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While receiving the headphones to follow our guide through the Vatican, I heard her colleague telling in Italian that she had a Muslim couple in her group. I didn't like what I heard. Why do I have to be attached to a social stigma because of my name? After all, the Vatican was, at one time, the epicenter of the Inquisition and of religious intolerance, and I was not concerned about the Catholic people that were in the group on that day, and not even with the Catholic friends I have. Why blaming the whole Muslim world for the sake of some few Muslim criminals?
As a matter of fact, when I speak as a Muslim, I am not interested in any kind of religious revival, or in converting others. I speak as a Muslim only to let the reader understand that indeed, mine is a single and individual voice, in the midst of a wider Muslim world, which is plural and diverse, and that it is precisely because of this, that there is beauty in it. What I really look forward to is Salaam. The Qur'an has inspired me in this direction as it says: God was bored in his solitude and decided to manifest itself, so it created the universe. Furthermore, it also says that, "wherever you turn, you will see God's Face". Thus, my "Muslimness" can be resumed as something like this: to live life in the pursuit of peace, through understanding and respect towards human dignity, and, if possible, to work together with believers and non-believers, in the direction of the betterment and uplifting of the human condition.
I do, as much as most of my readers, feel difficulty in understanding some Muslim societies, which are profoundly patriarchal and obsolete in their interpretations of the faith of Islam. However, as a social scientist, I do try to understand with a degree of objectivity the social phenomena at stake.
I ask myself what motivates knowledgeable individuals, with academic degrees, and reasonable financial resources, to become massive killers, further to justifying their acts as part of a religio-political ideology? (I do not know exactly why, but these thoughts remind me of Bush, and Blair, Aznar and Barroso, who have similar profiles, and yet, pursued the goal of going to war with Iraq, which for them was a "Just War" , not "Holy War", in spite of Bush having heard God's voice to go forward...) Well, but going back to the Muslims, which is what is being observed here, we need to understand what is it that motivates people with these profiles to kill themselves and other innocent people?
Social psychological studies on youth may provide some interesting analysis. Social Psychology on Youth explains how individuals of certain age groups are more keen on affirming their social identities through ideologies, and that they are more sensitive than others regarding matters of social and political equitability. They can be quite sensitive regarding political ambiguities. In fact, we saw millions of youngsters marching against the Iraq war in many European countries, and yet, their voices were not heard. Moreover, we see that politics also has to do with negotiation with friends and partners who were once enemies, and terrorists. Young people are aware of the politics of ambivalence, where some are protected and others neglected; they have difficulties understanding the geo-politics of international dominant powers; they are, particularly the Muslim youth, sensitive to humiliating episodes taped and photographed and diffused worldwide, such as those of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. It must be difficult to understand why some people who make mistakes go executed while others who "were mistaken" walk around freely, giving highly paid conferences, in total impunity. Crime is crime, and there's no such thing as civilized crime versus barbarian crime!
With this argument I do not wish to justify terror or crime, by all means! What may be of concern to a young person may be a lack of ideological identification in ambivalent world politics. Muslims, in particular, who are more vulnerable to literalist interpretations of the sacred texts, may find in those interpretations, the counter-path to follow. This can either be because they are insufficiently informed about their faith, further to some kind of political and ideological disenchantment, or also, because they may also have experienced some sort of discrimination throughout their lives, as I did, while standing at the doors of the Vatican.
Thence, the solutions for preventing the Muslim kind of criminality are threefold: first, the community has to pay special attention to all religious propaganda spreading among youth; secondly, the secular normal education has to undertake knowledge and learning about Islam and Muslim societies and this has to be part of their regular curriculum. Learning about Muslim civilizations and their achievements throughout the world will pay a greater service to Muslims and non-Muslims, as both groups learn accurately and objectively about this religion; in open discussions, avoiding dogma, or fear, and preventing stigma. Thirdly, politicians need to re-think their role and responsibility as representatives of true democracies, if indeed they wish to build partnership with the civil society.
