The West Must Explore The Islamic World.

From: http://www.gulfnews.com/

Angel Rabasa has called upon policy makers in the US to implement lessons derived from the Cold War. The West 'must explore Islamic world'

By Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor
Dubai: An international think tank has called upon policy makers in the US and the western bloc to implement some of the lessons which were derived from the Cold War in the current global war on terrorism.
The think tank placed emphasis on building a network of moderate Muslims to fight extremists in a way similar to their support of Christian parties against communism in western Europe some 60 years ago.
In a 187-page research entitled "Building Moderate Muslim Network, RAND Centre for the Middle East Public Policy predicts it can win over extremist forces.
"The ultimate victory can be achieved when extremist ideologies are discredited in the eyes of their host population and tacit supporters," the report stated.
Angel Rabasa, Senior Political Scientist and the principal writer of the report, told Gulf News from his office in Washington that radical interpretations of Islam have gained ground in recent years in many Muslim societies, and radicals as well as authoritarian regimes have been successfully intimidated and marginalised.
Successful
"Marginalisation of moderate Islam by both extremists and government forces has been very successful in recent years. The cases of Egypt, Iran and Sudan [are prime examples] where liberal and intellectuals were forced to withdraw from public life or forced to flee their countries," he said.
He added the expression of moderate Muslims does not mean a scientific classification of certain groups. "It is a shorthand term used by the study to identify those who embrace certain values including human rights, empowerment of women and the right of minorities.
"They should believe in democracy and the right of equality among people regardless of their colour, race and religion."
Rabasa, who is the principal writer of 2004 report "The Muslim world after 9/11", stressed the West needs to explore the Islamic world instead of clashing with it.
He said: "It should support the forces that share basic human values of freedom and equality instead of generalising the image of terrorism."
Rabasa listed two critical advantages enjoyed by radical Muslims over moderate and liberal forces in the Islamic world adding there is a need to assist moderates and liberals to win the war.
"Money spent to promote the Wahhabi version of Islam over the last three decades has spurred the growth of religious extremism throughout the Muslim world. Extremists have also gained tremendous organisational skills to present themselves as the only viable alternative to the authoritarian states.
"They wage their battles in the mass media and political arena of their respective counties."
In 2002, he says the National Security Council considered the lack of democracy in the Middle East as a prime motivation behind building a terrorist network that conducted the attacks on the US on September 11.
Speech
Later on, the theme was reinforced in a series of researches and speeches by top US politicians and took its final shape in President Bush's speech of Freedom Agenda, which included the US grand strategy in the global war on terrorism.
Rabasa admitted the troubled situation the US is facing in Iraq has affected plans to help and support democracy. "Americans can not forget what is happening in Iraq but helping the development of civil societies and supporting those who share democratic values should go hand in hand with other missions in the region," he said.
He said the US should not limit its support to those who agree with its policies in the region. "Even those opposing the military involvement of the US in the region should be supported if they believe in democracy.
He said the US and its allies have met with similar challenges in its Cold War against the Soviet Union and the communist bloc in the 50s of the 20th century and won the war through networking techniques even to forces that were against its policies.
"Building moderate Muslim networks have become essential to counterbalance the advantages enjoyed by terrorist groups in the Islamic world," Rabasa said.

Blogger Comment:

We as Moderate Muslims have to play the game well ourselves as the west does. Colonism and Imperialism is what we got from the west in the Arab and Muslim worlds for decades. These should be our lines in changing our world to a better world:

1- Is to appeal to the Christian and Jewish people for the moral and the just God of the Bible who stands with the just against oppression and poverty.
2- Is to appeal to the true liberals who would like to see a just world a lot of them are in the west.
3- To spread Islam and convert people to Islam through reasoning and dialogue.
4- To create strong front of moderate world that can stand for the Arab tyrants and the Jihadists to offer the third option. Which is basically the true values of human liberty with no oppression or extremism.
5- We should continue to be suspicious of the west and meanwhile work with them. They never offered a grand plan to change the Arab/Muslim world. All they want is us clean the mess of Iraq to them. The Shea and Sunni leaders, Iran president, moderate Muslims and Jihadis have to find a way to get The Iraq stabilized for the sack of Muslims and the young American men many of them are against the war from the start.
6- The west would like to define those moderates which would not work it is ultimately the choice of Muslims to whom they trust. The west will do the same mistake again you can not decide who is the leader for them but how to work with this leader that they would choose.
7- For myself I really do not think one leader would make the change unless he is divinely appointed but I believe in the creation of this front from the Muslims.
8- We have to change the mind of a lot of people particularly Christian rights who think the world struggle is between the forces of good and evil or they will take off in the rupture as the world collapses. There is no black and white but the world now is mostly gray.
9- We have to learn how the west used our tyrants to stabilize the Islamic world, secure the flow of oil and counteract anti-Israel extremists. We should offer the third option. We will secure Israel, we will sell the oil to the west, we are not going to drink it, and we will have different agenda than the extremists.
10- The west may not like any grand plan for the moderates they would say let us have a democracy in Iraq and over the decades it will spread nice and slow to the other countries. It just keep the control of the west to our world nice and persistent. Many counties in the west are controlled by the political-business-religious trio that persecuted Jesus in his first coming.
11- Meanwhile we have to oppose Jihadists stand against the west it casued us a lot of damage and we have to create an overwhelming political power that dictate to the West and the Arab tyrants what the Arab and Muslim world would look like. The selfish west is against any caliphate even if moderate. It is like we would stand against the states in America in one time in history to prevent them from uniting and becoming the United States of America. Or we stand to Europe now and block the European union.