Once the shock of last night's horrifying terrorist attack in London and last month’s terrorist atrocity in Manchester had subsided, the media commentary that followed had me thinking.
There’s a battle raging for the hearts and minds of the Muslim
world and it’s essential that Moderate Islam wins. Because if the moderates
don’t win we risk a much bigger war between Islam generally and the western, or
secular, world. Moderate Muslims don’t want that and nor does the west because
it could be a fight to the death, and they’re usually brutal and bloody -
especially for the losers.
The perpetrator last month was an Islamist terrorist. That
we know. It’s almost certain the perpetrators last night were Islamists as
well. They justify both their cause and methods using Muslim scriptures. In one
sense – their willingness to inflict terrible violence on those with whom they
disagree – they’re little different from the murderous zealots who committed
terrible atrocities in the name of Catholicism or Protestantism a few centuries
ago, and those of us brought up in the Christian tradition (if not the faith
itself) would do well to remember this.
However, the Islamist cause and methods are generally
denounced by a majority of Muslims, just as the majority of people brought up
in the Christian tradition have renounced and denounced the sectarian prejudice
and violence that have disfigured their faiths from time to time.
There’s a difference, however. In modern times the liberal
Christian tradition has generally promoted something approaching a benign and
tolerant democracy. Liberal societies can tolerate difference and dissent –
some better than others, admittedly, as any Irishman or southern European could
tell you. And as a result the temper of a Liberal society as a whole, both
spiritual and temporal, makes political and sectarian violence a thing of evil.
The same isn’t true in many (though not all) Muslim countries.
During the years of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, and
during the terrorist campaigns of the 1970s and ‘80s in places like Italy and
Germany, national and spiritual leaders repeatedly condemned violence in the
strongest terms.
Moderation and tolerance had a voice that mostly drowned out
the message of violence. This voice was heard in homes, at schools, at places
of worship. It argued for peace, it argued that the terrorist was the grotesque
‘other’ whose taste for violence placed both him (or her) and the cause itself
beyond the pale. This same tolerant, inclusive voice made welcome immigrants
from a diversity of faiths and backgrounds, not least Muslims.
In most free countries this voice of reason and tolerance
(helped by an open and honest media) has helped prevent the radicalisation of
generations of passionate, grumpy youths. It has spoken through the law,
through the media, through governments and national leaders to deny terrorists
the legitimacy they crave and the support that follows. In the West, the
general de-legitimisation of extremist movements, whether terrorist or not, has
been a victory for the common people, for human values and for the societies
that sustain them.
Are we seeing the same in the Muslim community? That’s a
genuine question: notwithstanding the lonely courage of a few Imams and community leaders, is the voice of reason and tolerance being heard enough in
the Muslim community?
The point is that Moderate Islam risks being painted crudely
with the same brush as the Islamists if Muslim leaders won’t emerge who can
champion the cause of peace and tolerance and give a voice to these values
which can then be amplified in family homes, in schools and in mosques.
Moderate Islam must give voice to reason and tolerance –
especially tolerance, where Muslims choose to live in or alongside a secular or non-Muslim
nation - and deny radicals the sense of legitimacy that empowers them to carry
out barbarous acts of murder.
It seems to me that the prevention of radicalisation and the
de-radicalisation of Islamist would-be-terrorists must begin among the Muslim
community at large. You see, not all Muslims are Islamists, but all Islamists
are Muslims. If the voice of Moderate Islam is not heard then the atrocities
committed in the name of Islam will define the faith as a whole in the minds of
onlookers. The consequences for the majority of peace-loving, tolerant Muslims
living in Western countries who are good citizens and decent members of
society, could be serious.
That’s the battle that’s being fought for the hearts and
minds of Muslims, and it’s essential that Moderate Islam wins. And Moderate
Islam needs the patience and support of the wider non-Muslim community if it is
to win. This must be a shared endeavour because the consequences of defeat will
be catastrophic. But first we need to hear the voice of Moderate Islam, of Muslim leaders who can promote and defend peace, reason and tolerance. If Moderate Islam has no voice, or if that voice is silenced, then the faith as a
whole will have been hijacked by an extremist minority that, by default, has
placed Islam at war with the rest of the world.
In the meantime, we mourn those poor innocent souls who have died
violently at the hands of murderous terrorists, and try to comfort their loved
ones, and thank God for the kindness, and courage, of strangers who sought to
help them.
