Analyst's note: To put these comments in perspective, Dr. Tawfik Hamid (aka Tarek Abdelhamid), is an Islamic thinker and reformer, and one time Islamic extremist from Egypt. He was a member of a terrorist Islamic organization JI with Dr. Ayman Al-Zawaherri who became later on the second in command of Al-Qaeda. Dr. Hamid is currently a Senior Fellow and Chair of the study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.
The one place I disagree with the Dr Hamid is the point about the imams and Islamist "scholars" who promote violence being prosecuted in international courts. They are NOT criminals, they are enemy operatives -- merchants of death" who encourage murder in the name of religion -- and should be targeted directly by our special operations types. With the Islamist operating within the U.S., we may well be growing and training our own brand of domestic terrorist who know how to destroy our nation from within. We can "thank" CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood operating subversively within the United States for this along with their "useful idiots."
From the article, "The Dilemma of Islamic Jihad" we read:
Our war is against an ideology found in a so-called divine book which inspires young men and women to kill themselves and others for one cause: to make Islam supreme. This is the same ideology that kept Islam surviving for 1,400 years via the use of violence against anyone who dares to stand against it.
Islam must be understood for what it is, not what its proponents pretend that it is, and not what liberals would wish it to be.
"The US costs in the War on Terror has exceeded, in some estimates, 2 trillion dollars. Despite this huge cost, the phenomenon of Islamic radicalism and terrorism has not been defeated. Killing Bin Laden has been a great step but it is certainly not the end of the story. Terrorist acts are still threatening the world and lately the attacks on Non-Muslim minorities have been on the rise in many parts of the Muslim world.
The US has reached the point where it MUST reevaluate its strategies in fighting Radical Islam.
The primary focus of the US in the war on terror has been to target the terrorists themselves. This approach, while needed, has proved to be unsatisfactory.
Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This is a very important lesson to be learned by the US administration. They need to start thinking in alternative and more efficient approaches to fight Islamic Radicalism. The US cannot simply spend another 2 trillion dollars using the same approach again and again and hope for a different result. This approach is not going to defeat Islamic Radicalism and expecting a different outcome will be disastrous.
The US must consider expanding their primary focus in the war on terror from the Jihadists to include the Mullahs and scholars who incite hatred, violence, and dehumanization of others. The hate-filled teaching of Mullahs and scholars ultimately manifest itself as terrorism. The US must interrupt the radicalism cycle at the incitement stage. This approach is much more effective than a late intervention when terrorists have already been created.
The advantage of this approach is that the scholars who incite the use of violence-unlike the Jihadists-are fewer in number, more visible, and above all want to live. The latter point is extremely important. Targeting Jihadists does not deter other Jihadists from committing acts of terrorism because a Jihadist's motivation is martyrdom. Conversely, many of the scholars who preach violence, without participating in the Jihadi activities, are interested in living and enjoying their political power and occasionally wealth.
An example to illustrate how violent teaching can materialize can be found in the Islamic scholar from Egypt (Ashraf Abou Anas) who recently said to his followers, in a province called Imbaba, "We will not be real men if we did not burn every church in Imbaba." This simple statement that appeared on You Tube triggered thousands of Muslims to attack churches in Cairo and resulted in burning of churches and the killing of many innocents. Some of these innocents were burnt alive.
When the scholar's statement was put on YouTube, he realized that he would be prosecuted and severely punished by the authorities. He immediately released another statement to change his message of hate. He replaced his message of hate with a new message, a message that promoted peace, love, and harmony. This obviously was an attempt to save himself from punishment. This illustrates how preaching can incite violent atrocities and how the scholars who incite the violence can turn to peaceful preaching but only if they believe that they will be held responsible for the violence that results from their teaching. Conversely, the threat of being punished will not easily change the beliefs of a true Jihadist.
When scholars who promotes violence realizes that they will be persecuted as terrorists and judged as a criminals they are likely to change their violent message to a peaceful one. This change can prevent many terrorist acts and atrocities. Targeting these scholars must also include targeting the individuals and organizations that help them promote their violent message. Therefore, promoting violence against others needs to be treated as material support for terrorism.
Some may argue that those who incite violent acts or justify them are protected by the laws of freedom of speech. Pastor Terry Jones, who recently burnt the Quran, was not allowed by a US court decision to demonstrate peacefully in front of a mosque. The US authorities made this ruling in the belief that this demonstration could disturb peace. Therefore, if the act of a peaceful demonstration in front of a mosque is seen as disturbance to the peace in our society; then how should the teaching of young Muslims to declare war on Non-Muslims to spread Islam is a religious duty be seen?. This same principle needs to apply to those who promote that the life of Non-Muslims is inferior to the life of Muslims. These beliefs are being taught from many Sharia books which give Jihadists the justification that they may kill Non-Muslims.
Many violent and deadly Muslims riots were initiated by Mullahs who incite violent acts. In addition, some leading Islamic scholars such as Sheik Youssof Al-Quradawy have justified suicide bombings against Israeli civilians (to including pregnant mothers). If these scholars knew that they would be prosecuted in international courts for inciting such hatred and violence, perhaps many of them would change their message of hatred. This in turn would protect many young Muslims from the destructive outcome of violent teaching.
Expanding our focus in the fight against Islamic Radicalism is imperative. The US needs to change from just targeting the Jihadists, who conduct the terror acts, to targeting the scholars, who promote violence. Treating and persecuting the scholars who promote violence as terrorists and criminals will be a more effective tool in weakening the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism."
