Kehenry1 in his introduction of himself as a new member set forth some challenges that are worthy of more discussion outside the parameters of the "Tell us About You" thread. He states:

"I think the answer to that, for instance, if the mosque is the power, is to identify its role in the power structure and its needs outside of ideological differences. One thing we should have learned is the role of the mosque in a community. It acts as an arbitrator, a job finder, a social networking system and general welfare system. It is one of the first things that the ideologists focus on in a community. It has resources and automatically confers legitimacy on those it supports. Ideologists tend to subvert these resources.

This fact we should be keeping in mind if we do need to engage the mosque (a big "woops" I think when the insurgency began; we kept trying to separate mosque from state and never got around to the "mosque and the citizen".

While I don't think we should engage in ideological discussions, I believe that we should have an effective strategy to engage the mosque if it is the de facto or primary power structure in the community. Assist it with its welfare programs, use it as a conduit, everything the ideologists does, doing it first while simultaneously avoiding ideologies (except maybe a little reminder about who is going to provide freedom of religion)."


Well said, timely and of critical importance, but allow me to start by asserting that the mosque cannot be readily engaged, literally and figuratively, from the outside. In areas where the mosque is used extensively as a social/economic resource, I think we have to involve ourselves, physically, on the inside of the structure. Simplicity can be painful for a complex, technically orientated culture. Men well conditioned to bearing arms and in a hostile environment become vulnerable entering the unknown without their boots on and carrying at least a sidearm. To go in to conduct business and schmooze, the boots must be removed, ablution performed and weapons left outside. That's not as easy to do as it sounds and on top of it, we come from a culture that maintains stringent borders between State and Religion and one's religious beliefs are often very private and not readily shared. We don't bring God to the fight and to the negotiation table and we can't send in the Chaplains. It remains an immense challenge not only in Iraq but all over the planet and as kehenry1 so aptly pointed out, "we kept trying to separate mosque from state".

Personally, I don't think ideologists subvert the resources and assets of the mosque, rather their force of interpretation rules out because Islam allows them their interpretation, destructive as it may be. In some places, the mosque provides these ideologists a ready made platform of operation from the get-go.