by proldic » Sun Oct 02, 2005 12:14 pm
HindustanTimes August 10, 2005:<br><br>Rand study: Al-Qaeda 'New Religious Movements'<br><br>A US-based think tank has clubbed the RSS with Al-Qaeda and some other groups as examples of 'New Religious Movements'.<br><br>"NRMs (New Religious Movements) can be found in Hinduism -- the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, Israel (Gush Emunim), Christianity (the US-based Identity Movement) and Islam, including Al-Qaeda, a global network with a transcendant vision that draws support in the defence of Islam," a new Rand study said.<br><br>"Sometimes referred to as cults, NRMs have two defining characteristics -- a high degree of tension between the group and its surrounding society and a high degree of control exercised by leaders over their members," the study said.<br><br>"While most are not violent, a few have engaged in ritualised acts of mass suicide and homicide. Notable examples include Heaven's Gate, the Branch Davidians and Aum Shinrikyo."<br><br>The Rand study suggested that Al-Qaeda cannot be defeated by force, but only by reaching out to its roots in religion and promoting convergence of Christianity and Islam.<br><br>Among possible conditions under which NRMs resort to violence, said Rand, two stand out -- if the group or movement feels threatened from the outside, by society or the government and if it has young, inexperienced leaders that resort to violence when threatened either from inside or outside the movement.<br><br>Therefore, a government's policies with regard to an NRM, if perceived as threatening, could prompt the group to resort to violence, it said.<br><br>This new approach suggesting the need to defeat Al-Qaeda by means other than violence is suggested by Rand in an analysis it conducted on contract for Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, the Joint Staff, the Unified Commands, the defence agencies, the Department of the Navy, the US intelligence community, allied governments and foundations.<br><br>"No major religion," said Rand, "has been, or is today, a stranger to violence from its extremists, and that violence will pose challenges for US foreign policy and for the analysts who seek to inform that policy."<br><br>New Religious Movements or NRMs have also emerged as sources of violence, it said. "Yet Islamic extremists are now in a class by themselves as a threat to the United States, as a transnational, non-state movement with the chance to appeal to a billion and a half people."<br><br>Mark Juergensmeyer's concept of "cosmic war," said Rand, provides a useful conceptual framework for examining the larger-than-life confrontations that religious extremists are engaged in today. This concept refers to the metaphysical battle between the forces of Good and Evil that enlivens the religious imagination and compels violent action.<br><br>Acts of terror in a cosmic war, said Rand, are seen as evocations of a larger spiritual confrontation between Good and Evil. "In the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world where the battle for the soul of Islam continues, Islamists and Al-Qaeda's networks have placed their struggle against secularism, perceived western domination, and the United States, in a cosmic context."...<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1507203,000900010002.htm">www.hindustantimes.com/ne...010002.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
