Armed Resistance Instigates Dialogue with the West

Alastair Crooke

A long-time mediator between Islamist groups told a packed audience in West Hall on January 17 that armed resistance is the only logical response to the West's continued refusal to engage with Islamists "with respect." In a lecture entitled "Talking with Islamists: An Overdue Task or an Exercise in Appeasement?" Alastair Crooke argued that Islamists typically respond to the demonizing rhetoric of the West by continuing their armed resistance, even if it is dubbed as terrorism by Western states.

Crooke noted the leverage gained by the Viet Cong in discussing peace negotiations with the United States when they refused in the late 1960s to renounce violence before a solution with the Americans was reached. He said "there has to be pain from walking away from the negotiating table, in order for dialogue to be meaningful and successful," because if Islamists relinquish their arms before negotiations are concluded, they will have nothing left to negotiate over.

Organized by the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, Crooke's lecture was the second of the Bill and Sally Hambrecht Distinguished Peacemakers Lectures at AUB. These lectures will bring prominent international mediators to Beirut over the coming two years to share their experiences with the AUB community.

Crooke said that Islamists challenge the view that focusing only on individualism and materialism actually diminishes the individual, whereas focusing on the progress of the community promotes human values. But Islamists don't want to eliminate Western thinking, said Crooke. "They are, in fact, offering a critique of Western society."

Although Crooke acknowledged that not all Islamists are interested in engaging with the West, he noted that those who do constitute "about 95 percent of Islamist groups (the mainstream and moderate ones such as Hamas and Hezbollah.) Arguing the need for mutual respect in order for negotiations to succeed, Crooke found parallelism between the West's colonial approach to Islamists and its attitude towards blacks in the past, noting that Islamists are now demanding to be seen as human beings, just as blacks were in the civil rights movement.

Crooke concluded that dialogue between Islamists and the West is currently premature and that unless there is a moral awakening in the West, conflict will continue and no real dialogue will take place.

Crooke is the founder and co-director of Conflicts Forum, an organization established in 2004 to promote dialogue between mainstream Islamists and Western political groups. A former special Middle East adviser to the European Union High Representative, Crooke was involved in coordinating several hostage negotiations, as well as in facilitating various Israeli-Palestinian cease fires from 2001 till 2003.