Islam and Terrorism (5/23/17)

e I was raised a practicing Muslim and remained one for almost half my life I attended madrasas that is Islamic schools and memorized large parts of the Quran as a child I lived in Mecca for a time and frequently visited the Grand Mosque as a teenager I sympathized with the Muslim Brotherhood at 22 while my family was living in Kenia my father arranged my marriage to a member of our family Clan a man that I had never met I ran away made my way to Holland studied there and eventually was elected a member of the Dutch Parliament now I live in the United States in short I have seen Islam from the inside and the outside I believe that a reform of Islam is necessary and possible and only Muslims can make that reform a reality but we in the west cannot remain on the sidelines as though the outcome of this struggle has nothing to do with thus if the jihadists win and the hope for a reformed Islam dies the rest of the world will pay a terrible price the terror attacks in New York London Madrid Paris and many other places are only a preview for what's to come for this reason I believe that it's foolish to insist as Western leaders habitually do that the violent acts committed in the name of Islam can somehow be divorced from the religion itself for more than a decade my message has been simple Islam is not a religion of Peace when I assert this I do not mean that Islamic belief makes all Muslims violent this is manifestly not the case there are many millions of peaceful Muslims in the world what I do say is that the call to violence and the justification for it are explicitly stated in the sacred text of Islam moreover this theologically sanctioned violence is there to be activated by any number of offenses including but not limited to adultery blasphemy homosexuality and apostasy that is to leave Islam those who tolerate this intolerance do so at their Peril as someone who has known what it is to live without freedom I watch in amazement as those who call themselves liberals and progressives people who claim to believe so fervently in individual liberty and minority rights make common cause with the force in the world that manifestly pose the greatest threat to that very freedom and those very minorities in 2014 I was invited to accept an honorary degree from Brand's University for the work I have done on behalf of women's rights in the Muslim world that invitation was withdrawn after professors and students protested my criticism of Islam my subsequent disinvitation as it came to be called was no favor to Muslims just the opposite by labling Critical examination of Islam as inherently racist we make the chances of reformation far less likely there are no limits on criticism of Christianity at American universities or anywhere else for that matter why should there be of Islam instead of contorting Western intellectual Traditions so as not to offend our Muslim fellow citizens we need to defend both those traditions and the Muslim dissidents who take great risks to promote them we should support these brave men and women in every way possible imagine a platform for Muslim dissidents that communicated their message through YouTube Twitter Facebook and Instagram these are the Muslims we should be supporting for our sake as much as for the sake of Islam in the Cold War the West celebrated dissidents such as Alexander Solin Andre sakarov and VAV havl who had the courage to challenge the Soviet system from within today there are many dissidents who challenge Islam but the West either ignores them or dismisses them as not representative this is a grave mistake reformers such as taik hammed ason Nani and Zi jaser and many others must be supported and protected they should be as well known as Solin nittin sakarov and havir in the 1980s if we do in fact support political social and religious freedom then we cannot in good conscience give Islam a free pass on the grounds of Multicultural sensitivity we need to say to Muslims living in the west if you want to live in our societies to share in the material benefits then you need to accept that our freedoms are not optional Islam is at a Crossroads of reformation or self-destruction but so is the West I'm Ayan Hy Ali of Harvard University for pra University what drives someone to become a religious extremist even to the point of becoming a suicide bomber like most people I assume that there were two overriding answers poverty and ignorance the poverty line goes like this grinding poverty from which there appears to be no Escape Foster seeding resentment against those who have more if your choice is to die a martyr or die a beggar martydom is the clear winner the ignorance lines goes like this the poor have no chance chance to get a decent education and thus are susceptible to easy manipulation clever people play on their prejudices and superstitions once extremist gets this ignorant poor person in his grasp indoctrination is easy since there's plenty of poverty and plenty of ignorance around the world that's a lot of people to draw from this is how the source of terrorism is explained then I went to pan and actually lived in the world from which extremists recruit and I found something something much different than I expected poverty had little to do with who became an extremist lack of Education even less many of those that I met who subscribe to religious extremism and are prepared to murder and