It is Not Social Isolation that Drives Radicalization, But the Mosques
As the Western world again debates the roots of Islamist attacks on Britain and the United States, the question often posed is “Why do they hate us?” The conventional wisdom is that alienated youth, suffering prejudice and unemployment, migrate to suicide bombings to help redress the grievious injuries suffered by uncaring European societies that offer them no way out. Also mentioned are the broader political issues of Palestine, Iraq and recently, Hezbollah.
But the real answer is not so simple or so trite. There are certainly push factors: undoubtedly Northern Africans, Pakistanis and others suffer prejudice and social isolation. Many are angry at geopolitical issues.
The quetions is why the isolation, and that leads to the pull factors, which are just as strong and perhaps more important. The primary pull factor resides in a small number of easily identifiable and identified mosques. Most of the religious institutions are part of the Muslim Brotherhood network. For a more formal look at this, see my paper for the International Strategy and Assessment Center.
What is taught in these mosques, to young people already feeling aggrieved, is not new. They are told that assimilation is wrong and that the more alienated one feels, the closer one is to Allah. Western civilization is degenerate, filthy and full of sin. Rejection of the non-Muslim society in which one lives is a duty, and alienation and hatred a sign of favor from Allah.
Those who are open to this teaching are often then offered special classes and other teaching and opportunities to expand on this concept.
Much of the social isolation surrounding those in these mosques, particularly the UK and the Netherlands, is self imposed. Why integrate or seek to accomodate yourself to the world you live in when alienation is a mark of piety and devotion? How far of a step is it from that to the next logical conclusion? True piety is demonstrated by attacking the oppressive infidel who persecutes Muslims worldwide.
It is time to stop seeing suicide bombers as somehow innocent victims driven by acts of injustice to seek retribution in societies where they are abused. Every society has the stain of prejudice, and it is never right or pretty. But few who feel that way are told that their alienation is Allah’s will and that destroying the societies that may have wronged them is the divinely-approved solution.
This teaching is part of a strategy, outlined by the Brotherhood in its own writings, with the aim of establishing the Muslim caliphate across Europe and the rest of the world. This ideology and theology of hatred and alienation is not taught by a few isolated and repudiated imams. It is the core teaching of a major component of political Islam, and shared by wahhabi Islamists and Salafists.
Listening to commentators on cable television since the UK plot was uncovered, it is striking how little the pull factors are discussed, rather than solely the easy to identify push factors that make the killers appear to be victims. The enemy has a pretty clear plan and a solid message. We cannot even define who the enemy is.
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great piece thanks
— Ray Robison Aug 12, 09:08 #
You need to dig deeper Doug. Christianity also teaches that we are to come apart from worldliness (Rom.12:2; 1Jn.2:15ff), but not violent conversion or subjection of the world. Coming apart from sin and hedonism is not the problem with radical Islam, the problem is the false god of Islam, despising human life, and inability to know good from evil.
— Cal Willard Aug 12, 12:13 #
Mr. Farah,
That was a great analysis of the push/pull problems that young Muslim men have.
I wonder, how do you counter this “pull?” Does military action stop the hateful propaganda from mosques? If not, what would? Can some in America see other solutions besides military warfare to this problem? If they cannot, methinks the world is in for a world of pain…
— Dan Aug 12, 20:55 #
I guess I would ask how widespread these mosques are, and what percentage of the more than one billion muslims are affected by these preaching? It seems very widespread in Pakistan and Iran. How about in the USA?
— Wally Lind Aug 13, 13:25 #
The phenomenon of suicide, to borrow a phrase, has always been with us. Imho, there will always be those who want to go out in a blaze of glory. For example, the United States has people who commit “suicide by cop”. I would agree that making suicide seem glamerous is a dangerous thing to be preaching to those already on the edge, but I would argue that suicidal ideations come before the politics.
— vachon Aug 14, 16:46 #
I would urge vachon to recognize the extensive indoctrination that suicide bombers go through. It is particularly striking that they are taught that islam requires them to first become aggrieved at the loss of innocent life, and then to murder innocents in response, even in violation of islamic law and teaching. It is especially necessary for suicide bombers who must enter busses and marketplaces and actually see the smiles of innocent children; then to ignore that in order to murder them.
— JImmy Aug 15, 09:30 #
Jimmy:
I appreciate your point about Islamic indictrination. I was never educated in a Madrassa nor have I had to live with the preachings (rantings?) of a homicidal madman. (My father’s own brand of fundamentalist Christianity was quite enough, thanks.)
I think where we differ is in the numbers. Considering the tens of thousands that went through jihadi school in Afghanistan during the bin Laden years, Islamic suicide should be much more prevalent, assuming the wannabes could be talked into killing themselves, never mind killing others as well.
The fact that these suicides are relatively rare is what draws my attention and makes me think that identifying a particlar type of individual is key here. It’s not that everybody becomes suicidal, it’s that those with pre-existing mental health problems may be the only ones who respond to the kind of death-fame that is successfully recruited. Unfortunately, the instances of attempted and completed suicides among teenagers and young adults (the elderly rang way up there, too) in the United States borders on epidemic. These people are given everything to live for, yet they do not see the point. But, not every teenager commits suicide. What is it about that one person puts them over the edge? I would argue severe, untreated mental illness, the same as the Islamic jihadi.
— vachon Aug 15, 12:29 #
To summarize Dan, so wadaya gonna do abutit? This analysis of whys & wherefores & who’s to blame is all mental masturbation. What’s the plan?
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