Counter-Terrorism: The Clarity Cure

Archives

December 17, 2020: Over the last few years more European governments have come to realize that integration of their recent Moslem migrants into the local culture is an essential process for preventing Islamic terrorism. That means some nations are making it mandatory to learn the local language and customs. Another lesson learned is the importance of preventing unintegrated Moslem migrants from congregating in Moslem majority neighborhoods. That enables radical Islamic clerics to establish mosques where all the members are dedicated to, or supportive of Islamic terrorism as a means of “defending Islam.”

This has been less of a problem in the United States where there is a long and strong tradition of migrants integrating into the local culture. In areas where that is ignored there is more Islamic radicalism. For decades it was fashionable to back multiculturalism where separatist Moslem neighborhoods were tolerated. Eventually the growing number of Islamic terrorists and supporters coming out of those neighborhoods, compared to Moslem migrants who had integrated and lived in more integrated neighborhoods, made it clear that multiculturalism was used by Islamic radicals to created culturally isolated Moslem communities where problems like low education levels, poverty and ignorance of the larger world that drove these Moslems to migrate were recreated.

Europe has about five times as many Moslems as the United States, and the ones in Europe are rather more into Islamic terrorism than their brethren across the Atlantic. This is because of the widespread prejudice in Europe, and isolation from terrorism back in the old country. Islamic terrorism is easier to admire if it is far away. Moreover American police came down hard on Islamic radicals after September 11, 2001. That, plus the patriotism of most U.S. Moslems, led to lots of imprisonments and deportations because many U.S. Moslems were illegal aliens.

In Europe, the Moslem populations were often allowed to exist as a very foreign presence in something like ethnic enclaves, and within these areas Islamic radicalism flourished. There were only a few terrorist attacks, and it was only because the security forces hustled that there weren't more. While (most of) the politicians continued to preach ethnic diversity, they were told by their security people that over one percent of their Moslems were willing to get involved in terrorist activities and that there were thousands of European Moslems that needed to be watched. These included Islamic radicals who had fled the United States, or the Middle East. Europe was a convenient place for Islamic radicals to hide out. The social welfare benefits were excellent. If an Islamic radical could afford it, his wife (or wives) and kids could be brought in, and the European governments would take care of them. However, after September 11, 2001, it was no longer easy to get in as a political refugee. But there were professional people-smugglers who, for a fee, could get just about anyone into Europe. The asylum laws in Europe made it very difficult to deport obviously hostile and anti-Western Islamic radicals. Fans of multiculturalism insisted that, with time, the Moslem migrants would integrate and reject Islamic terrorism. After several generations of that not happening the Europeans are now trying to address the results.

While the United States has had fewer local Islamic terrorists, growing numbers of American Moslems have been caught providing financial and other support for Islamic terror groups. This sort of thing quietly developed as supporters of Islamic terrorism realized how easy it was to move to the West and their raise large sums of money for terrorist causes. The money is often solicited, or obtained through criminal enterprises, and then smuggled to where the terrorists need it as in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, or places where weapons smugglers operate.

European governments are becoming more aggressive in identifying Islamic clerics who preach radical Islam to local Moslems and actively encourage young Moslems to participate in Islamic terrorist activities. This was difficult because these Islamic terrorist preachers and recruiters were difficult to deport, even after years of legal efforts and a growing body of evidence that this cleric was responsible for persuading dozens of local Moslems to join Islamic terrorist organizations, mainly in the Middle East. What concerns local police was that those radicalized Moslems are often returning to their new Western neighborhoods and continuing their violent lifestyle. That is the pattern in other European nations and the result is more terrorist violence in Europe.

The donations are usually raised from Moslem groups, particularly those from the areas that are to benefit from the charitable operations. It’s not just Islamic terrorists who use this technique. The Tamil (Hindu) rebels in Sri Lanka used these methods to keep their war going for over two decades. Sikh separatists similarly raised millions from overseas Sikhs to support over two decades (1970s-1990s) of violence in India. The communist NPA rebels in the Philippines raised millions from fellow leftists in Europe for decades before the NPA was declared an international terrorist organization. By 2006, the contributions from Europe dried up, and so did hopes of the NPA to establish a communist dictatorship in the Philippines. The IRA (Irish Republican Army), and various splinter groups, also survived for decades by raising, usually illegally, money among expatriate Irish. The fundraising often involved extortion. A particularly nasty angle was threatening to hurt kin back in the old country if wealthier expatriates did not give enough.

The fundraisers for Islamic terrorism are different because Islamic terrorism has been a recurring problem in the Islamic world for over a thousand years. Now those periodic outbursts of Islamic radicalism are happening in the West. Europe, excluding Russia, has about 27 million Moslems while North America has about five million. The scale and intensity of the problem is much worse in Europe.

After September 11, 2001, and especially after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was fashionable for more Moslems, especially young ones, to declare America an "enemy of Islam." More thoughtful Moslems realized that the Islamic terrorists were screwing up things for everyone. All Moslems were now tainted. Sure enough, the Islamic terrorists soon began killing Moslems in Moslem countries. This was nothing new for most Moslems because this kind of terrorism had been going on for over a decade before 2001. Egypt, Algeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan were all suffering from Moslem-on-Moslem violence in the 1990s. All in the name of religion. European had outlawed that sort of thing centuries ago and the United States was founded on rejecting religious intolerance. Even with that, if you let it back in and allow it to thrive, religion-based violence will follow and persist until to deal with the core problem.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close