Radicalisation in Europe

Can it be tackled?

Europe is much more than just a geographical expression. It represents high achievements of humans in terms of science and technology, art and architecture, education and philosophy and political and financial institutions. Its ideas and culture are admired and adopted in several parts of the world. Most European countries are models of good governance and paragon of peace and happiness. In other words, the dream of a life worth living has been realised in Europe and that is why people from all over the world, particularly the developing world that lacks most of what Europe offers, aspire to live there. Europe has been quite welcoming and that is why we find people of different nationalities, religions, languages, ethnicity and cultures living in harmony there.

This harmony has been badly disturbed by terrorists who have resorted to cold blooded killings of civilians that are out to enjoy music, witness sports or spend a relaxed evening. These acts of terror have generated a wave of fear among the people and posed a serious challenge to the European governments and their law enforcement agencies to conceive and implement measures that can restore normality among its citizens. To find out who these terrorists are and why and how do they become terrorists, a German institute convened a conference on international terrorism. The speech delivered by Professor Dr Olivier Roy of European University Institute of Italy available on the internet is quite illuminating as it tries to identify the motivating factors behind the radicalisation of the European Muslims that lead to terrorism.

The people who indulged in acts of terror can be categorised into two broad categories. The first category consists of people who either lately visited a terrorist sanctuary in countries such as Yemen, Syria, Iraq or Bosnia and Afghanistan in the past, or actually committed an act of terror or were caught while making preparations for a terrorist act at an advanced stage. The second category includes all those who showed an intention either to wage jihad inside or outside Europe. Based on police and journalistic investigations, there are about 1500 people that fall in the first category of which about 25% are converts whereas there are 7000 persons of the second category of which about 37% are converts, 30% are women and 20% are less than 18 years old.

What are the causes and circumstances behind the radicalisation of these persons that result in acts of terror? The first step is to search the possibility of some kind of pattern that radicalises these European jihadis. One common feature found among them is the frustration and resentment against the society. Some of the radicals belong to dysfunctional while others are from normal families whereas some had a family of their own butall of them have one distinct marker i.e. they “are neither happy nor funny people.” Two, most of them are second generation Muslims who were born and brought up in Europe.Someamong them have diploma level qualifications as well as jobs andare integrated in the society while the converts have varied backgrounds but primarily they come from the working or low middle class backgrounds. Three, many of these radicals before they converted to Islam or became ‘born-again’ Muslims have had a history of ‘petty delinquency and drug dealing’ as well as some experience of going through a personal crisis. Four, almost all of them are young, who radicalised within their socialising groups against the wishes of their parents who either tried to bring them back in the ‘natural’ fold or reported the radicalisation to the police. Sometimes, the radicalisation of a brother or a sister serves as a spur to the other siblings in the family. Then, as they move and interact in limited select groups, some of them also intermarry within the group.

Five, there is an assumption that this process of radicalisation may have been the outcome of the long association of these radicals with some militant political or religious Muslim organisations or movements but that is not the case rather it has been the result of a sudden decision. Six, there is another assumption that the radicalised are mainly the frustrated Muslimyouth. On the contrary, a substantial percentage of these radicals in Europe consist of the converts to Islam. This percentage stands the highest in France at 25% of the total radicals and across theAtlantic in the US, this percentage stands at 40% for all those who were charged of jihadist radicalisation in 2011 and more than 35% for those chargedsince the 2001 attacks. Equallyastonishing is the high percentage of radicalised women among these converts.

Seven, the motivation for these young radicals to join jihad is the fascination to act as ‘super-heroes’ in order to ‘avenge’ the ‘wrongs’ that have been committed against the Muslim Ummah. Once they decide to join jihad, their preferred adopted version of Islam is ‘Salafi’ and not cultural Islam because (a) Salafi Islam is easy to comprehend with its do’s and don’ts and (b) ‘Salafi’ Islam “is the negationof cultural Islam, that is the Islam of their parents.” Here, it needs to be clarified that most of the ‘Salafis’ are not jihadis and most of the jihadis do not bother about religious theology as not a single European radical has either a pious past or received proper religious education.

Eight, most of the radicals are neither regular mosque-goers nor active participants in religious activities and that is why neither the Imams of mosques havehad a decisive role in the process of radicalisation nor did the monitoring of mosques produce significant information about the radicals. Nine, these European radicals are not looked upon as the vanguard by the Muslim community of Europe because these radicals have either strained or severed ties with their families and their socialisation is limited to exclusivist groups.

Can this radicalisation in Europe be tackled? The common remedies suggested as the possible solutions are (a) promotion of ‘moderate Islam’ and (b) yoking in of the Muslim community. Roy rejects both these remedies as nonsensical because the radicals out rightly reject moderation and look upon the rest of the Muslim community as ‘traitors’, ‘collaborators’, etc. for not following the path followed by the radicals. He sums up that “radicalisation is a youth revolt against society, articulated on an Islamic religious narrative of jihad. It is not the uprising of a Muslim community victim of poverty and racism: only young people join, including converts who did not share the ‘sufferings’ of Muslims in Europe. These rebels without a cause find in jihad a ‘noble’ and global cause, and are consequently instrumentalised by a radical organisation (Al Qaeda, ISIS) that has a strategic agenda.”