A Different Drummer

If you are interested in Islam and its moderate leaders reaction to fundamentalism, this article gives a run through of one of the most fantastic and under-reported innovations in the battle between the fundamentalists and the moderates in the Islamic world.

In Yemen, judges are entering into religious debate with captured militants, battling them verbally rather than physically. Intellectual debate based of Koranic theories lies at the heart of Islamic learning and teaching, and one smart judge in Yemen has worked out that it could play a vital role in combating violent fundamentalsm.

"SANAA, YEMEN – When Judge Hamoud al-Hitar announced that he and four other Islamic scholars would challenge Yemen's Al Qaeda prisoners to a theological contest, Western antiterrorism experts warned that this high-stakes gamble would end in disaster.

Nervous as he faced five captured, yet defiant, Al Qaeda members in a Sanaa prison, Judge Hitar was inclined to agree. But banishing his doubts, the youthful cleric threw down the gauntlet, in the hope of bringing peace to his troubled homeland.

"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."

The judge who is driving this strategy is consulting with other Muslim countries, encouraging this approach to be taken across the world. It is an enlightened, idealistic and practical concept:

"If you study terrorism in the world, you will see that it has an intellectual theory behind it," says Hitar. "And any kind of intellectual idea can be defeated by intellect."

Read the whole article, amazing stuff.