KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Religious leaders can play a vital role in the fight to stop the spread of violent extremism ideology and activities from taking roots in a community, says an academician.
Prof Mark Woodward from the Arizona State University said as highly influential and respected people, religious leaders have the social responsibility to disseminate knowledge and the courage to correct distorted views that are often used to sow hatred and violent extremism.
“Religious leadership have a very critical role and unique responsibility to play in stopping violent extremism, the same way some of them had manipulated it to fan a conflict,” he said.
He spoke to Bernama International News Service after presenting a talk at the International Symposium on Religious Values on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism organised by the International Islamic University of Malaysia at Gombak, near here Monday.
Woodward who specialises in religion-state-society studies pointed out that although in many cases of conflicts, the problems could have been started by economic or geopolitical issues, but when they get linked to religion, the issues become more complex and difficult to resolve.
“Very often people use religious terminology and rhetoric in talking about issues that are fundamentally geopolitic or economic.”
Sometimes, an issue may begin as a class or economic problem but once a religious label gets attached to it, it could complicate the issue further as people could be drawn to it based on shared religious ideas without even recognising what the conflict is all about, he explained.
He added that like wise, politicians should also stop using religious hatred as political tools to advance their personal interests.
“Religious and political leaders must have the courage to stand up to what is wrong even though there are measure of risks and making them unpopular,” Woodward said.
— NNN-BERNAMA
