"Collateral Repair"

At the Social Intervention Conference, S. Hassan Abbas gave a paper titled, "Collateral Repair: Using Social Intervention to cure the problem of Militancy in Pakistan". In his presentation he cited a study (Sohail Abbas, Probing the Jihadi Mindset) of 517 militants who went to Afghanistan to fight against the Americans after 9/11. The study showed that, "despite the obvious perception that these fighters are hardened Islamists, only 29% of them had attended a Madrassa and surprisingly a whopping 72.5% [of the 29%] had attended it for only 6 months or less. Another surprising figure was that only 52.5% of the militants had received any sort of religious education at home or abroad further debunking the Islamist myth." Hassan (pictured below on the upper left), made an interesting point that it was actually those who were from little religious background who were most vulnerable to persuasion.

His proposed solutions: (1) Rehabilitation Centers for Captured or Suspected Terrorists with Mandatory Psychological Evaluations, (2) Poverty Alleviation through Direct Aid and Development, (3) Vocational Education and Training, (4) Adult Education, (5) Awareness Programs against Pseudo-Religious Propaganda and abuse of Religious Texts and Symbols, (6) Regularization of the Madrassa System, and (7) Strangulation of Finances Intended for Militant Use.

This was the first time (of many to come) that I heard a rational and research-based approach to ending terrorism. I am sure that this is not new to many people but, for me, it was the first time I had heard about strategies to address the causes of violence rather than the symptoms. Hassan's presentation gave me a new angle from which to consider our "War on Terror" and a new reason for supporting the belief that violence never ends violence.