Radicalism1 is a disease of the mind. You cannot see it, hear it, feel it or know it exists until it is too late, as revellers in Nice enjoying Bastille Day fireworks found out on Thursday evening. As terrorists evolve strategies to attack innocent life with evermore creative methods, the global response remains2 mired3 in advancing techno-gadgetry that no longer gets the job done. Fran?ois Molins, France’s counter-terrorism prosecutor4, emphasised the point when he made clear that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who used a lorry to kill 84 people in Nice, had not shown up in any of the intelligence services’ databases.
激进主义是一种精神疾病。等你看见它、听到它、感觉到它、知道它的存在时,一切已为时过晚。上周四晚,正在法国尼斯欣赏国庆烟花表演的狂欢群众明白了这一点。恐怖分子袭击无辜生命的策略在不断演变,手段新颖,全球反应却仍执念于发展那些已不再能应付反恐任务的高科技小发明。当法国负责反恐的检察官弗朗索瓦?莫林斯(Fran?ois Molins)明确表示穆罕默德?拉胡瓦杰?布哈勒(Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel)——驾驶卡车在尼斯杀死84名群众的凶手——从未出现在情报部门的任何数据库中,他着重指出了这种现状。
Yet at the heart of our collective failure to halt the march of Islamism against humanity is the unforgivable silence of us peaceful Muslims. While we have long enjoyed “liberté, égalité, fraternité”, we have failed to root out radicalism where it grows. We have been unable or
unwilling5 to openly challenge wrong-headed views on Islam for fear the lunatic fringe would brand us non-Muslim
traitors6. This must now stop.
我们没能阻止伊斯兰主义朝着反人类方向发展,导致这一集体失败的核心因素,是我们爱好和平的穆斯林不可饶恕的沉默。虽然我们早就享有着“自由、平等、博爱”,却未能从源头根除激进主义。我们一直无力或不愿公开挑战在阐释伊斯兰教义方面顽固不化的错误观点,因为我们生怕极端分子给我们打上非穆斯林叛徒的印记。不能这样下去了。
We must shoulder responsibility for what has happened to our great religion. We must rebuild the shattered trust between peace-loving Muslims boxed in by Islamists calling us kaffirs, or non-believers, and fellow citizens who see us as pacifist enablers. This will happen more swiftly if western political leaders demonstrate a better grasp of what Islam’s core value system was at its birth and acknowledge how radicalism came to pollute its practice.
对于发生在我们伟大宗教的这些事情,我们必须肩负起责任。热爱和平的穆斯林被伊斯兰主义者束缚住了手脚——他们称我们为“卡菲尔”(kaffirs,即不信道者);另一些公民则视我们为绥靖分子。我们必须重塑穆斯林与这些公民之间破碎的信任。如果西方政治领导人对伊斯兰教原本的核心价值体系表现出更深入的了解,并认识到激进主义是怎样败坏了伊斯兰教习俗,我们重塑信任的努力也就能够更快完成。
The Prophet Mohammed instructed his
followers7 at his farewell sermon in Mecca to remember: “All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; white has no superiority over black, nor does black have any superiority over white; none have superiority over another except by
piety8 and good action.” The prophet was the primary force behind the Constitution of Medina, written in 622 — a document with
remarkable9 similarity to modern constitutional frameworks guaranteeing the rights of all people, irrespective of religious
affiliation10.
先知默罕默德(The Prophet Mohammed)在麦加的辞朝演说上指示他的追随者们记住:“全人类都是阿丹和哈娃的后代。阿拉伯人不优越于非阿拉伯人,非阿拉伯人也不优越于阿拉伯人;白人不优越于黑人,黑人也不优越于白人。除了虔诚和行善,没有人能够比别人优越。”先知默罕默德是《麦地那宪章》(Constitution of Medina)背后的主要推动者,这部宪章撰写于公元622年,与保障所有人权利(不论宗教信仰)的现代宪政框架颇为相似。
Political leaders who
flay11 Islam and its lunatic fringe are not wrong in their criticisms of us. But their proposed solutions are short-sighted. Whether American, British or French, they must
constructively12 challenge Muslims of all kinds to stand up and be counted as citizens
abiding13 by their country’s laws, not just by religious belief. Working with local Muslim communities to design ways to protect all our citizens against the terrorist violence bred in the name of Islam is far better than the
confrontational14 approach some leaders have laid out.
