Why Not All Muslims Support the Radicals

by Peter Riddell
Church Times - 3 January 2003

We need to build bridges with moderate Muslims, such as the Sufis, who are criticising radical Islam, says Peter Riddell.


IN WASHINGTON DC in July 2002, I met Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America (ISCA). We were both speaking at a symposium focusing on the spread of radical Islam in parts of the Muslim world.

I was struck by Shaykh Kabbani’s outspoken criticism of Islamic radicalism. He showed a degree of candidness that is uncommon among leaders of Islamic organisations in condemning the ideology of jihad-driven extremist Muslims. There was none of the implicit justification one hears so often which sees Islamic radicalism as a product of failed Western foreign policy. This was a hard-hitting internal critique by one of Islam’s most courageous figures.

ISCA has entry to the doors of power in Washington. Shaykh Kabbani often meets with President George W. Bush and his senior colleagues. Last month, the White House played host to Shaykh Kabbani and other Muslim leaders for a feast at the end of the Ramadan fast. Kabbani has been an influential factor in the issuing of presidential statements over the past 15 months, to the effect that the radical ideology does not represent the majority viewpoint among Muslims.

But Shaykh Kabbani is no Bush-administration stooge. He has been a vocal critic of US government policy over its alliance with Saudi Arabia. He claims that there are elements in the present Saudi regime that sustain resurgent extremist violence around the world. Such elements are connected with the radical Islamic training colleges that produce the foot-soldiers for many of the jihad campaigns overseas. In this context, 15 of the 19 terrorists in the 11 September attacks were Saudis.

As head of ISCA, Kabbani enjoys a measure of support from more traditionalist elements of the American Muslim community. However, his real power-base derives from his senior position as US khalifa (representative) in the worldwide Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi mystical order. This order dates back to the earliest period of Islam, and has played a key part in the spread of Islam throughout the world. Kabbani is a favourite to become head of the order.

Kabbani thus speaks for large numbers of traditionalist Muslims, both within and beyond the US, who feel threatened by radical Islamist movements of the bin Laden variety. Such radicals are virulently anti-Sufi, drawing their inspiration from the purist Wahhabi ideological stream within Islam, which places primary emphasis on a literal reading of the Islamic sacred texts.

The Wahhabi ideology also nourishes the extremist regime in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden-like radicals and the Saudis have their differences, but they find common cause in targeting traditionalist Sufi Muslims, who follow local mystical preacher-saints rather than scriptural extremists.

AN ARTICLE by a prominent ISCA representative in the National Review Online (NRO, 13 December) reminds us how fractured the Muslim community is, both in the West and elsewhere. Dr Hedieh Mirahmadi, ISCA General Secretary and aide to Shaykh Kabbani, wrote with concern of the activities of radical Muslims, whom she terms “jihadis”, who have set up a mini Islamic state in the mountains on the Iraq-Iran border around a dozen Kurdish villages. They have received funding and weaponry from al-Qaeda, as well as increased fighting strength from fighters who fled Afghanistan with the fall of the Taliban.

These jihadis have desecrated ancient Sufi tombs that had served as sites of local pilgrimage for inhabitants of the region for centuries. In a particularly gruesome development, the radicals stole corpses of revered saints from the tombs, beheading them in the streets as a mark of defiance of local custom. Furthermore, a blanket ban has been placed on any public or private display of photos of deceased relatives and living friends and families. The usual restrictions on the public movement of women have been applied through a set of edicts.

Such radical activity adheres to a well-established pattern. Dr Mirahmadi points to the depths of its Wahhabi roots in saying: “These extremists follow a 200-year-old radical doctrine that has brought only injustice, oppression, and violence to those brought under its sway.”

AS CERTAIN sections of the West wobble on the question of support for the war on terror, ISCA represents one prominent Muslim group with a considerable support-base that debunks the myth of Muslim solidarity in opposition to the United States and the West. This group calls on the West to act in confronting the Muslim radical networks. Dr Mirahmadi warns that: “If the West remains silent while these militants conquer centuries-old communities of devout yet moderate Muslims, then they will continue to spread.”

She is at odds with both Muslim and Western commentators who see US foreign policy as the ultimate source of current international tensions. She insists that “The greatest danger to the freedoms of Muslims everywhere in the world, including the US, is not the war on terror, but the oppression and intolerance of radicals who continue to commit atrocities in the name of religion.”

ISCA is in many ways unique in the West. The UK has its Muslim Council of Britain, but it is less clearly Sufi-inspired. Also, while it was outspoken in condemnation of the terrorist attacks on 11 September, it has sought to keep intra-Muslim squabbles within the community, striving to present a united front for external consumption.

As the fierce debate among Western commentators continues over the best method to respond to radical Islam, we should be reminded by the example of ISCA of similar debates taking place among Muslims themselves. In this context, bridge-building with such moderate Muslim groups is a necessity.
As Psalm 33.16 (“No king is saved by the size of his army”) reminds us, military solutions are not a quick fix. Armed campaigns are necessary under certain circumstances to evict oppressive forces from power. But such military activities do not provide solutions in themselves. They provide only a change in circumstances that can facilitate the identification of solutions.

The war on terror is not just about military pursuit. In the long run, it is more about the provision of continuing support to communities who have suffered from long-term oppression, such as the people of Afghanistan. Such support will need to empower those who are dedicated to improving the lot of the masses, not to oppressing them. Moderate Muslim groups, both in the West and in the Muslim world, will have an important part to play in helping to rebuild societies that have been ravaged over time by the activities of radical Islamist groups.

Dr Peter G. Riddell is Director of the London Bible College Centre for Islamic Studies.