Unlike in America, terrorism in Europe is often home-grown
Jul 17th 2008
SITTING in front of a black flag inscribed with a Koranic verse, Umar Islam jabs his finger at the camera. “As you kill, you will be killed. And if you want to kill our women and children, then the same thing will happen to you.”
Mr Islam, a 30-year-old convert once known as Brian Young, lists the transgressions of his fellow Britons: they have sons and daughters serving as soldiers in “Muslim lands”; they pay taxes to support the army; and they have not pushed hard enough to remove their leaders. Worse, they are too obsessed with television soap operas and sport to know what is happening. “Most of you are too busy watching ‘Home and Away’ and ‘Eastenders’, complaining about the World Cup and drinking your alcohol...I know because I’ve come from that.”
Other members take turns to harangue their country on video, among them the apparent leader of the gang, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, who complains that the British are more concerned about the killing of foxes than of Muslims. These “martyrdom videos”, adding some British flavour to the themes of global jihad, were never broadcast. They were found by British police during a wave of arrests in August 2006 and shown at the trial of eight men accused of attempting to blow up seven or more transatlantic airliners en route from London to North America. Mr Ali denies that the group meant to kill anybody; it was planning only a small explosion at London’s Heathrow airport to attract publicity, he told the court.
If the prosecution were to prove its case, the alleged plot would have been the biggest since the September 11th 2001 attacks on America, potentially killing between 1,000 and 2,000 people. Even without this case, though, it is plain that Europe is now bearing the brunt of jihadist attacks on the West, even though America is seen as the main enemy. Ten remotely controlled bombs were set off on Madrid’s trains on March 11th 2004, killing 191 people, and four suicide-bombers blew themselves up on London’s public transport on July 7th 2005, killing 52. Since then, several more bombs failed to detonate properly in London and Glasgow, and other attacks were foiled across Europe.
For America, the terrorist threat is still mainly an external one, involving extremists coming from abroad to carry out attacks. In Europe it is largely an internal problem of home-grown Muslim extremists. This helps to explain why Americans see the struggle against jihadism as a “war”, whereas Europeans consider it mainly a matter for the police; why America is attracted by the idea of fighting terrorists “over there”, whereas Europe worries that military action will only worsen the problem “over here”. Indeed, the biggest threat to America may come from “clean skin” European extremists.
Marc Sageman, in his book “Leaderless Jihad”, argues that these European-born radicals, usually descendants of poor migrants, are drawn to violence less by religious ideology and more by the idea of “jihadist cool”. They may know little about the Koran, but feel a sense of outrage and want to emulate the heroic figures they see on militant internet clips. These groups of friends, says Mr Sageman, become radicalised on their own. As international security has tightened, they have been unable to reach Iraq or Pakistan to fight there or were sent back, so they fight at home instead.
Ed Husain, a former member of the militant Hizb ut-Tahrir group in Britain and now co-director of the Quilliam Foundation, a think-tank set up to counter extremism, says that many young Muslims see radical Islam as a means of asserting their identity: “It gives you a sense of rebellion but you don’t feel bad about it. You are doing God’s work.”
Not over here
So why do Muslims in America seem more immune from militancy? According to Mr Sageman, the idea of a “war on Islam” makes less sense to them because of America’s more inclusive attitude to the immigrants, greater social mobility and the bigger role religion plays in public life. Others point out that Muslims in America form a smaller proportion of the population, are more dispersed and usually have higher skills than in Europe.
Counter-terrorism officials say the main reason America has avoided another attack is that it is farther from al-Qaeda’s main battlegrounds. With greatly improved intelligence co-operation, and with hundreds of thousands of people barred from travelling to America, al-Qaeda finds it easier to strike at Europe.
In Britain, the number of jihadist suspects tracked by MI5, the domestic intelligence service, keeps rising. Last year Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, said his agency was watching about 2,000 people deemed to pose a direct threat to national security and public safety. He dismissed the idea of a leaderless movement. Terrorist attacks in Britain, whether successful or foiled, “are not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups”, he insisted. Rather, most “have taken place because al-Qaeda has a clear determination to mount terrorist attacks against the United Kingdom”.
Britain’s prominent role in Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with a large resident population of Pakistani descent, puts it at greater risk of attack than others. But many other European countries also have substantial Muslim minorities. Germany’s opposition to the war in Iraq offered little protection; it was just luck that two bombs failed to go off on commuter trains in 2006. Last September German police foiled an alleged plot to bomb several places that attracted American visitors. Denmark has been climbing up the jihadists’ hate-list ever since one of its newspapers published some cartoons deemed offensive to the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.
France suffered Iranian-inspired bombings in the 1980s and Algerian ones in the 1990s, but has remained largely unscathed in recent years, thanks in part to a well-oiled counter-terrorist apparatus. Still, French security officials expect more attacks, given the violent stirrings of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. Spain and Italy are also worried.
As Europe’s prisons fill with jihadists, there are fears that radicalisation will spread among inmates. In Britain, police are particularly concerned that jihadists will form links with black criminal gangs, giving them access to weapons. In Spain in 2004, police arrested a group that had hatched a plot in prison to blow up Spain’s High Court and kill its leading antiterrorism judge, Baltasar Garzón.
The following year, police in Los Angeles stumbled on a group led by an ex-convict convert to Islam that was planning to bomb military recruitment stations, the Israeli consulate and synagogues. The trouble with prisons, says an FBI source, is that inmates are already predisposed to violence. America may not be as immune from home-grown terrorism as it thinks
Jul 17th 2008
SITTING in front of a black flag inscribed with a Koranic verse, Umar Islam jabs his finger at the camera. “As you kill, you will be killed. And if you want to kill our women and children, then the same thing will happen to you.”
