How to win the hearts and minds of the Arab and the Islamic worlds?
By Aladdin Elaasar
America has had long close friendly relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds. The first countries that recognized the United States after its independence are the Arab/Muslim North African nations of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, which stand up to this day as strong allies of the United States. The United States has many Arab and Muslim nations as allies. We would like to clarify that Arabs, Muslims and Islam are not the enemy and have not. In our war on terror, we are engaged in a war against extremist elements that have the audacity to commit horrendous acts of terror against innocent civilians that Islam does not approve nor condone. Those literalists and self-righteous extremist elements give a bad name to Islam and Muslims. Islam calls for mercy, forgiveness, coexistence and tolerance. In the last few decades, the world has been plagued by extremist militant fringe groups that live on the margin of society and call for bloodshed.

We should all join hands in subduing this phenomenon and exposing the fallacies behind these so called fundamentalist or Jihadist groups. They have been a threat to many Muslim and non-Muslim societies. They have targeted tens of thousands of innocent Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere. They have an aggressive malevolent agenda with extensive financial networks under many names.

In order for us to win the War on Terror, we need to fight ignorance, desperateness and give hope to the millions who live in extreme poverty and do not see a light by the end of the tunnel who become an easy victim of brainwashing and indoctrination. We need to promote the respect of human rights and dignity, and honor human life as God commanded us to do. Jihad is not blowing one self’s up amongst people. The biggest Jihad, as we were told by Prophet Muhammad-PBUH, is struggling with one’s self and making one’s self a better one. Violence breeds violence and complicates issues. Dialogue should be the option. Words, not bullets; Cultural understanding and tolerance.

Unfortunately, many Muslim societies are still living under the yoke of absolute rulers, authoritarian regimes and military dictatorships, for almost half a century. The result has been the absence of a real dialogue, lack of transparency, grave abuses of human rights, extreme poverty and corruption, the exploitation and politicization of religion in a way that enforces oppression and alienates the Muslim masses who get polarized by extremists calling for violence and abusing the concept of Jihad.

Absolute rulers in Arab and Muslim countries have contributed to the creation of a fertile soil for hopeless young people to be recruited by extremists, while the official state controlled media in these countries always promote intolerance and conspiracy theories, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitisms, in order to tighten the grasp of these totalitarian regimes. In order to distract their population from real nagging domestic issues, these regimes are always playing on the fear factor and trying to find an external or an internal enemy to put the blame on.

Muslims should start by questioning themselves, fix their house from the inside, ask for their rights and domestic reform rather than putting the blame on outsiders. The Muslim world is in a bad shape and it needs help before the internal collapse of these societies and the impact that it can send throughout many parts of the world.

In the West, we should extend a helping hand to these societies and help them get back their freedom, rather than giving a handout. We should not shake hands with dictators and supporters of extremism. We should not allow them amongst us, and we should not let preachers of hatred to brainwash our impressionable youngsters.

Muslim Americans and Muslims everywhere else do not need foreign money that come to our communities under the pretext of building mosques or charities while they promote an extreme hidden political agenda and an intolerant version of Islam that has been behind many extreme movements. Muslim communities can be self-sufficient.

Aladdin Elaasar is a syndicated columnist, lecturer and an advocate for human rights and democracy. He wrote: “Silent Victims” and “The Last Pharaoh”.
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