WASHINGTON - " A newly released study calls on US policymakers to deepen their understanding of homegrown radicalism and its sources and to devise a comprehensive counter-radicalisation strategy. The study, which was released by the congressionally supported US Institute of Peace, said that the United States should learn from European experiences in dealing with domestic radicalism, especially given the recent surge in the number of American Muslims involved in terrorism. The study's author is Lorenzo Vidino, who also wrote “The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West”, published by Columbia University Press. The study emphasises that any US counter-radicalisation strategy needs to be grounded in an understanding of the choice between targeting violent radicalism or ‘cognitive radicalism', or broadly, the peaceful expression of radical ideas that may contribute to violence in the long run. This puts any democratic government in a difficult trade-off between effectively preventing the emergence of violent radicalism by combating radical ideas, and protecting freedom of expression and civil liberties. While stressing that the success of any counter-radicalisation policy needs the help of the Muslim community, the study highlights the challenge of identifying credible partners given the deep divisions characterising Muslim communities in the West. Such communities, the study states, are often divided across ethnic, national-origin, linguistic, sectarian and political lines, and identifying credible groups that are representative of such a diverse community can be quite difficult. The study says that, even though many scholars challenge the assumption that religion plays any role in the radicalisation of Western Muslims, ideology seems to loom large in this process. The importance of countering the theological message of violent Islamism puts US policymakers in a difficult position, because such efforts could backfire. The study says that promoting a certain interpretation of Islam may reinforce ‘the jihadist argument that the West is at war with Islam'. Such a strategy may also expose governments to the charge of interfering in religious affairs. The study recommends that the US government deliver appropriate messages to combat the perception that the Muslim community is being stigmatised through the government's counter-radicalisation efforts. “Appropriately framing and marketing initiatives is fundamental to avoiding the perception in the Muslim community that the US government sees the community only through the lenses of counterterrorism or considers it an inherent security problem. “No matter how well crafted, counter-radicalisation programmes are destined to fail if they do not manage to overcome this perception.” Sallam is a correspondent of the Egyptian Mail and its daily edition The Egyptian Gazette in Washington.
