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The Islamic State, or Daesh, is a terror group that originated in Syria and Iraq, which began gaining traction in mid-2014.
Last Friday, they've murdered and injured scores of people in multiple incidents around the world, with the two most notable incidents being the Paris attack and the Lebanon attack.
The main question is, why are they so popular among conservative Muslims?
First of all, they play right almost into every religious Muslim's fantasy of re-establishing a grand Islamic empire (which will never happen, and even if it did, it wouldn't be good). I was deployed in a religious school for 6 months - I've lost count of how many times the issue of a re-establishment of an Islamic empire was bought up.
Add to the fact that many, too many conservative Muslims are dissatisfied with the governments of the countries that they live in - this is the main reason for the Arab Spring among ME countries - and you have a movement that has sown its seeds at an alarming rate the world over.
( I follow an anti-Arab tyrant, anti-ISIL, anti-terrorism and pro-democracy activist named Iyad el-Baghdadi. His excellent tweets regarding such topics can be found at [ https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi ] )
Secondly, they aim to establish Islamic supremacy and eliminate the grayzone, which is the co-existence zone among Muslims and non-Muslims. They aim to polarize the two communities to the point there will be nothing but bloodshed, war and resentment.
They want a world in which the non-Muslims can only live as long as they submit to every will and order- even it is detrimental to them.
Which is what conservative Muslims want. I remember a religious teacher commenting on a racial-incident here in Malaysia (All such comments are paraphrased - I didn't write them down as I didn't keep a journal like I always did every school year, which I regretted) "We have to put down the Chinese- they're starting to fight back... As long as they submit to us, they're fine"
(All Malay Malaysians are Muslim according to the constitution, and the Chinese, traditionally are predominantly Buddhists with a sizable Christian community).
That is one of many, many inflammatory comments that reflect an alarming number of Muslims.
Despite the fact such mentality is quickly eroding among urbanites, it can be found in areas or communities that are of a single race and/or religion.
Thirdly, they aim to establish a strict and unjust interpretation of Syari'ah law. I believe I do not need to explain this any further.
To summarize it up, their aims are : 1)Establishing an empire based on "Islamic law" 2)Wage war on... well, "others" (because listing out their enemies is just too tiring for me)
How to solve the problem? The answer is simple : Root out their ideology, while at the same time dismantling their armed wing to the point where they can barely do anything.
The solution, however is not. I've heard calls from both sides to bomb them (the West and IS) back into the Stone Age.
THAT IS WRONG. THAT IS WHAT EXACTLY IS WANTS.
They want to make both Muslims and non-Muslims believe that there is no way out except for war.
They want to make Muslims believe that the West is out to get them.
They want to make non-Muslims that we are out to get them.
The conservative, shielded, isolated Muslim view is that there a grand anti-Muslim conspiracy to get rid of all Muslims.
The shielded, isolated non-Muslim view is that the Muslims want to get rid of them.
Bombing IS without careful consideration and planning, muddies the water that is trying to be cleaned even further.
Combating foreign terrorism without considering multiple factors, which include but is not limited only to the local history, culture, geopolitics, among others is going to create resentment and anger among the Muslims of the Middle East.
Which plays into the IS game because it strengthens their worldview and justification altogether.
The thing that is most important to us Muslims right now is combating extremism from the inside. We are the best people to talk to our own.
But how do we do that, exactly? Now, I'm no expert, I'm just putting out suggestions based on my experiences, as I have dealt with a lot of Muslims ranging from hardliners to freerunners. I will be talking of these suggestions in a Malaysian context, however, the general idea could be put in other countries and communities as well, adapting to their own cultures, demographics and problems.
The first is to break the invisible wall that is dividing Muslims and non-Muslims.
One thing that I noticed is that the more mono-ethnic an area or a community is, the more likely it is for its people to harbour anti non-Muslim tendencies. I noticed that in northern Malaysian states, as well as rural areas in other parts of the country with an imbalanced Muslim to non-Muslim proportion, as well as religious schools.
I was lucky to be born and raised in a great part of Malaysia with a balanced demographic and open minded people (the two largest races are Chinese and Malays at 44 and 42 percent respectively). Too many others are not as lucky.
