Fundamental Issues 3
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Transcript of Fundamental Issues 3
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Contents
Editorial
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What do you think?
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“Many young people feel frus-
trated about political events, but
only become radicalised when
they are offered an extremist Is-
lamist rhetoric that provides
them with a 'them and us' narrat-
ive,” speakers agreed at an EPC
Policy Dialogue held in coopera-
tion with the King Baudouin
Foundation and supported by the
US Mission to the EU.”
“Many young people feel frus-
trated about political events, but
only become radicalised when
they are offered an extremist Is-
lamist rhetoric that provides
them with a 'them and us' narrat-
ive,” speakers agreed at an EPC
Policy Dialogue held in coopera-
tion with the King Baudouin
Foundation and supported by the
US Mission to the EU.” This sen-
tence starts off the official press
release of the European Policy
Centre (EPC), after their Policy
Dialogue on “Countering youth
radicalisation: what works, what
doesn't?” 29 October 2008. The
sentence sums up the outcomes
of this event and at the same
time reveals one of my greatest
frustrations with it: Why is it
that one of the major Brussels
think tanks on integration policy
hosts a panel discussion with
such a promising wide-range
title, when in the end all they
talk about is Islamic extremism?
But let's start with the facts: The
EPC had invited five panelists.
Kristen Silverberg, Ambassador
of the United States to the EU,
can be considered the highest
profile guest and delivered the
opening remarks.
With the US elections not a
week away, Ms Silverberg, who
during her Washington days was
known as “one of the White
House's most trusted behind-the-
scenes aides“ and „a key figure
in Bush's 2000 campaign”,
1
used
her keynote to praise highly
George W. Bush's “fight for
liberty” in the world.
Doing so, she linked the topic of
“Countering youth radicalisa-
tion” to the “War on Terror” and
talked about some of her admin-
istration's strategies to prevent
further radicalisation in coun-
tries like Iraq, e.g. support grass-
roots movements to counter rad-
icalism; set up exchange pro-
grammes for community
organisers and leaders; and en-
courage Imams to visit the US to
learn about different approaches
to religious tolerance; using tele-
vision channels, new techno-
logy, the Internet and social
networks.
These programmes, coupled with
the fact that most of the victims
of terrorist activities are Muslims
themselves, are having an effect,
with extremism declining and
support for terrorism dropping,
the ambassador said.
“I was an Islamic extremist”
Following this keynote address,
Ghaffar Hussain recalled his own
experiences from his time in a
radical Islamic student move-
ment and his work for “the
world's first counter-extremism
think tank,” the London-based
Quilliam Foundation.
He said he knew from personal
experience that young people are
attracted to extremist rhetoric, as
it provides a narrative that ex-
plains society’s complexities and
interprets every event through the
lens of “good versus evil” and
“the West versus Islam” - a
simple message with religious
overtones.
Radical Islam should be
countered on religious, political
and historical levels. On the reli-
gious level, traditional Muslim
scholars should be brought in to
give the “real” interpretation of
the Koran. On the political level,
he said, it is usually easy to “de-
construct” the arguments – e.g.
that Jews or Freemasons lead the
world. On a historical level, one
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must press home that it is a fal-
lacy that there was a “perfect” Is-
lamic state for 400 years.
Mr Hussain called for local
Mosques to accommodate young
people – male and female - and
provide them with role models.
Neighbourhoods should not be al-
lowed to become mono-cultural
ghettoes and authorities should
not treat Muslims “as a block”.
Extremism does not stem from
social deprivation, he argued, as
many Muslim extremists are doc-
tors or engineers. Instead, Mr
Hussain saw the problem to be in
a lack of appropriate ways to ex-
press anger and grief. He called
for a “grievances debate” to pre-
vent radicalism by providing a
medium to thrash out issues such
as US military intervention in the
Muslim world.
Countering the recruitment of young terrorists
Christophe-Adji Ahoudian,
Deputy Major responsible for
youth in the 19th arrondissement
in Paris, described how this part
of the French capital - with its
high percentage of young people,
a 15% unemployment rate and a
high level of delinquency - had
been affected by youth radical-
ism.
While in the past it had been a
calmer mixed neighbourhood,
with Jews and Muslims living
side by side, in 2000, at the time
of the second Palestinian Inti-
fada, a small group of youths had
carried out copy-cat attacks on
Jewish shops and later welcomed
9/11 as the end of US world hege-
mony. These events, coupled
with the invasion of Afghanistan
and controversy over the wearing
of headscarves in French schools,
created a wave of sympathy for
the Muslim faith.
Local police and social workers
noticed that this group was led by
someone styling himself “the
Prophet”, who told young people
that their duty was to carry out Ji-
had, and trained them in military
techniques before they left to
fight the Americans in Iraq.
At this stage, social workers went
to see the parents whose children
had left for Iraq, convincing them
to help integrate these young
men into the local community.
They set up committees to bring
the different religious leaders to-
gether, offered social and voca-
tional integration, and helped
them to find employment (they
noted that “the Prophet” did not
leave for Iraq, since he had a job).
One crucial element was to work
with these young men’s mothers,
said Mr Ahoudian, and a success-
ful group was established to
bring together mothers from the
district. As a result of all these
measures, this group of young
radicals has ceased to exist.
The EU counter-terrorism strategy
Gilles de Kerchove, EU Counter-
Terrorism Coordinator, said that
while it was difficult to identify
what turns people into radical Is-
lamists, common features are a
sense of outrage, personal vulner-
ability and the importance of
group support.
