Global cooperation against extremism Harun Yahya ;   The writer has authored hundreds of books translated in many languages on politics, religion and science

JAKARTA POST,  26 September 2014

                                                                                                                       

Today it should be well understood by people with a certain level of intellectual skills that closing borders, invalidating passports or resorting to force of arms cannot bring a solution to extremism and radicalism. Radical groups or other violent terrorist organizations do not simply consist of individuals who engage in violent actions; rather, they are formations composed of dangerous thoughts. As ideologies do not recognize borders, we need to launch a worldwide intellectual struggle and think of an action plan against these dangerous ideas. As of today, the US has already dropped 148 bombs on regions in Iraq occupied by the Islamic State (IS) movement and caused the deaths of around 1,000 Iraqi civilians. For those who take lessons from the past, it is an obvious fact that by trying to fight an ideology with bombs, the West is merely repeating its previous mistakes. Statistics and data show us that over the past decade, the US fight against terrorism led to a quantitative increase in terrorist attacks all around the world. While the number of al-Qaeda terrorists had been in the low thousands in 2009, this number had shot up to tens of thousands by 2013. In addition to that, we can clearly see the steep increase in the numbers of extremist fighters after the successes of the IS. NATO keeps pouring money into fighting extremism with armed force, but then why does this menace keep growing? The answer is in the direction the finances are being directed. Trying to fight an extremist ideology only by using physical force will do little but increase the number of the supporters of that ideology. As the military campaign in the region costs more innocent human lives, the relatives and the close circle of those who died in those attacks will be motivated to join the extremists due to their resentment toward the West. While these destructive ideologies feed primarily on hatred and grievances, simply bombing those who are involved in these groups only produces negative results. In point of fact, it is hypocritical and unreasonable to expect weapons and military solutions — which only have the power to lead to destruction, death and sorrow — to produce positive results and social reconciliation. In today’s world, it is becoming ever easier to acquire the deadliest of weapons and as nations try to fight terrorism with weapons, all we get in return is more violence from the other side, adding to the pains of the world. In a meeting I had recently with the former foreign secretary of Italy, Franco Frattini, this important issue was discussed and our meeting was broadcast live on a Turkish TV channel. Frattini and I agreed on two vital issues concerning the problem of wars and extremism. He believes that a lack of moral leadership and the dangerous notion of a so-called clash of civilizations are two major problems that need to be dealt with. To quote Frattini: “Today more than ever, the world is full of wars. In my opinion, this is due to the lack of leadership and the lack of vision in many, many leaders in the world, including European leaders. The main problems, which I know that you pay great attention to, are to me how to avoid giving the impression to the Muslim world that there is a clash of civilizations and religions, which is not, to me, the case. On the contrary, we need international cooperation against any kind of extremism. There is no clash between religions, but there should be a confrontation between moderates and extremists.” What Frattini said regarding the dubious idea of a clash of civilizations was perfectly true. There is this dangerous point of view floating about in the world and it is so pervasive that many politicians seem to regard approaching matters with love, affection and reason as impossible. After US President Barack Obama’s latest decision to carry out military operations in Iraq against the IS, we can see yet again that the world is after the bodies of jihadi fighters, forgetting that the problem comes from their minds, not their bodies. For this reason, the only solution that will work against them is re-educating and rehabilitating them. Such dangerous movements must be brought to an end all over the world and their ideological basis should be annihilated all over the world. As a matter of fact, this is something that can only be done by the Middle Eastern nations with the help of their Western allies. The impact of these dark forces comes from their training and their ability to recruit people on a truly global level. In order to fight this, a well-established new ideology needs to be instilled into the minds of people and the narratives of these groups must be falsified by “counter-ideas”, not counter-insurgencies. Positive ideals such as democracy, pluralism and human rights cannot be imposed upon people by force, but they can be encouraged and developed. To accomplish this, we all need to have great patience and deep understanding. ●