tagged w/ Islamic extremism
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Top Taliban leaders could be offered exile outside Afghanistan if they agree to stop fighting the government of Hamid Karzai, a long-expected peace plan by the Afghan government will propose later this month.Top Taliban leaders could be offered exile outside Afghanistan if they agree to stop... more
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Jilani’s students, who range in age from 18 to 36, are part of a generation brought up on heroic tales of Saudi fighters who left home to fight alongside the mujahedeen in Afghanistan during the 1980s and who helped to force the Soviets to withdraw from the country. The Saudi state was essentially built on the concept of jihad, which King Abdul Aziz al-Saud used to knit disparate tribal groups into a single nation. The word means “struggle” and in Islamic law usually refers to armed conflict with non-Muslims in defense of the global Islamic community. Saudi schools teach a version of world history that emphasizes repeated battles between Muslims and nonbelieving enemies. Whether to Afghanistan in the 1980s or present-day Iraq, Saudi Arabia has exported more jihadist volunteers than any other country; 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudis.
But jihad can go too far. The Saudi government has condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and arrests jihadists who attempt to enter Iraq. Some Saudi veterans of overseas jihads have adopted one form of the doctrine of takfir, in which a Muslim is judged by another Muslim to be an unbeliever. Because traditional Islamic law calls for the execution of apostates, some have used takfir to justify attacks on the Saudi state. In recent years, these attacks have raised fears that the chaos in some of the world’s conflict zones is being brought home to Saudi Arabia by radicalized jihadists. The Saudi government thus finds itself in the awkward position of needing to defend the principle of jihad to its citizens while discouraging them from actually taking up arms. One step it has taken is simply to talk to those who have proved to be most vulnerable to the temptations of jihad, the captured militants themselves. As Jilani put it to me, “The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the confidence to fight thoughts with thoughts.”
Jilani and his colleagues are not just fighting a war of ideas. Though the Saudi government tends to explain its rehabilitation program in purely Islamic terms, as an effort to correct theological misunderstandings, the new program also addresses the psychological needs and emotional weaknesses that have led many young men to jihad in the first place. It tries to give frustrated and disaffected young men the trappings of stability — a job, a car, possibly a wife. Though international human rights groups continue to sound the alarm about Saudi Arabia’s habit of detaining suspects without charging them and of punishing certain crimes with floggings and amputations, these young men seem to have become the subjects of a continuing experiment in counterterrorism as a kind of social work.
If the Saudi rehabilitation program succeeds, it could reduce the ranks of dangerous extremists and have a far-reaching impact: domestic and regional stability and, though it’s not a stated goal, increased safety for potential targets in the West. Program administrators claim that the Saudi initiative could also provide a model for other Muslim countries struggling with Islamic militancy. They say that Saudi Arabia — home to Islam’s two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina — has an unmatched moral authority among the world’s Muslims and is uniquely placed to find the intellectual and spiritual vulnerabilities of organizations like Al Qaeda and to fight Islamic extremism on its own terms.Jilani’s students, who range in age from 18 to 36, are part of a generation... more
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What makes someone so desperate to go on a suicide mission? How do Muslims look at the people of other faiths? What is Jihad?
These are the questions that all of us have been asking since 9/11/2001.
Searching For Answers is a documentary on Muslim-Americans and how they feel about today's world, terrorism and its affects. This documentary interviews various groups of people (mainly youth and community leaders) in the Middle Eastern and South Asian communities to find out what they think about the current affairs, the post 9/11 world, and their place in the American society.
For more information please go to: www.searchingforanswers.infoWhat makes someone so desperate to go on a suicide mission? How do Muslims look at the... more
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Schools have become the new battleground in the police's fight to combat terrorism among Britain's youth.
Measures designed to stamp out Islamic extremism at the earliest opportunity have been agreed by senior officers and are now being rolled out across the country.
They include guidance for parents on how to stop children searching for extremist websites, and an anti-extremism agenda in "all state-maintained educational establishments" by 2009.
Yesterday's conviction of Hammaad Munshi, Britain's youngest terrorist, who was just 16 when he committed terror offenses, will reinforce the importance of this work. Munshi was convicted of possessing a guide for making napalm. In June, two 19-year-olds were arrested during anti-terror raids on their homes in the West Country.
Sir Norman Bettison, the lead officer on preventing terrorism at the Association of Chief Police Officers, believes the new measures will help to combat violent extremism.
In June, when the Home Office announced plans to tackle the continued threat from terrorism, Sir Norman said: "We have seen, at first hand, how people who were our neighbors in West Yorkshire became involved in violent extremism, resulting in terrible loss of life on 7 July 2005. We need to do more to stop people from taking those first steps into the world of violent extremism."
Last year, the head of MI5 said teenagers as young as 15 are being groomed to carry out attacks. In his first speech after taking on the role, Jonathan Evans said terrorists were targeting children: "They are radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism," he said. "This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity." Schools have become the new battleground in the police's fight to combat... more
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