Currents and Cross Currents of Radical Islamism

A series of conferences have taken place on the issue of radical islamism and this report from a few months back is a collection of conference papers and articles (followed by recommendations) on the following topics. I know what you are thinking, terrorism and counter terrorism conferences are dime a dozen, but this conference, in my opinion, is very worthwhile. If nothing else, I have yet to come across another conference which had such a wide ranging and senior representation (see page 27 of the report) from across the world. So these recommendations are indeed backed up with heavy weight sponsorship.

But while saying that, I am a bit disappointed. The recommendations are typical, more government intervention, more talk, etc. etc. I am very doubtful that that will help reduce the incidence of radical islamism. We within the UK are perhaps one of the greatest multicultural government interventionists with huge amounts of institutional support (see the previous blog about how the British Prison Service is institutionalising Islam within the prison service alongside Christianity) and we still end up with 7/7. I quote from the report from page 12,
"An oft-cited example of how local and global grievances merge, the case of Mohammed Bouyeri, the young Dutch Muslim who murdered Theo van Gogh is frequently cited. In the manifesto-cum-poem that Bouyeri pinned to the chest of his victim, outrage was expressed at the United States, for the invasion of Iraq, and Israel for the plight of the Palestinians, and, interestingly, comparable animus was directed against the Dutch state for considering a proposal to screen Muslim applicants for public sector jobs for radical leanings." Now if this is indeed the motivation of the terrorists then I would find it very difficult to see just what can European governments do to manage this kind of terrorism. I analysed al queda's statements and extracted their demands. See where that ended up and read this report. Best of luck.


STILL IN THE DARK: THE INTEGRATION CHALLENGE
LOCAL GRIEVANCES, GLOBAL JIHAD
AL QAEDA’S SOUTHEAST ASIAN AFFILIATE: JEMAAH ISLAMIYAH
TERRORIST USE OF THE INTERNET
LITTLE UNDERSTOOD AND PROFOUNDLY FEARED:SUICIDE BOMBING
THE COMING THREAT? THE RETURN OF IRAQ’S JIHADIST S
OUT OF THE SHADOWS: THE TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONSHIP AND THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM
THE EU’S ROLE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TERROR