The power of knowledge (Anna Maria Cossiga)

We have been Charlie Hebdo, now we are Brussels. When will we be Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Turkey or Mali? When we hear of terror attacks in those countries, our first question is: “Where there any European casualties?”.

Children and step-children, as the Italian saying goes; meaning that some pigs are more equal than others. Orwell was one of the most powerful visionaries of our times.

The atrocities in Brussels triggered the usual reaction; which is no to say those atrocities are mundane, but that repeating the same, empty words will not solve any problem. The political élites of the world agree we are at war. We have known it for the last 15 years, since 9/11. Or so they told us. Well, then, we are at war, but we are not winning it. Some say the terror attacks are a sign of ISIS’s weakness. Are they? Or, either, they are showing how strong they are?

We keep on avoiding a real analysis of the problem. Renzo Guolo, an Italian sociologist of Islam, recently stressed that we are focusing on security, while we should focus on knowing societies, which means identifying the causal links of a phenomenon. Quoting Max Weber, he underlines that the analyst should work from a neutral perspective, with no preconception, aware that his or her findings might be contrary to what he/she was expecting and even against his/her deepest convictions.

We should be wondering whether our analysis of ISIS, or any other form of jihadist Islamism, is truly unbiased. Such a phenomenon must have, and indeed has, complex causes we tend to ignore, but which are, in fact, at the bottom of the problem. Such an analysis, however, would not solve the problem instantly and would also need a self-examination both on our part and on the part of Muslim societies, both in Europe and in all Muslim countries. This is why, in my opinion, nothing will be ever solved without the cooperation of what we call the West and Muslims all over the world. On the other hand, however, the West should be strong in its condemnation of any kind of Islamophobia. Equating Muslims and terrorist will only result in the additional alienation of Western Muslims from the societies they are now part of and, perhaps even more dangerous, in drawing young and disillusioned Muslims closer to Islamism in its most violent form.

The magic word is “knowledge”. This is why educators and intellectuals on the two sides should focus on acquiring knowledge of each other and pass it down to their pupils and to the general public. Let’s not forget that knowledge is power in the noblest sense of the term.