Western Muslim Converts and Violent Extremism: Issues and Strategies

 

 

 

Community Guidance and Support

These findings suggest that positive community intervention in terms of increased guidance and support is essential to help converts deal with the challenges they encounter on the religious, social, personal and sometimes financial fronts. As such, the creation of support groups for converts may be useful.

 

For instance, in view of how “as a community, new Muslims face unique challenges and have a distinct set of needs compared to Muslims who are born into the faith”, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) organised a New Muslim Summit in January this year. The summit aimed to “develop effective strategies and systems to cater to the needs of New Muslims” by raising awareness, educating and providing direction to new converts.

 

Similarly in New Zealand, the New Muslim Project was founded in 2012 by a group of volunteers. It was initiated as “people in a non-Muslim country like New Zealand can be exposed to a wide range of information about Islam, [but] not all is right or authentic”. The Project attempts to “find ways and means to provide help and support for all those who are new to, or are interested in learning more about Islam”. It also organises social events, conducts religious courses and provides useful information and literature about Islam.

 

In the local context, the Muslim Converts’ Association of Singapore (aka Darul Arqam), established in 1979, aims to “provide religious guidance and render assistance [including financial assistance] to members; organise religious, literary, and/or recreational activities; publish Islamic articles and/or literature; participate and provide welfare services for the community; and represent the interests of all Muslim converts residing in Singapore”.

 

Role of Supportive Counselling

In addition to community support and guidance, supportive counselling for converts is another avenue that communities can introduce to help converts during their conversion process. Supportive counselling entails a one-on-one session whereby the counsellor uses techniques to reduce the anxiety (e.g. stress arising from the conversion process) faced by the client.

 

Such an approach may enable the counsellors to better reach out to the converts’ needs and establish rapport. More importantly, it may divert the converts from turning to radical ideology to address their needs. Counselling can therefore help alleviate some of the personal, situational challenges and stress associated with conversion.

 

However, supportive counselling would only be useful if converts are motivated to participate in the counselling process. Collaboration with religious authorities and/or specialists can certainly help in this regard. For instance, a possible approach, if it has not been done already, would be to explore the use of techniques that incorporate Islamic concepts into the counselling process. The common appreciation for Islam may create a facilitative platform for converts to address their needs and concerns.

 

Community support and supportive counselling are more likely to work with converts who embrace Islam for spiritual reasons as opposed to those who convert for political ones. Nevertheless, combining the two approaches represents a multi-pronged approach to the issue of converts and radicalisation that should be explored further.

 

 

Damien D. Cheong is Coordinator of the Homeland Defence Programme and Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University