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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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