Islam in Europe: Extremism and Integration: New Age Islam's Selection, 11 August 2016
New Age Islam Edit Bureau
11 August 2016
• Islam in Europe: Extremism and Integration
By Turki Aldakhil
• Defeating ISIS Is Beside the Point; Iraq Does Not Exist Anymore
By Dr. John C. Hulsman
• The Opposing Narratives of Aleppo’s Siege
By Diana Moukalled
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Islam in Europe: Extremism and Integration
By Turki Aldakhil
10 August 2016
Right-wing sentiment is spreading in Europe. The attacks in the French city of Nice and the German city of Munich have affected religious intellect and Islamic rhetoric. Measures have been taken against mosques. On Aug. 1, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced the shutting down of 20 mosques and prayer halls for propagating extremist ideas.
He said more mosques would be shut down, and extremist preachers would be deported: “There’s no place in France for those who call for and incite hatred in prayer halls or in mosques, and who don’t respect certain republican principles, notably equality between men and women.”
Islam’s presence in France dates back to the end of the 19th century. By the start of World War I, their number was estimated at 30,000-40,000, mostly Algerian and Moroccan workers. It is said that France has 2,500 mosques and prayer halls, of which about 120 spread extremist ideology.
Extremist organizations want clashes to occur between Muslims and European governments, and to nurture resistance against integration
Europe’s right-wing exploits any incident involving an immigrant or Muslim in order to pressure governments. Data indicates right-wing progress in upcoming elections, particularly after Syrian refugees’ arrival in Europe, mainly in Germany.
This right-wing rise is empowered by violent attacks against civilians and security forces, and by incidents targeting airports, markets and places of entertainment.
The European problem must be resolved by Europeans, but Muslims have the right to wonder about the crimes committed against them due to extremist rhetoric and discrimination based on skin color, race or religion. Fundamentalist rhetoric nurtures hatred and develops a sense of separation from society.
Egyptian thinker Nasr Hamed abu Zayd, who has actively criticized religious rhetoric since the 1980s, said: “Religious rhetoric is dark in the darkness and luminous in the light.” This applies to preachers who call for enlightenment when they are on public platforms or in front of cameras, but preach violence and hatred when delivering speeches behind closed doors and unmonitored places.
This can only be resolved on the security front. Europe must be purified from extremists who have infiltrated Muslim ranks. Extremist preachers first deliver embellished speeches during conferences and seminars, but soon reveal a dark intellect behind closed doors. It is impossible to change their ideas. They came to Europe as conquerors, not as learners.
Muslims in Europe are unaware of the treachery of fundamentalists, who attract youths under the guise of protecting their identity and resolving the problems of alienation by establishing a community that is isolated from wider society.
Terrorism and extremism rise when integration decreases. Countless Arabs and Muslims have integrated in European and American societies. Examples include London Mayor Sadiq Khan (the son of a Pakistani bus driver), the late Edward Said (the Palestinian thinker who became one of the most important academics in the United States), and Lebanese-born French author Amin Maalouf.
Europe will remain the continent of light. Extremist organizations want clashes to occur between Muslims and European governments, and to nurture resistance against integration. However, as France and Germany have warned, there is no option now but to integrate or return to the country of origin. Europe is guarding its past and present. The ball is in the court of the Muslim community there.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/08/10/Islam-in-Europe-Extremism-and-integration.html
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Defeating ISIS Is Beside the Point; Iraq Does Not Exist Anymore
By Dr. John C. Hulsman
10 August 2016
“War is a mere continuation of politics by other means.”
--Carl von Clausewitz, On War
Foreign policy analysts have a terrible in-built tendency to ignore historical failures. Philosophically, they skew toward Hegel rather than Burke, believing that every intractable problem always contains the seeds of regeneration and reform. No situation can ever be written off as a beyond redemption.
Yet history is full of such cases. The Roman Empire never managed to wholly secure its borders with the Barbarians, the Spanish Empire never was able to control increasingly rampant inflation, and the United States has never manged to fully shed its missionary impulse in international relations, wrongheaded though it often is, as in Vietnam and Iraq. Adopting the more historical approach favoured by Burke allows for the analytical insight that history is as littered with failures as it is adorned with successes.
Judging by a wealth of facts on the ground, it is time for Burkeans to burst the Hegelian bubble about the viability of Iraq and face stubborn facts. Iraq as a state has ceased to exist except in theory and shows no real signs of being revived. Despite real battlefield successes against ISIS, the collapse of both Iraq and Syria as coherent political entities capable of controlling their respective boundaries, leaves a gaping hole of instability in the centre of the region.
Until the politics – rather than the military aspects of the problem – are dealt with in an entirely new way, the region is likely to remain mired in instability for the foreseeable future. Sometimes the historical answer is no, and it is up to both analysts and decision-makers alike to realise this bleak but valuable political lesson.
The interests of the patchwork quilt of Iraqi political factions are simply too entrenched to give away the government patronage that is the enduring source of their power
Regime Botches Reform Again
Two basic problems bedevil the Iraqi state, both of which have proven intractable. First, the well-meaning but weak government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has proven itself utterly incapable of advancing its much-needed reform agenda. Despite having the declared support of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani – the most popular figure in the country – and the swelling impetus of the Sadrist movement behind his tentative steps toward reform, the Abadi government has stumbled at every turn.
