i truly fear that by not studying the root and cause of these attacks, we will incorrectly respond to them. it’s nice to have a response, to say here is what we as muslim leaders are doing. but i believe we should be pushing for us to better understand the root of this problem and re-centering people away from reaction based on threat and fear to one based on calm thought through processes.

one of my largest concerns is by this (over) emphasis in narrative, in programming, in agenda on fundamentalism – we ourselves are creating the space for fundamentalism. fundamentalist attacks have been happening for a long time (you mentioned groups existing in the late 80′s and early 90′s in the US – I would venture to say they were here much earlier, and we all know globally they have been around for a long time). given that this is not a *new* phenomenon, why is it suddenly a growing and popular phenomenon? the cause for this may not be an increase of mis-indoctrination or an increase of insanity – it may be our over-zealous under-studied reaction to the problem. this reaction and emphasis in and of itself could be the cause (the ripple) and that would only be conclusive in the future (after the tsunami occurs) b/c we’re not using the devices that exist to study the causes for fundamentalism (measure the ripple) b/c the devices take too long and are perhaps are too resource-intensive.

To sum: as leaders we should emphasize the necessity to understand a problem before we react to it. we recognize a problem, and are reacting to a recognition and not to the cause

- Yesterday I was listening to NPR and learned that Jihad Jane
– Drinks alcohol
– Goes to the bar
– Has a boy friend who did not know that she converted to Islam
- When I hear the word extremist & radical in the religious sense, this is what comes to mind
– A person who is way above average practicing Muslim
– Most likely a frequent goer to the Masjid
– Taking some verses/hadeeths out of context and doing some extrapolation to their meaning
– Note: I am not trying to define these terms nor limit them with the above statements
- To be able to fight extremism and radicalization, you need to know where do they exist
- The terms “Radicalization of American Muslims”, “Extremist American Muslims” will be valid if an Imam or a true practicing Muslim (do not count the informant) in a Masjid calls for killing or destruction of property
- I believe an important step is to do the analysis on all those captured and accused of terrorism
- If it turned out that most of these people are not even practicing Muslims, then
– These terms are way too much of a stretch and do not even apply
– Our strategy might be different
- BTW, even those involved in 9/11 or some of them spent the night before in the bar????
- While designing programs to spread the correct understanding of Islam, it is worth it to make it vividly clear to the media that they are in most cases misdiagnosing the problem

However, knowledge of the global Muslim community tells us that this problem is
a) much more serious in other countries around the world
b) has been a problem since the early seventies (and arguably for centuries) within a minority who preaches violence as a means of change (killed sadat, jihadi groups all over that advocate violence as a means of change, evidenced through their wrong interpretation of Islamic text)
c) the ideology is very contagious, as evidenced throughout countries other than America.

That is, we cannot wait, as an American Muslim community, until this problem is a major problem in America before we act. If we react when this problem is a major problem then it will be too late.

And I dont think we really need to worry about allocation of resources yet. That is, compared to everything else we are doing in the Muslim community for example, we are spending very little of our resources on this issue.

I agree that radicalization needs to be addressed, and I believe that prevention is better than reaction. On the other hand, I’ve looked at many of the reports released, particularly the Duke report, and radicalization is not yet a statistically significant problem in our community. As a result, I do have some concerns with the disproportionate amount of funding and attention given to a statistically insignificant problem. Particularly now that we are simply ‘following’ the national direction and reacting to the problem without having an understanding of its causes. In the end, our reactions may not in fact be rooting out the problem. We’re making a guess at this point, acting on it, and creating a ripple that could cause a future tsunami for all we know. Speculation often leads to realization. This is a social theory studied in economics and can apply generally. When we speculate, we react to the speculation, ultimately creating a realization of the speculation. By speculating that radicalization is of grave concern in our community, and reacting to it, we may, like AR noted, make real what at the moment is marginal and not highly significant.

I think it is critical we push ourselves and our policymakers to
a) gain a true understanding of this challenge, its roots and causes before acting on proposed solutions
b) make proportional the time, money, and resources invested into rooting out radicalization to its statistically significance as a problem compared to others the Muslim community in America is dealing with (like drugs, gangs, domestic violence, homelessness), most of which are much more relevant problems, but receive little attention because they are not as politically appealing.

Again, I want to note, that I do not think we should eliminate efforts to prevent radicalization, but I do think we need to think about it more before deciding what these efforts are and how proportional they are to other efforts. It is our duty to push the administration to do this as well.

This reminds me of discussions with my son. He always has 10 reasons why he got a “B” and did not get an “A” in some subject. The correct approach is for us as Muslims in America to own up to our part of the solution. The solution to the problem of violent radicalization is not ALL in our hand as a Muslim community in America. But there is a piece of it in our hand, and we must perform this piece honorably. We must do so because this is our duty towards our religion, and our duty towards our country. Trying to shift the blame completely away from us, or saying that there are many other problems bigger than terrorism only makes us look, small.

This may not be the popular thing to do with our community. Muslims will enjoy it much more if we tell them that our community is all good, the “others” are all bad, and that all problems in the world are due to the colonizers, the rich countries, and the dictatorial regimes. But as for Muslims, we are only the victims, and have nothing to do with any problem that is happening around us.

In order for us to be appropriately heard in the legitimate grievances that we have as a community, we have to hear others when they bring grievances that is worrisome to them. There is no need to drop everything else that we are doing and only focus on the problem of violent radicalization in the American Muslim community. In MAS, we are very good about comprehensiveness, and balancing many priorities all at once. We should therefore own up to our piece of the solution, and recognize that this is a problem that Muslims are facing and that America is facing, and that there is something that we can, and should, do as a community.

Although not every new convert becomes a JihadJane, we all know of the radicalizations of the converts that DOES happen in our community. I hope that converts on this list who were introduced to MAS, and introduced to other “competing ideologies” can speak out. Not every radicalized convert becomes a Jihadist. But we cannot ignore this as a non-issue. There are definite calls in the Muslim Ummah calling for all Muslims to take up arms against everyone around them who does not believe in them. They are a minority, but they are a very potent minority. They have an evil message, which, in order to be influential, does not need millions or even thousands of people to adhere to it. All it needs is a hundred radicals in order to give Islam a very bad name and to bring the Muslim community in America backwards many years.

As MAS, we have to own up to this problem on behalf of our community and address it head on. When we do this, we are not playing into the hands of anyone. We are being realistic about a real threat to us as Muslims, and to us as Americans.

This is it! This is precisely it! If there was more focus on understanding their thought process, this disease would have been controlled long ago!

Instead, authorities continue to agitate the situation by creating career terrorists out of desperate people. As a result, the only thing authorities are helping to create is a fertile environment for more “desperate to do something” people to follow the footsteps of their sick predecessors. (For a loud minority of neoconservative fascists in government, it also happens to be a good opportunity to advance their agenda).

On the other hand, Muslims are busy being either defensive or apologists and the best amongst us is discussing cosmetic changes that realistically have no effect on folks who are “desperate to do something”.

Bottom line: when you’re “desperate to do something” you’re desperate! Likewise, when you’re viewed as a terrorist, expected to be a terrorist, treated like a terrorist, then it’s just a matter of time until, through frustrated emotions, you become a terrorist.

No one with sound reasoning likes what’s going on but we can either address this disease as a disease and target its causes courageously head-on or prance around it and hope the gods will make it disappear.