Faith column: Muslims addressing radicalization in their communities
My latest column on Muslims confronting violent extremism here in the U.S. Some Muslims, especially young men who feel angry and voiceless, are drawn to radicalism. And I couldn’t help but think of my own fascination with a cause as a young person. I was never at risk for taking up arms for the I.R.A. I had a stable home life and too much to lose. And certainly no one was recruiting Irish Catholic teenagers in Western Massachusetts. But I do kind of get the allure. Anyway, here’s the full text:
Many Muslims quietly working to head off radicalism
In 2008, a New York woman feared her brother, a troubled young Muslim man living in New York, might be getting involved in a violent radical group in Pakistan. So she called a cleric in Houston for advice. The cleric in turn called Mohamed Elibiary, head of the Plano-based nonprofit Freedom and Justice Foundation.
Elibiary, who has quietly emerged as the country’s leading Muslim deradicalization expert, devised an intervention that played on the young man’s familial duties and got him to return to the United States where counselors and mentors steered him away from militant extremism.
That case is detailed in a new report from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank that has compiled stories of other would-be terrorists who abandoned their violent plans.
And it’s a reminder that in the aftermath of last year’s Fort Hood shootings and the recent terrorism-related arrests of young Muslim Americans, we need people like Elibiary working with government and law enforcement.
Before we delve into the problem of Muslim radicalism, though, let’s be clear about something: This isn’t an exclusively Muslim problem. The path to violent extremism can originate anywhere — in a church, on a military base, in a cabin in the woods.
We’ve seen Christian radicalization (the anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder who killed a Kansas doctor — in a church, no less) and the secular variety (anti-government murderer Tim McVeigh).
And as I hear experts talk about the allure of radicalism among disaffected young Muslims, I can’t help but think of my own youthful attraction to a revolutionary cause. Growing up Irish Catholic, I held a romanticized vision of the Irish Republican Army. They were Catholic heroes attempting to overthrow Northern Ireland’s Protestant British oppressors. Never mind that their guerilla tactics included blowing up civilians in night clubs or using kneecapping to punish and intimidate their own people.
A noble cause can be especially intoxicating to young people who do not appreciate the cost of violence.
Over the past year, militant groups such as al-Shabab and the Taliban have attracted young men from the United States with the idea that they should take up arms on behalf of their fellow Muslims even if that means becoming a suicide bomber or fighting against the United States in Afghanistan.
Elibiary said experts are calling this wave of extremism “jihadi cool.” Some of these young recruits, he said, have a proclivity toward violence and a shallow understanding of Islam. Some are naive children of immigrants with bright futures who get swept up by their desire to defend civilians overseas.
“They’re kind of idealists who don’t understand that geopolitics is all about interests and power dynamics,” he said.
This fervor can grip others, too. Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that killed 13 and wounded many others, reportedly had ties to a radical imam in Yemen.
As alarming as these cases are, the violent extremists who have emerged from American Muslim communities represent a tiny minority among the millions of Muslims living and working peacefully in the United States, according to a report released last month by researchers at Duke University and University of North Carolina.
The report found that Muslim communities have helped stem radicalization by reporting potential violent extremists, publicly and privately denouncing terrorism and building strong social networks.
But these extremists are an enormous concern to Muslims still struggling to restore their reputation almost a decade after 9/11.
Here in Austin, leaders aren’t afraid to address the threat of radicalism. There’s been talk of organizing a conference on the topic. And Amanda Quraishi, founder of the nonprofit Central Texas Muslimaat, said she would like to see Muslims team up with professionals who have successfully worked with violent youths, such as street gangs.
The challenge, experts say, is that radicalization often takes place in Internet chat rooms, away from the watchful eyes of community leaders.
So what can a Muslim leader do? How do you spot someone who may have terrorist ambitions?
Sheik Mohamed-Umer Esmail, a former Austin imam now living in Canada, said he takes notice when an individual suddenly becomes intensely religious.
“I try to as politely as possible inquire about his motivation and what sources he refers to for his guidance,” Esmail said. “Then I give him advice on the importance of moderation and how easily one can be misled through the Internet.”
He urges people to channel their anger over the wars or U.S. foreign policy through nonviolent civic engagement.
