He has a very important post today that argues that we can never kill enough Jihadists to stop terror.
Nawaz knows of what he speaks as he himself is formerly from the Jihad movement.
http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Journey-out-Islamist-Extremism-ebook/dp/B00MJD7CW0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447524606&sr=8-1&keywords=maajid+nawaz
He argues that Jihad is an insurgency which is very sobering as it means that we can't win simply by killing as many Jihadists as possible-a la our recent takedown of Jihadi John. An insurgency only exists if there is a good deal of support among the populations that the insurgents come from .
"Jihadist terrorism is alive and kicking. And though we must continue to put terrorists on the back foot by targeting their leadership, we will never kill our way out of this phenomenon. In January 2013, after Bin Laden’s death but long before ISIS’s emergence, my counter-extremism organization Quilliam declared (to choruses of raised eyebrows at the time), “It’s a full blown jihadist-insurgency, stupid.” And no insurgency is sustainable, or even possible, without a level of residual support for its core ideological aims among the core communities from which it draws its fighters."
To the tease in my title-why is France a recurring victim whereas London is 'overdue' as he puts it?
"Though London is by now well overdue a similar attack, a question that could legitimately be asked is why does France seem to be bearing the brunt of such coordinated jihadist terror, up until now most potently symbolized by the Charlie Hebdo attacks? Unfortunately for France, though not unique to it, between 5 and 10 percent of its population is Muslim. Real, serious problems with economic and social integration prevail in this group, fuelling resentment on a scale that baffles most expert policy makers. Even if hundreds, out of millions, take this resentment to its deadly conclusion, France has a huge problem on its hands, as we saw on Friday. But so do we all."
As Nawaz says this will lead to the rise of the anti immigrant French Right. Indeed, you see the same thing already in the US with the GOP Presidential candidates blaming Obama and declaring that this means we have to limit Syrian immigrants.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/paris-attacks-2016-presidential-candidates-215856
Yet what's so problematic is that those recruited to Jihad are not so much immigrants but those born and naturalized into Western societies.
"Jihadism has well and truly taken root among an entire generation of angry young Muslims. This is particularly the case in Europe, where thousands have left to join ISIS. This insurgency is incredibly hard to tackle, because its recruits remain invisible in our very own societies, born and raised among us, fluent in our languages and culture, but full of venom for everything they have been raised into."
"For now, my guess will be that these attacks will only aid the anti-immigrant rhetoric of France’s far right, sweeping xenophobes to prominence, further polarizing communities, which for good or for bad, will only sustain the process of radicalization even further. This is so despite the fact that France has taken hardly any Syrian refugees, and Germany, which has taken hundreds of thousands, has yet to be hit as hard as France has. European born and raised jihadists have so far posed the biggest problem, not immigrants."
Nawaz knows of what he speaks as he himself is formerly from the Jihad movement.
http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Journey-out-Islamist-Extremism-ebook/dp/B00MJD7CW0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447524606&sr=8-1&keywords=maajid+nawaz
He argues that Jihad is an insurgency which is very sobering as it means that we can't win simply by killing as many Jihadists as possible-a la our recent takedown of Jihadi John. An insurgency only exists if there is a good deal of support among the populations that the insurgents come from .
"Jihadist terrorism is alive and kicking. And though we must continue to put terrorists on the back foot by targeting their leadership, we will never kill our way out of this phenomenon. In January 2013, after Bin Laden’s death but long before ISIS’s emergence, my counter-extremism organization Quilliam declared (to choruses of raised eyebrows at the time), “It’s a full blown jihadist-insurgency, stupid.” And no insurgency is sustainable, or even possible, without a level of residual support for its core ideological aims among the core communities from which it draws its fighters."
To the tease in my title-why is France a recurring victim whereas London is 'overdue' as he puts it?
"Though London is by now well overdue a similar attack, a question that could legitimately be asked is why does France seem to be bearing the brunt of such coordinated jihadist terror, up until now most potently symbolized by the Charlie Hebdo attacks? Unfortunately for France, though not unique to it, between 5 and 10 percent of its population is Muslim. Real, serious problems with economic and social integration prevail in this group, fuelling resentment on a scale that baffles most expert policy makers. Even if hundreds, out of millions, take this resentment to its deadly conclusion, France has a huge problem on its hands, as we saw on Friday. But so do we all."
As Nawaz says this will lead to the rise of the anti immigrant French Right. Indeed, you see the same thing already in the US with the GOP Presidential candidates blaming Obama and declaring that this means we have to limit Syrian immigrants.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/paris-attacks-2016-presidential-candidates-215856
Yet what's so problematic is that those recruited to Jihad are not so much immigrants but those born and naturalized into Western societies.
"Jihadism has well and truly taken root among an entire generation of angry young Muslims. This is particularly the case in Europe, where thousands have left to join ISIS. This insurgency is incredibly hard to tackle, because its recruits remain invisible in our very own societies, born and raised among us, fluent in our languages and culture, but full of venom for everything they have been raised into."
"For now, my guess will be that these attacks will only aid the anti-immigrant rhetoric of France’s far right, sweeping xenophobes to prominence, further polarizing communities, which for good or for bad, will only sustain the process of radicalization even further. This is so despite the fact that France has taken hardly any Syrian refugees, and Germany, which has taken hundreds of thousands, has yet to be hit as hard as France has. European born and raised jihadists have so far posed the biggest problem, not immigrants."
Good post Mike. Maajid and Sam Harris have a book out I want to read. That'll probably be my next amazon purchase.
ReplyDeleteThe sad pattern we see over and over is the extremists on seemingly opposite sides help each other out.
ReplyDeleteYes, I linked to that. Maajid is a very important read right now.
ReplyDeleteJust ordered the Harris/Maajid book to my kindle.
ReplyDeleteDid it from your site too Mike!