Focussing on ‘Muslim Extremism’! – Missing the Woods for the Trees!
‘… until [Muslims] recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible’—Tweet from Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of Fox News, January 9, 2015
In hindsight, the barbaric Easter Sunday massacre- Sri Lanka’s equivalent of America’s 9/11, was most unfortunate as it was a preventable tragedy. Compound failures predominantly on the part of the establishment let it happen. Particularly, what makes this tragedy more despicable was that it also signified a supreme violation of slaughtering people in worship – sadly now an established feature of global terrorism, like what happened in a Christchurch mosque few months before. However, even eight months later, despite many official inquiries into this massacre, with no signs of any significant breakthroughs in sight in identifying those responsible or culpable for allowing this to happen, Muslims are still on the dock. In the public mind, the question remains: Will the truth will ever be known or will it be buried forever?
This national tragedy also become a game changer as well, as it virtually changed every aspect of life in this Paradise Isle, particularly for the Muslims. As it unfortunately happens in any part of the world, amidst the fringes of the terrorism debate in the aftermath of this terrible disaster, a community of self-described terrorist experts and commentators emerged who frequently equate Islam and radicalism. The well-orchestrated yet subtle Islamophobia machinery began to work overtime nesting in those who are waiting for any tragedy to happen as if the horror begot by a few would legitimate them to spread their hate. To them, the attackers’ Muslim identity in itself was a vindication of their anti-Muslim bigotry, which facilitated in main-streaming their claim that “Islam is the problem” among a receptive audience even beyond the shores of Sri Lanka. Thus, as pointed out in a report by the ICG, a Brussels-based think tank, published in September 2019, “The Easter attacks breathed new life into an anti-Muslim campaign that Sinhalese nationalists had been waging since 2011. Large-scale rioting against Muslims, with nationalist organizations bussing in supporters and mobilizing local Sinhalese.”.
These developments are however neither surprising or recent and did not precipitate as a result of external factors alone; rather Muslims, like other communities need self-reflection more than ever without being defensive of the many challenges confronting them. But then, a frank discussion on extremism and terrorism goes beyond just narrow racial or religious borders. Todays’ world is characterized by competing shades of extremism, in almost every field of human activity or endeavours. Terrorism whether waged by informal groups or States hiding behind the cloak of national security is equally deplorable. Extremism and terrorism can best be managed by a holistic approach, focussing on the social and emotional reasons for extremist behaviour, with a human-centred approach. Therefore, confining to an anti-Muslim agenda, in fighting those cancers eating into the fabric of humanity, will not only be a futile exercise, but suicidal too; akin to missing the woods for the trees. Thus, it is not logical to make the entire Muslim community guilty by association, whether in Sri Lanka or those who are spread across the globe and are unrelated to each other except by religious tradition — for the actions of a few or a fringe group hiding behind pseudo religious labels or slogans.
Besides, this tunnel vision approach is hypocritical too. In fact, neither the Christians were held to account for the mass terror killings of white Christian supremacists like Dylann Roof, in South Carolina, US, Anders Behring Breivik of Norway or Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch, New Zealand, nor were the Buddhists for the Rohingyan genocide instigated by the popular hate monk, Wirathu in Mayanmar. Yet in respect of Muslims, collective blame happens, with ugly consequences. Collective blame doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it’s correlated with many other ideas and behaviours that increase hostilities toward Muslims. In his studies, Kteily, Bruneau finds that collective blame among American non-Muslims is correlated with blatant dehumanization — thinking others are less than human. He says, ‘“If you collectively blame an entire group for the actions of individuals, it makes it totally reasonable to exact your revenge from any person from that group.”1.
All acts of terrorism and all killings of the innocent people are an abomination. It is made worse when they are hate crimes rooted in pathologies shared by many others, rather than random emanations of a diseased mind; when victims are selectively chosen for example, based on their skin colour, ethnicity, religious beliefs. Such attacks are designed to perpetuate the most dangerous forms of hatred known to mankind: the same kind of racial hatred that led to the Holocaust, the same kind of religious hatred which led to the Rohingya genocide and ethnic hatred that produced the Srebrenica massacre. Among his incoherent list of objectives, the Christchurch white supremacist killer expressed a desire to spark “a civil war that will eventually balkanize the US along political, cultural and, most importantly, racial lines.” Yet all hate crimes are not treated equally.
