Saudi Arabia is an inspiring   global platform in consolidation of the values ​​of religious moderation

Extremism is based on an ideology and it’s not an abstract political entity or military force

Military component of terrorism is important, but there must be an intellectual and scientific confrontation

85% of the fighters of the terrorist organizations are affected by the irritating content of the religious storms

Extremism uses virtual world technology to breakthrough borders and easily deliver his messages

His Excellency the Secretary General of the Muslim World League and Chairman of the Association of Muslim Scholars Sheikh Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa affirmed that extremism was not based on an abstract political entity or military force, but rather on an ideology that was able to promote itself and pass its thoughts in the absence of the scientific wave  and intellectual confrontation, and from here extremism was enabled Whoever kidnapped some young people , also taking advantage of areas of political conflict, where they multiplied in their swamps, taking advantage of unconscious religious sentiment.

This came in a lecture on the ability of violent organizations to adapt and addressed messages, which His Excellency delivered to senior executives of the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies “NESA” of the US Department of Defense.

The lecture included shedding light on the assessment of the consequences of violent extremism around the world, and analyzing the role of national societies in all their activities in dealing with violent extremism tends. His Excellency Dr. Al-Issa show the experience of the Muslim World League in countering violent extremism, and identify the initiatives presented by it in this aspect, especially the outcomes of the conference that Organized by the League and hosted by the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva in February 2020, it issued the Geneva Declaration containing 28 initiatives with its implementation mechanisms, including the initiative: “The causes and treatment of extremism for some religious youth,” the initiative: “How do we face violent extremism?”, And the initiative: “Marginalization and poverty as causes. Violent Extremism – Diagnosis, Analysis and Treatment,” the initiative: “Addressing extremism’s inferences with religious texts and historical facts,” and other important initiatives that were discussed at the conference by senior specialists around the world.

The nature of extremism

In his lecture, His Excellency Sheikh Al-Issa touched on the importance of understanding the nature of extremism, indicating that in general it is a case outside the limit of moderation, noting that the terminology differs in its understanding, so extremism in the Islamic context often proceeds to adopting sharp ideas that practice violence or terrorism or incite it or create incubators. Intellectual elements of violence or terrorism, while the term extremism is often understood outside the Islamic context, specifically in the West, as representing an opinion tilted towards the far right, and it may represent a sharp opinion only, especially if the name is devoid of any other description describing it as violence or terrorism. However, it is important to understand these differences to avoid any ambiguity.

Sheikh Al-Issa explained another axis related to understanding the nature of extremism, saying: “In order to understand the nature of extremism, we must understand the reasons that lead extremists to it.” Then he reviewed a number of these reasons and started to detail and comment on them.

His Excellency stressed that extremism took a long time while promoting its ideology around the world, without there being a strong scientific and intellectual confrontation, stressing that extremism was not based on an abstract political entity or military force, but rather on an ideology that was able to promote itself and pass its ideas in the absence of a scientific and intellectual confrontation. Necessary, and from here he was able to kidnap some young, also taking advantage of the areas of political conflict, where he multiplied in their swamps, taking advantage of the religious sentiment without awareness.

His Excellency added: that extremism was able to deepen in the former region of emptiness and then create a generation of extremists that have become different.

Al-Issa explained: Terrorist extremism no longer needs anything more than its use of the technology of the virtual world through which it has been able to breakthrough borders and deliver all its messages to anywhere easily, and that this virtual world has decreased terrorist extremism’s dependence on money, in addition to terrorism, especially terrorism. ISIS has taken a new strategy, because one terrorist operation that can be heard around the world may not cost anything but a stolen car, a white weapon, a firearm that the terrorist owns, or the manufacture of a bomb on his own, and that is why it is important to rely primarily on eradicating extremist ideas on counter ideas. To how to work on that counter-confrontation.

Religious militancy messages

Dr. Al-Issa reviewed the negative employment of religious militancy messages. He confirmed that the high rate of radicalization in attracting youth is based on employing abstract religious passion and utilization a number of issues, especially some political issues, to evaporation them with a focus on the idea of ​​conspiracy.

The Secretary-General of the League stated that the majority of al-Qaeda and ISIS fighters were charged with religious emotions, more than they were charged with extremist religious information, because most of them are not considered interested in religious science and cannot debate about that, and some of them may have general and non-specialized extremist religious information, and through it. He embarked on the religious fervor supported by the Al-Qaeda and ISIS media, which is full of emotionally inciting content and exploits all social media, which are constantly renewing their sites.

He added, “I can say that about 85% of those joining terrorist organizations (or to be precise, the fighters of those organizations), whether they are with Al-Qaeda or ISIS, are those young men affected by the content that irritates religious sentiments, and the remaining 15% are people who are classified as from the intellectual theorists of those organizations, and many of them, the matter began with simple religious extremism, then developed with exaggeration in religiosity. When I say religiosity, I differentiate between religion and religiosity, and the truth says that religion represents Islam, while religiosity represents the level of your understanding of the texts of Islam, and this The distinction is in every religion. Nevertheless, the scientific and intellectual confrontation is important in resolving the battle with extremism, even if it is influenced only by emotions without entering into the intellectual depth, because the emotions are linked to excuses that are apparently calculated on the religious texts. That effect.

Deceptive ideology

Al-Issa referred to the ideology of political Islam, and said that this deceitful ideology is considered the most dangerous form of extremism, and it is the one that exported violent youth to terrorist organizations, specifically Al Qaeda and ISIS.

