Daily Times

Many hearts felt grief at seeing the Holy Quran being set on fire and thrown in the trash in Norway, a Northern European country in the Scandinavian Peninsula. It came as an added shock that the country’s education system had been ranked amongst the top five education systems of the world for two-quarters of years 2018 and 2019 by worldtop20.org. Norway has a population of more than five million. The country was second on the Legatum Property Index in the year 2018.

People in Norway enjoy the freedom of speech and liberal culture in a beautiful country of the world. It was in the same Norway, where a few days back, in an event held by “Stop Islamisation of Norway,” two activists, Lars Thorsen and Arne Tumyr, molested Holy Quran.

The question arises here why are these attempts of burning and disgracing Holy Quran happening in the region, which is supposed to be educated, prosperous and cultured in the world. The West, supposed to be leading the world with its models of integrity, modernity, morality, equality, and humanity, is getting questioned over its tolerance, coexistence, counter-violence and the safety of its minorities and their belief systems. Perhaps, there remain gaps in the learning-based systems, which governments have not yet focused to identify, review, unlearn and relearn concepts to control such events of intolerance.

Education in the East, especially South Asia, is not even touching the bounds of top twenty indexes. Still, its ostensibly uneducated and illiterate people do not set holy books on fire. They do lack scientific knowledge. They score the lowest in maths and logic. Perhaps, they do not carry multiple studies on society. They are not good at technological development, but they still have respect for religious books, ethnic diversity and co-existence. This is because of their faith, based on knowledge and teachings of Islam. Islam teaches to not hurt others, treat them equally, respect the difference of opinion and let everybody follow whatever belief system they possess. We have learnt, “There is no compulsion in religion” (Quran 2:257). This has been exemplified over centuries by the then Islamic states to the democratic and capitalistic societies of the current times.

Right-wing extremists aim to overthrow liberal governments; replacing them with nationalist and fascist agendas

However, many people quote random incidents of outrage, which happen to minorities. This could not be called a movement for the eradication of minorities in society. No one could quote any example similar to “Stop Islamisation of Norway.”

On the contrary, there remain many social movements to uphold minorities’ rights and their wellbeing. Though we do not deny such events in our society, at the same time, one must read out the facts. At one place, we are less developed and less educated, with a comparison to the West. At the same time, Western society and media’s biases have a prolonged history of carrying out anti-Islam and anti-Muslim propaganda, which has portrayed many Muslims as terrorists.

Simultaneously, there ensues propaganda that Muslims are not being treated equally in the West. So, the reaction of the less educated people, who only get offended by these blames, is to treat other communities differently. However, such examples are very few and can be counted at fingertips. Such a reaction is difficult to manage. Fuelled by discriminatory treatment, they tend to become harsh. The West cannot deny this. In its news story on July 20, 2018., “The Guardian” reported that terror attacks by Muslims receive 357 per cent more press attention; the Muslims receive an average of 105 headlines; others just 15.

The effectively educated and cultured people of the West are not supposed to be harsh, intolerant, aggressive, and arrogant to other’s belief systems. If this is the outcome of top world education and values of cultured people, how many wrongs of non-cultured and badly educated can be counted?

Let’s have a brief look at extremism. It is to impose one’s beliefs, ideologies or values on others through force or propaganda and being intolerant of other beliefs and perceptions. ‘”You and we” is the world view, which seeks to divide communities along communal lines; enforcing this through violence. This further seeks to limit or restrain the civil liberties, or human rights of others based on gender, religion, sexuality and race. Whereas excluding other groups, particularly minorities, from public life through discrimination, stimulating hatred, or through acts of violence is extremism.

If we analyse extremism prevalent in the West, let us quote an article, “The Threatening Rise of Non-Islamic Terror and Extremism in the West,” by Cat Cronin on July 11, 2019, at American Security Project website. He wrote, “The greatest non-Islamic threat in the West is left and right-wing extremism, which can lead to terrorism. Left-wing groups are often rooted in Marxist or Leninist ideologies that promote revolutionary, anti-capitalist, and anti-authoritarian agendas. Far right-wing groups violently pursue supremacism ?the idea that a certain group of people sharing a common element (nation, race, culture, etc.) is superior to all other people.”