In this context, although no religion should thus come under attack as a result of violence committed by its adherents, why has the term “Islamic extremism and terrorism” been normalised? Is there a systematic link between a particular religious’ belief and terrorism? Has this become a form of psychological warfare from the echelons of power, in an attempt to create some form of word recognition associating Islam with terrorism, without implicating anyone else in identical situations? In answering these questions, it is clearly seen that there is a well-orchestrated Islamophobia campaign to build an implied link between Islam and terrorism; although once the facts are considered rather than the stereotypes, the results are surprising. It therefore behoves on us as Muslims, particularly to come out of our cocoon mentality and inferiority complexes and understand the ground realities and challenges ahead, in reclaiming our own narrative and the past glory bestowed by our faith, which gave the world a great civilization as well as many inventions and discoveries to make life on earth worth living. Let us look at the significant challenges ahead, affecting the Muslims in particular which stand as obstacles in the fight against extremism and terrorism, during the most acrimonious, hateful and toxic phase in recent history. What happened on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, cannot be detached from its global context.
Firstly, Islamophobia is being normalised at an alarming rate across the world. It has become a campaign tool used to galvanize voters or retain their vote base, both directly by politicians and indirectly by powerful political lobbies. During the US presidential campaigns and after, Trump has been famously adopting an anti-Muslim stance. He said “I think Islam hates us”; other presidential candidates such as Ben Carson said Muslims shouldn’t be allowed to become president while Sen. Ted Cruz talked about patrolling Muslim neighbourhoods. UK’s Theresa May promised to step up the fight against ‘Islamist terrorism’ after the London Bridge attack, saying “enough is enough”. PM Boris Johnson is also an avowed Islamophobe. Former Conservative Party, Chair Sayeda Warsi thus once said that Islamophobia has passed the dinner table test in the UK. In Europe too, there are many far-rightist ‘Islamophobic’ governments being voted to power. In Modi’s India too, Islamophobia has become part of State policy while it played a significant role even in the recent Presidential elections in Sri Lanka too. Perhaps, the entire War on Terror instigated by Bush/Blair combine, fed into this idea (of) Muslims as a threat, as ‘the other’, as inherently violent, which “subliminally reinforces the idea that terrorism is a Muslim problem.” Resultantly, eighteen years after 9/11, Muslims are still ‘presumed guilty’.
Secondly, it is not highlighted enough that the majority of the victims of so-called ‘Islamist terror’ are actually Muslims, casting further doubt on the supposedly religious motivations of terrorists. In 2017, data collected by the researchers with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START (which is hosted at the University of Maryland,US), found that Muslims are “absolutely” the most likely people to be victims of terrorist attacks worldwide. The vast majority of terrorist attacks occur in Muslim-majority countries, and that the majority of victims of terrorism are Muslim.’2. Todd Green, US author of the book “Presumed Guilty: Why We Shouldn’t Ask Muslims to Condemn Terrorism,” says, ‘there are far more victims of the 9/11 attacks than the almost three thousand people killed that day. The memorial doesn’t mention the many civilian casualties of the subsequent War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, or the documented torture that took place in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay or CIA black sites. America has been quick to forget its Muslim victims’
Thirdly, there is an oft-quoted allegation that Muslims don’t condemn terrorism. Author Green, says, ‘some people seem to have missed out on how vocally most Muslims stand against terrorism, extremism and violence’. He cautions fellow non-Muslim Americans against what he calls not only a “troubling and unethical” double standard, but also “a form of racist scapegoating.” And it’s not just anti-Muslim groups doing the scapegoating. Plenty of bona fide liberals and interfaith proponents have fallen into that trap. New York Times columnists, former President Obama and even Pope Francis have urged Muslim leaders to condemn terrorism as though they aren’t already doing so, or asked why they are not’. Here too, double standards galore, as this argument is not advanced when similar terror acts are committed by non-Muslims.
Fourthly, links to terror groups such as the so-called ISIS are regularly cited as examples of ‘Islamic terrorism, as was seen in the Post-Easter terror discourses. It is important to realize that there is much credible evidence to suggest that murderous ISIS is a politico-military project of those mighty powers with vested interests in the ME Region and has no serious interests in creating their ‘so called Islamic Caliphate, as the world has been made to believe. As to the ‘Islamic’ character of these so-called ‘Islamic’ soldiers, it is best to leave it to the better judgement of the readers. In 2008, a classified briefing note on radicalisation, prepared by MI5′s behavioural science unit, was leaked to the Guardian. It revealed that, “far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could be regarded as religious novices.”
