US needs ‘rethink of terror strategy’

American government urged to use and strengthen its ties with Muslim nations

ABU DHABI // The United States needs to rethink key aspects of its policies on fighting terrorism and Islamic extremism to avoid creating a clash between the West and the Muslim world, a report says. Washington think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies carried out a study on the recent trends in violent Islamic extremism and terrorism.

It also looked at the causes of such violence and the role played by America’s partners in the Muslim world.

“The key challenge to the US is to revitalise its security partnerships, work with largely Muslim states and develop better collective approaches to the threat of extremism and other threats – like those posed by Iran,” it was stated in the report, Rethinking the Threat of Islamic Extremism: The Changes Needed in US Strategy.

“It needs to also show it can act decisively and is a partner that its partners can trust. If it is careless in dealing with Islam and the Muslim world, it can also transform a struggle against a small extremist minority into a far more serious clash between the West and the Muslim world.

“It can also play into the hands of threats like Iran’s very different kinds of extremists and states like Russia.”

Relations between the US and its Gulf allies, including the UAE, were strained last year after GCC nations expressed concern about a weak US presence in the region and a reluctance to confront Iran. The republic has long been a concern for Gulf states, who criticised it for turmoil in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain.

But the report stated that a successful US strategy required working with moderate Muslim governments.

“The report highlights where the shortcomings in US policy have been and their effect, but it lays out the remedies as well,” said Sabahat Khan, senior analyst at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. “What has been clear over the past many years, but especially since 9/11, is that the element of trust and reliability between the US and its Muslim-majority nation partners has deteriorated.

“The interests of both sides suffered.” Mr Khan said the US needed to help build strong alliances in the Gulf and, more widely, among Muslim- majority nations, pushing efforts to promote tolerance to stop religious extremism and Islamophobia, which “feed each other”.

“The US also urgently needs to start leading on resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and it needs to pay attention to seriously reducing tensions between Pakistan and India because that will have a wider regional effect in places like Afghanistan,” he said . Ideally, the US would focus on pursuing its counter-terrorism objectives through cooperation with local populations in affected areas, said Ahmed Al Attar, assistant director of defence and security at Abu Dhabi think tank The Delma Institute.

“In Libya, which just saw a highly successful campaign against ISIL take place, the US’s cooperation with local players, especially the moderate states of the region, was key in defeating the group,” he said. “The US needs to cooperate with local groups and tribes in Syria and Iraq, and there it should increasingly rely on support from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan.

“This was not the approach of the previous US administration but the current administration would be wise to adopt this approach.”

Dr Albadr Al Shateri, politics professor at the National Defence College, said the idea of extremism linked to a particular religion was selfdefeating.

“The label Islamic extremism enhances the legitimacy of those groups who commit atrocities and alienates the vast majority of peace-loving Muslims,” he said.

“Extremism is an international phenomenon and attributing it to a specific culture or religion does a disservice to combating this evil.

“The world needs the cooperation, and indeed the collaboration, of all Muslims to eliminate the scourge of terrorism.”