Once again I must tip my hat to the courage of Mr. Tarek Fatah who recently answered a number of question from readers of The Globe and Mail. Mr. Fatah is one of the very few people calling for a closer examination of the root cause of increasing terrorism inflicting the Western world.
It is not Islam that needs to be reformed, it is the need for Muslims to reconcile with modernity and the notion of the secular nation state. The challenge for Muslims is to stop driving in a car rally with their eyes fixated in the rear view mirror. We need to to stop chasing the past as the way to the future. Unfortunately, whereas the religious right in islam is well funded and well organised, the liberal secular Muslim is too busy leadiung a 9-to-5 life, paying his mortgage and providing for her family and thus has no time or resources to challenge the Islamist extremists.
I completely agree with Tarek that the long-term solution to this challenge is fair and democratic self-rule in the Muslim world. Of course that will not come about quickly. The more contentious debate relates to what the role of the West should be in helping democracy take root there. While our long-term interests will be served by free and democratically elected governments in the developing world, our short-term interests are to ensure that existing radical extremism does not threaten our well-being in the west. This is a difficult balance to maintain.
The real danger is that no democratic forces are confronting the Islamist ideology of the radical Jihadis.
The Jihadi doctrine of Hassan al Banna and abul Ala Mudoodi is freely being distrubuted in Canada and this is where the challange is lacking.
It is easy for traditional Muslim groups to denounce terrorism, but they will be very reluctant to distance themselves from the doctrine of Jihad which is the basis of terrorism they deplore.
