Start Befriending Imams

The failed bombing of Times Square has reopened a debate in the mainstream American press about the roots of radicalization. The would-be bomber, Faisal Shahzad, was a gentrified and presumably “well-integrated” Pakistani-American living in Connecticut. His father was a high-ranking officer in the Pakistani air force. The boy attended a school in Peshawar famous for sons of the wealthy. Then he won a scholarship to study in the United States.

Shahzad did not live the life of an ascetic in his first few years as an exchange student in Connecticut. According to a New York Times profile, he stood out from the 14 other Pakistani students on the University of Bridgeport campus. Shahzad “walked with a confident air, showing off his gym-honed muscles in tight T-shirts”, “had a wider circle of friends and a fuller social calendar (than his compatriots)”, and “hit New York City’s Bengali-theme nightclubs” on the weekends. Rounding out this portrait of machismo is a quote from a former classmate saying that “(Shahzad) could drink anyone under the table.” Sounds like a good candidate for any self-respecting fraternity.

But next, of course, comes the plunge into extremism. Well, not just yet. First, Faisal marries a Pakistani-American from Colorado and has two children by her. He earns a master’s degree in business at the University of Bridgeport and grows more affluent at a new job. He barbecues and tends to his lawn. He lives American.

With Shahzad, there never really was a “plunge into extremism.” His anti-Americanism seems a long time festering. He reportedly watched the Twin Towers burn with a sense of justice. “They had it coming,” he told a friend. Who exactly are “they”, Mr. Shahzad? Do the 9/11 victims who were from Muslim countries give you any cognitive dissonance?

The last two attempted terror attacks on U.S. soil came courtesy of upper-class jihadists. (The Underwear Bomber is the son of a prominent Nigerian banker.) They are two men who sucked from the teat of Western capitalism and open societies, only to spit their privileges back out in indignation. “Can you tell me how to save the oppressed?” Shahzad wrote to a group of friends in 2006. “And a way to fight back as rockets are fired at us and Muslim blood flows?”

Some radicals are irreversible. They have chosen martyrdom and there is nothing we can do about it. But the delusion of some has been helped on less by ideological factors than by material ones. Endless poverty or the loss of a loved one might spin these impressionable youths out of society's orbit and into the arms of extremism. We must do what we can to catch these wayward souls before they ricochet back into us to devastating effect.

One man up to the task is Hesham Shashaa. Mr. Shashaa is an Egyptian of Palestinian extraction who makes his living as imam of the Darul Quran mosque in Munich. Imam Shashaa follows the strictest form of Islam, Salafism. Yet unlike some of his colleagues across Europe who have denounced terrorism but sympathized with the causes of Al Qaeda and Hamas, Mr. Shashaa declares these groups to be violators of Islam. He visits Muslim communities across Europe to preach the incompatibility of violence with the Muslim faith. He had the courage to go to Pakistan to inform students at a madrassa that bin Laden and Mullah Omar (the head of the Afghan Taliban) were phonies. "It must be the head of state or caliphate who announces jihad", said Mr. Shashaa, adding that jihad must also be limited to self-defense. "What they (bin Laden and Omar) do is not jihad." A man in the audience stood up in a rage and called for Shashaa's head. The globetrotting imam responded resolutely, "If you can show me in the Koran or the Sunnah that I am wrong, then I will be the first one who would take a gun and join them, but you won't be able to find something like that." Shashaa knows that scripture vindicates Islam as a religion of peace. Let him win as many doctrinal arguments with the brainwashed as he can.

We hear a lot about how Muslims are confined to the margins of European societies. The gruesome murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and the French quest to ban the burqa are two flashpoints in post 9/11 Islamo-European relations. Because of the proximity of Europe to the “Muslim world”, a different kind of tension permeates the immigration debate across the pond. Authors like Ian Buruma write of “Eurabia”, or the coming tectonic collision between these two civilizations. But people like Imam Shashaa can help quiet the tremors. His sense of humor is a start. The man looks like Osama bin Laden and has been heckled by Westerners for it. So Shashaa shuffles through the streets of Munich wearing a sign that reads, “I am not Osama bin laden. I am Hesham Shashaa.” He also charms his onlookers by God-blessing them in the German tongue.

The German police coordinate well with Imam Shashaa. But they should not see the imam as a means to an end. For cross-cultural trust to grow we must cross these lines anytime we can, not just to gather intel. Muslims in Europe and America feel unfairly targeted by authorities. Counter-terrorism efforts have involved bugging mosques and placing agents among the congregation. This is sometimes necessary work, but it should be avoided when possible and complemented by an unclenched fist to Muslim communities. This outreach is not just about combating terrorism; it’s about realizing a brotherhood of man. Imagine it.

I am Hesham