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Hizb ut-Tahrir demonstration against American policy in Iraq and Somalia. London.
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| ![]() | | This week on public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas:
Reflections of a
Former Islamist Extremist
In its fervor to deter terrorist acts, Ed Husain says, the West is failing to understand the long-term threat — a spreading mindset that makes him and others susceptible to radicalization in the first place. Husain's personal story illuminates some of the most dangerous territory of modern life. He takes us there and challenges some of the West's most pervasive, instinctive reactions to it. { This program was originally released on February 7, 2008. } A Clash of Ideas, Not Civilizations
The news is once again full of Western resolve to fight terrorism and tighten airport security. But are we in the meantime failing to diagnose and address the larger threat that makes all this necessary? Ed Husain sparked debate and soul-searching across Great Britain with his 2007 memoir, The Islamist: Why I Became an Islamic Fundamentalist, What I Saw Inside, and Why I Left. I'm finding much needed clarity and critical perspective on this present moment through the conversation I had with him, and so we're presenting it again for you.
I first heard Ed Husain on the radio in London in 2007, before his book had been published in the U.S, and knew I wanted to have him on our show. He is now in his mid-30's, and on the surface his story has the marks of a classic, coming-of-age tale — seduction by revolutionary ideas, estrangement from immigrant parents, and a true love that jolts him back to what matters in life. But his intellectual dalliance was with radical, politicized Islam flourishing at the heart of educated British culture. He shrank back only after coming close to a murder. People he loved and admired became suicide bombers.
He now lives something of a mission — a "solemn duty" — to speak out and embolden public conversations that he sees as critical to our common future: the internal dialogue among Western Muslims and the shared vocabulary of thought and action they must develop with fellow citizens of Western nations.
Ed Husain's most challenging assertion, perhaps, is that in a fervor to prevent and punish terrorist acts in these years since September 11, 2001, Western governments have failed to comprehend and address the real nature of the deeper, long-term threat. He sees Al Qaeda, which so dominates American imaginations, as fragmentary at best. Behind it, powering it and other future organizations, is a "complex and subtle" mentality to which many are susceptible globally.
Some themes of this conversation echo a program from the early days of Speaking of Faith that was formative for me, "The Power of Fundamentalism." I interviewed three men — a Christian seminary president, a Jewish journalist, and a Muslim lawyer and humanitarian. Each had been drawn into fundamentalist thought and camaraderie for a time in his youth. Using different words, these now erudite, accomplished men all recalled the "exhilaration" and "intoxication" of that experience, a sense of empowerment and belonging that perfectly met the longing and irascibility of youth.
Ed Husain describes this too, and adds new nuance to my understanding of contemporary Islamism in particular. The term Ummah — the ideal of the global Islamic community, which is meaningful for many Muslims — was a galvanizing concept for him between the ages of 16 and 22, as he became a progressively active member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. This organization has a prominent presence in British mosques and universities, and Ed Husain is quick to add that it is not a terrorist organization. But, in the absence of a larger context of societal integration, he says, a group like this can incline vulnerable young people to a separatist and potentially violent path. He describes the compellingly political, ideological appeal of today's Islamism, which "exploits Islam's adherents" though it is "remote from Islam's teachings."
In fact, Islamic scholarship and spirituality themselves provided a corrective to Ed Husain's Islamist mentality. Through digging deeper into Islam he came to see the Ummah not as a political ideology but a spiritual community of vital diversity. And he insists that Islamic devotion can be reconciled with vigorous, responsible citizenship in Western democracies. He points to the North American Muslim community as an evolving model of this idea.
I take much away from this conversation that helps me assess unfolding events. And Ed Husain's story on the whole underscores the most urgent conclusion I've drawn from the sweep of my conversations with diverse Muslims these past years — a message that starkly contradicts the language of the "clash of civilizations" that took hold in the immediate days after September 11, 2001 and has distorted our collective vision ever since. At risk of repeating myself, I'll offer it here in his words: "This is the key," Husain says, "and this is where I don't think most non-Muslims — including most Americans — simply don't understand the stakes that we're playing for here. This phenomenon, whatever you want to call it — political Islam, extremism, Al Qaeda world view, Wahhabism — it threatens Muslims first and foremost, before it goes out and tries to undermine the West… And that's why it's not a cliché to say that the West and normal Muslims, moderate Muslims, have a common cause in defeating this extremist mindset. It threatens both of us."
I Recommend Reading:
The Islamist: Why I Became an Islamic Fundamentalist, What I Saw Inside, and Why I Left
by Ed Husain
A compelling, courageous and important story, elegantly told.
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