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Ethno-Religious Conflict in Europe

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Ethno-Religious Conflict in Europe ETHNO-RELIGIOUS CONFLICT IN EUROPE TYPOLOGIES OF RADICALISATION IN EUROPE’S MUSLIM COMMUNITIES EDITED BY MICHAEL EMERSON AUTHORS OLIVIER ROY SAMIR AMGHAR THEODOROS KOUTROUBAS, WARD VLOEBERGHS & ZEYNEP YANASMAYAN TINKA VELDHUIS & EDWIN BAKKER RACHEL BRIGGS & JONATHAN BIRDWELL PATRICIA BEZUNARTEA, JOSÉ MANUEL LÓPEZ & LAURA TEDESCO ALEKSEI MALASHENKO & AKHMET YARLYKAPOV CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN POLICY STUDIES BRUSSELS The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) is an independent policy research institute based in Brussels. Its mission is to produce sound analytical research leading to constructive solutions to the challenges facing Europe today. CEPS Paperbacks present analysis and views by leading experts on important questions in the arena of European public policy, written in a style geared to an informed but generalist readership. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors writing in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect those of CEPS or any other institution with which they are associated. This project has been funded by the European Union’s 6th Framework Programme. CEPS’s broader work programme on Islam-related issues is supported by grants from the Compagnia di San Paolo and the Open Society Institute, which are gratefully acknowledged. With grateful thanks to François Schnell for allowing us to use his photo on the cover, showing a burning car in Strasbourg torched during the 2005 riots. ISBN 978-92-9079-822-4 © Copyright 2009, Centre for European Policy Studies. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the Centre for European Policy Studies. Centre for European Policy Studies Place du Congrès 1, B-1000 Brussels Tel: 32 (0) 2 229.39.11 Fax: 32 (0) 2 219.41.51 e-mail: [email protected] internet: http://www.ceps.eu CONTENTS Preface...................................................................................................................... i 1. Introduction and Summary Michael Emerson ......................................................................................... 1 2. Al-Qaeda in the West as a Youth Movement: The Power of a Narrative Olivier Roy................................................................................................. 11 Case Studies 3. Ideological and Theological Foundations of Muslim Radicalism in France Samir Amghar ............................................................................................ 27 4. Political, Religious and Ethnic Radicalisation among Muslims in Belgium Theodoros Koutroubas, Ward Vloeberghs & Zeynep Yanasmayan... 51 5. Muslims in the Netherlands: Tensions and Violent Conflict Tinka Veldhuis & Edwin Bakker............................................................. 81 6. Radicalisation among Muslims in the UK Rachel Briggs & Jonathan Birdwell ..................................................... 109 7. Muslims in Spain and Islamic Religious Radicalism Patricia Bezunartea, José Manuel López &Laura Tedesco ............... 136 8. Radicalisation of Russia’s Muslim Community Aleksei Malashenko & Akhmet Yarlykapov ....................................... 159 About the Authors............................................................................................ 193 PREFACE his book comes from a large research endeavour of the European Union’s 6th Framework Programme, called ‘Microcon’, standing for T the micro-foundations of violent conflict. In its entirety, Microcon consists of 28 component projects undertaken by 22 research centres across Europe, under the coordination of Sussex University. The Microcon website (www.microconflict.eu) gives a full account of participants, objectives and results. The project runs from 2007 to 2011. The present collection of papers represents the first half of one component project, under the title ‘Ethno-Religious Conflict’, directed by Michael Emerson and Amel Boubekeur. Its second half will address issues of ‘Changing Models of Multiculturalism’, and will be initiated in 2009 with approximately the same team of researchers who contributed to the present book. This sequence of working stages is deliberate, in that the present book analyses ethno-religious conflict in Europe as a problem, whereas the second will address the search for constructive solutions. The book also forms part of a wider set of studies on Islam-related issues undertaken by CEPS. Most relevant to the present work was a volume published in 2007, European Islam – The Challenge to Society and Public Policy, edited by Samir Amghar, Amel Boubekeur and Michael Emerson, which dealt with the social, economic, cultural and political conditions affecting the