segovius
02-07-2005, 04:47 AM
Yemen has found a non violent weapon in the it's own version of the 'war on terror': Qur'anic debates (http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0204/p01s04-wome.html)
Five leading Islamic scholars challenged al-Qaeda prisoners held in Yemen to a theological debate with the loser to admit the winner held the correct interpretation.
Cleric Judge Hamoud al-Hitar told the prisoners in his challenge:
"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."
The prisoners were confident and easily agreed - of course they lost, but the results are interesting.
Apparently they have been released and terror attacks have stopped.
"Since December 2002, when the first round of the dialogues ended, there have been no terrorist attacks here, even though many people thought that Yemen would become terror's capital," says Hitar, eyes glinting shrewdly from beneath his emerald-green turban. "Three hundred and sixty-four young men have been released after going through the dialogues and none of these have left Yemen to fight anywhere else."
"Yemen's strategy has been unconventional certainly, but it has achieved results that we could never have hoped for," says one European diplomat, who did not want to be named. "Yemen has gone from being a potential enemy to becoming an indispensable ally in the war on terror."
Personally I think something like this has to be an integral part of any struggle against radical Islam. As the Judge says "If you study terrorism in the world, you will see that it has an intellectual theory behind it.....and any kind of intellectual idea can be defeated by intellect."
What do people think of this ?
Five leading Islamic scholars challenged al-Qaeda prisoners held in Yemen to a theological debate with the loser to admit the winner held the correct interpretation.
Cleric Judge Hamoud al-Hitar told the prisoners in his challenge:
"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."
The prisoners were confident and easily agreed - of course they lost, but the results are interesting.
Apparently they have been released and terror attacks have stopped.
"Since December 2002, when the first round of the dialogues ended, there have been no terrorist attacks here, even though many people thought that Yemen would become terror's capital," says Hitar, eyes glinting shrewdly from beneath his emerald-green turban. "Three hundred and sixty-four young men have been released after going through the dialogues and none of these have left Yemen to fight anywhere else."
"Yemen's strategy has been unconventional certainly, but it has achieved results that we could never have hoped for," says one European diplomat, who did not want to be named. "Yemen has gone from being a potential enemy to becoming an indispensable ally in the war on terror."
Personally I think something like this has to be an integral part of any struggle against radical Islam. As the Judge says "If you study terrorism in the world, you will see that it has an intellectual theory behind it.....and any kind of intellectual idea can be defeated by intellect."
What do people think of this ?