die for their cause are from the middle class and many had a university education these are not poor people and these are not uneducated people they are wellfed and well read so if poverty and ignorance don't drive people to extremism what does one is a desire for meaning and for order places like Pakistan are submerged in chaos and Corruption islamist promis clear-cut solutions to every problem here's how things will change if you follow these rules and only these rules another is a desire for change the old corrupt order the narrative goes must be overthrown and that can only happen through violent action again it is islamists that step in with a promise to create a new form of government government then throw in a strong sense of victimhood we are not responsible for the sorry state of our country others have brought us down and you have a toxic brew that many willingly embi these of course are the same easy answers that tyrants and demagogues from Lenin to musolini to Hitler to Bin Laden have always offered their followers I saw this played out one day while living in Pakistan after one of the many assassinations of a major figure there I was sitting with two middle class parents the father owned a small business and the mother was a nurse they had given their son a good life he wanted for nothing they told me that during dinner with the family a few days earlier their son noted how the person who was murdered deserve to die why because he had spoken out on behalf of religious minorities they were shocked how could their son who'd been educated and well raised think that this story is All Too typical so what to do about this extremism the first step is to get off this false narrative that this is first and foremost a poverty or education issue the second is a Take On The Narrative of the extremist groups they promise a better way but what in fact do they deliver the answer is always more death more suffering and more poverty in other words Young people need to see these extremist groups for what they are only then will recruiting numbers begin to go down third the media have to stop treating extremists as Freedom Fighters a narrative that is all too common in places like Pakistan fourth teachers and parents cannot assume that just because they reject religious extremism their children and students will too middle class parents and teachers have to be vigilant in instilling moderate pluralist values in their children fifth politicians have to stop blaming their country's problems on the west and have to confront the endemic corruption that destroys countries like Pakistan from within six and probably most important Islamic religious figures have to stop looking the other way or Worse glorifying so-called Martyrs Muslims who murder innocent people almost always other Muslims in the name of Islam Muslim religious leaders must promise these murderers Eternal Dam ation not some sort of Twisted Heavenly Bliss the people of Pakistan and other Muslim majority countries have real grievances but extremism only makes things worse always and everywhere it's not poverty and misery that creates religious extremism it is religious extremism that creates poverty and misery and death I'm harun aola ajun professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service for Prager University what is the world's most dangerous ideology in the first part of the 20th century the answer was fascism first manifest in Italy in the 1920s and then in Nazi Germany and in Imperial Japan it took a World War and 50 million dead to stamp it out in the second half of the 20th century the answer was communism between the Soviet Union mous China and their Klein States at least 100 million people were killed in its wake today the answer is islamism a radical and often violent form of Islam like fascism and communism islamism is totalitar in nature the state controls everything also like fascism and communism islamism is inherently expansionist it always seeks to get bigger cross borders and bring as many peoples as possible under its control and like fascism and communism many of islamism adherence are prepared to kill to achieve its aims those aims are antithetical to everything Western and other free societies stand for free speech free enterprise freedom to practice or not to practice any religion freedom of assembly a free press and of course fundamental human and civil rights for all their citizens islamism completely rejects the Western principle of separating religion from government in its view governments are legitimate only if they rule according to religious law in islamism case Sharia Islam's extensive body of sacred laws Sharia is based on the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah the Quran is believed to be the literal words of Allah as revealed to his Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century and the Sunnah consists of the words and deeds attributed to Muhammad islamists interpret Sharia to hold that anyone born Muslim must remain Muslim and face execution if they convert to any other religion that adulterers must be stoned to death that anyone who insults Islam or Muhammad must either be severely whipped or executed and that thieves should have a limb cut off in addition islamists condone polygamy and child marriage these beliefs are being put into practice right now in among other places Iran the Sudan Saudi Arabia the Muslim parts of