Imam Islam Mossaad of the North Austin Muslim Community Center stressed the importance of providing relevant sermons that acknowledge the injustices of the world but don’t encourage a violent response.
“Imagine a young person who is fully aware of — and sometimes directly affected by tyranny — going to the mosque and waiting from some guidance from the appointed imam about current realities, and all he hears is a pre-packaged sermon that lacks any courage or true insight,” Mossaad said. “Such disappointed youths may become disaffected and will gravitate elsewhere.”
Elibiary said mainstream Muslim communities can’t realistically counter violent extremism simply by setting a “moderate” example. But, he said, “What the mainstream Muslim community-based groups … can do is strengthen family-based programs, so that the marketplace of potentially vulnerable at-risk youth who could be pulled by a recruiter’s message would shrink and therefore limit the growth of the violent extremism movement.”
Dog almighty! This is a fun story in the LAT. How can you beat a lede with a disruptive parishioner called Mr. Booby? At this Presby church, dogs are part of the service. Of course, it’s a shame that cats aren’t permitted, but this preacher probably knows that, given the choice, cats would rather do the devil’s work. Anyway, check it out:
The idea behind the service, (the Rev. Tom) Eggebeen said, was to make it more comfortable for people to attend the church, which has 120 members, discounting up to a dozen dogs that generally attend services. Cats and other animals are not permitted, perhaps out of a belief that of God’s many creatures, dogs probably need more ministering.
“The heart of the whole thing has been to provide a worship service for the entire family, including the four-footed friends. . . . Their pets are very, very important to them and virtually comprise a member of family,” he said. “I wouldn’t be in the pulpit on Sunday mornings and say, ‘Leave your children home.’ “
What timing. We just started the section on Judaism in Journalism & Religion. And this WSJ column provides some wonderful insight into how Jews continue to reinterpret their ancient texts and traditions. This piece in particular deals with the life and work of Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan who set the wheels in motion for women’s participation in the synagogue (he started doing bat mitzvahs and invited women to read from the Torah). Fascinating.
A believer in gender equality long before the term political correctness became a cliché, Kapan in 1922 “invented” the modern-day bat mitzvah—in which 12-year-old girls (like their male counterparts, 13-year-old boys, at their bar mitzvahs) symbolically accept the religious responsibilities of adulthood—when, at Sabbath services one Saturday morning, he called his oldest daughter to the pulpit and had her read from the Torah scroll. Since then, of course, this then-unheard-of custom has become an accepted, even expected rite-of-passage among Jews in all but the Orthodox branch of the faith.
Excellent piece in the NYT by James Wood. Wood looks at the “earthquake sermons” of centuries past in which fiery preachers blamed natural disasters on the sins of the victims, which helps put Pat Robertson’s controversial comments in context (though he certainly doesn’t excuse PR’s statements).
Wood also looks critically at President Obama’s remarks (a variation on there but for the grace of God go I). Robertson basically said the Haitians had it coming for making a pact with the devil (to get the French out. Don’t you know, Satan routinely offers his services in such political matters.) So in that respect, God is an angry, interventionist God. But, as Wood notes, Obama’s explanation paints God as an entity who protects Americans from Haitian earthquakes. Which is not so nice either.
Awkwardly, the literal meaning of Mr. Obama’s phrase is not so far from Pat Robertson’s hatefulness. Who, after all, would want to worship the kind of God whose “grace” protects Americans from Haitian horrors?
The president was merely uttering an idiomatic version of the kind of thing you hear from survivors whenever a disaster strikes: “God must have been watching out for me; it’s a miracle I survived,” whereby those who died were presumably not being “watched out for.” That President Obama did not really mean this — he clearly did not — is telling, insofar as it suggests how the theological language of punishment and mercy lives on unconsciously, well after the actual theology has been discarded.
I recommend reading the entire piece. It’s a wonderful look at the theological language we use to respond to catastrophic events.
I try to be respectful of the various religions I write about on this blog. But, um … yeah. This is kinda nutty. And of course it’s nothing new. Scientologists frequently respond to disaster areas to, you know, fix things. They use the power of touch to reconnect a person’s nervous system. Explained one volunteer:
“When you get a sudden shock to a part of your body the energy gets stuck, so we re-establish communication within the body by touching people through their clothes, and asking people to feel the touch.”
