By: Tehmeena Rizvi, Bureau Chief, J&K
Extremism as a concept is not easy to define. It is a subjective term, what is considered extreme by one group or society, may not be considered so by another (Wintrobe, 2006). However, an extremist is generally viewed as ‘someone whose views are outside the mainstream on some issue or dimension’ (Wintrobe, 2006). Extremists are often people on the extreme left or the extreme right of the political spectrum, or hold radical views in relation to nationalism, religion or any other politically important dimension (Wintrobe, 2006). As per Wintrobe’s sociological explanations having radical right or left views about national, religious or political issues does not make an individual or group pro or anti national, religion or political establishment. Thanks to the worldwide media how successfully they brand an individual, group, community or even an entire nation left or right, anti or pro nationalist or religious. Having radical views about the established norms are wings of social change which in Indian context we have witnessed in Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar, three different radical extremists with their own convictions and their extreme different convictions shaped the new India but ironically radical thinking right or left in this new India is a taboo or sin.
Coming back to Islam or more specifically Islamic extremism, Turk (2008) provides a good example of this when he outlines Islamic fundamentalism, which appears to rely on radicalization through education consisting of religious indoctrination. According to Turk, potential recruits to Islamic extremist groups are sought in Madrassas across the world, through drilling in the most extreme interpretations of Sunni theology, which emphasises the duty of Muslims to engage in Jihad (holy war) against all enemies of true Islam. He notes that The Taliban are a product of this group formation within Madrassas (Turk, 2008). In Indian context, I would like to sought why Madrassas are not modernised after more than 75 years of independence. Which Muslim parents does not want modernized education to be imparted to their kids which will be helpful for them to assimilate in the mainstream. Which educated or economically well-off Muslim families send their kids to Madrassas. Whose fault is this? Even if we believe Turk’s logic that Taliban was the product of Madrassas, where is the solution? And how much time it takes to implement a remedy for a socialist democratic government. Many welfare states in India itself has set an example.
The media’s portrayal of Islam often misleads those whose knowledge of the religion is limited, into making negative assumptions about this very peaceful and tolerant way of life. “Islamic terrorists!” “Muslim fundamentalists!” “Extremists!” “Radical Islamists!” These are just some labels that have been wrongly applied to Muslims and certain Muslim groups in recent years. Started and propagated by the American journalism and followed by their western counterparts, now it has been an embedded reality of developing third world on which the very political existence and governance is thriving restricting the masses to focus on real developmental issues.
Peter Manning, a journalist of over 30 years, states in his book, “Us and Them”: “My experience tells me there’s a vast gulf between the realities of the daily lives of Arab and Muslim Australians and how they are represented in our [Australian] media.
In more than 60 percent of cases [from the coverage of 2 major newspapers], the words ‘violent’, ‘death’, ‘attack’, ‘kill’, ‘suicide’ or ‘gunmen’ were in close proximity to the words ‘Arab’, ‘Palestinian’, ‘Muslim’ or ‘Islam’. ”
Is it then, any wonder that most people associate Islam with terrorism?
The problem of ignorance is highlighted by a survey which revealed that more than one in three Australians admit to knowing nothing about Islam and its followers. “Those with the least knowledge and personal contact with Muslims were the most likely to feel threatened by Islam,” said Dr Dunn, who was commissioned by the Australia-Indonesia Institute to carry out the study.
To stress again, without going deeper into political history of Islamic extremism or radicalization, it is largely a byproduct of American interests followed blindly by rest of the western developed world and it’s media. “The left is wrong on Islam. The right is wrong on Muslims”. Ali Rizvi, author of “The Atheist Muslim” tweeted. In an interview with Sean Illing in Nov 2017 he points out, “like most issues, in the United States especially, the conversation about Islam, Muslims, and terrorism, eventually diverged into the left and the right. You had the liberals with their view, and the conservatives with their view. They were both conflating “Islam” the ideology and “Muslim” the identity. Islam is a religion; it’s a set of beliefs, a bunch of ideas in a book. It’s not human. Muslims are real, living, breathing people, there’s a big difference between criticizing ideas and demonizing human beings”.
In reply to Sean Illing question “I think a lot of what you’re saying leads back to a fundamental question about whether Islam (or really any religion) is essentially a culture or where the line between the two is drawn?” the same issue was discussed in Arvind Sharma’s book “Part of the Problem Part o the Solution: Religion Today and Tomorrow (2008)”, Ali Rizvi replied “there’s definitely some interplay between the two. But culture is always evolving. Religion freezes culture in time. Religion dogmatizes culture and arrests its evolution.There are many of us who are atheists but retain some cultural elements of the religion.” I still myself enjoy the Eid holiday and the fast-breaking iftar feasts of Ramadan with my family, have a pleasant childhood associations and memories with these celebrations. Now I also celebrate and enjoy festivities of Holi, Diwali, Navroz, and Shabbat. I think we all should be able to enjoy festivities without any burden of belief, after all every religion teaches us to be human and care for fellow humans. I am completely in agreement with Ali Rizvi’s claim that “millions of people in the Muslim world who are atheist or agnostic publicly identify as Muslim or they’d be disowned, ostracized, or even killed by their families and governments. They’re atheist in thought but Muslim by presentation. They’re living a contradictory existence”.\
Majid Usman Nawaz, a British activist and radio presenter, in his book “Islam and the Future of Tolerance” (Harvard University Press, 2015), says “Islam is just a religion like any other religion. Sure, the scriptures of all these religions have inspired a lot of people to do good things, but they have also inspired a lot of people to do bad things as well. If you look at how we as human beings resolve our identity crises as adolescents and young adults, you see that some of these processes, such as identity foreclosure in this case, lend themselves better to explaining what might cause a young person to join, or resist, violent ideologies like jihadism. They’re just trying to find a place for themselves. But the more interesting question for me is why is Islam, why is this particular religion, so appealing to them? Why do people prone to violence find Islam so appealing for their purpose?” Islamic extremism, Islamic radicalization, Islamic terrorism is a byproduct of failure of American military supremacy in Middle East/ West Asia and undoubtedly other western nations have blindly followed it. The recent Christchurch mosque massacre, why didn’t the world media gave it a name of fascist, resist or white extremism, radicalization or terrorism. We all know the answer, it was heroic exemplary efforts of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, otherwise Muslims themselves would have been questioned for this massacre by the world media.
Most worrying thing as Ali Rizvi says “most Muslims don’t really know too much about Islam. They were born into Muslim families, so being Muslim is a lot like a birth identity for them”. And it’s true for any other religion in modern world. The prevalence of media bias and ignorance regarding Islam can be countered by understanding Islam through its proper teachings. That means referring to the Qur’an (which Muslims believe to be the word of God) and the authentic sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Through the proper understanding of these teachings, one will discover Islam to be completely against any form of extremism.