Right-wing extremists aim to overthrow liberal governments; replacing them with nationalist and fascist agendas. It further elaborated, “Although many Americans view Islamic terrorists as the greatest threat to the country; US-born far-right extremists have been responsible for three times more attacks. Between 2009 and early 2019, 73.3% of fatalities resulting from a terrorist attack were from right-wing extremists, compared to only 23.4% by Islamic extremists. In 2018, right-wing extremism was linked to 50 extremist-related murders in the U.S., the highest number since 1995. It explains further that ‘It is difficult to charge people with domestic terrorism charges due to First Amendment rights, which permit free speech and the freedom to engage with others who have radical views.”

The same article shared another opinion: “Right-wing extremist groups have risen due to a “fear of an assumed Islamisation’ of the Western world.”

If we analyse the article, it denies the fact from within, the rise of left and right wing groups is promoting extremism. But, at the same time, it suspects the fear for assumed Islamisation of the Western world. The assumptions could not surpass facts because it accepts that this is a matter of law of freedom of speech, which doesn’t allow bringing the perpetrators under the state laws.

Another article published in “TIME” on August 8, 2019, was titled, “We Are Being Eaten From Within: Why America Is Losing the Battle Against White Nationalist Terrorism,” by Vera Bergengruen.

W J Hennigan wrote, “Right-wing terrorism is a global problem, resulting in devastating attacks from New Zealand to Norway, a bedrock tradition of free speech that protects the expression of hateful ideologies and laws that make it challenging to confront a disaggregated movement that exists largely in the shadows of cyberspace. No comparable system exists in domestic-terror cases. Domestic terrorism is not even a federal crime, forcing prosecutors to charge suspects under hate-crime laws.”  It further quoted, “White supremacy is a greater threat than international terrorism right now.”

David Hickton, a former U.S. Attorney who directs the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security exclaimed, “We are being eaten from within!”

New Zealand Journal of Psychology researched in 2019 on terrorism anxiety and attitudes towards Muslims. It found out that, “Muslims continue to be perceived as a threat. Moreover, when Muslims are seen to pose a terrorist threat or support terrorism, they are more likely to be discriminated against, both personally and institutionally.”

The articles mentioned above reflect the white supremacy, emergence of ideology-based groups and assumptions about Muslims, which have produced more extremists in the West than Muslims. The role of Western education is more accounted here for two things: First, the Muslims were portrayed as terrorists, extremists, which many of the studies and researches, done by Western institutions, have negated in their results. At the time, Muslim scholars round the world were asking to not attach terrorism to Islam yet they were not listened to. The West didn’t accept the truth and kept on blaming Muslims.

The second point is that when Western education is accepted as a top-quality education system in the world, why did it did not teach its learners respect for all belief systems, respect to religions and the difference of opinions, tolerance and co-existence in the society. Children graduating from world-class education systems are burning religious books, attacking believers of some specific schools of thought, following lies without research and propagating things, which they feel are doing wrong to others. Along with this, one understands when ideology-based groups come in opposition and have some reactions, it is managed by educational institutions with incorporating new thoughts, reflections and ideologies based on what works and what does not.

There should be limits of freedom of speech and extent of liberty not to abuse the belief system of a religion, which is followed by more than a billion people in the world. The limits of freedom of speech should be taught in a revised version at schools so that governments do not have to review the freedom of speech laws. The freedom of speech, as I understand, permits any individual to talk and advocate for the wellbeing of people, their rights, their needs, their culture, their beliefs and understandings and whatever one wishes to bring on the earth. The talk on the ideological differences should not be a topic under freedom of speech if the extent of liberty is communicated. However, freedom of speech is a part of every government’s laws, which differ to the needs, limits and capacities of the governments. But when freedom of speech crosses limits to become abuses of humans, their understanding and beliefs, the matter is of the effectiveness of the education in the society.

We have been taking Western education as a model to follow. It is due to the Western governments’ systems and procedures of governance, which are well-exemplified and followed. But when we look at the values of respect, tolerance, coexistence, morals and cultural bondage; purity of soul and body; broad-mindedness; foresight; patience; bravery and humility, these are found less intact within such schooling systems. Muslims learners are taught forgiveness and fraternity, despite provocation. This is the attribution of Islamic faith-based education, which the West has learnt but not followed. Its outcomes are visible to everyone. The world-class education models of the West are, perhaps, not able to inculcate in their learners the limits of freedom of speech and respect to all religions of the world to live together with peace. Let’s recognise that ideologies cannot be stopped by burning books. They make their way through minds, so we need to broaden minds by discussing ideologies to negate or accept.

The writer is a freelance contributor