Those who become radicalised
fall into four main types: 1. cha-
rismatic people – those feel that
respect for fundamental rights is
important; 2. those who lack
friends; 3. those who are socially
or politically frustrated; 4. crimin-
als.
In 2005, the EU Council of Min-
isters adopted a Counter Terror-
ism Strategy, which identified the
elements that encourage radical-
ism: radical Saudi Arabian Im-
ams who come to Europe; the
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“clash of civilisations”; and the
failure to integrate young people.
Mr de Kerchove particularly
warned against stigmatising the
Muslim religion, which was be-
ing hijacked for radical purposes.
The strategy has four strands: “to
prevent, protect, pursue and re-
spond”, but most work has
centred on prevention techniques,
such as exchanging information
on returning Jihadists, preventing
radicalisation in prison and the
use of the Internet.
It encompasses an Action Plan,
which stresses the need to work
towards greater economic, social
and political integration, particu-
larly in the poorest urban areas,
and the importance of countering
the “single narrative”, which at-
tracts the public support that
helps terrorism survive. Mr de
Kerchove noted that support for
Islamic radicalism is declining in
the Muslim world, as most of
those murdered are Muslims.
Other measures include persuad-
ing religious leaders to denounce
the hijacking of their religion and
providing technological assist-
ance for mainstream Muslims. In
general, more needs to be done in
schools and universities and with
parents to “de-glamorise” extrem-
ism.
Radicalism in the broader per-spective
As the only remaining speaker,
Rik Coolsaet, International Rela-
tions Professor at Ghent Uni-
versity, broadened his remarks to
radicalism in general. Looking at
what turns people into radicals,
he said, it appears that the same
dynamic fuels people from both
the right and left of the political
spectrum.
Individual radicalism leads to vi-
olence when people use a simple
narrative to put order into chaos,
dividing the world into “good
and bad guys”.
While religious radicalism is
linked to religious identity, polit-
ical radicalism begins as a reac-
tion to injustice, or a feeling of
discomfort about life, and can
then have an ideology imposed
on it that legitimises political vi-
olence.
Human history has always had
radicals, and at certain stages
their ideas are shared by a large
part of the community. However,
these disappear when the com-
munity they originate from takes
steps to stop them. Radical ideas
are held by a small number of in-
dividuals, and do not constitute
an “existential threat to civilisa-
tion”, said Professor Coolsaet.
Critical remarks
As was the case for many events
of this kind during the “European
Year of Intercultural Dialogue
2008” (EYID), the EPC Policy
Dialogue on “Countering youth
radicalisation: what works, what
doesn't?” did not live up to its
title: Although the pre-announce-
ments seemed to promise a wider
perspective, panelists only talked
about the religious radicalisation
of young people. More problem-
atically, the matter of radicalisa-
tion among young people was
narrowed down not only to reli-
gion in general, but effectively to
Islam in specific.
A reason for this one-sidedness
may well have been the kick-off
by a Bush-loyal US government
official, even the more diverse ap-
proaches among panelists almost
seemed like mere grass root sup-
port to the US-led “War on Ter-
ror”.
During the final discussion,
Marco Perolini of the European
Youth Forum asked Ms Silver-
berg why she was more con-
cerned with radicalized young
Europeans of Muslim faith than
with the spread of fundamentalist
views among Christian youth in
her own country. The ambassador
replied it was because she didn't
see “anyone in the US tying
bombs around their body”, imply-
ing that radicalized Muslim
youth are in greater danger to do
so. Furthermore, she denied any
possibility of there being any rad-
icalised young Christians in the
US.
Being one of the few young faces
in the audience, Marco Perolini
attempted to specify his question.
But he was blocked off by the
moderator in what seemed to be a
quick reaction to Ms Silverberg's
obviously growing discontent
with being put on the spot by a
youth representative.
Fortunately, the views of some of
the other panelists were broader
and in the case of Mr Coolsaet
even took other forms of radical-
ism into consideration. Neverthe-
less, I maintain the general
impression that overcoming rad-
icalisation was merely viewed as
a matter of security.
It should be more than that.
Overcoming radicalisation must
be seen as an act of strengthening
one of the pillars Europe is built
on - the enlightenment. What can
be done, not against young
people, but for young people, to
strengthen them in overcoming
the “incapacity to use their own
understanding without the guid-
ance of another“ (Kant)? I think
there might be some truth to Mr
Coolsaet's statement that it re-
quires an effort on the part of so-
ciety as a whole to put radicalism
back inside its boundaries.
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Pogradec 23rd Sept, 2008
Dear Alien!
How are you? We hope you are fine. We miss you so much. We really had a great time when you
were here with us. We are still trying to learn the Dumpa Jumpa Pi Pi language that you taught to us.
Dear Alien, after you left us we were faced with so many problems on Earth that we decided to
write to you and ask for your help. We humans have a request to you. Please come to Pogradec and
help us to save our planet that now experiences huge problems such as injustice, indoctrination, and
intolerance. As a consequence of these we have murders on our Earth; people engage in destructive
ideologies such as: Marxism, Nazism, Islamophobia. All of these provoke isolationism in our societ-
ies, and they cause corruption between people.
It is obvious that our planet is in trouble.
People are jealous and judging, full of prejudice. Others are in lamentation. The mass media make
people compete with each other and are in power to increase this nonsense.
We allow you to invade our planet, to influence it positively and – please – be careful to not get in-
volved in the same problems as we have here, on your planet.
Thank you so much! We are waiting!
Kisses,
Aicha, Anne Marie, Daniela, Glen, Ola, Olga, Sami
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Book review
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Point of view
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