Mr Islam, a 30-year-old convert once known as Brian Young, lists the transgressions of his fellow Britons: they have sons and daughters serving as soldiers in “Muslim lands”; they pay taxes to support the army; and they have not pushed hard enough to remove their leaders. Worse, they are too obsessed with television soap operas and sport to know what is happening. “Most of you are too busy watching ‘Home and Away’ and ‘Eastenders’, complaining about the World Cup and drinking your alcohol...I know because I’ve come from that.”
Other members take turns to harangue their country on video, among them the apparent leader of the gang, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, who complains that the British are more concerned about the killing of foxes than of Muslims. These “martyrdom videos”, adding some British flavour to the themes of global jihad, were never broadcast. They were found by British police during a wave of arrests in August 2006 and shown at the trial of eight men accused of attempting to blow up seven or more transatlantic airliners en route from London to North America. Mr Ali denies that the group meant to kill anybody; it was planning only a small explosion at London’s Heathrow airport to attract publicity, he told the court.
If the prosecution were to prove its case, the alleged plot would have been the biggest since the September 11th 2001 attacks on America, potentially killing between 1,000 and 2,000 people. Even without this case, though, it is plain that Europe is now bearing the brunt of jihadist attacks on the West, even though America is seen as the main enemy. Ten remotely controlled bombs were set off on Madrid’s trains on March 11th 2004, killing 191 people, and four suicide-bombers blew themselves up on London’s public transport on July 7th 2005, killing 52. Since then, several more bombs failed to detonate properly in London and Glasgow, and other attacks were foiled across Europe.
For America, the terrorist threat is still mainly an external one, involving extremists coming from abroad to carry out attacks. In Europe it is largely an internal problem of home-grown Muslim extremists. This helps to explain why Americans see the struggle against jihadism as a “war”, whereas Europeans consider it mainly a matter for the police; why America is attracted by the idea of fighting terrorists “over there”, whereas Europe worries that military action will only worsen the problem “over here”. Indeed, the biggest threat to America may come from “clean skin” European extremists.
Marc Sageman, in his book “Leaderless Jihad”, argues that these European-born radicals, usually descendants of poor migrants, are drawn to violence less by religious ideology and more by the idea of “jihadist cool”. They may know little about the Koran, but feel a sense of outrage and want to emulate the heroic figures they see on militant internet clips. These groups of friends, says Mr Sageman, become radicalised on their own. As international security has tightened, they have been unable to reach Iraq or Pakistan to fight there or were sent back, so they fight at home instead.
Ed Husain, a former member of the militant Hizb ut-Tahrir group in Britain and now co-director of the Quilliam Foundation, a think-tank set up to counter extremism, says that many young Muslims see radical Islam as a means of asserting their identity: “It gives you a sense of rebellion but you don’t feel bad about it. You are doing God’s work.”
Not over here
So why do Muslims in America seem more immune from militancy? According to Mr Sageman, the idea of a “war on Islam” makes less sense to them because of America’s more inclusive attitude to the immigrants, greater social mobility and the bigger role religion plays in public life. Others point out that Muslims in America form a smaller proportion of the population, are more dispersed and usually have higher skills than in Europe.
Counter-terrorism officials say the main reason America has avoided another attack is that it is farther from al-Qaeda’s main battlegrounds. With greatly improved intelligence co-operation, and with hundreds of thousands of people barred from travelling to America, al-Qaeda finds it easier to strike at Europe.
In Britain, the number of jihadist suspects tracked by MI5, the domestic intelligence service, keeps rising. Last year Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, said his agency was watching about 2,000 people deemed to pose a direct threat to national security and public safety. He dismissed the idea of a leaderless movement. Terrorist attacks in Britain, whether successful or foiled, “are not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups”, he insisted. Rather, most “have taken place because al-Qaeda has a clear determination to mount terrorist attacks against the United Kingdom”.
Britain’s prominent role in Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with a large resident population of Pakistani descent, puts it at greater risk of attack than others. But many other European countries also have substantial Muslim minorities. Germany’s opposition to the war in Iraq offered little protection; it was just luck that two bombs failed to go off on commuter trains in 2006. Last September German police foiled an alleged plot to bomb several places that attracted American visitors. Denmark has been climbing up the jihadists’ hate-list ever since one of its newspapers published some cartoons deemed offensive to the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.
France suffered Iranian-inspired bombings in the 1980s and Algerian ones in the 1990s, but has remained largely unscathed in recent years, thanks in part to a well-oiled counter-terrorist apparatus. Still, French security officials expect more attacks, given the violent stirrings of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. Spain and Italy are also worried.
As Europe’s prisons fill with jihadists, there are fears that radicalisation will spread among inmates. In Britain, police are particularly concerned that jihadists will form links with black criminal gangs, giving them access to weapons. In Spain in 2004, police arrested a group that had hatched a plot in prison to blow up Spain’s High Court and kill its leading antiterrorism judge, Baltasar Garzón.
The following year, police in Los Angeles stumbled on a group led by an ex-convict convert to Islam that was planning to bomb military recruitment stations, the Israeli consulate and synagogues. The trouble with prisons, says an FBI source, is that inmates are already predisposed to violence. America may not be as immune from home-grown terrorism as it thinks
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