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Recruitment by Terrorist Organizations in Europe’S Muslim Communities Sergei Sarkisyan 1

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Recruitment by Terrorist Organizations in Europe’S Muslim Communities Sergei Sarkisyan 1 Chapter 12 Aspects of Recruitment by Terrorist Organizations in Europe’s Muslim Communities Sergei Sarkisyan 1 The main principles and methods for recruiting by Islamist terrorist organiza- tions in European countries are essentially no different from those used by na- tional security services, by religions, mystical and totalitarian cults, and even certain businesses. The differences are a matter of nuance, emphasis, and the success rate of recruitment by certain patterns and schemes. However, it is specifically the study of these nuances that can help establish why the phenomenon of Islamist terrorism has become quasi-ubiquitous, as well as identifying means and methods for narrowing and reducing the base that advocates and nourishes terrorism, whilst furnishing it with ever more fresh recruits. In order to better understand the powerful dynamics behind the spread of Islamism—the politicized component of Islam—through the Muslim communi- ties of Europe, it is necessary to briefly dwell on the general characteristics of modern Islamic society, as well as the causes and the current degree of radi- calization. The ideological content of Islamism is Islamic fundamentalism, which, on the one hand, is a theological teaching and a movement to restore certain pri- mary values, norms and relations that were canonized in history (these can be religious, ethical, family, domestic, etc.) and on the other hand, as a political teaching and the practice of struggling for power in Muslim states. The political form of Islamic fundamentalism, despite its great diversity, can fairly cleanly be divided into two branches: • Moderate; • Radical & extremist. The quest, within Islam, for simple responses to all questions, including con- temporary political, economic and cultural challenges, first generated isolated hotbeds of extremism, and then led to the spread of extremism, transforming it 1 Sergei Sarkisyan is a longtime member of the CTWG and specializes in Islamist terrorism. 171 172 Sergei Sarkisyan into a broad Islamist movement. The main hotbeds and factors behind the genesis of Islamist extremism include: 1. Egypt: the distribution of the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood as a re- sponse to the pan-Arabism of Gamal Abdel Nasser; 2. The Arab-Israeli conflict; 3. Afghanistan: from the political instability of the mid-1970’s and the war of 1979-1989 to the Taliban movement coming to power; 4. Iran: the Islamic Revolution of 1979; 5. The Islamic renaissance in countries of the former USSR, starting in the mid-1980’s; 6. Iraq: the 2003 war. The most radical branch of Islamic fundamentalism is Salafism (Wahha- bism): a teaching by the followers of Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who preached a return to the “pure” Islam of the Prophet and his followers. However, the Salafists themselves violated two fundamental stipulations of the Quran: • an interdiction on declaring jihad against Muslims; • the sincerity of a Muslim’s faith can only be judged by the Supreme Be- ing, on the day of judgment. One of the key criteria for classifying an extremist movement in Islamist fundamentalism could be the acceptability in that movement of the principle of takfir. That is, the possibility of accusing a faithful Muslim of impiety – an act which enlarges the field of battle with infidels, to include Islamic countries with relatively secular, moderate or insufficiently radical regimes. The spread of Salafism was facilitated by a number of factors: • a crisis of secular ideologies (socialism, pan-Arabism and nationalism); • a crisis of legitimacy in the Islamic world; • the renaissance of Islam; • the appearance of disposable income from the sale of oil by certain Mus- lim states, primarily Saudi Arabia. The widespread propagation of the ideas of political Islam led followers to nurture hopes of achieving three objectives: • establishing the norms of true Islam, which would require overthrowing illegitimate governments; • the establishment of Sharia law in society, by “awakening” true believ- ers; • the restoration of the Khalifat, including North Africa, the Arabian penin- sula, the countries of the Near and Middle East, Transcaucasia, the North Caucasus, Central Asia and part of India – objectives which prompted ac- tive recruitment of followers and agents in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Recruitment by Terrorist Organizations in Europe’s Muslim Communities 173 However, in order to achieve these objectives, Islamists had to stand up against those forces who were actively hindering them or who could stand in the way of success: first among these were the USA, Russia and India. Islamists were particularly irritated by the presence