The Role of Sharia and Religious Leaders in Influencing Violent Radicalism

Abstract

As non-state actors, Muslim religious leaders have become influential in many communities through the non-violent action of popularizing sharia narratives. This is despite these leaders having had less influence about 50 years ago, due to the encroaching of modernity backed by science. Science not only contests religious leaders’ worldview, but it also offers a credible alternative. However, beginning in the 1970s, thanks to Saudi Arabia’s backing, religious leaders began growing in power due to the popularization of a self-serving theme that sharia is all-encompassing divine law and an essential guide to life. A new analysis of the 2003 Pew data shows us that religious leaders’ political and religious influences correlate with sharia’s popularity, and in turn, can correlate with politically motivated violence. Calling the sharia bluff as a core part of a counterterrorism approach – the Pew data tells us – is central to undermining the influence of radical religious leaders and the ideology of radicals. Not least of all, this approach, as history suggests, has a good chance of reinvigorating modernity in affected Muslim communities.