Nigeria parts of Pakistan Syria Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else Sharia has established a foothold if islamists were content to live under strict Sharia law in their own communities and leave everyone who doesn't want to live that way alone they wouldn't be a threat to the rest of the world but that would not be islamism islamism wants the entire world governed by Sharia and anyone who opposes islamist expansionism is the enemy and must be destroyed that of course includes the United States all of Europe and Israel but it also includes fellow Muslims indeed islamists have killed far more Muslim Muslims than members of any other group so how many islamists are there nobody knows for sure but we can make some conservative calculations there are approximately 1 and a half billion Muslims in the world how many of these are islamists a 2013 Pew research poll offers some Clues 86% of Muslims in Pakistan 80% in Egypt and 65% in Jordan support the stoning of adulterers 79% in Afghanistan 62% of Palestinians and 58% in Malaysia considered a moderate Muslim country support the death penalty for Muslims who convert from Islam if only 10% of the world's Muslims are islamists and the percentage is likely higher that's 150 million people among these how many are willing to take violent action to enforce their islamism here we're talking about Al-Qaeda the Islamic State the Taliban Hamas Hezbollah boo Haram Al shabab and other groups that send suicide bombers into markets explode car bombs at funerals throw acid in the face of of girls who attend school murder sisters or daughters who defy the will of a brother or father or who fly hijacked airplanes into buildings this is a very hard number to pin down so let's again be cautious and say the figure is only 2% of that 150 million that's still 3 million people 3 million potential terrorists organized by a common ideology and supported by many more the good news is that hundreds of millions of Muslims are not radical islamists just to cite one example the islamist Muslim Brotherhood governed Egypt for one year in 2012 but enough Egyptians were so outraged by the brotherhood's harsh imposition of sharia law that they staged perhaps the largest demonstrations in human history against the Muslim Brotherhood and brought that government down since the beginning of the 20th century every generation has been confronted with a lethal threat to freedom and fundamental human rights Free People defeated the last two totalitarian threats fascism and communism if we want to preserve Freedom we non-muslims and Muslims alike will have to defeat the threat of our time islamism I'm Raymond ibraim author of the al-Qaeda reader for prayer University hi I'm Elicia Krauss director of Outreach here at prageru to have this video reach more people please consider a donation I an American Muslim and I along with my mainstream Muslim brethren in America and abroad must come to terms with an Ever more apparent truth that we are the only ones who can lead a win fight against the radicalism crippling our faith if there was ever any doubt of this just look at the nature of the terrorist attack in San Bernardino California in December of 2015 what's most troubling about the San Bernardino Massacre is that Sayad Farooq the husband half of the terrorist couple seems to have been by almost all accounts an ordinary American his was not a crime born of poverty or lack of opportunity or an inability to integrate into American society just the opposite he was raised in a middle class environment by first generation Pakistani immigrant parents he was educated and earned a good living I too like many American Muslims come from a background that's very similar as the son of Pakistani immigrants which makes the attack all the more concerning it seems Unthinkable that someone in such a position could be susceptible to radicalization yet we've seen it happen time and again among younger Muslims in the Middle East Europe and now America attacks like San Bernardino underscoring the importance of countering extremist propaganda while sophisticated attacks by terrorist groups can be effectively prevented by law enforcement and national security measures the truth is there isn't much that can be done by any government not even stricter gun control laws to eliminate the possibility of a radicalized lone wolf wreaking habit only defeating the ideology that inspires these attacks can do that a propaganda war must be waged against this radicalism and American Muslims have to be on the front lines for it to be credible merely condemning islamist terror is not enough we must actively engage in counter extremism messaging we must build an intellectual and Theological case against radical Islam our religious leaders have to educate and warn our youth about the dangers of searching for spiritual guidance on the internet they must make it perfectly clear that anyone who engages in any Act of terrorism is not doing God's work they're doing the work of the devil and we in the Muslim Community have to continue to be vigilant if someone who regularly attends mosque stops coming and disappears abruptly after marrying a Pakistani woman in Saudi Arabia whom he met online it shouldn't take 2 years and 36 Americans getting shot including one from that very mosque before we notice we have the benefit of living in a nation that protects freedom of speech and Association