Commentary: the roots of terrorism

At the end of a week of rioting in the Paris suburbs, EURACTIV looks at discussions on disaffection amongst European immigrant communities and its links to the terrorist threat.

Riots in Paris and in Birmingham over the past month have led some commentators to begin to examine the links between immigrant community dissatisfaction and the wider roots of ‘the terrorist threat’ in Europe. In an article in the Wall Street Journal of 2 November 2005, Francis Fukuyama argues that the radicalisation which has led to recent terror attacks is not purely, or even mainly, a religious phenomenon, but is a product of modernisation and globalisation. 

He goes on from there to suggest that a solution lies in the true assimilation of immigrants into what he calls a ‘national identity’. This cannot be attained by, for example, Dutch insistence on a command of the language and a knowledge of Dutch history or UK ideas of a ‘citizenship test’ containing questions impenetrable to the average Brit, but by a ‘discussion of the interconnected issues of identity, culture and immigration’. However, Mr Fukuyama’s discussion of globalisation as a contributory factor goes no further than noting that it allows international travel and internet access. He concludes: ‘getting the national identity question right is a difficult and elusive task.’

The European Commission has also looked into the recruitment and radicalisation issue, prompted by the furore surrounding the discovery that the perpetrators of the July London bombings were ‘home-grown’. A September 2005 communication entitled, “Terrorist recruitment: addressing the factors contributing to violent radicalisation” identifies one of the root causes of radicalisation as a failure of a sense of ‘belonging’ coupled with a desire to rebel. It goes on to discuss possible methods of tackling the problem but concedes that its analysis is merely preliminary and that “more in-depth research and analysis into the phenomenon is required.”