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Radicalisation: A Hollywood Solution to the Spreading Wildfire

radicalisationAbout the characters and meaning of a Muslim, The Prophet (PBuH) said a Muslim ishe from whose tongue and hands others are at peace. Clearly there is a disconnect between Prophet’s message and that of violent extremists now spreading like a wildfire thanks to media.

A Cherokee grandfather told his grandchildren, “In life there is a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil: he is … anger, hatred, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit. The other is good: he is joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, and compassion.” A child asked, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?” The elder looked him in the eye. “The one you feed”. The wolves referred to here are the Nafs (evil soul) and Ruh (good soul) both resident in every person. This concept is also emphasised in Imam Al Ghazali’s “Revival of Religious Sciences.”

Thousands of media materials/content are focused on life on earth, feeding billions of souls to focus on material earthly life. Yet it is the shortest of the three abodes (world, grave, and hereafter) of a soul. Whereas earthly life is one we should pursue as encouraged in the Quran, we ought to equally remember the hereafter and the same media can be used to visually explore the hereafter.

On earth, the soul has three states; an-nafs al-ʾammārah bil suu’I (soul inclined to evil), an-nafs al-lawwāmah (self-accusing soul), and an-nafs al-muṭmaʾinnah (soul at peace). Most of the content in media, movies, TV, feeds souls to be more and stay in the first state (inclined to evil). But what do souls in the other two states feed on? On deen, reminders of the hereafter, among others.

Violent extremists have reinterpreted the notion of jihad in the light of constraining circumstances away from a focus on internal (soul) struggle toexternal struggle (‘migrate and fight’) and salvation through a (more individualised) deadly form of ‘jihad’.

Here’s “Extremist propaganda is too widely available, particularly online, and has a direct impact on radicalising individuals. The poisonous messages of extremists must not be allowed to drown out the voices of the moderate majority.” UK Extremism Task Force (ETF), 2013. “The reaction of individuals to this propagation in our fieldwork varies widely; from attempts to keep religious belief separate from politics, to personal piety, to adoption of more radical views.” Says a 2008 EU funded study.

But some dozens of terror analysts have sentiments like, “Meanwhile, it’s clear that ISIL has been using the internet to aggressively recruit to its death cult – using all the tools available, while governments have not been so fast and able to put together an effective counter-narrative that can permeate online.”aljazeera.com, Rachal Shabi, 2015.

Reports say as a key narrative for a revivalist trend, many Muslims are always searching to be good Muslims, it is important that they don’t find the terrorists’ narrative first or more appealing to hearts, hence the need for creative ways to delineate between the dominant understanding of jihad from its focus on the inner and outer dimensions of self/soul against ego, worldliness, tolerance, among other good characters taught by the peaceful prophet.

On average young people spend 10 hours on media daily, feeding hearts and minds with whatever they see. It’s on record most of the content they see is violence related, whether it is news or fiction movies, studies have shown watching violence influences especially young people to act violently let alone taking away focus on being the “good” Muslim.

So what is the likely chance that a radicalised individual’s heart and mind would independently drop or avoid violence and hatred ideals if, they saw a thought provoking animation video exploring the true hereafter as described in the Quran/Hadith? This project seeks to answer this and other related questions.

The EU funded study says “while there is no shortage of other currents and counter ideologies, a central problem remains of how they[the counter-narratives] are enabled, funded, disseminated, how they gain access to the broader mass Muslim ‘field’ and can be reinforced.” And that “…states cannot be seen to be the key actor if they are to have legitimacy.” Below is my suggestion.

A Hollywood Solution

As a practising Muslim I have over time learnt that when our hearts transgress, it’s sometimes not because we don’t know what we are losing (in Janna) or what torment is in store for us (in hell), but because we just fail to visualise the two clearly.  That is why severally Allah has painted pictures and encouraged the Prophet (SAW) to paint pictures or examples for people to better understand what to expect in both heaven and hell as a result of their actions. Qur’anic concepts of judgement day, the Siraat, boiling hell, paradise among others can be artistically animated for people to better visualise what to expect as a result of their actions.

Being that pictures speak louder than words, the idea therefore is to create animated movie/film TV series using the advanced technology and production expertise at Hollywood, to help souls give well informed thought to their actions and priorities before acting in violence, hatred, evil, terror, etc.

Hundreds of TV series are themed on terror and extremism, whereas they are fictional, several scenes demonise the West in the eyes of a novice Muslim, in a way promoting the extremists’ narrative. It is time for a slight shift of focus to the hereafter to neutralise this phenomenon.

Whereas social, political, economic constraints legitimately fuel radicalism, the real ultimate zeal or trigger to take on evil actions like suicide bombing is encapsulated in the heartily belief that one is destined for martyrdom and will receive eternal bliss on the hereafter.

Overlooked by many now failing counter-radicalisation campaigns like UK’s Prevent Strategy, the doctrine of reward and punishment forms the axis of Islam and other Abrahamic religions, for long influencing hearts and minds. Extremists, know and use it equivocally, twisting the message to situate their actions into what is already believed as rewards, refer to ISIS Leader’s Ramadhan message of 2015. An estimated 5.4 Billion people believe in judgement day and its rewards and punishments.

A credible thought provoking dramatized series (and a corresponding interactive web resource) of experiences and events of hereafter Islamic narrations comparatively highlighting rewards and punishments as results of an individual’s tolerant and terror acts. The general objective would be to influence the individualMuslim to willingly drop violence then value and adopt tolerance as did the Prophet.

Our world has become so media-centric including the average Muslim who can’t steer clear of misleading interpretations of Islamic text let alone find time off media. Islamic text (Qurán, Hadith) and indeed the Bible have VERY richdescriptions of hereafter experiences and events on judgement day, hellfire, paradise etc.

Visually dramatising and interactively articulating these, sets records straight, creates viral buzzwords and impressions superior to the hitherto elusive terrorist narrative, appeals to those on the radicalisation path to rethink their course, softens individual souls to tolerance and away from evil, eases access and genuine comprehension of specific beliefs, and most importantly help “build the capabilities of communities and civil society organisations so that they can campaign against the large volume of extremist material, including online”Extremism Task Force.

Movies can be a great mechanism for individual reflection but also conversation, catalysing discussion on highly charged topics in society, and providing a way to tackle issues without doing it explicitly. Movies also influence ideology which is the root cause of conflict.

Since the soul is by nature forgetful, a corresponding interactive and engaging web resource will be used as a spiritual follow-up mechanism constantly reminding the individual of how to be a good Muslim and how not to, helping them to focus on subduing their ego and living within the acceptable realm of Islam, offer a platform for debate and aggressive propagation of tolerant Islam. This will be highly user-centred with visual tools clearly articulating relevant Islamic concepts that are not easily understood.

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