Religious Extremism and Class

August Heinrich

Blog Response

April 2, 2013

Religious Extremism and Class

I was struck in the reading of Who Speaks for Islam by the typical psychological and sociological findings regarding Islamic moderates in contrast to radicals.  Though there are few variations in the Western view of typical Muslims, it seems generally presumed that the most radical of Muslims fit the same profile as a violent deviant in the United States.  School shooters in the United States, for example, are subject to a chain of assumptions about their personal life before any details or facts are discovered or released.  The same holds true for serial killers all over the globe.  For many of us in the West this creates a dangerous slippery slope as it reinforces our urge to generalize a group of people, especially when such generalization can blind us from warning signals for future cases.  Oftentimes, our character’s profile is dramatically different from what we assume to be true.

 I think the basic stereotype in United States culture for the image of a Muslim radical is one of a lonely, reclusive social outcast who finds solace among a group of similarly distressed social outcasts.  In reality, the most violent Islamic followers fit a more stunning profile.  Many have a formal education extending beyond typical public school education, and radicals flock from both the middle and lower classes, not only from areas stung by stifling poverty.  In fact, 67% of radicals have a secondary education and 65% say they have an average or above-average income.  Contrast this with the 52% of moderates with a secondary education and 55% of which say they have an average or above-average income.

If these data are true, then we have to seriously re-evaluate how we seek out potential terrorists.  If we still assume that the whole Eastern world is full of poverty and turbons, and insist on a very skewed representation of a Muslim terrorist, this “War on Islam” will escalate on both fronts, and neither side will fight a rational battle or progress for the better for anyone.