The Muslim intelligentsia, for lack of a better word; the intellectuals, analysts, political leaders, rights advocates, and activists; suffer from the fact that they have risen to their status within a niche. Because of this, the mediocrities among them excel far more than they would if they were participating within a broader spectrum of people. The standard of erudition within a niche is lower, and determined according to what is narrowly available.
I am primarily talking about the English-speaking Muslim intelligentsia, but it is also the case, to some extent, in the broader Muslim community.
Obviously, there are a lot of negative consequences to this. We are one of the most easily infiltrated and manipulated nations in the world. It does not require much for someone to become a prominent figure among the Muslims, and, even though we are prone to conspiracy theories, paradoxically, we also trust on a very simple basis. He has a beard, we saw him in the masjid, he speaks Arabic, he eats hummus…oh, he must be trustworthy. Also, he says things we agree with, he knows the script; so he must know what he is talking about.
A few years ago there was a case in the UK of a paid agent of a British weapons company who infiltrated an anti-arms industry activist organization. He was even put on a police watch list as a domestic extremist because he was so apparently active in the cause. The weapons company paid him a massive amount of money to infiltrate this organization, gather intelligence about them, and to sabotage their work. And it was a relatively marginal organization. He worked with them for years. BAE Systems paid Martin Hogbin $200,000 per year for his work to undermine the “Campaign against the Arms Trade”, and they did not even have that much to gain.
So ask yourself, what about Syria? Think about how much the US, Europe, and multinational corporations have at stake in Syria. How important do you think it is to them to gather intelligence, influence rebel groups, and sway public opinion? Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake, and regional influence is at stake. BAE Systems was ready to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, for years, just to get information and influence a small anti-arms trade group that had extremely little impact on their profitability.
Consider the fact also, that it was recently discovered that roughly half of the leadership of the Irish Republican Army worked for the British security services for decades.
I don’t see any way for us to protect ourselves and our movement from this sort of infiltration and manipulation except through trying to improve our rationality and critical thinking skills, and to raise the bar on our standards for what qualifies anyone to be taken seriously as a leader or journalist or intellectual.