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| August 30, 2005 | Tuesday | Rajab 24, 1426 |
West needs to reform its policies rather than Islam
ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: The West needs to review its own policies rather than seeking reformation of Islam, said Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, on Monday.
Dr Lodhi said while the Muslim world would like the major powers to review their policies as a means of “draining the swamp,” the West has of late tended to emphasise the need for Muslims to reform their practices. Most controversially, this has included the idea that a “reformation” of Islam is needed because Muslims must “make peace with modernity,” she said
Speaking at a seminar on “Global terrorism: its genesis, implications, remedial and counter measures” she said Western powers were perceived to externalize the problem and not own up to the responsibility of the unintended consequences of their own policies. She said Muslims argued that it was important to distinguish between Islam and its exploitation by violent groups to mobilize support. “To look for the roots of terrorism in religion is not only flawed but dangerous,” she said.
Hijacked or not, Islam as a religion cannot explain the actions of suicide bombers anymore than Christianity could explain the gas chamber, Catholicism the bombing at Omagh or the faith of Japanese Kamikaze pilots or Tamil guerillas, she said.
Dr Lodhi said winning the battle for hearts and minds is easier said than done as there were divergences between what the US and its Western allies identify as underlying causes of violent extremism and terrorism and how the rest, especially the Muslim world, conceptualizes “root causes.”
Dr Lodhi observed that sharp disagreements, mainly between the OIC and Western countries, have marked the negotiations currently underway both on the new Comprehensive Convention on Terrorism, expected to conclude next year, and the Draft Outcome document being deliberated upon by the General Assembly in New York. Once agreed, this document will be submitted for approval to the summit meeting next month, she said.
She said Al-Qaeda’s threat was not from a hierarchical or coherent organization, but from the ideas and ideology that its leaders have advocated, which are taken up transnationally by others, who use the tools of globalization to further their aims. These tools are the internet, mobile communications, the media and the ease and speed of travel. Consequently the threat was not just global, but fluid and fairly unpredictable, she said.
Dr Lodhi proposed a broad-gauge counter-terrorism strategy based on nine “Cs” including comprehensive; consensus; causes and conditions; confusion between explanation and justification; capabilities and capacities; cooperative rather than coercive national and international strategies; civil liberties and principles of good governance; civilizational and cultural dialogue; conference at the summit level to craft and coordinate an approach based on the other elements.
Expounding the political and theological influences that shaped Al-Qaeda’s ideology, Mr M.A. Ashraf in his paper on “Al- Qaeda’s ideology — Quran or Clauswitz,” said killing its leaders would not cause Al-Qaeda to die. To counter the threat, the ideology must be understood and confronted. Al-Qaeda began by creating enemies in an increasingly geographical sense but it now has enemies in an increasingly ideological sense too, he said.
By removing any form of moderation in warfare, Al-Qaeda pays homage to Clauswitz rather than to the Holy Quran. The misuse of the term “Jihad” within the Muslim world has helped Al-Qaeda’s ideologues to convert a litany of recognisable political grievances into passionate call to arms in the name of Jihad, he said.
In his paper on “Economics and socio-economic roots of terrorism,” Dr James Dingley said simply applying the western ideals of democracy and freedom at the political level might be worthless and even counter-productive if they did not match the socio-economic and cultural reality of their environment.
Dr Dingley said counter-terrorism implied the need for a managed social integration in to the new economy and a moral framework to contain excesses of individual greed and to build up a new sense of community of well-being.
In her paper on “The war on terror — a betrayal of the rule of law,” Shazadi Beg said civil liberties were more at risk now than ever before.
Ms Beg argued that Muslim public opinion could be won over by demanding justice and accountability in the Muslim heartlands for which violence was not needed but democracy and rule of law were the requirements.
In his explanations of “Theoretical formulations of terrorism,” Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi said people are not born terrorists but acquire the disposition through the experiences in the personal, local, national and global contexts. If the long and short term strategies are adopted to reformulate the dynamics of the multiple contexts that shape the disposition and world view of individuals and groups, terrorism could be managed, if not eliminated altogether, he said.
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