Raheel Raza: Let’s Defeat the Ideology

Clarion Project
August 3, 2017

I testified before Congress Thursday on the subject of radical Islam, “Homegrown Terrorism” and “Countering Violent Extremism.”

The key message I delivered was that, if we want to combat radical Islam and “Counter Violent Extremism,” we need to confront these radicals before they become violent, before they adopt a radical and violent ideology.

Before World War II, Nazism was an ideology expressed in “Mein Kampf.”

Before 2 million Chinese died in the Cultural Revolution, ideas were written down in a “Little Red Book.”

And in 1928 another ideology appeared, with the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks a totalitarian system of government and forced implementation of Shariah law.

This ideology fuels ISIS and al-Qaida, subjugates women, executes homosexuals, kills Christians and inspires some “homegrown” American Muslims to commit acts of terror.

I was in a Clarion Project short film called By the Numbers, which put numbers to these assertions based on Pew Research:

• 27 percent of Muslims, or 237 million, believe that non-believers should be executed; and
• 26 percent of young American Muslims believe suicide bombings against non-Muslims “can be justified.”

Not all Muslims hold this radical ideology, but millions do.

Some claim ideology is not a clear predictor of terrorism; they are dead wrong.

A 2016 study traced the path of 100 violent jihadists. Fifty-one percent of them began their journey in non-violent Islamist movements.

The issues of homegrown terrorism and the ideology that spreads it are of critical importance to America’s national security and the American way of life.

The congressional committee I testified before is bipartisan, and this is a bipartisan issue – one lawmakers from both sides of the aisle often misunderstand.

When a homegrown terrorist attack happens, generally speaking:

The left blames it on too many guns.

The right blames it on not enough security (cops, laws, walls).

But the truth is, we need an entirely different approach. We need to fight this ideological war – on ideological grounds.

By the time an extremist becomes violent, it is too late. As such, the U.S. must defeat, humiliate, destroy and discredit this poisonous, radical ideology.

When we defeat radical Islam on ideological grounds, it won’t matter how many guns or laws or walls there are. The enemy will have been defeated.