The United States could discredit al Qaeda in the Muslim world by challenging its violent Islamist ideology and muzzling its leading proponents, an independent report released on Thursday said.
The 364-page study, published by the RAND Corp. think tank, described al Qaeda's Islamist ideology of violent resistance as a "global revolutionary creed" akin to the Marxism-Leninism philosophy that the West defeated with "a robust political warfare" campaign during the Cold War.
"If the ideology is countered and discredited, al Qaeda and its universe will wither and die," concluded the two-part study, entitled "Beyond al Qaeda" and funded by the Air Force.
"It follows that a comprehensive U.S. strategy needs to move beyond the boundaries of conventional counterterrorism theory and practice, and address these ideological and political factors," it said.
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