Islam and extremism

I am in Kuala Lumpur at the 5th International Convention of Asia Scholars. The organizers say that at least 1,300 scholars are here from Europe, the Americas and Asia participating in workshops on culture and art, politics and religion, geopolitics and Asean, among many others. I was invited by the Seattle-based National Bureau of Asian Research to present a paper on extremism, political identity and Islam.

Religious fundamentalism is rising around the globe. (Witness the election of George W. Bush with the support of right wing fundamentalist religious groups from the “Bible-belt”). There can be no doubt that religious fundamentalism in Islam is on the rise as well. Unfortunately, the world focuses on the minority represented by extremists such as the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah Islamiyah and similar groups. A blanket condemnation of Islam as either source or facili­tator of radicalization and extremism is a big mistake. We ought to have a better appreciation of the factors that can account for the rise of radical and extremist groups in Muslim communities today.

What are the forces that influence developments in our Muslim communities? What are the more proximate, exogenous issues that trigger extremist acts? What are some of the factors that can mute or mitigate these forces? What actions can be taken to dull the leading edge of extremism, particularly in the local communities? What role do religion and education play in all these? We need to find the answers to these questions if we are to deal with the radicalization and the growth of extremism in Muslim communities.

The changes in geopolitics over the last decade have put our liberties at risk. In the minority Muslim areas of Thailand and the Philippines, for instance, our liberties are at risk from internal ethnic conflicts with central government. In Mindanao, it has been taken to a new level by the fear of an all-out war strategy to deal with the Basilan ambush/encounter.

The expansion of an extremist religious interpretation of Islam does not help us. We are at risk from within and from without.

Muslim communities are fighting to survive—physically as well as culturally. Muslim communities are being radicalized proportionate to their failure to “modernize” themselves relative to their environments. Pressures on non-Western societies are gathering force under globalization. (You only fave to talk to indigenous peoples’ groups and anti-WTO organizations to feel the anxieties generated by globalization). Globalization has been seen as a threat, an imposition to a people’s identity and culture. Modernization can be traumatic, particularly if forced and hasty, especially when the transformation removes communities from the safety of tradition.

In its 2000 world development report, the World Bank identified two seemingly contradictory forces affecting the world order: globalization and localization. Globalization forces national governments to go beyond their borders in order to cope up with the progressive integration of world economies while localization manifests itself in the increasing assertion of local people for political or religious identities. Paradox of globalization; as world capital, trade, finance become integrated, nationalist or local groups tend to resist these homogenizing processes in order to protect group interests and cultural identity.

It is in this context that we should address the issues of radicalization and extremism in Muslim communities, noting that radical Islam has been fuelled by the negative impacts of globalization. Will a global military war on terror end terrorism? I think not. Killing the terrorists will not end terrorism. However, it is the same globalization forces that may provide the key to addressing radica­lization and extremism, principally the forces of democratization. Genuine Democracy—which will provide justice, protection and more space for the marginalized—will be able to temper this inclination toward extremist advocacies.

While we acknowledge that there is a process of radicali­zation in the moderate and pluralistic south East Asian communities, we stress that radical does not necessarily mean terrorist or violent—there is a spectrum of actions that fall under radical. The determinant is how they react when confronted by key issues, such as the establishment of an Islamic state, Sharia (Islamic law), the role of women, and freedom of worship. Nonetheless, the propensity for violence is certainly a defining characteristic of the most extreme segment of the radical spectrum. The willingness to use or justify violence to attain religious or political objectives is one element that separates violent extremists from other radical Muslims.