Rokhsana Fiaz on how to defeat terror

Rokhsana Fiaz has an excellent column in Tribune in which she examines the terror threat and argues that It is essential that the Muslim world wake up to the fact that it has a jihadist death cult in its midst. If it does not fight that death cult, that cancer, within its own body politic, it is going to infect Muslim-Western relations everywhere.

The Prime Minster’s speech at last weekend’s National Policy Forum was correct in tone and content: we are indeed confronted with an evil ideology. Young men twisted by an ideology that juxtaposes hope and fear carried out heinous acts in London, and in the process perpetrated a sacrilegious crime against all people and Islam.

That juxtaposition of hope and fear is an integral weapon of the terrorist, who seeks not only to destroy life and property but also to disrupt our lives in ways that bring more destruction. That fear has already led to questions about why the British security agencies did not anticipate the attacks, why the wealthy nations have not done enough about the root causes of terrorism and why Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden continue to function after almost four years of the ‘war on terrorism’. Many will wonder why the United States and its allies remain mired in Iraq while Al Qaeda's leader still roams free.

There are no easy answers to these questions, just as there is no easy defence against acts of terrorism. What we do know is that this is a critical moment, and in the process of deciding our response, we must do all we can to limit the fallout from this bombing. But this is not going to be easy. Why? Because unlike after 9/11, there is no obvious, easy target to retaliate against for bombings like those in London. The Al Qaeda threat has metastasised and become franchised. It is no longer vertical, something that we can punch in the face. It is now horizontal, flat and widely distributed, operating through the Internet and tiny cells.

Because there is no obvious target to retaliate against, and because there are not enough police to police every opening in an open society, the Muslim community both here and abroad has a vital role to work alongside the West to restrain, inhibit and denounce its own extremists behind the London bombings and elsewhere. It is essential that the Muslim world wake up to the fact that it has a jihadist death cult in its midst. If it does not fight that death cult, that cancer, within its own body politic, it is going to infect Muslim-Western relations everywhere. Only the Muslim world can root out that death cult. The greatest restraint on human behaviour is what a culture and a religion deem shameful. It is what the Muslim village and its religious and political leaders, young and old, say is wrong or not allowed.

Some Muslim leaders have rightly taken up this challenge. The Muslim Council of Britain speedily condemned the London outrage and in recent weeks, King Abdullah II of Jordon, hosted an impressive conference in Amman for moderate Muslim thinkers and clerics who want to take back their faith from those who have tried to hijack it.

But this has to go further and wider. The double-decker buses of London, as well as the covered markets of Riyadh, Bali and Cairo, will never be secure as long as the Muslim village and its leaders do not take on, delegitimise, condemn and isolate the extremists in their midst.

The mainstream, then, must reclaim the initiative, and expel the zealots from the sacred place. It should not find it difficult to do this. It has, after all, a great civilisation behind it, which extremism cannot claim.

Religion is surely about facing reality. Too many of us today live amid delusions, no doubt because we find the reality of our times too disturbing to contemplate. Conspiracy theories, paranoia, fantasies about the past or the future; these abound in religious conferences; not just among Muslims, but among religionists everywhere. Religion, however, invites us to ‘get real’ -. Because we believe in God and an afterlife, and in the ultimate restitution for injustice, we should have souls great enough to look reality in the face without flinching.

What is needed, then, is for mainstream Islam to reassert its possession of ‘tafsi’ or interpretation. It remains in a strong position to do this. The zealots are everywhere a very small percentage of the total of believers. The masses are either too traditional or too religiously weak to want to follow them. Never will extremism triumph for long, simply because normal people do not want it, Already we find a growing sense around the Muslim world that zealotry only damages only Islam. Take last week’s publication of the Pew Research Centre’s Global Attitude Survey, highlighting that concerns over Islamic extremism is shared to a considerable degree by Muslims. Nearly three-quarters of Moroccans and roughly half of those in Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia see Islamic extremism as a threat to their countries. At the same time, most Muslims are expressing less support for terrorism than in the past. Confidence in Osama bin Laden has declined markedly in some countries and fewer believe suicide bombings that target civilians are justified in the defence of Islam.

In Europe too, the Muslim Diaspora has experienced a profound change, especially among the younger generation. Most were born in Europe, became fluent in their national language and became better educated than their elders. The parents’ dream of going home faded. The emergence of this new generation of European Muslims has resulted in a new way of thinking and talking about the nature of Islamic communities here. Now a silent revolution is taking place. Old concepts that divided the world into two hostile camps-Islamic vs. non-Islamic -are outdated and need to be reviewed. European constitutions allow Muslims to practice their religion and should therefore be respected. Religious principles should not be confused with culture of origin: European Muslims should only be Muslim instead of forever remaining North African, Pakistani or Turkish Muslims. Active citizenship has to be encouraged and a European Islamic culture needs to be created. How? By respecting Islamic principles while adopting European tastes and styles.

Too many Muslims are getting things mixed up. Problems of discrimination in housing or the workplace should not be taken as "attacks on Islam" but as the effects of social policies that we must commit ourselves to changing, as citizens demanding equal rights. We must not fall into a "victim mentality" and the alibi that Islamophobia is preventing us from flourishing. It’s up to Muslims to assume their responsibilities, construct clear arguments, engage in dialogue both within their own communities and with others fellow citizens, and reject the simplistic vision of "us vs. them."

We should promote common values of equality, justice and respect in the name of a shared "ethic of citizenship". Over time, we must do away with the temptation to shut ourselves off as an isolated minority for otherwise we offer encouragement to those extremist voices that argue ’You are more Muslim when you’re against the West’. The Muslims of Europe must be more self-critical.

But their non-Muslim fellow-citizens need to make an effort too. They need to accept that Europe’s population has changed, that it no longer has a single history and that the future calls for mutual understanding and respect. They need to face up to their ignorance and reject the clichés and prejudices that surround Islam. They must start discussing the principles, values and forms that will enable us to live together. The future of Europe-with a flourishing Muslim presence and an open European identity-will be built by all those who accept this challenge.