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ICSSR to sponsor conference on tackling and co-existing with ‘Radical Islam’ in Mathura

By Twocircles.net Staff Reporter,

Delhi: A three-day international conference sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research on ‘How to understand and co-exist with radical Islam’, to be held in a college in Mathura plans to delve deep into how extremism in Islam threatens world peace and what efforts can be taken to counter its growth.

The organisers are quick to point that this conference is not against Islam and does not wish to portray the religion in a negative manner. “Radical Islam is a fact that cannot be denied. We are trying to see how it can be analysed and understood so that everyone, regardless of their religion, can fight against it,” Ashok Kumar, convener of the conference, told Twocircles.net.

Kumar went on to mention Samuel P Huntington’s work The Clash of Civilisation, saying that the ‘fight’ between Islam and Christianity had been predicted 20 years ago and this was now a “global problem” which must be addressed.

The three-day conference will be held between 18 and 20 November in RCA Girls’ College, Mathura. The conference aims to focus on several sub-themes, including the causes and drivers of Islamic radicalisation, tools and practises needed to counter today’s violent extremism, the birth of ‘new Islam’, the role that Islamist ideology plays in extremism and the extent of radicalisation in Indian Muslim community and the community’s response to terrorist attacks in the country. “The terrorists are immersed in Islamic history and doctrine. We face radicalisation in mosques and social media. Young Muslims are being drawn into terrorism,” the conference invite said.

There is little doubt that some of the sub-themes do carry a hint of Islamophobia, but again, Kumar stresses on the fact that this is not the case. “A lot of people believe this is being backed by the BJP or that we have political leanings towards them. It is a lie; we are academicians trying to understand a concept,” he says, adding that prominent Muslims, like Dr Jafar Islam of Deoband, Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi of All India Imam Organization and Justice Rajinder Sachar, who headed the Sachar committee, will be participating in the conference.