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Articles by Rashid Dar
Educating Americans to defuse Islamaphobia
Americans are obsessed with Islam as an idea, as a mystery and as an existential threat to the West. As a result, our debates over Islam and Muslims aren’t really about “them” as much as they are about “us”—and the supposed battle between the two. In his new book, “What the Qur’an Meant: And Why It Matters,” historian Garry Wills shows how some Americans use Muslims as a way to define who they themselves are and what they stand for, and to sharpen their definition of Western civilization.
After the fall of ISIS, what’s next for counterterrorism? Experts discuss
As ISIS continues to lose territory in Iraq and Syria, leaders in the region and the West will need to develop a new counterterrorism strategy to adapt to the group’s decentralization. Europe, meanwhile, has seen a surge of ISIS-claimed terrorist attacks on its own soil. In the context of these new challenges, experts on counterterrorism gathered at the 2017 U.S.-Islamic World Forum to discuss what governments, civil society, and the private sector can do.
Experts debate the intersections of Islam, democracy, pluralism, and citizenship in the Middle East
Renewed authoritarianism, the rise of ISIS, growing sectarian tensions, and new risks to minority communities all call into question the future of pluralism and tolerance in the Middle East. At the 2017 U.S.-Islamic World Forum, a panel on religion and governance examined prospects for strengthening the culture of citizenship in the Middle East and some of the broader political issues that surround it.
How to hate each other peacefully in a democracy | Brookings Institution
It is difficult to imagine it now, but continental Europe struggled with foundational divides—with periodic warnings of civil war—as recently as the 1950s. Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands were divided into ideologically opposed subcultures, sometimes called “spiritual families” or “pillars.” These countries became models of “consensual democracy,” where the subcultures agreed to share power through creative political arrangements.
Islamists on Islamism today: An interview with Mustafa Elnemr, Muslim Brotherhood youth activist | Brookings Institution
We continue here Brookings’ interview series with Islamist leaders and activists, as part of our Rethinking Political Islam initiative. We asked each participant to discuss the state of his or her movement and reflect on lessons learned from various crises, including the rise of ISIS and the 2013 military coup in Egypt. So far we’ve released interviews with Egyptian, Lebanese, Pakistani, Moroccan, and Tunisian Islamists.
Trump has vowed to eradicate ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ But what about ‘Islamism’?
In conservative political circles in the United States, Islamism has become interchangeable with “radical Islamic terrorism,” which President Trump has vowed to “eradicate from the face of the Earth.” Across the political spectrum, though, the idea of Islamism and the threat of violence are never far apart. But what if we got it wrong? What if the prospect of violence is actually secondary?
Islamism after the Arab Spring: Between the Islamic State and the nation-state
Five years after the start of the Arab uprisings, mainstream Islamist groups—which generally seek to operate within the confines of institutional politics—find themselves brutally repressed (Egypt), fallen from power (Tunisia), internally fractured (Jordan), or eclipsed by armed groups (Syria and Libya).
The implications of Donald Trump’s sharp contrast from Obama and Bush on Islam | Brookings Institution
President-elect Donald Trump and his top political and security advisers are convinced Islam’s moral rules, the sharia, not only imperil the safety of Americans but their very way of life. They break sharply with Presidents Obama and George W. Bush who refused to equate traditional Islam with terrorism. The rupture view could ultimately serve as a boon to jihadist recruitment.
Why it could be incredibly difficult to be Muslim and political in the age of Donald Trump
This opinion piece is by Rashid Dar, a research assistant at a think tank in Washington. President-elect Donald Trump and his recent Cabinet picks all have something important in common: a shared hatred of Islam. Incoming CIA director Mike Pompeo believes Muslims don’t condemn terrorism (they do). Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s pick for attorney general, has time and time again defended the plan to ban Muslim immigration. Lt. Gen.
Will left vs. right become a fight over ethnic politics?
The first night of the Democratic National Convention was a rousing success, with first lady Michelle Obama and progressive icon Sen. Elizabeth Warren offering one of the most impressive succession of speeches I can remember seeing. It was inspiring and, moreover, reassuring to see a Muslim – Congressman Keith Ellison – speaking to tens of millions of Americans in prime-time, offering a stark contrast to the casual anti-Muslim bigotry that has become a feature of our national discourse.
Islamism, Salafism, and jihadism: A primer
With the recent spate of horrific attacks from Nice to Dhaka, and political rhetoric around Islam and Muslims becoming more heated, divisive, and sloppy, it’s become increasingly important to at least define our terms. The words “Islamism,” “Salafism,” and “jihadism” are tossed around and lumped together all too often.
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