The extremist groups ISIS, al Qaeda and al Nusra share nearly identical ideologies, and challenging their interpretation of Islam is critical to their defeat, a new report says.
The Centre on Religion and Geopolitics — an initiative of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation set up by the former British prime minister — analyzed propaganda from the Salafi jihadi groups over two years.
“Built upon distorted Islamic religious principles, the propaganda produces single-minded focus on violent jihad,” its researchers found.
“They call for a caliphate of slavery, death and destruction,” said Ed Husain, the center’s senior adviser.
“They justify their evil by abusively citing scripture and creating religious certainty in the minds of angry, eager and obedient recruits,” Husain said.
The center said the group’s ideological foundations needed to be challenged by other interpretations of Islamic principles from mainstream Islamic theology.
“Jihadi groups thrive on simplicity: the more that they are forced to defend their interpretation of Islamic values, the harder it will be to maintain that simplicity,” the report said.
Appealing to a younger generation
With 62% of Muslims under age 30, alternative ideologies needed to be provided in a way that “today’s generation understand,” the center said.
Celebrities, sports personalities and musicians need to be better used in helping prevent the spread of extremism, it said.
“Counter-narratives must embrace the power of popular culture as well as the authority of religious voices to succeed. Meanwhile, many disenfranchised returning fighters have an important role to play in debunking the legitimacy of this ideology.”
The center also recommended giving support to grassroots Muslim responses and helping technology companies such as Twitter and YouTube promote “credible religious sharable material that rebuts the jihadi message.”
“Search engines, social media, and video sharing websites could use algorithms and positive flagging systems to ensure this content is as visible as possible, as well as providing warnings that certain search terms might lead to extremist material.”