in western societies by Muslims.
No, the ECFR has realistic ambitions as it attempts to forge relationships with governments. Perhaps the most important element of the discussion was the need for a coalition between the Middle East and the West.
Daniel Levy, a senior policy fellow and director of the Middle East and North Africa program, noted that Europe has many internal problems that prevent it from adequately addressing immigration and terrorism issues. But he also said that achieving solutions is a two-way street in which Muslim governments, such as Saudi Arabia, must also identify and solve its own internal problems to combat extremism.
I agree that Saudis must assume some responsibility for the growing extremism in our region. We need to examine the root causes of terrorism.
It can’t be emphasized enough that early Islamic education in the Middle East must address religious terrorism and political Islam while western nations must find a balance to allow primary- and secondary-school-age Muslims to exercise their right to free speech to air their views on terrorism.
In the Middle East, religious leaders should do more to stem the flow of young men and women traveling to Syria and Iraq to join the terrorist organization, Daesh.
In the West, government leaders — prime ministers, foreign ministers, minority party leaders and the right-wing fringe party leaders — have abandoned their democratic principles in the name of security. What these governments have is an illusion of free speech. I am not talking about free speech in Saudi Arabia, where Shariah has specific guidelines of how we conduct ourselves publicly, but the illusion of free expression in countries that pride themselves on this democratic right.
If one were to accept the western definition of terrorism, then we would see that terrorism is Islam-inspired. To oppose such a definition would invite condemnation for supporting terrorists.
Democratic nations need to acknowledge their own role in creating Islamophobia with an uncontrolled media that say and write anything behind the protection of free speech rights, but also completely obliterate any dissenting view that doesn’t fit into their narrative.
The reality is that terrorism has no color, language or religion. The US, for example, is experiencing terrorism on fronts that have nothing to do with Islam. It can’t be denied that incarcerating 25 percent of the world’s population, drone attacks, militarized police departments, mass shootings of schoolchildren and churchgoers, unrestrained and unsupervised police officers gunning down young black men have the taint of terrorism.
The legalization process of discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities is a “go” signal to harass the disenfranchised, which is also a form of terrorism. It certainly is a two-way street to curb extremism, but we have such a long way to go before we can even begin to put an end to it.
It’s odd. Years ago we convinced ourselves that if we submitted to fear following the 9/11 attacks, then Al-Qaeda would win. But that is exactly what we have done. We’ve allowed fear to control our foreign policies by mangling what it means to exercise free speech and denying the true and varied types of terrorism.
Nations actually pass laws that marginalize and subsequently encourage extremist behavior.
Source: arabnews.com/columns/news/800916
12:22 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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