of American military bases on holy land – Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism. After suffering significant losses during the global war on terrorism that be- gan after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Islamists were forced to modify their tactics, restructure their networks and overhaul systems for the recruitment and training of followers. According to the Congressional Research Service’ report “Trends in the De- velopment of Terrorism: 2006,” a review of data on the changing development of terrorist groups and organizations across the world, the following trends can be observed in modern international terrorism: 1. Decentralization of the management of components of international terrorism networks. At the same time the lethality of terrorist acts is reduced, but the possibility of terrorist cell detection is reduced; 2. Growing professionalism: - in information and propaganda, - finances, and - organization; 3. Coalescence of terrorist organizations and international crime groups; 4. Growth of suicide terrorism, with a relatively high concentration in Iraq (approximately 30 % of such terrorist acts in the world and 50 % of the victims). Decentralization has led to: • an increased importance of remote control of terrorist subnets and cells via printed matter, the Internet and CDs containing the messages of international terrorist leaders, offering general position statements and proposing areas of terrorist activity; • evolution of the tactics used by terrorist groups in the field, and greater independence for these groups in selecting targets for attack. In parallel with these processes, an evolution has been seen in the methods used by Islamist terrorist groups to recruit new followers in Europe. Currently in Europe, according to various data, there are between 18 and 26 million Muslims (some estimates range from 35 to 50 million), the majority of who moved to Europe during one of three waves of immigration: • between the end of WWII and the early 1970’s. The main reason was the lack of manpower in post-war Europe; • between 1970 and the start of the 1980’s. This wave was mainly the re- sult of family reunification following the first wave; 174 Sergei Sarkisyan • from the 1980’s, immigration was a quest for economic and political shelter from repression at home; in other words, a significant portion of immigrants were already politicized. The majority of immigrants in the countries of Europe are from: • Turkey • Morocco • Algeria • Pakistan • Tunisia. In the opinion of a number of experts, including analysts of the security ser- vices of France and Germany, almost all Islamic communities in Europe contain a certain percentage of radicals. This begs the simple conclusion that the de- gree of radicalization and the level of dissemination of the ideas of Islamic ter- rorism are in direct proportion to the size of the Muslim diaspora. However, this connection was not confirmed by a study by the Nixon Center (Robert Leiken and Steven Brooke) of the biographies of 373 members of transnational Sunni terrorist groups, who were indicted, convicted or perished in North America and Western Europe between 1993 and 2004. Moreover, it turned out that only in 4 of 6 European countries covered by the study were the majority of terrorists representative of the main immigrant communities in 2 the given country. An exception from the rule is Italy, where 65 % of the terrorists were from Tunisia, while the largest immigrant community was Moroccan. In Germany, 3 meanwhile, despite a predominance of Turkish immigrants in the Muslim population, the majority of terrorists were immigrants from Algeria and Syria. The absence of a direct link between the size of the Muslim diaspora, its ethnical composition and the level of terrorist activity indicate that the radi- calization of Islamic communities is influenced less by objective factors, and more by subjective ones: primarily the influence of international Islamist ter- rorism using information and propaganda. Indeed, some of the immigrants who took up the Islamist ideology before leaving their homeland brought the battle for establishing the rule of Sharia and the unity of the Islam umma (the global Islamic community) to Europe. However, data from a number of social science studies, including that of Mark 2 Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke, “The Quantitative Analysis of Terrorism and Immigration: An Initial Exploration,” Terrorism and Political Violence 18:4 (December 2006): 503–21. 3 Moreover, in the Netherlands, according to official data the number of residents of Turkish descent amongst those involved in terrorist activity is increasing. This is the result of the deliberate expansion of propaganda work by islamist extremist and ter- rorist organizations to include the Turkish diaspora of Europe. The Washington Post, 11 March 2007. Recruitment by Terrorist Organizations in Europe’s Muslim
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