Tackling terrorism

In a wide-ranging interview with CBS’ Charlie Rose on the sidelines of his working visit to Washington, His Majesty King Abdullah called for a “holistic approach” to the rapid rise of radicalism and terrorism, not just regionally but globally as well. 

A holistic approach, the King went on to explain, entails “reaching out to each other”, Arabs, Muslims and the entire international community. 

The added value of reaching out to all partners in the fight against the Islamic State and what it stands for, entails closer cooperation among countries willing and able to join the battle of “good against evil”.

While the Arab and Muslim dimension is paramount and central to this struggle, the rest of the international community cannot sit on the sidelines much longer because the dangers emanating from radicalism and terrorism in the area will reach them sooner or later, unless they are defeated here and now in the Middle East.

The fight against these evils, the King added is multi-dimensional and multi-phased as well.  

“I hope the short-term part of it is going to be the military. The medium term is a security aspect of it. But the long term is going to be the ideological one.”

In retrospect, this third and last phase may prove to be the most difficult since changing people’s mindsets and redirecting them to the true teachings of Islam is going to be generational. 

Yet a start must be made, as the sooner moderate Muslims begin this ideological phase, the sooner will the fight against radical and terrorism succeed. 

For this particular purpose, there is a pressing need for a regional conference to conceive of effective ways and means to re-educate Muslims on the true values of Islam, starting with schools and universities.