{"id":76086,"date":"2017-11-10T09:40:49","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T16:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/zakaria-asias-turn-toward-radical-islam-is-alarming\/"},"modified":"2017-11-10T16:40:49","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T16:40:49","slug":"zakaria-asias-turn-toward-radical-islam-is-alarming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/zakaria-asias-turn-toward-radical-islam-is-alarming\/","title":{"rendered":"Zakaria: Asia\u2019s turn toward radical Islam is alarming"},"content":{"rendered":"
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du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 16 years since 9\/11, the city has proved astonishingly safe from jihadi groups and individuals. And yet, speaking about it to officials in this major global hub 10,000 miles away, the conclusions they reach are worrying. \u201cThe New York attack might be a way to remind us all that while ISIS is being defeated militarily, the ideological threat from radical Islam is spreading,\u201d says Singapore\u2019s Home Minister, K. Shanmugam. \u201cThe trend line is moving in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The military battle against jihadi groups in places like Syria and Afghanistan is a tough struggle, but it has always been one that favored the United States and its allies. After all, it\u2019s a contest between the combined military forces of some of the world\u2019s most powerful governments against a tiny band of guerrillas. On the other hand, the ideological challenge from ISIS has proved to be far more intractable. The terrorist group and ones like it have been able to spread their ideas, recruit disaffected young men and women, and infiltrate countries across the globe. Western countries remain susceptible to the occasional lone wolf, but the new breeding grounds of radicalism are once-moderate Muslim societies in Central, South and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

Consider Indonesia, the world\u2019s most populous Muslim country, long seen as a moderate bulwark. This year, the governor of Jakarta, the country\u2019s capital and largest city, lost his bid for re-election after he was painted by Muslim hardliners as unfit for office because he is Christian. Amid a rising tide of Islamist politics, Indonesia\u2019s \u201cmoderate\u201d president and its mainstream \u201cmoderate\u201d Islamic organizations have failed to stand up for the country\u2019s traditions of tolerance and multiculturalism.<\/p>\n

Or look at Bangladesh, another country with a staunchly secular past, where nearly 150 million Muslims live. Founded as a breakaway from Pakistan on explicitly non-religious grounds, Bangladesh\u2019s culture and politics have over the last decade become increasingly extreme. Atheists, secularists and intellectuals have been targeted and even killed, blasphemy laws have been enforced, and a spate of terror attacks have left dozens dead.<\/p>\n

Why is this happening? There are many explanations. Poverty, economic hardship and change produce anxieties. \u201cPeople are disgusted by the corruption and incompetence of politicians. They are easily seduced by the idea that Islam is the answer, even though they don\u2019t know what that means,\u201d a Singaporean politician explained to me.<\/p>\n

In Southeast Asia, almost all observers to whom I have spoken with believe that there is another crucial cause \u2013 exported money and ideology from the Middle East, chiefly Saudi Arabia. A Singaporean official told me, \u201cTravel around Asia and you will see so many new mosques and madrassas built in the last 30 years that have had funding from the Gulf. They are modern, clean, air-conditioned, well-equipped \u2013 and Wahhabi (Saudi Arabia\u2019s puritanical version of Islam).\u201d Recently, it was reported that Saudi Arabia plans to contribute almost $1 billion to build 560 mosques in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

How to turn this trend around? Singapore\u2019s Shanmugam says that the city-state\u2019s population (15 percent of which is Muslim) has stayed relatively moderate because state and society work very hard at integration. \u201cWe have zero tolerance for any kind of militancy, but we also try to make sure Muslims don\u2019t feel marginalized,\u201d he explained. Singapore routinely gets high marks in global rankings for its transparency, low levels of corruption, and the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Asia continues to rise but so does Islamic radicalism there. This trend can only be reversed by better governance and better politics \u2013 by leaders who are less corrupt, more competent and crucially more willing to stand up to the clerics and extremists.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s new crown prince spoke last week of turning his kingdom to \u201cmoderate Islam.\u201d Many have mocked this as a public relations strategy, pointing to the continued dominance of the Kingdom\u2019s ultra-orthodox religious establishment.<\/p>\n

A better approach would be to encourage the crown prince, hold him to his words, and urge him to follow up with concrete actions. This is the prize.<\/p>\n

Were Saudi Arabia to begin religious reform at home, it would be a far larger victory against radical Islam than all the advances on the battlefield so far.<\/p>\n

Fareed Zakaria is a columnist for The Washington Post. Reach him at comments@fareedzakaria.com<\/a>. \u00a9 2017 Washington Post Writers Group<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

du1-i-syn In the 16 years since 9\/11, the city has proved astonishingly safe from jihadi groups and individuals. And yet, speaking about it to officials in this major global hub 10,000 miles away, the conclusions they reach are worrying. \u201cThe New York attack might be a way to remind us all that while ISIS is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-76086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76086"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=76086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}