1 00:00:00,900 --> 00:00:05,340 What drives someone to become a religious extremist, even to the point of becoming a 2 00:00:05,340 --> 00:00:10,880 suicide bomber? Like most people I assumed that there were two overriding answers: 3 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:13,260 poverty and ignorance. 4 00:00:13,260 --> 00:00:17,380 The poverty line goes like this: grinding poverty from which there appears to be no 5 00:00:17,390 --> 00:00:22,450 escape fosters seething resentment against who those have more. If your choice is to 6 00:00:22,450 --> 00:00:27,680 die a martyr or die a beggar, martyrdom is the clear winner. 7 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:32,480 The ignorance lines goes like this: the poor have no chance to get a decent education and 8 00:00:32,489 --> 00:00:38,170 thus are susceptible to easy manipulation. Clever people play on their prejudices and 9 00:00:38,170 --> 00:00:43,370 superstitions. Once the extremist gets this ignorant poor person in his grasp, 10 00:00:43,370 --> 00:00:46,010 indoctrination is easy. 11 00:00:46,010 --> 00:00:49,820 Since there's plenty of poverty and plenty of ignorance around the world, that's a lot 12 00:00:49,829 --> 00:00:55,160 of people to draw from. This is how the source of terrorism is explained. 13 00:00:55,160 --> 00:01:00,500 Then, I went to Pakistan and actually lived in the world from which extremists recruit. 14 00:01:00,510 --> 00:01:05,469 And I found something much different than I expected. Poverty had little to do with 15 00:01:05,469 --> 00:01:09,689 who became an extremist; lack of education even less. 16 00:01:09,689 --> 00:01:13,840 Many of those that I met who subscribe to religious extremism -- and are prepared to 17 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:20,520 murder and die for their cause -- are from the middle class; and many had a university education. 18 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:26,180 These are not poor people and these are not uneducated people. They are well fed and well read. 19 00:01:26,180 --> 00:01:30,920 So, if poverty and ignorance don't drive people to extremism, what does? 20 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:36,999 One is a desire for meaning and for order. Places like Pakistan are submerged in chaos 21 00:01:36,999 --> 00:01:42,859 and corruption. Islamists promise clear cut solutions to every problem: here's how things 22 00:01:42,859 --> 00:01:47,639 will change if you follow these rules. And only these rules. 23 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:53,399 Another is a desire for change. The old corrupt order, the narrative goes, must be overthrown 24 00:01:53,399 --> 00:01:58,699 and that can only happen through violent action. Again, it is Islamists that step in -- 25 00:01:58,700 --> 00:02:02,080 with a promise to create a new form of government. 26 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:06,280 Then throw in a strong sense of victimhood -- we are not responsible for the sorry state 27 00:02:06,289 --> 00:02:12,720 of our country; others have brought us down -- and you have a toxic brew that many willingly imbibe. 28 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:17,180 These, of course, are the same easy answers that tyrants and demagogues -- 29 00:02:17,180 --> 00:02:23,940 from Lenin to Mussolini to Hitler to bin Laden -- have always offered their followers. 30 00:02:23,940 --> 00:02:28,790 I saw this played out one day while living in Pakistan. After one of the many assassinations 31 00:02:28,790 --> 00:02:33,680 of a major figure there, I was sitting with two middle class parents. The father owned 32 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:39,200 a small business and the mother was a nurse. They had given their son a good life. 33 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:40,860 He wanted for nothing. 34 00:02:40,860 --> 00:02:45,460 They told me that during dinner with the family a few days earlier, their son noted how the 35 00:02:45,470 --> 00:02:52,220 person who was murdered "deserved to die." Why? Because he had spoken out on behalf of 36 00:02:52,220 --> 00:02:58,290 religious minorities. They were shocked. How could their son, who had been educated and 37 00:02:58,290 --> 00:03:04,130 well raised, think that? This story is all too typical. 38 00:03:04,130 --> 00:03:07,180 So what to do about this extremism? 39 00:03:07,180 --> 00:03:11,760 The first step is to get off this false narrative that this is first and foremost 40 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:14,880 a poverty or education issue. 41 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:21,000 The second is to take on the narrative of the extremist groups. They promise a better way, 42 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:27,440 but what in fact do thy deliver? The answer is always: more death, more suffering 43 00:03:27,450 --> 00:03:34,780 and more poverty. In other words, young people need to see these extremist groups for what they are. 44 00:03:34,780 --> 00:03:39,100 Only then will recruitment numbers begin to go down. 45 00:03:39,100 --> 00:03:43,640 Third, the media have to stop treating extremists as freedom fighters, 46 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:47,500 a narrative that is all too common in places like Pakistan. 47 00:03:47,500 --> 00:03:53,720 Fourth, teachers and parents cannot assume that just because they reject religious extremism, 48 00:03:53,730 --> 00:03:59,209 their children and students will, too. Middle class parents and teachers have to be vigilant 49 00:03:59,209 --> 00:04:03,260 in instilling moderate, pluralist values in their children. 50 00:04:03,260 --> 00:04:09,239 Fifth, politicians have to stop blaming their countries' problems on the West and have to 51 00:04:09,239 --> 00:04:14,019 confront the endemic corruption that destroys countries like Pakistan from within. 52 00:04:14,019 --> 00:04:18,899 Sixth, and probably most important, Islamic religious figures have to stop looking the other way, 53 00:04:18,900 --> 00:04:23,480 or worse, glorifying so-called "martyrs" -- Muslims who murder innocent people 54 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:28,780 -- almost always other Muslims -- in the name of Islam. Muslim religious leaders must promise 55 00:04:28,780 --> 00:04:33,940 these murderers eternal damnation, not some sort of twisted heavenly bliss. 56 00:04:33,940 --> 00:04:38,540 The people of Pakistan and other Muslim majority countries have real grievances. 57 00:04:38,540 --> 00:04:43,720 But extremism only makes things worse. Always and everywhere. 58 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:47,260 It is not poverty and misery that creates religious extremism. 59 00:04:47,260 --> 00:04:51,960 It is religious extremism that creates poverty and misery. And death. 60 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:56,580 I'm Haroon Ullah, adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service 61 00:04:56,580 --> 00:04:58,460 for Prager University.