有些政治领导人对伊斯兰教及其极端分子予以严厉指责,他们对我们的批评并没有错,但他们提出的解决方案是短视的。无论美国、英国还是法国,都必须积极要求所有穆斯林挺身而起,扮演好遵守国家法律、而不只是遵守宗教信仰的公民身份。领导人应该与当地穆斯林社区合作制定策略,以保护我们所有公民不受那些以伊斯兰之名繁衍的恐怖主义暴行的伤害,这远远胜过某些领导人所提的对抗性路线。
Meanwhile, peace-loving Muslims across the west must now take action. We should start by doing three things inconceivable to many of us before the
spate15 of attacks in France and elsewhere — things that will go against the grain of the freedoms we have enjoyed until now, and which will make us targets of the very terrorists who threaten us all with their insane notions of a caliphate.
此外,西方世界所有热爱和平的穆斯林现在必须行动起来。我们应该从三件事入手,在法国及其他地方接连遭袭之前,这三件事在我们很多人看来是不可思议的,这些事将有悖于我们迄今所享有的自由,将令我们成为极端恐怖分子的目标,这群人疯狂地想要建立起一个哈里发国,他们威胁着我们所有人。
First, imams should filter access to community
mosques17 that have become hotbeds for extremism in our midst, until each one can
fully18 account for those who attend as peace-loving, prayer-offering almsgiving Muslims, not as planners of terror. We should consider issuing
mosque16 ID cards. Public accountability is now our obligation.
首先,对于那些已经变成极端主义温床的社区清真寺,伊玛目应该对进入的人加以筛查,直到每个人都能说清那些进入清真寺的人是热爱和平、祈祷慈悲的穆斯林,而不是恐怖活动策划者。我们应该考虑颁发清真寺身份证。公共问责现在是我们的义务。
Second, we must develop integrated neighbourhood watch committees whose job it is to know all those who go in and out of our areas. These groups should comprise Muslims, Jews,
Christians19, agnostics — anyone who wants peaceful coexistence — able to assist local authorities in getting to know the residents of our communities and what they are up to. Local officials should give these citizens’ groups the authority to demand
compliance20 and should also interact frequently with them to insure smooth relations.
其次,我们必须建立起邻里守望委员会,其职责是了解所有出入我们所在地区的人员。邻里守望委员会的成员应包括穆斯林、犹太人、基督教徒、不可知论者以及所有愿意和平共处的人,这些团体有助于地方当局了解我们社区居民,以及他们所从事的工作。地方官员应赋予这些公民团体要求人们服从规定的权力,同时还应与他们频繁沟通,以确保关系顺畅。
Third, our political leaders should more frequently
invoke21 the direct words of the Prophet to define clearly what a Muslim is and is not. While military measures are necessary in the short term, and forceful as they must be to stamp out the
fanatics22, western leaders bear a great responsibility to protect the good in Islam and the right of those citizens who practise it to peacefully coexist among us. This will help raise up the silent Muslim majority in a manner no other action can, countering the proliferation of radicalism.
第三,我们的政治领导人应该更频繁地援引先知的原话,以明确定义什么是穆斯林,什么不是穆斯林。对于西方领导人来说,虽然从短期来看军事手段是必要的,也是消灭狂热分子的强有力的手段,但他们还承担着一项重任,他们要保护伊斯兰教好的方面,也要保障那些践行伊斯兰教义心怀和平共处意愿的公民的权利。只有这种做法才有助于鼓舞沉默的多数穆斯林,从而抑制激进主义的扩散。
Ignorance is no excuse for
bigotry23. But silence and inaction are inexcusable in the face of the
scourge24 of radicalism. Muslims citizens everywhere must stand together to
douse25 the flames of
hatred26 fanned by those who love
chaos27 and terror, not liberty and freedom.
无知不是偏执的借口。但是,面对激进主义的祸害,沉默和无所作为是不可原谅的。那些喜欢混乱和恐怖活动、厌恶自由的人煽动起了仇恨的火焰,全世界穆斯林公民必须站在一起,去扑灭这些火焰。
The writer, an American of Pakistani
ancestry28, is a hedge fund manager who negotiated Sudan’s offer of counter-terrorism assistance to the Clinton administration in 1997 and in 2000 co-wrote the
blueprint29 for a ceasefire in Kashmir
注:本文作者为巴基斯坦裔美国人,是一名对冲基金经理,他曾在1997年参与苏丹向克林顿(Clinton)政府提供反恐协助的谈判,并在2000年参与撰写了克什米尔停火计划。