US Army and Jordanian Leaders Discuss Countering Extremism Through Education

To, to vaccinate How do you battle religious extremism?

That's the question discussed at a symposium hosted from August 16th through the 20th by US Army Central's Chaplain's Office, with special guests from the Jordanian military. For the Jordanian guests, led by Major General Ya'ya Bashir Al-Batush,

who is better known by his religious title of Grand Mufti, the answer of fighting Daesh is simple, and it doesn't use weapons of violence, but rather the weapon of education.

The basic element of how to confront religious violence of religious extremists is that they are wrong.

First of all, I would like to concentrate on how we increase the capability of our imams in JAF in Jordan. This visit increases the cooperation and increases how far our imams can deal with this religious issue.

With USARSENT organizing this and many other religious symposiums with allied militaries, the end goal is to win the battle of words against religious extremists. And while the military battle against Daesh will continue, it will be religious leaders like the Grand Mufti and

Second Lieutenant Akram Mustafa Freihat, the first Jordanian graduate from the US Army's Chaplain Basic Officer Leader Course, who will lead the war of words now and in the future.

'Cause we've discovered so many times as foreign officers have the ability to rub shoulders right here, uh, in the United States in our own military education system, it benefits us, and, uh, ideally they take something away from it, too. And those young leaders grow up to be senior leaders in their respective military, and that

relationship is so absolutely key. And like the relationship between militaries, the relationships imams build with their flocks will be key because their words will be a weapon in the fight against Daesh. For US Army Central, I'm Sergeant