Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Radicalism – A Serious Threat to Global Peace

Fundamentalism and radical ideologies have posed a serious threat to the entire globe. Fundamental parties violate people’s basic rights and traumatize them through violence. Ideologues, who lack religious tolerance, are widely involved in triggering hatred. They claim to be in the right path and others in the wrong one. Fundamentalists act as if they are infallible creatures.  Their blind faith pushes them to pigeonhole nations and individuals and act aggressively towards those who are not following their school of thought.
To consider religious radicals, mainly the Taliban and self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), they spread violence and hatred around the entire globe. They are the products of blind faith and radical ideology and show zero tolerance towards other sects, races and faiths, seeking to impose their warped minds on people at the barrel of gun. Their ideology knows no border and nothing is sacred for them.To mitigate violence and protect human rights, the world has to find out the reasons behind fundamentalism and put an end to it. It is believed that blind faith and radical ideology, which led to lack of religious tolerance, will pave the ground for violence. For instance, the current fundamental groups in Islamic countries are engaged in violence due to the very fact. They seek to resist against progressive ideas, excommunicate individuals simply for not following their mentalities, and slaying the innocent people, including women and children, for belonging to a certain ethnic or religious group.The cruel practices of IS against Yazidi women reflected this fact. Following the declaration of caliphate by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, both the so-called and genuine ideologues filled the entire world with a sense of fear and hatred as a result of their indescribably violent acts. The IS group intended to put its self-styled ideology in the frame of religion and impose it on people. Political analysts believed that the IS group was a political project rather than a religious radical and there might be many reasons behind its establishment. Its active role in Syria’s conflict would prove this claim positive to some extent. But it is believed that religion has been exploited throughout the history both in Asia and Europe mostly by policy-makers. It is likely that if religion is separated from political arena, people will be less vulnerable to self-styled ideologies, claimed to be the true spirit of religion.Afghan has borne the brunt of radicalism within the past three and so decades. Kings ruled this country under religious aegis and alleged caliphate in this land. They called themselves, caliph, sultan, the divine shadow and many other bombastic terms to influence people. On the other hand, religious figures sought to either confirm or deny the kings based on so-called religious tenets. For example, when Amanullah Khan struggled for modernity and declared freedom for men and women, religious figures prompted people to show backlash. They generated religious emotions among the nation and persuaded them to resort to protest, which led to the collapse of Amanullah’s regime.To view the Taliban group, it gained foothold in Afghanistan and established a regime under the pretext of implementing religious sharia, but their regime was political and their practices were all against sharia law. For example, they discriminated people on the grounds of their ethnic and linguistic differences. In brief, political officials have constantly capitalized on religious feelings and virtue of pious individuals. Currently, radical groups are killing individuals as a result of fatwa issued by their radical ideologues or caliphs, who claim to have religious knowledge.The world is blackmailed by hardliners and terrorist groups which are founded on the basis of radical worldviews. Combating terrorism is likely to come to a stalemate and military strategy failed to put an end to this challenge. To think of Afghanistan, the “war on terror” was proved abortive and NATO’s military role was reduced to advisory role.Although the peace talks are underway in Doha, Qatar’s capital, the Afghan negotiators and many political figures believe that the Taliban’s worldview has not changed. They still hold the same radical view towards women’s rights and liberties, music, arts, etc. With this in mind, the world is concerned in general and Afghanistan in concerned in particular. Afghans are worried that if the Taliban are integrated into the political system, they will continue their strict sharia law and it would be hard to de-radicalize the Taliban members.De-radicalization is a process and will take time. Afghanistan has a long road ahead to de-radicalize a number of individuals who continue spreading radical mindset under the name of religion. As a result, Mawlavi Mujiburraham and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar seek to spread radicalism across the country. It would be hard to counter Hekmatyar and his ilk, as they have their own proponents. Those people should not be provided tribune or space in the media. Moreover, the government has to monitor religious seminaries as well as those who are engaged in teaching the students there. Meanwhile, the government has to include the subject of human rights into the curriculum of schools and universities to change the mindset of the students and moderate their views.