Islamism - 4

[acharya]

Sunday, April 02, 2006
Islamic radicalism springs from globalisation of Islam

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: A noted French expert on Islam has said that Europe today is confronted with the “pure products of the westernisation of Islam”, represented by young Muslims who have no specific territorial or cultural roots.

Olivier Roy told a meeting in a lecture this week at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that the “new” Muslims come from various fringes and peripheries, both geographical and social. Converts, he added, are to be found in every Al Qaeda cell discovered in the West, including the United States. Quoting from one of his books, he said: “Islamic radicalism is largely the result of the globalisation of Islam, and not just a by product of the crisis in the Middle East.” There are many points common between the 9/11 pilots and the London bombers, he said. They all had a secular background with Western habits until the day of their return or conversion to Islam. These people were “de-territorialised”, which means they are not liked to a single country, including the country of their origin.

Roy stressed that the crisis in the Middle East is not a sufficient motivation for becoming radical, as these conflicts are mainly driven by nationalism, not religion. However, Middle East conflicts have a tremendous impact on Muslim public opinion worldwide. In justifying its terrorist attacks in Iraq, Al Qaeda is looking for popularity or at least legitimacy among Muslims.

However, this is largely propaganda as Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine are hardly the main motivating factors behind global jihad. He said that it has been argued that Osama Bin Laden was radicalised by the arrival of American troops in Saudi Arabia, but the fact is that by that time he was already a veteran fighter committed to global jihad. He said that from the beginning, Al Qaeda fighters have been global jihadists. For them, every conflict is simply a part of the Western encroachment on the Muslim Ummah. He asked that if conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine are at the core of radicalisation, why are there virtually no Afghans, Iraqis or Palestinians among the terrorists? It is also interesting, he added, that none of the Islamic terrorists killed or captured so far in the West had been active in any legitimate anti-war movements or even in organised political support for the people they claim to be fighting for. These groups, he stressed, “act local and think global”.

“The Western-based Islamic terrorists are not the militant vanguard of the Muslim community. They are a lost generation, unmoored from traditional societies and cultures, frustrated by a Western society that does not meet their expectations,” Roy said. He pointed out that their vision of “global Ummah” is both a mirror of and a form of revenge against the globalisation that had made them what they are. Al Qaeda and its consorts offer a narrative of revolt and violence, which appeals to an unmoored youth and gives a religious and political dimension to a youth revolt that could have been expressed in other forms of violence. It is not by chance that jails in the West seem to be as much a recruiting ground as mosques, he said.

Roy said that political radicalisation is only part of the picture. New trends in Islam are overshadowed by violence linked to radical Islam. These changes show that Islam is adapting to the modern world, he said. The same patterns are at work in the radicalisation of the youth and in the emergence of a secularised and even liberal form of Islam, namely the individualisation and “de-culturation” of religion. He said that the present Islamic fundamentalism is the “best factor of deculturation” and hence of secularisation, not because people will become less and less religious, but because the religious space is that of a faith community that feels more and more estranged from the public space. Endeavours to “re-Islamise” the society mean that religious zealots consider that they are living in a secular environment. Roy said that the faith community is more and more becoming a “virtual one”, where believers meet in local congregations or in the global space. “Virtual Ummah means a global, non-territorial and abstract community of believers, not linked to any real society. For many unmoored and disenfranchised Muslims, the Internet provides a way to materialise this virtual Ummah,” he said.

Roy said that in Europe, the British policy of multi-culturism and the French policy of assimilation had both failed. Muslims in the West do not push for an ethno-cultural identity, but want to be recognised as a mere faith community. Religion is de-linked with culture. He argued that the West must make “room” for Islam as a Western religion among others, not as an expression of an ethno-cultural community. “This is the real process of secularisation, which has nothing to do with theological reformation, but could entail a theological debate. He said: “Political authorities should not look for traditional moderate religious thinkers from the Middle East to appease Western Muslims; nor should they spend subsidies to promote ‘civil’ or ‘liberal’ Islam. They should simply make room for Islam without changing laws, not principles. Genuine pluralism is the best way to avoid confrontation with a Muslim population, itself very diverse, but that could feel coerced into a ghettoised community … State policy should be based on integration and even ‘notabilisation’ of Muslims and community leaders on a pluralistic basis. The priority should be to weaken the links with foreign elements by pushing for the ‘nativisation’ of Islam and for preventing the deepening of the ghetto syndrome, Transparency and democracy should be the aim.”