The International Community
Must Actively Address the Menace of Jihadism and Its Phony
Interpretation of Islam, Urges Sultan Shahin in the UN Human Rights
Council in Its 25th Session
By Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam
18 March, 2014
United Nations Human Rights Council
Twenty-fifth Regular Session ((3 - 28 March 2014)
Agenda item 4: Subjects of particular concern for the UN Human Rights Council
Full Text of the Oral Statement by Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam
Mr. President,
South and Central
Asian nations are deeply worried about the shape of things to come after
the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return of Islamist
terrorists from the Syrian theatre of Jihad back to North America,
Europe and rest of the world. The upsurge of Taliban Jihadism in
Afghanistan-Pakistan may also mean more terror in India and Bangladesh.
As experience has
shown, Mr. President, the war on terror cannot be fought merely with
military means. This war has an ideological dimension as much as
military. The exclusivist, political, totalitarian, Jihadi narrative of
Islam has to be contested and the mainstream narrative of Islam as an
inclusive, spiritual path for salvation promoted vigorously. Among the
Western governments, only Britain has shown an awareness of the
ideological nature of this war and a resolve to help Muslims fight it
ideologically. But the response of British Muslims has been
disappointing.
Muslims across the world continue to be in denial. Not the slightest sign of introspection.
British Muslims find
the Report from the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Tackling
Radicalisation and Extremism problematic. The subsequent actions too
have caused consternation. But there is no indication that Muslims
themselves plan to do something to fight this menace. We Muslims must
understand and accept that this is primarily a war within Islam and it
is for us to fight it.
Already, the Taliban
have started flexing muscles. In Pakistan last month they forced the
government to open talks. While demanding the implementation of Shariah
they cut the throats of 23 captured soldiers of Pakistan Army. As
Pakistan Information Minister pointed out, 90,000 Pak troops were taken
prisoner in the 1971 war against India but not one of them lost their
heads. He also wondered what sort of Shariah law Pakistan Taliban want
imposed that allows cutting the throats of soldiers of their own
country.
Clearly the international community must actively seek to address the menace of Jihadism and its phony interpretation of Islam.
Mr. President,
Let us now reflect on
some of the issues mentioned above in some detail. First, I find it
gratifying that at least one government in the West has discovered that
this war cannot be fought just with bullets and bombs. The recent report
by British Prime Minister’s Task Force on Tackling Radicalisation and
Extremism finds it “also necessary to define the ideology of Islamist
extremism” and goes on to say in paragraph 1.4:
“This is a
distinct ideology which should not be confused with traditional
religious practice. It is an ideology which is based on a distorted
interpretation of Islam, which betrays Islam’s peaceful principles, and
draws on the teachings of the likes of Sayyid Qutb. Islamist extremists
deem Western intervention in Muslim-majority countries as a ‘war on
Islam’, creating a narrative of ‘them’ and ‘us’. They seek to impose a
global Islamic state governed by their interpretation of Shari’ah as
state law, rejecting liberal values such as democracy, the rule of law
and equality. Their ideology also includes the uncompromising belief
that people cannot be Muslim and British, and insists that those who do
not agree with them are not true Muslims.”
I hope they also come
to the realisation that the fathers of modern extremism, Sayyid Qutub of
Egypt and Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi of the Indian sub-continent, are
products of and heavily influenced by an ideology that the British
Empire had played an important role in imposing upon the Muslim
community. It supported this radical Wahhabi ideology in its infancy and
provided it with the wherewithal to cause the destruction it has, even
betraying its formal alliance with the mystically inclined and peaceful
Hashemite Khilafat of Sheriff of Mecca in the process. Then again the
West, this time led by the US, supported and encouraged this ideology,
indeed spent a lot of money in promoting it during the last years of
cold war.
One would have thought
that it would be difficult for Jihadists to survive in post 9/11 world.
Instead, the post 9/11 world seems to have created more swamps for
Jihadists to wreak havoc and plan and plot further devastation in
different parts of the world. Having reflected upon past mistakes, the
West better realise that the first thing to do in tackling Jihadism is
for it to immediately stop supporting and protecting the fountainhead of
radical Islamist ideology in Saudi Arabia or at the very least to curb
the massive export of the Saudi version of radical Islam to far corners
of the world. After all, 16 of the 19 terrorists involved in 9/11 were
Saudis, nurtured through the Saudi school curriculum and the rest too
schooled in Saudi version of Islam.
The UK Report considers challenging and tackling extremism
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