By Tom Heneghan, Reuters, Jordan Times
CAMBRIDGE, England – When Henry Kissinger published “Diplomacy”, his study of international relations, in 1994, it had no index entries for Islam or religion.
Ten years later, another US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, wrote her own study on world affairs: “The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs.” Almost half the book dealt with Muslims and Islam.
The contrast between the two books highlights the way the world changed after 19 Muslims flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001.
The attacks brought religion back into public affairs for many Western countries where faith had largely faded into the private sphere.
“9/11 showed religion can no longer be ignored,” Scott Appleby, a historian at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, told a seminar on religion after September 11 at Cambridge University.
“It is a critical element in many national systems and in radical and extremist movements, and also in movements oriented to human rights, peace-building and civil society,” he said.
Since that day, governments and researchers in North America and Europe have turned to sociology, psychology, anthropology and other disciplines trying to understand religiously motivated violence and work out how to prevent it.
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New hope from Arab Spring
Since September 11, governments and academic experts have come up with various and sometimes conflicting ideas for preventing the radicalisation of young Muslims in Western countries.
One approach often favoured by Muslim communities aims to counter Al Qaeda’s radical Islam by promoting a moderate interpretation of the faith, which some call “real Islam”.
Atran called this “totally misguided”, saying there is no one correct interpretation of any religion. He suggested social workers needed to work with potentially radical youths to give them peaceful heroes to emulate rather than Osama Ben Laden.
One British programme helps young Muslims discuss problems and resolve conflicts without trying to change religious views.
“This is psychologically driven, but it’s religion friendly,” said Cambridge University social psychologist Sara Savage.
Razzaque said the Arab Spring movement for democracy and freedom offered an unexpected new type of preventative strategy by undercutting the Islamists’ argument that the Muslim world needed to form a new Islamic caliphate.
“What’s going on in the Muslim world at the moment is the complete denial of the tenets of Al Qaeda and extremist Islam,” he said.
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