IS

What can we do about IS?

The GlobalNet21 debate in the Wellington room of the House of Commons attracted a large audience and plenty of online comments. The title was “Does bombing an ideology ever work?” Richard Bacon MP was unable to be present. It must be said that the debate did not really answer the question.

Michael Stephens is the Research Fellow for Middle East studies and Head of Royal United Services Institute, Qatar. He commented that the policy now is to contain IS rather than destroy it. U.K. budget cuts mean that we no longer have the people on the ground to anticipate attacks like that on Mosul. He gave 4 root causes of the conflict.

1.       A second generation of Muslims in the West who see a gap with their parents’ perceptions and wish to escape marginalisation,

2.       A crisis in Islam both between Sunni and Shi’a and within the divided parts of Islam and no central authority,

3.       Nobody knows where Western intervention will lead to and there are double standards about where we intervene,

4.       Globalisation and technology.

Michael suggested that strategic patience was sometimes needed and we were reaping the results of a huge error in 2003. Governments chose to drive Sunni and Shi’a apart and played on the fault lines of the Arab spring.

Ellie Geranmayeh from the European Council for Foreign Relations is a visiting fellow for the Middle East and North Africa Programme in October 2013, and joined as a policy fellow in May 2014, working on European foreign policy in relation to Iran. She commented that the EU was not united and recent developments in Germany had not helped. Criminals were stepping into power vacuums and skilfully using technology to spread their murderous message.

In answer to my question about control of the internet, Michael commented that control of forums in Saudi Arabia was very severe. The hidden role of multinationals and oil companies was also mentioned. The Israeli elections in March may bring some change in the region. It was clear that our domestic policies do affect foreign policy.

What we can do is to encourage dialogue and add to the discourse to address the fear that many feel. This was a wide ranging and informative debate and I can only give a flavour of it. Too often the West has misunderstood developments e.g. do Arabs want democracy as opposed to human rights? The Wahabi policies of the Saudis remain a puzzle with tight security on the one hand and support of change on the other.

The Westminster debate on  “How far should concern with religious freedom shape foreign policy?” in the library at RUSI picked up many of these themes and was ably chaired by Professor Linda Woodhead.

Andrew Copson is Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association and he underlined the importance of human rights in the debate. Brian J. Grim, the founder and president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, spoke about how business can engage. Intercultural understanding, religious freedom, free speech and free association and freedom of the press are all tied up. He pointed to success in Brazil and Japan and gave examples from India, Australia and Brazil where companies which have a religious basis have a large impact socially.

 Erin Wilson, Director of Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain at the University of Groningen said that what we do at home affects what we promise abroad. There must be a connection between the two policies.

 Professor Debra Mason is Director, Center on Religion & the Professions at the University of Missouri and she began by pointing to the challenges of  the use of language in the media. For example Al Qaeda claim that democracy is a religion that the West wishes to impose on the Arab world.

Nicholas Coombs, career Diplomat, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, spoke of the difficulties of finding the right people to deal with on the ground and how often foreign policy was reactive.

Erin pointed to the correlation in people’s minds since 9/11 that “immigrant=Muslim=terrorist” and how this thinking needs to be changed.

I was left feeling that things were not getting better and the thought that we all need to engage with humility. The tone of how we address issues is important.

The Christian Muslim forum organised a day on “The family:challenges and benefits” at St Augustine’s Kilburn and the Islamic Centre of England. Fr Colin Amos  (the vicar of St Augustine’s) began by defining family. 1. Grandparents. 2. Geography. 3. History. 4. Chosen family through baptism and god-parenting. 5. Faith family which is an unchosen gift.

He asked to what extent challenges are born of our historic and biological differences? The challenges we face are 1. Abuse and  most of it is within the family. 2. Business/work/faith/life balance. 3. Parenting and children with absent father or mother. 4. Communication, not eating together. 5. Financial pressures and materialism. 6. Suicide.

Shaykh Saeed Bahmanpour (Islamic Centre of England) gave the Islamic perspective. He spoke of interdependence, love and kindness and the need for tranquillity. He outlined the challenge of lust rather than love, cohabitation rather than marriage,. Muslims did not see this as progress. He said that children needed to be educated about male/female differences. His main idea was “one for all and all for one” in the family.

Revd Maggie Hindley (Co-director of the  London Interfaith centre) brought a United Reformed church perspective and spoke on the role of women. She saw the family as a springboard for mission and the fight for justice and she spoke of the open family spreading loving kindness in the community.

After an excellent lunch at the Islamic centre Bishop Paul Hendricks  (Co-Chair, Christian Muslim Forum) spoke about the benefits. He said that our purpose is to learn to love. He said that in the family everyone is important all share in the meal. All should be accepted. Love is hard work and “home is a holy place”. He commented on individualism and who the elderly can be shipped off to a home. He stressed that this is God’s world and God is in the mess of families.

Dr Mohammed Ali Shomali (Director, Islamic Centre of England ) spoke how people married and still behaved as though they were single. It is important to get rid of the ego and the idol within ourselves.  It is difficult to be lonely. He stressed the importance of keeping young people at home even when at university until they married. In discussion the influence of TV and the internet was mentioned and that mosques were often out of touch with the youth. The loss of Sunday as a day for the family was also seen as a major challenge.

It was a pity that the discussion groups were divided into men and women as I feel that mothers are the centre of the family and the men needed to hear directly what the women has to say.

What has all this to do with IS? A great deal because we cannot face the threat of radicalisation without better communication within the family and in the community.



John Woodhouse

Westminster cathedral interfaith group