a nation that values the marketplace of ideas a nation that allows us all to practice our faith no matter our religion we have the opportunity to speak out and Challenge radicalism in a way others abroad cannot there is a war going on that extends Beyond Syria and American Muslims are under siege not by a friend group of bigoted Americans but by a fringe group of Muslims abroad who seek to tear our communities apart and take away the freedom that we all cherish they are trying to Target the disaffected Among Us hijack the mosque pulpit and convince us that we're unwelcome in our own country but if we're serious about leading this fight with unified support certain things will have to change we can't call out prejudice against our own faith without also calling out the gender inequality and homophobia that we find in some of our own Muslim communities we can't be champions of our own religious freedom without also championing the freedom of people of all religious Traditions including other Muslim denominations that we may disagree with we have to change the way we think about Islamic law and vilify the medieval judicial practices that persist in the Middle East and we must have the uncomfortable but necessary conversations about where much of the funding for this cancerous supremacist ideology is coming from Saudi Arabia we carry with us a responsibility to our country our faith and our children the majority of us are here because our parents or grandparents immigrated from oppressive and illiberal Nations for the promise of a better life in America but the way things are heading our children may grow up with less opportunity and freedom than we did I can think of No Greater defeat and surrender to radicalism than that I'm kumara for Prager University it seems that hardly a day goes by in which the Islamic State also known as Isis or ISO doesn't appear in a newspaper or on a TV news screen and the news is always bad hideous death and want and destruction of a type rarely seen in modern history so what is the Islamic State where did it come from what does it want and why let's try to answer these questions in turn first Isis is the illegitimate child of sdam Hussein's regime and kaaa saddam's former military and Intelligence Officers hold many of isis's most senior positions and have overseen the groups rise to prominence in 2002 and early 2003 some Al-Qaeda members relocated from Afghanistan to Iraq where they prepared to fight the Americans who toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in March 2003 these jihadists became known as al-Qaeda in Iraq when their leader Abu masab Al Zara swore his allegiance to Osama Bin Laden in 2004 sarawi a murderous psychopath was finally killed by us and Iraqi forces in June 2006 following his death Al-Qaeda and Iraq was rebranded as the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010 a new leader took control of the group Abu Baker Al baghdaddy taking advantage of the power vacuum left by the complete us withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 and the Syrian Civil War that began that same year baghdaddy and his lieutenants greatly expanded the size and scope of the organization at first baghdaddy was loyal to senior leadership but in 2013 he defied orders from his superiors and declared that his group was now the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or leavon known by its acronyms Isis and isil it's worth noting that Isis continues to Market osam bin Lan's endorsement of them to this day what does Isis want and why Isis is attempting to resurrect an Empire similar to those that arose in Islam's early history these Empires were referred to as calipat and led by a caleff the muslim's chief ruler also also known as the Amir of the faithful this is in fact how baghdad's followers now refer to him Isis relies on a rich Islamic mythology with citations from Islamic texts to justify its actions and portray itself as the true Heirs of Muhammad their propaganda videos use Islam's early history to frame their actions as part of an ongoing conflict with the Crusaders isis's leaders want their followers to believe they are fighting as part of the same religious War when isis's Libyan Branch executed 21 Egyptian coped Christians in 2015 Isis advertised the slangs in a video titled a message signed with blood to the nation of the cross the nation of the Cross of course meaning Christians that's why on Libya's Mediterranean Shores the lead executioner of the Egyptian Coptic Christians pointed his knife in the direction of Italy and promised to conquer Rome the symbolic seat of Christendom despite seeking to spark an inner Faith War however most of isis's victims are Muslims especially Shiite Muslims for whom Isis which is Sunni Muslim Harbors a special animosity Isis claims that any Muslim who does not swear Baya an oath of allegiance to baghdaddy is an Infidel or an apostate even isis's rival jihadists in al-Qaeda are considered apostates because they refused to genuflect to baghdaddy in November 2014 baghdaddy announced that his caliphate had expanded into several areas outside of Iraq and Syria baghdad's people set up provinces everywhere from West and North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula to South Asia Isis argues that Muslims owe these provinces their loyalty most of these provinces control little territory but they have become prolific Killers just over