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'Extremism has no link with religion’

DUBAI — Extremism is not just related to Islam as is being projected by the media; all religions have extremists, said Judge Hamoud Abdulhameed Al Hitar, President of Court of Appeal for Sana and Al Jawf governorates.

Judge Al Hitar, who is also President of the Intellectual Dialogue Committee and President of the Yemeni Human Rights Organisation, delivered a lecture on 'Sons or Enemies, Communication with Atheist Intellectuals' at the Dubai Police Officers Club.

Judge Al Hitar said the dialogue was aimed at a part of our society and fundamentalists are part of every society and every religion.

"Yemen thoroughly studied terrorists attacks and we saw that dialogue is the only way to bring this group of Arab-Afghan fighters into the social mainstream. Using force will only push them into further acts of extremism. Several verses in the Holy Quran mention dialogue as a means to sort out problems. Extremists are also part of society and they have strong faith in their religion, but with a number of problems that can be solved," he said.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Judge Al Hitar said the number of 'suspects' who were included in direct dialogue were around 420, mostly from Al Qaeda, Al Jihad and Adan Abian movements. Another 350 are suspects from the Shabab Al Mu'min Movement.

"We achieved good results using the dialogue means. At least 364 suspects from the first group were released after we succeeded in reforming them and another 176 from the second group. The released suspects then blended with society by getting into jobs, besides being given some financial aid," said Al Hitar.

"The war between the western media and the Arab and Islamic media had a negative impact in changing the image of Islam in western countries and the image of western civilisation in the Arab World," he said.

Commenting on the desecration of the Holy Quran and the Abu Ghraib prison effect on Muslims in the world, he said: "Such action can ignite hostile feelings, but it cannot be generalised to a particular nation or religion. These acts are individual acts not approved by the people of the US, and it has also been condemned by the US government," he said.

Differentiating between terrorism and resistance, Al Hitar said: "Resistance is everyone's right by religion and by international law. Resistance in Iraq is legitimate, but we cannot differentiate between terrorism and resistance in Iraq's situation because things are not clear in this case. I call upon both the Iraqi government and the US government to move towards dialogue in order to stop bloodshed."