If suppression and separation won’t work, what will?
The fact is, we must engage in ideological war. Our ideas need to cross their borders. Our ideas need to infiltrate their societies. And then, those who believe in the murder of innocents can be punished by their own societies – as we are doing to the killers of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
So how do we do it?
First, we have to identify our enemy. It is not Islam. It is not extremist or fundamentalist Islam. Extremism and fundamentalism can provide tremendous moral clarity. The enemy is destructive forms of Islam. They are perfectly legitimate tracks within the faith – they are legitimate but unacceptable. The recent Kano attacks highlight this divide. At least 130 people were killed, at a Sunni mosque, by Sunnis. That act was battle between two forms of Islam – destructive Islam and what is being called ‘establishment Islam.’
So how do we attack this enemy? How do we undermine those who would give their lives for their cause?
First, we must undermine the path they are on now. In this effort, humor is a powerful tool. I do not support needlessly mocking religion, but as a general rule those who kill people in churches and mosques and synagogues should be laughed at. We should mock them and their religious beliefs (watch Four Lions). We should apply the same treatment to school shooters in the United States. Mockery is a more powerful deterrent than punishment. And the caring analysis of the root concerns actually encourages attacks. Of course, mockery does not stand alone. We can speak about what has been destroyed, and highlight the wastefulness of killers’ actions. And we can apply other tools. The West has mastered the techniques necessary to deconstruct a set of religious beliefs – they just need to turn their rhetorical guns in a new direction.
Second, we must provide another path by which people can achieve lives of meaning. We can’t allow a vacuum of meaning to exist – something will rush in. Here, the West has dropped the ball. Europeans eagerly sign up for ISIS because their own people have sucked the greater meaning out of their societies. Destructive Islam has rushed in because there was a need for something.
As I’ve written about in other places, I believe the core global message of Torah is one of creation, connection and protection. I didn’t have this belief when I started intensely studying the text – but my beliefs were reshaped by my interaction with it. In my view, humanity must seek to imitate G-d through our six days of creation and our seventh day of contemplative rest and experience of the unchanging. At the same time, we must balance this with efforts at protection – so that people can participate fully in the divine cycle. Ultimately we want to achieve a world in which we imitate and relate to G-d – without risk or loss. Judaism is filled with symbolism related to this cycle (e.g. the prohibition on interest). These symbols apply only to us. But the cycle itself applies globally. Critically, it is a positive cycle with numerous policy implications. I’ve written elsewhere on tax, healthcare, welfare and other topics elsewhere. But it is also a positive cycle that can provide meaning. It can provide connection to the divine and the timeless through the dedications of the week and the experience of the Sabbath day. It can provide connection to the timeless without destruction in the here and now.
Can we sell this outside of Western societies? I believe we can – and no time is better than now. The full impact of destructive Islam is being felt across the Islamic world. There are many adherents to these paths, but there are also who recognize it provides no road to restored Arab or Islamic pride. On the other hand, secularism – whether in Europe, Egypt or China – is failing to provide meaning. Having a nicer car, peace and a decent house might drive Xanax use, but little else. Secular societies will find something to grab on to, and the result can be terrible. Just look at Turkey, or Pakistan.