Melting pot of fresh thoughts

Do Muslims and non-Muslims share equal responsibility in taking steps to reduce Muslim extremism?'' The question, put to young Muslims from around the world gathered in Doha, went to the heart of today's perceived clash between Islam and the West.

The answer, delivered instantly through wireless voting pads, was clear: Seventy-five per cent replied “Yes''.

The verdict is worth heeding because of where it happened: At a conference of 300 progressive Muslim activists drawn from 75 countries. The Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference was meant to be a catalyst for social change in the Islamic world by inspiring the activists and giving them opportunities to network.

“We're living in challenging times and the plot for Muslims has been written by others,'' said Daisy Khan, of the New York-based American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), which worked with the Cordoba Initiative and the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations to organise the event.

“The time has come for Muslims to define themselves around the values they believe in: pluralism, freedom, justice, creativity and intellectual development.''

While some activists hold more conservative views than others, all are committed to pluralism as an Islamic value, Khan said.

The discussion sessions, which included the instant polling, tackled some of the thorniest questions facing Muslim intellectuals today, including: “Is there a crisis of religious authority in Islam?'' Eighty-six per cent said “Yes''. And “are there Islamic values that are in conflict with Western values''? Sixty-one per cent said “Yes''.

Panellist Madiha Younas, of Pakistan's International Islamic University, said she often encounters anxiety over clashing values. “Our people are worried about what will happen if our youth start living like the Westerners. It is not an Islamic value to have absolute freedom. Islam puts boundaries on you,'' she said.

Saudi Arabian-born lawyer and Harvard University graduate Malek Dahlan led the conversation to a more theoretical level, stating: “It's freedom that is the absolute value in Islam. ... It is freedom not to submit [to God's will] that gives value to submission itself.''

In smaller discussion groups, participants covered such topics as why Europe has more Islamist radicalism than the United States, Islam's position on homosexuality and the meaning of secularism.

When discussing who has the responsibility of fighting Muslim extremism, the panellists steered clear of the polarisation the subject provokes.

Instead, they argued that both extremist interpretations of Islam and foreign policies of Western countries contributed to the radicalisation of Muslim youth. In fact, the impact of US policies in the Middle East was evident at the conference, where many participants were deeply upset, at times in tears, over the civilian death toll from Israel's three-week military siege of Gaza.

“I get a sense of helplessness with this latest crisis,'' said Shaukat Warraich, the director of London-based Right Start Foundation International, a community development non-profit, who had attended the conference.

ASMA's Khan said that after 9/11, Americans wanted to know why Muslims' denunciations of the terrorist attacks were so muted.

Although hundreds of Islamic religious leaders did condemn the attacks, they were not heard clearly because Islam has no central leadership, just as Roman Catholicism's Vatican.

Khan, then an architectural designer, gave up her career to promote a new generation of Muslim leadership, holding the first conference in New York in 2004 with 125 participants from North America.

The second conference, held in Copenhagen in 2006, included Europeans. Doha, the third one, was global.

Participants had to be between 20 and 45 years old, committed to pluralism and involved in some type of community advancement work, Khan said.

At its conclusion, the conference issued “An Open Letter to the World Leaders of Today From the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow''.

Noting that “with Barack Obama as the new US president, there is no better time for ... positive change'', the letter demanded that leaders start implementing policies that promote development and human rights rather than war.

For now, the Muslim leaders who will receive copies of the open letter do not know much about Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, or MLT, as the project is known.

The conference drew little international or regional media attention.

But organisers said they were committed to building a global network of progressive activists in the Muslim world, an effort they say would take time.