One way to cure the extremist mindset

Chitral : These days there is a lot of awakening towards extremism and every country wants to get rid of it, including those which fostered it in the past. Here, It is not so much a change of heart as it is the realization that the ‘chicken have turned homeward to roost there.’

Now that the unacceptability of extremism has become common with all countries, as links have been established between extremism and terrorism, we should think of practical ways to change the radical and extremist mindset of those who bear it. One way to do so is to gather all hard line religious clerics and send them on international tours so that they see with their own eyes where the world has reached and where are they in relation to it.

The tours can be started with muslim countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey etc and then they can experience the western world as well. All religious clerics who are hardliners or have extreme views are not bad. There are some jewels among them but because of not having been exposed to the real world outside, they live in their own limited universe. If such religious leaders are transformed to accept the facts of the real world they can change the course of the mindset of youngsters who can become proud muslims serving humanity and world peace. .. CN report, 05 Aug 2018

4 thoughts on “One way to cure the extremist mindset

  1. Idea is good but I’m afraid not practical, there are thousands of such types of mindsets in our society and taking such huge number of religious leaders/preachers for international exposure to the mentioned countries seems not economical and practical, it needs million dollar budget for this. We have to learn lesson from the history of developed nations particularly western countries, how they were under influence of Churches 60 to 100 years back and how clergy used to rule the nations and if you study the civilization, economic situation, poverty, crime, atrocities and barbarism was at their peek under this corrupt system run by clergy.
    How they came out of this corrupt system was only education and education…..a time came when the common street man caught priest hard and asked him to stop saying nonsense, we can better interpret bible than you and the Churches were dis-empowered. Women were educated and feminist movement began which empowered women (50%) of human population and the nations were put on right track of development based on equality and justice to everyone.
    Same situation is within our society, everyone tries to interpret religion according to his interest and benefits, which create the real problem. All religions teach and emphasis on the most common good and basic principles to spend life including believe in devine power, honesty, justice, not to be cruel to fellow being and even to animals, not to lie, not cheat and steal and kiling inncent people. Islam, as we proudly say is a complete code of conduct…..yes it is, but what is being going on in our country by our political leaders, our religious leaders and our government ministries and governance and judicial systems; are these governance rules, management and judicial systems are in consonance with code of Islam?
    these are all a mess and to me the only solution is quality mass education and only educated nation can reform society, promote pluralism and reduce extremism in society.

  2. Educating people is OK but what is the harm in educating the Mullah also so that he develops a broad and open mind and preaches the positive aspects of religion instead of focusing on the divisive and extremist issues. Traveling broadens the mind and it hold true for a Mulla also.. You must have seen that a religious preacher who travels widely is usually a more enlightened preacher and advocate of peace and moderation.

  3. An alternative way for fight against extremism but it is not the solution. There are Taliban bent upon occupation of Afghanistan, let alone, other extremist groups fighting elsewhere. All the seminaries need to be nationalized and restructured and the fanatics be sent west. Nothing less than a big revolution can bring about desired results.

  4. When the Arabs became Muslims things started to change dramatically in Arabia. Overwhelming number of people started becoming Muslims so much so that Islam started to overflow out of Arabia.
    So what was the reason? Those Arabs were Muslims as such were very welcomed by one and by all.
    Let us all search our souls and ask this question. Are we any bit like those early Muslims? If not. Why not.

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