Fifthly, Media framing of Muslims as terrorists has been fairly consistent since 9/11 and has an impact both within the U.S. and beyond on Muslims and how others see them. In 2011, a study examining 11 terrorist events in the U.S. since 9/11 argued that media coverage of terrorist events intensifies fear of Islam and Muslims by covering events committed by Muslims as part of a larger conspiracy of Islam on the U.S., while explaining terrorist events committed by non-Muslim U.S. citizens as isolated individual acts of the mentally ill (Powell 2011). Powell argued that the coverage was largely influenced by and influenced the U.S. government war on terror (Reese and Lewis 2009; Powell 2011), sustaining media attention and creating an ‘Us versus Them’, or the U.S. versus Islam mentality (Powell and Abadi 2003). This study also argued that terrorists who are Muslim are framed differently than those who are not Muslim, adding to a fear of the “other” that intensifies with each terrorist event. The dominance of the U.S. media globally adds to the power of this frame to impact global relations with Islamic countries. As Khan et al. (2012) warned, “Negative portrayal of Muslims in the Western media is globalized and if allowed to continue may eventuate into some kind of clash of civilizations with horrendous consequences for human civilization on the planet.3. As Mehdi Hasan, a commentator, TV host says; the public has (thus) been conditioned (through a well strategized Media coverage) since the 9/11 attacks to see terrorists “as people with big beards, brown skin, loud voices shouting in Arabic.”
Sixthly, Muslims playing into the moderate Muslim vs Extremist Muslim discourse is palpably a Western trap. Islamic researchers are agreed that what the West and its followers call ‘moderate Islam’ and ‘moderate Muslims’ is simply a slur against Islam and Muslims, a distortion of Islam, a rift among Muslims, a spark to ignite war among them. They also see that the division of Islam into ‘moderate Islam’ and ‘radical Islam’ has no basis in Islam — neither in its doctrines and rulings, nor in its understandings or reality. In summary, “moderate Islam” has led to an Islam that is just too darn convenient for those who insist on maintaining the status quo. And, thus, “moderate Islam” has lost any capacity among the masses to lead a serious movement for change.
Seventhly, the Muslim defeatism, victimhood and failure to speak up and standing upto the Islamophobia challenge. Mogahed, who co-authored a book called “Who Speaks for Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think” based on interviews with tens of thousands of Muslims around the world, said it’s important to ask whether someone needs to be speaking for Islam, particularly when other groups of people are afforded the presumption of innocence when horrific acts are carried out in their name. Resultantly, Muslim narrative is being liberally polluted and hijacked both from within and without, in a free for all environment of freedom. From Syria and Yemen to Palestine, from Rohingyan Muslims to the plight of the Uighurs and fighting terrorism, Muslim countries have shown little leadership (both political and religious) in effectively countering extremist narratives, confronting the powerful Islamophobia industry and project a positive image of Islam without being in a state of denial which means Muslims are ill-equipped to deal with its problems including endemic terrorism. The recent KL Summit of Muslim leaders reflects adversely on the sad rifts among, and the failures of the Muslim leadership particularly the OIC. What enables a culture and/or nation however to overcome crises is its ability to adapt to the challenge and response cycle whereby it develops new strategies and generates new energies to handle newly emergent situations.
Lastly but most importantly, the Muslim Ummah has failed to realize that Islam is not at all a spent force and has proved throughout history that it has the vitality and buoyancy to be relevance at all times and not grow obsolete. view Islam as a dynamic force for societal change, when the Quran and the Sunnah explains how humans can address the trials and tribulations that are part and parcel of this transitory life. The Muslims must regain their lost confidence, connect to the greater Islamic vision, join with people with common goals and work towards a world free of hate and injustice. Islām expects nothing less, despite the heavy odds stacked against the Muslims, drawing inspiration from their glorious past.
Overall, indeed the challenges facing the “otherized” peoples of the world are unprecedented and seemingly intractable and should be confronted together. Working together is not an instinct. It is an acquired skill. As John Esposito says, ‘Islamophobia , like Anti-Semitism will not be eradicated easily or soon. Islamophobia is not a problem for Muslims alone; it is our problem. Governments, policy makers, the media , educational institutions and religious and corporate leaders have a critical role to play in transforming our societies and influencing our citizens and policies to contain the voices of hate…” It is thus in the mutual interest that Muslims too reach out to others who suffer racism and xenophobia. Moreover, Muslims, as the ambassadors of this very faith which always stands against violence and injustice, should lead the campaigns against such prejudices everywhere by acknowledging their prominent role first. Such approach could not only bring others into solidarity with victims of Islamophobia it would also highlight to everyone that Muslim mobilization is against both Islamophobia and the bigotries suffered by others alike. In the context of a multidimensional fight against a single, integrated evil of hate and bigotry, this joint approach is inevitable whether in the Sri Lankan or a global context.
