Religious liberty only way to secure defeat of Islamic State

The brutal strategy of insecure Arab leaders in combating radical Islam has backfired or missed targets. In silencing the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian military state has stifled free thinking for all Egyptians. As a result, Egypt is a socioeconomic time bomb. Similarly, in fighting the Muslim rebels of Syria, the regime has nearly destroyed the country. The repression of the Sunni opposition in Baghdad has led to the birth of the (Sunni) Islamic State in Iraq and in bordering Syria.

Sectarian, despotic rulers are no ideological match for political movements that are dedicated to death and destruction under the banner of religion. To effectively stem the tide of militant radicalism secular political reform is crucial: in particular, the separation of state from mosque, church and synagogue. It is hard to imagine religious freedom when clerical authority is politically dominant.

Why is religious freedom pivotal to people’s empowerment and nation-building? Religious liberty is the foundation of all social freedoms in the Middle East. Religion impacts progressive education, women’s rights, free speech, civil marriage, and the vitality of civil society.

The freeing of Arab societies from the controlling web of the clergy may be the region’s greatest challenge of the 21st century. Meeting this challenge would be the fulfillment of an Arab Spring — with which IS movements cannot compete.

Religious authorities in the Middle East continue to bless the marginalization of women, to condone elite or minority rule and to trivialize universal norms of human rights. Fear of religious authority continues to muzzle opinion makers, tame poets, marginalize scholars, silence political reformers, inhibit educators and discourage social scientists.

It is hard to know where political change should start first: by altering the political systems or the way people think. Is change to occur slowly or rapidly? Sadly, what is clear is that no Arab society dares to question the role of religion in shaping the outlook of children and youth. Arab thinkers do, however, observe that sectarian religious education is a threat to democracy. But until now, there has been no admission that the clerical establishment should be subject to systematic regulation and relieved of its social legislative mandate.

There are few social agencies actively promoting freedom of conscience: the right to believe or not to believe; to choose one’s birth faith or not.

Ironically, the strongest force of social change comes from IS and its equivalents, agents of tradition, spokesmen of the past, and advocates of paradise. The leading Middle East reformers speak with the gun and send messages with bombs. “Reform” is dominated by alienated, militant groups who recruit vulnerable, unemployed youth. Such militants have mastered the art of abuse of religious symbols.

The orientation of people to religion is confusing and disempowering. It is hard to break away from the commonly held view that the scripture explains everything. It is hard to remind believers that the holy book is essentially inspirational rather than encyclopedic.

The battle against IS is about the role of religion in state building. Secular power and religious liberty are crucial for ending Islamic State.