The concern over the Catholic Church’s action (or inaction) during the Holocaust haunted Pope Benedict’s visit to Rome’s main synagogue. The pope said the Vatican did try to help victims, often in secret. And that may well be true. Of course, we have heard stories of ordinary Catholic clergy and lay people risking their own safety to protect Jews. But what of the man in charge at the time — Pope Pius XII? That’s what many Jews want to know and why they are asking for the Vatican to open its World War II era archives.
Speaking before the pope, the head of Rome’s Jewish community demanded access to Vatican archives on Pius XII.
“Awaiting a shared judgement, we wish with the utmost respect that historians will have access to the Vatican archives concerning this period,” Riccardo Pacifici said, referring to the “painful” silence of the wartime pope.
“Maybe he could not have stopped the death trains, but he could have sent a signal, a word of extreme comfort, of human solidarity for our brothers taken off to Auschwitz,” he said.
Pacifici, whose grandparents died at Auschwitz, however said in a voice choked with emotion that he was “grateful” to Catholic nuns in Florence for sheltering his father and uncle.
New column about Western Buddhists and the role/inclusion of children in their practice. Talked to some great folks, including David Zuniga who will be giving a talk on end of life issues Monday (Jan. 18) at 7 p.m. at the Shambhala Center. He’s a terrific speaker. My journalism students loved him. Check out his talk if you can.
And of course the full text:
Buddhist parents struggle with how to pass on traditions to children
A few years ago, I was struck by a frank assessment made by Zen monk Clark Strand in the Buddhist magazine Tricycle. “Buddhism,” Strand wrote, “must change or die.”
Americans began embracing the Eastern religion in a major way in the 1960s, he said, but they focused on the practice of meditation and spiritual retreats for themselves and failed to develop rituals and traditions to pass to their children.
More-established religions in the U.S. such as Christianity and Judaism provide structured religious formation for children through baptisms, bar and bat mitzvahs, Bible and Hebrew schools. But, Strand argued, Western Buddhist centers are not always as family friendly.
Since reading that piece, I’ve wondered how Western converts introduce their children to Buddhism. Most had never seen Buddhist concepts through a child’s eyes and perhaps had never encountered children in the meditation sessions they attended.
I recently reconnected with one of my Buddhist sources, David Zuniga, who happened to be tackling this question with his own family.
I had interviewed Zuniga a few years ago about his ordination as a priest in the Taego order, a lineage of Korean Zen Buddhism. Back then, Zuniga shared his South Austin home with his wife Sunni and their pets. He set up a shrine in a quiet spare room where he could chant and meditate undisturbed.
When I returned to the Zunigas’ last month, I found a more joyful though certainly less serene environment after the arrival of 2-year-old Erin and 7-month-old Rory.
Quiet meditation doesn’t come easily anymore for the Buddhist priest, and in his role as father, Zuniga not only has to work harder to find time for his practice but also to model the spiritual values he upholds and teach them to his daughters.
“You’re their first introduction to all these things,” said Zuniga, who was raised Catholic. “They will experience all these ideas through you.”
As Westerners practicing a minority religion in the United States, the Zunigas come up with their own ways to teach their daughters about Buddhism and to create meaningful rituals and traditions. The Zunigas invited friends to share in a Buddhist baby blessing they created for Rory, a ceremony similar to the one they designed for Erin when she was an infant.
David Zuniga led his friends in a chant that invoked taking refuge in the Buddha, or teacher, in the dharma, or spiritual teachings, and in the sangha, or community. For Zuniga, his family can represent all three, and the same will be true for his girls in the years to come, he said.
Still Buddhism’s concepts might be especially challenging, especially for Westerners, Zuniga said.
There’s a comfort in knowing — or at least believing — in a religious narrative that provides answers such as the promise of heaven or the threat of hell. And those explanations might be easier for children to grasp.
But Zuniga said his Buddhist tradition embraces not knowing.
“There’s this idea of great doubt equals great enlightenment,” he told me. “It’s the idea that questions and not knowing is kind of the highest state. In the West we want to know everything. We want to understand. . . . The truth is we don’t know why stuff happens. And the truth is we don’t know what the afterlife is … No one knows.”
On the other hand, he said, the hallmark of Zen is the idea that everything changes. His children can grasp that concept, he said, just by observing nature.