On July 15, thousands of supporters of firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr returned to the streets of Baghdad, protesting the chronic delays in reforming the Iraqi government, purging it of its endemic corruption. For a year, Abadi has called for an end to ethno-religious quotas for government positions, instead wishing to appoint officials based on merit.
Further, Abadi has declared his preference for forming a government of technocrats, experts who can begin to dig the country out of its fiscal hole, caused in equal measures by endemic corruption, the collapse of global oil prices, and the need to prosecute the costly war against Islamic State. It has gotten so bad that the government cannot guarantee the continued flow of electricity, even as summer temperatures in the south of the country have exceeded a scorching 50 degrees centigrade.
Yet despite these internal and external forces making the logic of reform overwhelming in policy terms, precious little has happened. The interests of the patchwork quilt of Iraqi political factions are simply too entrenched to give away the government patronage that is the enduring source of their power. Further, at the end of June, an Iraqi federal court disallowed even the government’s tepid recent efforts at renewal, nullifying Abadi’s attempt to streamline the cabinet and remove the parliamentary speaker.
This domestic political failure is reflected at the strategic level. For all practical purposes, the Kurdish portion of the country has been autonomous now for a generation, with Baghdad’s political remit stopping short in the north of the country. In addition, the Sunni centre and west of the country either remains under the control of ISIS or is just emerging from the war zone that has been central Iraq for the past several years.
Given the Abadi government’s obvious inability to govern the more peaceful portions of the country long under its control, it is highly unlikely that Sunni Iraq will be integrated back into the Iraqi state in a successful manner. If this proves to be the case, the defeat of ISIS will be entirely beside the point, a mere respite while the world waits in dread for the next incarnation of radicalism to arise from the fertile ashes of continuing Sunni disenfranchisement.
A Different Way Forward
Given all these realities, inconvenient facts that must not be swept under the analytical rug, it is probably too late for Iraq to survive as a state in anything other than name. The only way this might change – long-shot though it is – would be for a two-fold successful reform drive to eradicate the corruption that is the cancer of Iraqi domestic politics, coupled with a concerted effort to confederalise the country, devolving as much power as possible to the restive Kurdish, Sunni and Shia sub-national groupings that are the organic, politically legitimate building blocks of power there.
Barring these dramatic developments, it is time to see Iraq for what it is: A failed state.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/08/10/Defeating-ISIS-is-beside-the-point-Iraq-does-not-exist-anymore.html
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The Opposing Narratives of Aleppo’s Siege
By Diana Moukalled
10 August 2016
The huge billows of smoke quickly vanished from Aleppo’s sky. The smoke was caused by tires that residents burnt to obstruct Syrian regime and Russian jets from shelling besieged areas. A small victory was achieved in terms of attempts to end the siege of 300,000 people, but polarization over the ongoing battle in Aleppo has quickly dominated.
There should be no greater priority than saving thousands of civilians whose lives are jeopardized daily by merciless Syrian, Russian and Iranian gunfire. However, what is happening in Aleppo does not take into consideration residents’ ordeal, as much as it has turned the city into a huge arena where residents’ fates are exploited to fuel regional and international conflicts.
The best way to increase anger is to circulate footage and media reports that ignite tensions. Facebook pages and Twitter users handle the rest by igniting online arenas with hatred, to the extent that battles on these pages become more violent than real fighting.
The Syrian regime, backed by Iran and Russia, paved the way for the Aleppo campaign via scenes of regime supporters celebrating the siege and calling for destruction of areas and the killing of people. Their media outlets described what was happening as a “security cordon,” not a siege, and ignored bloodshed.
Their reports on humanitarian passages are lies. Residents have kept away from them because they know they are media propaganda and a trap.
The regime, its allies and supporters celebrate Aleppo’s siege amid calls to be more violent. Meanwhile, rebel groups continue to adopt an extremist, sectarian approach
Sectarianism
The media propaganda of the regime and its allies is confronted by an opposing scene by rebel groups. Some of the violent videos they have circulated have stirred uproar. What has stirred the most uproar is the Sham Legion, one of the groups in the Army of Conquest, naming the most violent battle in Aleppo “Ibrahim al-Youssef.” He was a Syrian army officer who in the 1980s murdered officers at a military school for sectarian reasons.
The regime, its allies and supporters celebrate Aleppo’s siege amid calls to be more violent. Meanwhile, rebel groups continue to adopt an extremist, sectarian approach that does not end at calls to get rid of the regime. Amid all this, it is the besieged people of Aleppo who suffer.
Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the regime and Russian forces, has used sectarian names for its battles ever since it began fighting in Syria. It has used these names as a means of sectarian and media mobilization that has contributed to fueling tensions.
The current battle to lift the siege of Aleppo was named after a sectarian war criminal - this increases sectarian stupidity and provides a huge, free service to the regime.
The regime has succeeded in dragging everyone into sectarian tension, and using this as a slogan for any confrontation or battle. The worst are those who view these sectarian slogans, headlines and practices as normal, and believe we must all submit to them. Such people are promising the Syrian people salvation from one huge injustice, only to suffer another.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/08/10/The-opposing-narratives-of-Aleppo-s-siege.html
URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/islam-europe-extremism-integration-new/d/108240