Our papers, airwaves and TV have been filled with endless commentaries about the barbaric attacks on Paris in the last few days. Without exception, everyone condemns the evils of terrorism and is eager to show solidarity with the grieving French people.
After a period of mourning, the biggest question for all of us is to identify the root of the problem and find a solution to eradicate the scourge of Islamic terrorism. There are a multitude of opinions, but it would be wise for us to pay attention to a voice from the grave, the late Lee Kuan Yew.
The late Lee possessed a razor-sharp strategic mind and didn’t like to mince his words when talking about controversial topics like the rise of Islamism. Before he passed away, he had an in-depth conversation with two Harvard professors, Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill, on a range of topics including the future of Islamic extremism.
Lee says the root cause of Islamic terrorism is not about the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The founding father of modern Singapore, who was widely regarded as one of the world’s leading strategists, believes militant Islam feeds upon the insecurities and alienation that globalisation generates among the less successful.
“After 40 years of patchy economic development, many Arabs feel anger and humiliation that their once glorious civilisation has been diminished by the West, especially America and corrupted by its licentious culture,” he said in the book The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States and the World.
Drawing on his own experience of combating Islamic terrorists in Southeast Asia, the late Lee identified several leading causes and named Saudi Arabia and its oil money as one of the main culprits for the spread of radical Islam.
“First and foremost, after the price of oil quadrupled in 1973, Saudi Arabia has generously financed the missionary movement by building mosques and religious schools and paying for preachers throughout the world, spreading the teachings and practices of its austere version of Wahhabist Islam,” he said.
Lee said the spread of Petrodollars led to an increase in religiosity worldwide and made it possible for extremists to recruit from Saudi-funded mosques and madrassas. He saw that first-hand in Southeast Asia where people practiced a moderate brand of Islam but some had turned radical and joined Jihadist fighting in the Middle East.
In answering an ultra-sensitive question on what role Islam plays in fuelling Islamic extremism, he didn’t shy away. “Muslims want to assimilate us. It is one-way traffic…They have no confidence in allowing choice,” he said. “Muslims socially do not cause any trouble, but they are distinct and separate… Islam is exclusive.”
The biggest question of all is how to eliminate radical Islamists. At the moment, the struggle looks like a battle between extremist radicals on one side and Western allies on the other. However, deep down, the real battle is the death struggle between the extremist Muslims and the rationalist Muslims.
So Lee’s answer to the question is simple and categorical. “Only Muslims can win this struggle,” he said. By that he means, only modernist Muslims could triumph over their radical antagonists and it is the job of the international community to support and encourage the moderate Muslim to fight back against the extremists.
“I also pointed out that our Muslim leaders are rational and that the ultimate solution to extremist terrorism was to give moderate Muslims the courage to stand up and speak out against radicals who have hijacked Islam to recruit volunteers for their violent ends,” he said.
Lee’s solution is essentially encouraging and empowering moderate Muslims to speak out against radicals if they want to be a part of the modern world of science and technology. For Muslim minorities in countries such as Britain, France and Australia, they must take a clear cut stand against Islamist terrorists.
In Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan and Iraq, Muslims have to confront Islamists or they face the risk of being dragged back into a feudal past. Lee believes the tide of battle will turn against the extremists once moderate Muslim governments such as those in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Persian Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan comfortably and openly join a multilateral coalition against Islamist terrorists.
“The objective must be to reassure and persuade moderate Muslims…that they are not going to lose, that they have the weight, the resources of the world behind them. They must have the courage to go into the mosques and matrasses and switch off the radicals” he said.
In the end, Lee also suggested that a military solution was not enough on its own. “You must use force. But force will only deal with the tip of the problem. In killing the terrorists, you will only kill the worker bees. The queen bees are the preachers, who teach a deviant form of Islam in schools and Islamic centres, who capture and twist the minds of the young.”
Lee, who had in his lifetime defeated and eliminated both Communist insurgents and Islamists in Singapore, where a sizable Muslim community lives, is worth listening to. His solution, if we could boil it down, is to provide as much support to moderate Muslims as needed to defeat radicals.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/11/17/china/lee-kuan-yew-and-how-fight-islamic-terrorism
Photo: Fabrications About The PAP
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