His Excellency said: “This is not my saying alone, but rather the saying of the leaders of that ideology. They openly admit that Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for example, grew up in the embrace of the Brotherhood, but that group, with its known maneuvers, claims that they have deviated from its ideas, but this maneuver is denied that a number of The assassinations they were involved in, as well as the books of their great theorists such as Sayyid Qutb and others, which they cannot deny or disown, and this specifically reveals the truth of that maneuver, in addition to the dangerous acts they have committed.

His Excellency clarified that this group reduces the general and comprehensive concept of Islam to political goals only, while Islam came with a message focused on two matters: beliefs and legislation, and Islam has never dealt with the form of government and has made this for people in what they see as more appropriate for them according to the standards of public interest and the values ​​of justice based on constitutional identity.

Al-Issa said: This extremist ideology has charged Muslim societies and tried to impede efforts to harmony in society in countries of religious, ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as impede friendship efforts between nations and peoples, and obstruct efforts for dialogue between followers of religions and cultures. And by learning about the speeches of the leaders of this ideology, and the books of its spiritual and political leaders, we find very frightening ideas, which are not secret books and sermons, but rather they are published and available to everyone in more than one language. But the astonishment in one thing, how do they talk about civilized values, while their constitutional foundations and practical reality are completely otherwise, in a scene that can only be described as a schizophrenia, or at the very least the exposed maneuvering of the first round with this group.

Paradox and contradiction

His Excellency the Secretary General of the Muslim World League indicated that several years ago, a dialogue took place with one of the leaders of this ideology about this paradox and contradiction. He said: “He does not agree with the ideas contained in these books.” He was told: Can you respond to them in a book or lecture to clarify the truth? He said, things are not handled in this way. In the end, it turned out that he was practicing deception.

His Excellency added that this group is the one that has entrenched the concepts of hatred and demonization of everything outside its extremist framework, whether within the Islamic interior or outside it, especially the western one, as it has established in the conscience of Muslim youth the hatred of everyone, and they are against dialogue and the alliance of civilizations, they do not know the area of ​​commonality, but the area of ​​differences. And clash and conflict, and they are the ones who have inflamed Islamic sentiments on any issue that they can exploit, and they do not know dialogue, wisdom in acting, or justice in judging things, while they resort to a cunning method that depends on finding actors who have no apparent reference, in order for the prosecution to be limited to the case of entering the circle of accusation against those individual actors and it is not counted against the group as an organization.

His Excellency continued, saying: The status of that group is currently considered fragile due to their exposure through their practices that contradict the maneuvers of their leaders, and through the Muslim youth who provoked them and pushed them into places of political conflict, thus terrorist organizations were formed as happened with al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as by making sure that the targets are The group’s strategy does not differ from the strategic goals of al-Qaeda and ISIS, and that the difference is only in tactics, and the conversations of some leaders of this group behind the scenes with their followers from among the active and influential youth differs from their conversations in public with the general public, especially in official meetings and conferences.

His Excellency indicated that today there is a great awareness in the Islamic world and in a number of Muslim minority countries of the danger of the ideology of political Islam led by the Muslim Brotherhood, as its negative effects that offend the reputation of Islam and Muslims have been revealed, and hate and isolation practices that are working on them against their national societies, whether at home, have been revealed. Islamic or outside.

Split religious sects

His Excellency Sheikh Al-Issa spoke in the lecture about the state of sharp division between religious sects, which in some cases gave birth to sectarianism that developed into violent extremism, and the lack of adequate awareness of Muslim youth in the Islamic world and in minority countries about the correct religious values, and the failure to promote the values ​​of comprehensive citizenship that believes in With the inevitability of difference, diversity and pluralism, all of this helped weaken their scientific and intellectual immunity, and thus the ease with which violent extremism and terrorist groups could influence them.

After that, His Excellency spoke at length about assessing the consequences of violent and terrorist extremism around the world, and said: The war on violent extremism must rely more on its ideological defeat, and no matter how militarily it is confronted and victories are achieved against it, the ideology remains.

His Excellency indicated that one of the very successful military confrontations has been carried out by the international coalition against ISIS, with the participation of 83 countries led by the United States of America.

He said: There is no doubt that the military confrontation is very important, but the most important of which is the intellectual confrontation, which passes through two phases: The first: preventive and fortification, which begins with the family, the school, and platforms for religious and social influence, in addition to the importance of addressing the conditions that may help facilitate the attraction of youth towards violence and terrorism. The second: remedial and mostly focused on dismantling the ideology of extremism in all of its axes through strong scientific, intellectual and social discourse. This requires an institutional project that includes initiatives, programs, and continuous evaluation with measuring results.

In his speech, Dr. Al-Issa confirmed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is today considered a global platform that inspires the consolidation of the values ​​of religious moderation. He said that during the past five years, which began precisely after the establishment of the Islamic Military Coalition to Combat Terrorism in December 2015 CE, it included three axes: military, intellectual, and media, and countering terrorist financing, from this date there has become a major international turning point in the face of terrorism, specifically in the Islamic interior. This was followed by the establishment of a number of global platforms to confront the ideas of extremist ideology. With the global center for “Etidal” there is a center for “intellectual warfare” that works to dismantle the details of extremist ideology.

His Excellency Dr. Al-Issa clarified that the agreement of the muftis and the world’s top scholars at the Makkah Document Conference led by the Muslim World League in May 2019 AD is considered a strong step in facing these ideas, as more than 1,200 muftis and scholars from 139 countries agreed in an unprecedented historical meeting in the presence of all followers of sects and sects. Islamism, without exception (27 sects and denomination), for the issuance of that document, which represents a roadmap for enlightened Islamic thought, and this important historical synodal work is considered one of the strong blows that extremism has suffered.

After that, and in the second part of the lecture’s time, His Excellency answered the questions of the attendees, which dealt with a number of important issues related to the topic of the lecture.