The Challenge
of Moderates
By Jonathan Hayden
Washington, DC
| 
Left
to right: Jonathan Hayden, Madame Munir,
Pakistani High Commissioner Gen. (Rtd.)
Talat Munir, Dr. Akbar Ahmed, and Hailey
Woldt at the High Commissioner's home in
Kuala Lumpur
|
In Jakarta, Indonesia I met with
a class of 50 college students at an Islamic University
and asked them to fill out a questionnaire that
was designed to give us insight into their feelings
towards the West, globalization and changes within
Islam. The class was about 70% women, aged 19-23.
The hijab was mandatory but if the women were
to take it off, they would look much like a class
at any university in the US.
They were sweet, funny kids, who wanted to take
pictures afterwards and ask questions about the
US. Why, then, did roughly 75% of them list as
their role models people like bin Laden, Saadam
Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeni, Qardawi, Arafat and
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? We obviously
have a problem. If these young students are choosing
as heroes people who are hostile to the US, what
can we do to combat this? What has led to this?
Who can help us? Where are the moderate Muslims?
We must try to answer these questions if we are
to build bridges with the Muslim World and avert
the clash of civilizations.
The answers obviously do not come easily and will
take years of work by highly dedicated people
to answer. But one of the things I noticed in
my time in Malaysia and Indonesia is the vital
role that moderate Muslims will play. I hesitate
to use the word moderate because of its negative
connotations. Moderates are seen throughout the
world as soft, people who are unwilling to stand
up for anything. It is seen as a weakness. But
the people that I am talking about when I use
the term moderate Muslim are Muslims who are standing
up for the true identity of Islam while living
and functioning in the Age of Globalization. That
is, they are practicing the compassionate and
just Islam that is taught in the Holy Qur’an,
without rejecting modernity and the West. They
are, as I learned, hardly weak.
There were two people in particular that I met
that were particularly impressive. Through them,
I began to understand the challenge that we are
up against. Dr. Ismail Noor of Kuala Lumpur and
Dr. M. Syafi'i Anwar of Jakarta are moderate Muslims
who are fighting against impossible odds to build
bridges of understanding. They are facing a monumental
task with their hands tied behind their backs
and I am ashamed to say, we are not helping them.
The US hawkish foreign policy, incidents like
Abu Ghraib, the desecration of The Holy Qur’an
at Guantanomo Bay, our relationship with Israel,
and the fact that (accurately or not) we are seen
as nascent imperial power all lead to growing
anti-Americanism. Coupled with poverty, joblessness
and hopelessness, these factors create the possibility
for any Muslim to turn radical. (This has nothing
to do with the religion itself and everything
to do with circumstance and human nature.).
We must realize that each mistake, like Abu Ghraib,
directly affect the moderates around the Muslim
World who are arguing for understanding, pluralism,
progressive Islam, modernity, interfaith understanding,
even democracy. These mistakes marginalize them
and give rise to the extremists. The moderates
are suddenly out of the picture. Which group will
the masses follow after their religion or their
Prophet, peace be upon him, is attacked; the ones
talking about peace and reconciliation or the
ones defending them? This may seem like a simple
point, but it is absolutely essential in understanding
why a growing number of Muslims are looking to
the extremists as their leaders.
Here is one more example how this happens. Time
and time again in conducting the interviews throughout
the Muslim World, we saw the name Omar come up
as one of the role models of the past. When asked
why, the response was always because of his strength
and because he stands up for Justice. It stands
to reason that when Muslims feel attacked they
will gravitate to the Omar-like leaders. Not so
much for the content of their rhetoric, but because
they are standing up for them and standing up
for justice. Justice is very important is Islamic
tradition and when, for example, Donald Rumsfeld
is praised instead of fired after Abu Ghraib,
Muslims see no justice.
In Washington, DC where I work with Dr. Akbar
Ahmed, who is considered the leading moderate
Muslim in the US, we encounter this on a daily
basis. We receive threats, complaints, and pressure
from all sides. Muslims look to Dr. Ahmed to stand
up for them and defend Islam when he is called
on by The State Department, Homeland Security,
policy makers or leaders from all religions. Similarly,
the Government looks to Dr. Ahmed to calm Muslims
when an incident occurs. What can he say to settle
Muslims who are angry over calls from political
pundits to “Nuke Mecca”?
The radicalization of Islam has been slow and
steady and so too should be the response. We cannot
bomb or ‘nuke’ the problem away. This
only creates more enemies and makes the problem
larger. With each bomb, potential allies are marginalized
or pushed to the side of our enemies. We have
to meet the enemy, face to face. We have to rediscover
the art of diplomacy and realize that everything
we do as a nation, matters on a global scale.
I believe we have come a long way. No longer do
the large majority of Americans see Islam as the
enemy, it is only the people who use Islam to
justify extremist political movements and violence.
There are people who do the same with Christianity
and Judaism and they must be dealt with as well.
The moderate voices from within each religion
must have the ability to stand up and be heard.
Moderates are fighting a war on two fronts; from
the more conservative leaders within the religion
and, on the other side, from the US foreign policy
mistakes that marginalize them. In Indonesia,
moderates are often issued fatwas by religious
clerics, sometimes calling for their heads. For
someone like Dr. Anwar to continue his work in
this atmosphere is heroic and more important than
ever, not weak moderation.
The West must build these people up. They may
be our only hope of isolating the extremists.
They have something that our foreign policy diplomats
do not have, legitimacy within the Muslim World.
They can reach people through the teachings of
Islam. They can remind Muslims that Omar was not
only a strong and just defender of Islam, he was
also the one who, after capturing Jerusalem, banned
Muslims from destroying the Church and ordered
the respect of all houses of worship. We spend
billions on trying to defeat the enemy. Meanwhile,
the people who can really change the minds of
the students who admire bin Laden toil with no
support.
In what seems an immovable world, there are people
who can change the world with a push in the right
place. After meeting the college students and
moderate Muslims in Malaysia an Indonesia, I see
the problem much more clearly. The problem is
more vast than I had envisioned before my trip
but there is hope and part of that hope lays with
the warrior moderates and our ability to support
them. (Jonathan Hayden is an assistant to noted
Islam scholar Professor Akbar Ahmed. Hayden spent
more than a year organizing Ahmed’s 10-week,
eight-country trip through the Middle East, South
Asia, and the Far East, and is conducting research
for Ahmed’s forthcoming book, “Islam
in the Age of Globalization.”
Hayden joined Ahmed on the last stage of his journey
in Malaysia and Indonesia, during which he learned
first-hand about the complex realities for moderate
Muslims.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