new Muslim minorities within the EU. Another CEPS book published in 2007, Political Islam and EU Foreign Policy, edited by Michael Emerson and Richard Youngs, analysed the role and ideologies of democratic Islamist parties in the south Mediterranean states, followed by a further work, Travels among Europe’s Muslim Neighbours, on the same theme by two Members of the European Parliament, Joost Lagendyk and Jan Wiersma. Brussels, 16 February 2009 | i 1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY MICHAEL EMERSON his book addresses what is perhaps the greatest source of societal tensions and violent conflict in contemporary Europe: tensions and T violence involving people from minority groups of Muslim culture. Six country studies are presented: on Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia and the United Kingdom. The societal tensions are flowing typically from two quite different sources: on the one hand, the broad and relatively soft issues of social and economic disadvantage and discrimination affecting Mulsim groups on an extensive scale, and, on the other hand, the narrowly concentrated but very hard issues of terrorist violence inspired by radical ideas. Both types are seen in the countries under study to some degree. The justification for addressing both together is that, while categorically different, they are nonetheless dynamically inter-connected, feeding on each other and leading, in some cases, to escalation. The selection of case studies is not comprehensive, but it does encompass a range of essential variables, notably as regards the length of time the Muslim minorities have been established in Europe and their countries of origin. A core West European group in the sample – Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK – all have immigrant Muslim communities that started coming in large numbers early in the second half of the 20th century. Thus the Maghrebians in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, and the Turks in Belgium and the Netherlands, and the South Asians in the UK are often now families with second or even third generations born in their new homelands. Spain, however, has a shorter experience of immigration, which became important only towards the end of the 20th century. At the other extreme one finds Russia’s Muslim minorities, who are mainly not immigrants at all, such as the Volga Tartars and the inhabitants of the Northern Caucasus, representing centuries of history from the early expansion of Islam and then of the Russia empire. | 1 2 | MICHAEL EMERSON All these communities have been affected in some degree by the waves of radical Islamic influence building up in recent decades, intensified by the after-shocks of the iconic global terrorist act of September 11th, 2001, and other subsequent acts that have been at least mentally filed under the same category by much of the population, irrespective of whether or not the terrorists had al-Qaeda connections. Five of the countries studied have experienced their own iconic events, which had massive media and political impact. Three countries witnessed horrific terrorist acts: the Madrid bombings of 11 March 2004, the London bombings of 7 July 2005, and in Russia all too many events on an even bigger scale including the Beslan hostage-taking of 1 September 2004. In the Netherlands, it was the successive assassinations of Pim Fortuyn on 6 May 2002 and Theo Van Gogh on 2 November 2004 and in France the categorically different riots of the Paris suburbs and other urban centres in November-December 2005. The incidence of terrorist violence has been highly variable from one country to another. Russia has seen the most numerous and deadly terrorist acts, but there the development of Islamic radicalisation has been grafted on top of the war of attempted secession by Chechnya in the 1990s. In Western Europe the UK has seen the most extensive series of terrorist acts; in Spain there has been just one major case; in France mostly foiled attempts; and in the Netherlands some individualised assassinations. Belgium, for reasons we shall explore later, has an immigrant community of the same order and origins as neighbouring France and the Netherlands, but it has so far escaped major violence. Irrespective of the frequency, or absence of terrorist acts, this book is concerned with the full range of tensions and trends towards violence involving the minorities of Muslim culture or faith. While the acts of terror are highly individualised, societal tensions between the Muslim communities and the majority populations are highly diffuse. In some cases, broader societal grievances and tensions have spilled over into collective violence, the most notable examples being the race riots that afflicted some northern English cities in the 1990s and
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