June 14, 2019: 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. Switzerland recently deported one such radical cleric to Somalia, after years of legal efforts and a growing body of evidence that this cleric was responsible for persuading dozens of Swiss Moslems to join Islamic terrorist organizations, mainly in the Middle East. What concerns local police is those radicalized Swiss Moslems are often returning to Switzerland and continuing their violent lifestyle. That is the pattern in other European nations and the result is more terrorist violence in Europe.

Currently, six percent of the 8.6 million Swiss are Moslem and most are recent migrants. That’s about half a million Moslems. Europe, excluding Russia, has about 27 million Moslems while North America has about five million.

Opinion surveys of Moslems in the West consistently shows a small segment (under five percent but never less than one percent) openly support terrorism to “defend Islam.” Switzerland found that as their Moslem population grew so did the number of mosques. Some of these new mosques were financed by Moslem charities and it wasn’t long before the Swiss discovered that some of these charities were seeking to establish mosques where Islamic radicalism and violence against non-Moslems was accepted and encouraged. The clerics operating these Mosques were sometimes quite open about their radical beliefs. This sort of thing is now illegal in many European countries because since the 1990s there is ample evidence that this sort of thing leads to the creation of local Islamic terrorists.

The radical clerics often prove difficult to deport because they lie about their nationality and much else. This sort of deception is openly encouraged in Moslem scripture and these radical clerics become more popular with their followers (and potential followers) the longer they get away with it. It has now become customary for Europeans to be persistent in their efforts to prosecute or expel the radical clerics. That has been made easier as counterterrorism organizations throughout the West (and in many Moslem nations) cooperate with sharing information. The Swiss radical cleric was eventually ordered deported to Somalia after it was proven he was indeed Somali and Somalia agreed to accept him. The actual deportation has not happened yet and might be delayed for a long time by legal appeals. This cleric was convicted of inciting violence back in 2017 and is not really welcome back in Somalia. There have been similar situations in other European nations, often involving Somali clerics, but also those from other Moslem nations like Algeria, Egypt and so on.

This effort to identify and prosecute radical clerics and other Moslems who actively encourage Islamic terrorism is relatively recent. For a long time, many Europeans believed Islamic terrorism in their midst was caused by the American invasion of Iraq. But the local police soon realized that was not the case and eventually this was accepted by governments under pressure to do something about this new source of criminal activity that was often inflicted on local voters. The reality was that Islamic terrorism has been a problem in Europe since the 1980s and in the 1990s it was getting visibly worse.

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.

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 (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.

Since 2001, it's become more difficult to stay in Europe. More of these refugees are getting deported back to the old country. And those wanted by the United States are getting extradited, although only after the Americans promise not to send the accused to Guantanamo, or to execute them. Other than that, it's good riddance. The Europeans need all the jail cells they can get, because more and more of their own Moslems are crossing the line, and getting locked up.

While the United States has had fewer local Islamic terrorists,  growing number 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. This would be Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, or places where weapons smugglers operate.

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.