Children also can begin to understand Buddhism at a very simple level by talking about the importance of compassion and mindfulness, said Carlene South, an ordained layperson and member of the Austin community of Plum Blossom Sangha , part of the lineage of Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. South participated in the blessing ceremony for Rory.
“We have a nun in our lineage who put together amazing activities on loving kindness and working with our emotions and loving ourselves, all people, animals and plants,” she said.
Plum Blossom Sangha (plumblossomsangha.org), which meets Sunday evenings at The Austin Yoga School on South Lamar Boulevard, holds an annual retreat at which members welcome “new flowers” in a ceremony akin to a baptism. The sangha also has periodic children’s events — the next one is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Jan. 31 — that include meditation, song and learning activities.
South said that ultimately members would like to obtain their own practice center so they can offer more children’s programs.
The Austin Shambhala Meditation Center in South Austin provides a monthly children’s program as well as child care during meditation once a month in an effort to promote family involvement at the center.
The Austin Zen Center, also a draw for Western practitioners, recently began offering child care during some meditation sessions.
South said Western Buddhists are constantly talking about ways to make their practice more welcoming to children and families.
In the meantime, many Buddhist families are seeking ways to practice Buddhism at home.
On that winter evening at the Zunigas’, baby Rory played with her father’s meditation bell, giggled and cooed as family and friends welcomed her into a tradition that is both ancient and ever-changing.
The goal is not indoctrination, David Zuniga said, but rather a spiritual template his daughters can use in life.
“Hopefully (we’re) offering spiritual underpinnings that can be relevant regardless of what path they’re on,” he said. “My position is I want them to choose the path they will follow. I want them to find their own way.”
Went on my friend Khotan’s radio show today (Idea Loung on KOOP) to talk about religion in Austin. We spent a lot of time discussing Muslim Americans. And this recent study came up. Should have blogged about it sooner. The Duke University study reports that radicalization among American Muslims is very low, that Muslims in the U.S. are self-policing, that they’re becoming more politically engaged and more vocal about their opposition to terrorism.
The creation of robust Muslim-American communities may serve as a preventative measure against radicalization by reducing social isolation of individuals who may be at risk of becoming radicalized. The stronger such communities are, in terms of social networks, educational programs, and provision of social services, the more likely they are to identify individuals who are prone to radicalization and intervene appropriately.
Makes sense.
Oh and we had a very special guest in the studio: Little Miss C.
Excellent column by Nicholas Kristof in the NYT about the treatment of women in religion. He’s right on the money, and this is something that I’ve been stewing about for years. Kristof isn’t just talking about the extreme cases of violence and oppression that are tolerated — if not supported — by religious leaders. The kind of things we hear about happening in Iran and Afghanistan and Nigeria. He also addresses the problems right here in the supposedly progressive West.
He quotes former President Carter:
“Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths, creating an environment in which violations against women are justified,” former President Jimmy Carter noted in a speech last month to the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Australia.
“The belief that women are inferior human beings in the eyes of God,” Mr. Carter continued, “gives excuses to the brutal husband who beats his wife, the soldier who rapes a woman, the employer who has a lower pay scale for women employees, or parents who decide to abort a female embryo.”
Carter is part of a group called the Elders, which is addressing this concern.
Writes Kristoff:
Today, when religious institutions exclude women from their hierarchies and rituals, the inevitable implication is that females are inferior. The Elders are right that religious groups should stand up for a simple ethical principle: any person’s human rights should be sacred, and not depend on something as earthly as their genitals.
Amen, brother.
There’s an interesting showdown going on between the NYT and GetReligion over coverage of this Ugandan legislation that puts homosexuals at risk for the death penalty and which may or may not have tacit support from some American evangelical leaders. It’s complicated, and I’m too tired to try to dissect. So check out this post on GR in which NYT’s Paul Vitello defends his paper’s coverage.
I’ll just say this. I am usually first in line to criticize the Times But I think GR may be nitpicking. I mean, they may have some valid points about the coverage. But what’s going on in Uganda is really scary stuff, and Christians everywhere, regardless of their position on homosexuality, should be condemning it. Loudly. Of course I also think Christians everywhere should be loudly condemning the death penalty period. But that’s another post.
