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Capitol Hill Distinguished Speakers Series event: Movements of extremism in the Muslim world
By Christina Caspersen
February 8, 2008
At a Capitol Hill Distinguished Speakers Series event hosted by the American Islamic Congress on February 8, a panel of experts discussed their experiences regarding extremism in the Arab world and ways to increase tolerance in the region.
Ammar Abdulhamid, the executive director of the Tharwa Foundation, discussed the ties between states and radicals, saying, “regimes cultivate extremists and then export them.” He used Syria during the 1970s and 80s as an example, arguing that hundreds of dissidents were arrested and tortured there because the Syrian regime was in a terrible crisis and created an internal conflict to blind the world to larger issues. “Extremist groups are very useful, they like to be used,” he said. “The regimes and the extremists use each other.”
A regime will welcome a collapse because a clean slate allows the regime to start anew, Abdulhamid continued, arguing that states allow extremists to engage in terror and watch the collapse, welcoming a new beginning. He added, “The regime does not care if their country falls. They are invested in Europe anyway.” He ended by saying the Muslim world needs enlightenment and activism, not only development programs like the Marshall Plan promised to Iraq.
Mansour Al Haj, a senior reporter for Aafaq (an Arab reform website), spoke of his experience growing up in Saudi Arabia and the injustices implemented by the Prince there. The Prince decided to add another pillar to Islam, “promoting virtue and fighting vice,” he said. Al Haj emphasized the potential for variations in interpretation of “vice,” which has resulted in many people being beaten or killed. He stated that “looking in the jails, you can see who the Saudi government is supporting, and who they are silencing.” Many reporters, bloggers, and professors are in jail because they are “too vocal.”
Finally, Nasser Weddady, HAMSA outreach director for the American Islamic Congress, discussed how Americans can use their leverage to hold Middle Eastern leaders accountable. In the view of some leaders, citizens are not treated as humans, but objects without inherent rights, he said, adding that individuals do not exist to these regimes. Car bombs and shootings are present because people are not treated as humans, Weddady said; this angers the citizens, compelling them to seek change. “It is too easy to go on the corner and become an extremist with a voice,” he said.
Given these realities, Weddady said that citizens need other outlets beside radicalism through which to channel their energy. Weddady suggested essay contests that provide a monetary award, enabling a person to voice his or her concerns without violence. He also recommended developing seminars that teach how powerful words truly are, and how effective educated speech can be. He ended with this thought: “Let’s infect the virus of human rights into these countries. Civil rights activists using words, not guns. Just think, regimes are afraid of one word: freedom.”
During the question and answer session, an audience member asked how the United States should financially involve itself in Muslim countries. The individual said that when money is sent to a dissident group to aid their cause, the country’s regime discredits the group and then the U.S. does not provide additional funding. He asked what the U.S. can do to help these groups.
Abdulhamid replied: “American civil society can do a lot. Don’t side with the regime, take a stance and keep it. Regimes will discredit groups in order to silence them. Ignore the regimes.” He added that the group in question will use the money appropriately and the regime only lies to cut funding from international agencies. Group members have already been deemed ‘traitors,’ Abdulhamid said. They do not also want to be deemed ‘idiots’ because that is too embarrassing. The U.S. government needs to trust that the money they are sending to these groups will be allocated to help the cause, he argued.
Another person asked, “What is in it for me as an American, to help you?” Nasser Weddady responded that given development problems, corruption, and crumbling infrastructures, there exists no plan for the future within the region. Egypt and Tunisia cannot rely on tourism forever, he said, adding that Muslim countries are developmentally backward, and this will only continue to worsen. Extremism will be exported, he said, and as the world continues to shrink, “our problems will become your problems. We are dead weight that will piggy back off of America forever. We just need help to walk on our own. Help us do that.” |
