Groups like ISNA and ICNA must take the lead in countering ISIL.
President Barack Obama delivering a statement in the Oval Office on the Shooting in San Bernardino, CA, December 3, 2015. Photo credit: White House
By Syed Iqbal Hasnain
President Obama’s address from Oval Office on December 6, in the aftermath of the horrific shooting in San Bernardino, CA, earlier this month, was a defining moment in the history of millions of American Muslims.
“ISIL does not speak for Islam,” he categorically stated. “They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death, and they account for a tiny fraction of more than a billion Muslims around the world — including millions of patriotic Muslim Americans who reject their hateful ideology.”
In his forceful speech — which, by the way, should be read again and again, and internalized by all Americans Muslims, both young and old, and should be displayed in the mosques and cultural centers and on their websites — the president made two strong points. They are: 1) To “defeat ISIL, we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies;” and 2) There is “denying the fact that an extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities” and this “is a real problem that Muslims must confront, without excuse” and “speak out against not just acts of violence, but also those interpretations of Islam that are incompatible with the values of religious tolerance, mutual respect, and human dignity.”
President Obama is absolutely right on both points. Now American Muslims should heed to his clarion call and step up to the plate. We should be the first line of defense and offense against ISIL, which has hijacked our religion.
According to various estimates, there are more than 150 social, cultural, educational and religious organizations across the United States, representing American Muslims, who might number anywhere from 4 million to 8 million. Many of these organizations are well funded groups that regularly host cultural events and fundraisers for local causes and natural calamities around the world.
Muslim Americans are very diverse, belonging to different ethnicities and national groups. Globally, Islam is not monolithic and Muslims everywhere follow local cultural and ethnic practices.
While no sane American Muslim group has supported or sympathized with ISIL, many Muslim Americans have articulated the rationale that ISIL ideology is the consequence of chaos triggered by the Iraq and Syria wars. This argument, however, ignores a basic reality: that the Salafist/ Wahhabi ideology supported by the Saudi government is the wellspring of terror.
Even in the United States, this ideology is ingrained in the psyche of a section of first generation American Muslims.
Thanks to the internet and social media, the ISIL narrative, which hinges on Salafi/Wahabi ideology, has profoundly impacted young Muslim men and women worldwide, who are in colleges and universities after spending years at Sunday schools in their growing years. They are most vulnerable to ISIL recruitment tactic. Thousands of Muslim youths from youths have signed up to fight for ISIL and some of them were behind recent mass killings in Europe.
In the United States, Muslim organizations should guard against this by offering a counter narrative. The truth is, so far, mainstream Muslim organizations such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) have failed miserably in this.
ISNA, the largest Muslim organization in the country, attracts Muslims from various ethnic groups, such as Arab Americans, South Asian Americans, Southeast Asian Americans and immigrants from Africa. More than 50,000 people reportedly attend its annual conventions.
Amazingly, in the 2015 ISNA convention held in Rosemont, Illinois, from September 4 to 7, not a single session was devoted to terrorism and the ISIL ideology and how it is impacting Muslim youths in America and globally.
The San Bernardino massacre, carried out by Pakistani American couple Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29, is huge wake up call for all American Muslims to act urgently. One hopes that the 2016 ISNA convention will be devoted entirely to fight terrorism and draw a road-map to create an alternative narrative through special lectures, workshops, websites for young students in universities and college campuses across America.
Similarly, other Muslim organizations and mosques should initiate regular meetings and lectures at local colleges and universities campuses through student organizations. All Imams and leaders of prayers should be instructed to condemn the ISIL ideology in khutbahs in unequivocal terms and explain to the young inquisitive minds why it is not in consonance with real Islam. The websites of each organization must also publish articles that caution Muslims about the dangers of falling into the ISIL snake-pit.
Modern social media tools and technologies offer radical extremists opportunities to reach larger audiences at global level. Many western youths, who are sympathisers or in some cases have actively joined the ISIL, are the products of best schools in the western world.
They are courted relentlessly by several thousand active online supporters who operate in disciplined regiments. As soon ISIL group posts appalling videos and messages on internet, its followers takes to twitter to retweet the link with a hashtag, and retweet each other’s tweets to create a “Twitter storm”. Some followers upload the material to multiple platforms so that it remains available even if internet providers pull the content down.
The challenge for the American Muslim leadership is to understand that ISIL has deep roots in Islamic traditions. Containing it and protecting American Muslim youths will require active support of Arab and Muslims scholars. Social media platforms should be used to place the group in the proper historical and cultural context to demystify its narrative in young Muslim minds.
Muslim American groups in every major city should hold meetings to start conversations among Muslim communities in which social scientists, history and Islamic studies professors and knowledgeable imams should be invited to deliberate how to prepare software to combat ISIL ideology on the internet and social media.
(The writer is an Indian glaciologist and educationist, based in Seattle, WA. He served as a vice-chancellor of Calicut University, Kerala, and Professor of Environmental sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is a recipient of Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award.)
This post first appeared on The American Bazaar