one year after baghdad's announcement the Islamic State's provinces had already engaged in hundreds of terrorist attacks on October 31st 2015 for example the Islamic State's province in Sinai brought down a Russian airl killing all 224 people on board in some Isis is attempting to become a permanent totalitarian state inspired by the Cal of Islam's first decades from this base they will spread their ideology to the rest of the world anyone who stands in the way is Marked for Death but isis's Califa claim rests on its ability to control territory this is both its strength and achilles heal should it lose significant ground in Iraq and Syria its Calif claim will become tenuous severely damaging its legitimacy in the eyes of many Muslims how this might happen is a key question for the United States Europe Asia and many in the Arab world but this much we know it will take much more than air strikes I'm Tom Json of the foundation for the defense of democracies for Prager University after every new jihadist attack against the West politicians reassure us that the atrocity does not represent the true nature of mainstream Islam of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world the constantly reassures the overwhelming majority are as law-abiding as any members of any other mon istic Faith only a tiny fraction engage in Terror and Islam is a religion of Peace furthermore we are told the great majority of Muslims hold moderate views but what does that mean how moderate are moderate Muslims given the threat of radical Islam it would seem to be a fair question let me start to answer it by telling you something of my own story I was raised in a middle class Muslim home in CYO Egypt growing up I was told among many other things the following that every day that passes on the Islamic Nation without a caliphate is a sin that the failures and miseries of the Muslim world started the moment we Muslims gave up conquests and Wars against the infidels that our prosperity depended on conquering new lands and converting new Believers that anyone who Le the faith must die and I also remember how my teachers and my musk imams reacted to the news of 9/11 when it happened Joy my experience was typical and there is data to prove it according to the PE Research Center 88% of Muslims in Egypt 62% in Pakistan 86% in Jordan and 51% in Nigeria believe that any Muslim who chooses to leave Islam should be put to death similar if not identical numbers are in favor of stoning people who commit adultery severely punishing those who criticize Muhammad or Islam and chopping off hands for theft all of these practices are a part of the penal code of Islamic law which is known as Shar and 84% of Muslims in South Asia 77% in Southeast Asia 74% in the Middle East and North Africa and 64% in subsaharan Africa support Sharia as the law of the land less drastic yet significant percentages are to be found even among Muslim communities in the west so too most of the world's Muslims believe that any acts of violence against Israel including suicide bombers and buses and restaurants are Justified now does any of this sound moderate to you yet if anyone raises these inconvenient truths here in the west he is sure to be called an islamophobe a hater of Islam again my own story is instructive in February of 2015 I was yelled at cursed at and successfully prevented from speaking at Swarthmore College by students and others who did not agree to what I was saying some of them were Muslim women who fit the image of the unveiled perfect English-speaking moderate Muslim young woman other seeming moderates tried and failed to do the same during my speech at Temple University the next day some of them sadly were students of Journalism it is not islamophobic to note the tragic fact that at this time in history the Muslim world is dominated by bad ideas and bad beliefs that is why millions of so-called moderate Muslims do not rise up to denounce Islamic Terror because the word moderate as we understand it does not really apply if moderation means you tolerate freedom of speech freedom of religion freedom of the press women's rights and gay rights moderate Muslims are a distinct minority of course they exist millions of them but among believing Muslims they do not represent any anywhere near a critical mass the values of the West and the values of Islam as practiced in the Muslim worlds of the Middle East North Africa and South Asia and more and more in Europe are not compatible Western politicians can deny this but this denial does not change the reality it is these bad ideas and beliefs that provides the soil in which radical Islam grows ignoring this only prevents us from effectively fighting islamist Terror and at the same time it hurts those heroic Muslims who really are moderate until we begin to tell the truth about Islam always in respectful language the only solution to islamist Terror will never take place that solution is Islam reforming itself I do believe that reform is possible it can of course only be done from with within Islam the West can be a part of that reform but only if it faces and tells the truth the sooner it does so the better for all of us I am Hussein abubakr for Prager University hi I'm Arisa stri CEO of prageru did you know that prageru is a nonprofit every dollar you give will go towards making more videos and marketing them so please consider making a donation today e e e for