The second is to open up any religious schools. A lot of people suggested shutting these down entirely, but I disagree, as it would bring about problems in Muslim communities, which I will not touch on in this post.
I was deployed to a religious school for half a year. I was appalled at what a large number of people there think of "others". That's when I realized that their system is really problematic.
By opening up, I mean to start doing more exchange programs with non-religious and start bringing non-Muslims along into these programs. (These programs exist; during my 6-month tenure in my school, there is about three exchange programs, as far as I can remember). The latter could be modified as to let only neighbouring schools let in non-Muslims, not due to cleanliness or accommodation issues, but due to the evening activities in the dormitories, which mostly consist of religious activities; however, it is a good starting point.
The second is to post non-Muslim/Malay teachers at religious schools. Of course, certain dress should be adhered to, but I won't touch on this. Conversely, all religious teachers specializing in religious subjects should be posted at an SMK for at least 2-4 years.
Another way to open up these schools is to allow greater access to information. When I stayed in the dormitories for 6 months, I was shocked at how I was forced to go by for days without much information on current events. With only teachers or newspapers providing outside news, this can stifle thoughts and are prone to misinformation, and thus, form the wrong mindsets.
Third is to stop teaching Muslims that violence is justified by any means except for self-defense. Growing up, I was taught by my religious school teachers to never harm anyone, except for when you really have to. The word "kill" was never uttered except during topics related to slaughtering animals and the usual reminder that harming others is wrong.
Going into a secular school in secondary level taught me the same thing, even as I went into the religious stream.
Until I went into a full-time religious school for pre-university.
The contempt and hate for non-Muslims in unreal.
I remember my teacher (the same one above...!) saying "If others want to accept our ways of love, then they're most welcome. If not, then, we'll just kill them." Sigh.
Another one is , "Islam must go up no matter what. It doesn't matter if you're a minority. How you're going to do that? I don't know. YOU think of it." A push-poll styled question to sway us into acts of chaos, terror and war as a justifiable act. Nice...........
And we need to teach that EVERY single human being is... well, human. A Muslim that I follow on Twitter summed it up this way : "Muslims love everyone... except if you're gay, black or Shia." Or a non-Muslim. Or a so-called deviant.
Muslims love to play the victim game when it comes to Palestine and the Myanmar Rohingyas, among others, but are apathetic and even cheers for the deaths of "others".
It is NOT a competition. No life should be snuffed out like that, not even under religious reasons like "but oh, they insulted our religion...!!!11!!"
No life should be taken unless it is done in the direst and gravest of situations.
The "others" are human. We Muslims are humans.
As long as we play victim without helping each other and break this crappy cycle, we're going to be eventually screwed.
Fourth is to root out anyone who has these ideologies. If we can't combat them with arms, we fight them before they get a chance to lift them.
If you know of any and are in a position to do so, talk them out of it by any means necessary as long it doesn't involve harsh or condescending words towards them (two types of speech used by Islamophobes and extremists while talking of each other - DO NOT USE. You're no different than them if you do).
A lot of people suggest to report straight away, but I partially disagree, as sometimes overly harsh action will only, again, strengthen their views of oppression and victimization, and thus, serve as a justification.
Only report if they start making creepy comments about seizing power and murdering "others", and especially if the person is in a position to influence others, and has clear proof of involvement in any extremist groups.
This is the only way to eliminate those who are ALREADY stepped in such ideologies. The way to prevent the hold of them in others is described in all the former solutions.
Again, these solutions are ultimately suggestions, and such need not to be taken too heavily or seriously as I am no expert on the subject and only rely on my experiences and readings.
And now to wrap this all up... Not all Muslims are terrorists, but the amount of extremism lingering among us is actually higher than we thought.
DO NOT DENY THAT WE HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM ON OUR HANDS.
Disowning them(NOT ALL MUSLIMS...!111!!) means we aren't taking responsibility for this.
We are NOT responsible for terrorism itself; terrorism spans across borders, religions, races, cultures, ideologies and a lot of other banners.
We are, however, responsible for creating an environment for tyrants and terrorists to grow and represent us.
As long as we don't take steps to eradicate extremism, we'll see new terrorists pop up after we destroy one, like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.
As long as we let them represent us, this will never end.
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This entire post is just my expression of the current situation. Any constructive comments and opinions are all welcome.
