“Islam Needs Radicals”

Most of the Western leaders, editorialists, analysts and
political experts, have frantically searched for
the “moderate Muslims” who can save Islam from itself and
improve relations with the West. The problem is that
there’s no such thing as a moderate Muslim, at least the
way these decision makers define the term. Look at whom
they call moderate: George W. Bush often
cites Abdallah, King
of Jordan, Ben Ali, Tunisia dictator and Mohammed, King of
Moroccan, as examples of modern and moderate Muslim
leaders. But a glance at the Amnesty International reports on their countries, or
those supported by the West, reveals them to be anything
but moderate in the way they treat their citizens. In
fact, their level of repression and censorship have
significantly increased since September 11, 2001, and from
the renewed support extended to them by the West
as “friendly countries”.
True moderate Muslims strongly reject the U.S. foreign
policy, the Western materialistic society and the
corruption it engenders. By doing so, they are
labeled “radicals” by their governments and ours. The
leaders we label as moderate are generally considered as
such by their citizens – and rightly – as corrupted and
dictatorial servants of Washington foreign policy, which
is itself hard to be considered moderate. On the other
hand, Muslims respect those we consider “radicals” for
standing up to us, even if most do not agree with the
methods used by the said resistance.
Yet the reality is that even the most radical of
extremist groups such as al-Qaeda are not that radical.
Instead, they bear striking resemblances to other utopian
movements throughout history, from the French Jacobins to
the fascists and Maoists of the last century. The tools
they use might be new—from the Internet to the suicide
vest—might be new, but their desire to violently purify
their societies is all too familiar.
What would a truly radical Muslim look like? Perhaps
like the young Shiite sheikh named Anwar al-Ethari whom I
met in Baghdad. He has religious and secular university
degrees and is willing to use “whatever works, wherever it
comes from” to help the residents of Sadr City. Or he
might look like the Moroccan Reda Zine, one of the leaders
of the heavy metal scene in Casablanca, who has also a
Ph.D. degree in Islamic studies at the Sorbonne. But he
was labeled “satanist” by the Moroccan government and was
arrested because he dared to sing songs challenging the
country’s political order and patriarchal politics. Or
they might look like Nadia Yassine, the leader of
Morocco’s movement Justice and Development, who explained
that Islam was “hijacked by men” after the Prophet’s death
and has suffered for it ever since. Because she dared to
make such a statement and conceived a republic in Morocco,
she was also arrested. It was from her that I heard for
the first time that Islam needs not moderates but
radicals, radical people in a good sense, who stand up to
their own problems. They are backed by the Swiss Muslim
philosopher Tariq Ramadan. One
of the leading progressive voices in Europe, his visa to
teach at Notre Dame University was revoked by the U.S.
government on the utterly baseless charge of being “tied
to terrorists.”