‘Jihad generation’ of young extremists on rise in Europe

Last update: August 13, 2006 – 10:19 PM

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Britain’s struggle to contain Muslim extremism points to a rise of radical Islam in
Europe, and with it, a willingness among a small minority of young people to answer the call to jihad.William J. Kole, Associated PressVIENNA, AUSTRIA - Britain’s struggle to contain Muslim extremism points to a rise of radical Islam in
Europe, and with it, a willingness among a small minority of young people to answer the call to jihad. From the squalid suburbs north of Paris to the streets of
Sarajevo, young disaffected Muslims are increasingly receptive to hard-liners looking to recruit foot soldiers, counterterrorism officials and religious leaders warn. The continent, they say, remains vulnerable to attacks by homegrown militants despite the heightened security and attempts at inter-religious dialogue after the 2004 train blasts in Madrid and last year’s attacks in
London. “Their numbers are still relatively small, but I fear they could become larger,” said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Islamic studies at
Sarah
Lawrence
College in
New York. He calls it “the jihad generation”: Converts to extremism in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands,
Scandinavia and elsewhere that are spawning “self-generating” networks or cells. “They’re not part of Al-Qaida, but in their own eyes, they are foot soldiers” who share Osama bin Laden’s ideology, Gerges said. Little is known of what may have motivated the 23 suspects in British police custody to allegedly plot to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners with liquid explosives. But many in their middle- and working-class neighborhoods said the communities have become disenchanted at home because of discrimination and the lack of jobs, and alienated by U.S. and British policy in the
Middle East. “Governments in Europe insist this is a problem of ideology, but the real cause of this phenomenon is the political crisis that is sweeping the world with the war in Iraq and the situation in Palestine,” said Azzam Tamimi, director of the London-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought. From indifference to extremism Recruiters for hard-line Islamist groups can turn some Muslim youths with little interest in religion into extremists in a matter of weeks, said Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of
France’s counterterrorism agency. About 5,000 of 5 million French Muslims embrace extremist Islam, said a 2005 police intelligence report. “Young people who are indifferent to religion fall in a matter of weeks into the toughest kind of Islam and … into the most worrisome kind of activism,” Bousquet de Florian told the newspaper Le Parisien last month. The rise of homegrown extremists — many of whom operate in small, close-knit circles difficult for law enforcement to penetrate — has complicated counterterrorism efforts in many countries. A vision ’so imaginatively wicked’ In Britain, an Islamic group published a letter this weekend saying the “debacle in Iraq” and the failure to secure a cease-fire in southern Lebanon as Israel waged a military campaign against Hezbollah militants has made
Britain a target.
Britain’s archbishop of York, the Rev. John Sentamu, said he thinks disenfranchised young Muslims turn to extremism not because of Islam but “because they are alienated, because they have been given a vision which is so imaginatively wicked.”
Britain’s tradition of tolerance has made it an oasis for immigrants and political outcasts. Especially in the 1980s and 1990s,
Britain became the refuge of choice for scores of Islamic radicals expelled or exiled for from their home countries. More than any other country in Europe,
Britain is struggling to cope with a surge in supporters of radical Islamic networks, analysts said. Since July’s attacks, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government has toughened anti-terrorism laws. It also has increased the number of Muslim police officers and conducted outreach in
Britain’s Muslim community, which officially numbers 1.6 million people but is believed to exceed 2 million. Yet “the flow of new cases shows no sign of abating,” said Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorism branch. The Washington Post contributed to this report. ©2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.