Gulf | Qatar
'We must speak out against fanaticism'
Mainstream Muslims are not doing enough to combat religious fanaticism according to the audience of the Doha Debate, a monthly television programme hosted by the Qatar Foundation on Monday night.
- By Barbara Bibbo', Correspondent
- Published: 00:53 March 6, 2008
Doha: Mainstream Muslims are not doing enough to combat religious fanaticism according to the audience of the Doha Debate, a monthly television programme hosted by the Qatar Foundation on Monday night.
More than 70 per cent of the audience voted for the motion that "Muslims are failing to combat extremism." The programme is to be broadcast by BBC World on Saturday and Sunday.
Panelists Ed Hussain, a former Islamic fundamentalist who is now heading the counter-extremist think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, and Arsalan Iftikhar, a human rights lawyer and contributor to Islamica magazine spoke for the motion.
Selective outrage
Daisy Khan, promoter of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, and Moez Masoud, host of popular TV programmes such as The Right Way and Parables in the Quran, spoke against the motion.
Moderated by Tim Sebastian, the speakers agreed on the need for mainstream Muslims to speak out more strongly against fundamentalists while attracting more media coverage to offset the exposure of extremist voices.
Husain held several scholars in the region responsible for propagating the rhetoric of the Holy War, while Iftikhar called on Muslims to abandon "selective outrage" and denounce sectarianism and violence within the Muslim community.
Khan urged ordinary Muslims to take action against fanaticism in their communities, while Masoud called on Muslims to refer to Islamic orthodoxy to break away from misleading teachings.
Students asked whether the West should be blamed for the emergence of extremism and how destitute people in war-ravaged countries such as Palestine or Iraq could fight radicals.
Hussain commented that shifting the blame on the West was counterproductive to the moderates' cause.
"Today in some Islamic countries, there are scholars endorsing suicide bombers, training camps for terrorists, sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shias. Where are the demonstrations of mainstream Muslims against all this?"
Iftikhar told students that Muslims had a moral obligation to speak against injustice, first and foremost within their own community.
Citing the latest US public opinion polls he said one in two Americans believe Islam is a violent religion and one in four does not want a Muslim neighbour.
"This is our collective fault, because when extremists claim to act in the name of our faith, the majority of us remain appallingly silent."
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