MOSCOW. (Yevgeny Satanovsky, for RIA Novosti.) The explosions in Europe's capital cities echo the relentless power struggle going on in the Islamic world.
The deadliest battles in this war are being waged in Algeria and Egypt, Sudan and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The latest terrorist attack in Egypt is one of this series. A just New Caliphate, free of Western ideas, is a utopia, but its advocates and those fighting for it control an increasing number of mosques, schools, Islamic centers and charities all over the world. Terror is the weapon they use with particular efficiency: The deeper the gulf between Muslims and "infidels" after every terrorist attack, the easier it is to subjugate Islamic communities and turn them into a base to spread extremism.
The control exercised over community infrastructure by preachers of terror is turning this infrastructure into a system to popularize jihad, in which the Islamic youth of Europe is zombified in a very real sense of the word.
Islamic terror has come to stay in Europe. Modern civilization provides it with a comfortable environment. Terrorism acts more successfully the more time and finances the bureaucrats in Brussels and Strasbourg spend on petty standardization of European life.
Decolonization of Asia and Africa ended for most of their peoples in monarchic rule or rule by corrupt dictators unable either to manage natural resources in the interests of the people or to build a stable state. Today the best future for an active young man from a former colony is emigration to the former metropolitan country. But to become a European, to embrace European history and culture, and to master the rules of conduct accepted in local society and even conversational language are not necessary for him, unlike in former times.
Europe's liberal laws, shortsighted politicians, and well-developed social-security system have all contributed to the emergence of impoverished and rapidly growing enclaves in Europe populated by people born in the Islamic world but living in Europe according to Oriental laws. To comment on this until recently was considered politically incorrect. Eurocrats have for decades dealt not with the continent's new residents, who ignore its traditions, but with problems raised before them by millions of new voters. Thus, the spread of Islamic fascism and hatred of Israel has helped to revive political anti-Semitism in Europe. Quite a number of European politicians and ordinary people still sincerely believe that they will insure themselves against attacks by European Islamists by backing their struggle against Israel, the U.S., or Russia. Only right-wing radicals have said that immigrants from Third World countries are a problem for Europe. Today's terrorist attacks are the price paid for the belief that the best way of solving the problem is to close one's eyes to it.
The problem, however, is that the younger generation of European Muslims are second-rate citizens in the cities where they have grown up. They easily fall prey to extremists as they try to gain self-confidence, to secure a fulcrum which European society denies them. Uprooted, they do not feel comfortable either at home or in the streets. No hope for the future, aggressive complexes, and a perennial sense of humiliation - only helped by social patronage programs, the dislike shown for them by the outside world and by them for the outside world - all these things turn them into convenient material for living bombs.
But, for all that, most terrorists, contrary to received wisdom, are not poor and poorly educated; such people have to make a precarious living without having time for anything else. Suicidal terror has become part of the social culture among educated and well-to-do young Muslims, just as in the early 20th century revolutionary ideas were popular among educated European youth.
How can we stop terror? Let us leave aside pacifist ideas. Preaching to fanatics is as pointless as surrender, as religious wars, Nazism and Stalinism have shown us. Let us also discard extreme ideas: Expelling all Muslims from Europe is as unfeasible as it is unjust, while raising an iron wall between Europe and the Islamic world would be just as unrealistic and useless. A retreat from Iraq and Afghanistan will, rather than ending terrorist attacks in the West, only escalate them, because the Islamists will perceive it not as a gesture of goodwill, but as a weakness demanding to finish off the fleeing enemy. This is how the Middle East sees the policy of Israel, which has not annexed Arab territories occupied in 1967, but is pulling out as it reaches peace agreements with neighbors.
The only way out is to re-educate European Muslims within one generation, if not into patriots, then at least into loyal citizens of countries where they live. This calls for tact, firmness, consistency, and high educational standards among politicians and bureaucrats. And a lack of any of these ingredients could cost many human lives.
Control over processes underway in Islamic Europe should include not only restriction of contact with countries threatening a new jihad, but also control over immigrant activity, including religious and public activity. Anyone linked with terror propaganda, support or collection of funds for a jihad - against anyone - and involving locals, primarily young people, should be arrested and expelled and, if a citizen of Europe, stripped of citizenship. All organizations, including mosques and funds, open to Islamic extremists spreading neo-Caliphate ideology, must be closed, their funds confiscated, and their leaders deprived of the right to found any new bodies in place of the banned ones. Muslims of Europe, above all young people, must know the language of the countries where they live, their history and traditions, and must share a common life with non-Muslims. Appropriate courses should be integrated into their system of education. At the same time, they should be able to study Islam, ethnic customs, the history and culture of their peoples as part of world legacy, but this study should be pursued in schools as part of a national education system. The content of optional curricula should be controlled.
General educational schools that teach only Muslims, like any other exclusive confessional institutions, cultivate opposition to society among their students. It is important to set up higher educational establishments to train European theologians for Europe's mosques, combining university education with appropriate special disciplines. The Islamic clergy of Europe should be part of the European clergy, not of the Iranian, Saudi, Maghreb, Egyptian or Pakistani establishment. Self-identification based on the primacy of the European code of conduct in society, while preserving ethnic traditions, does not clash with this code, and in everyday life is an ideal way out for Europe's Muslims.
To achieve mutual understanding and cooperation is always hard. But if Muslim residents of Europe fail to build communities that cease participating in the struggle against the non-Islamic world, their fate will be sad. Liberals can talk all they like about violence against the individual, but people who advocate killing civilians have no right to disseminate their ideology, because innocent people, including Muslims, fall victim to its practices. Just and reasonable restrictive measures on key issues will draw no protests from loyal citizens, as distinct from crude and unceremonious edicts - like the French ban on girls wearing headscarves at schools, resembling the Soviet jeans hunt.
Conniving with extremists only leads them to unleash terror where they live. European politicians, by giving shelter to Islamist headquarters in London, Paris and other cities, have made a big mistake. There are no good terrorists, like there is no virtuous terror. Nothing can justify terrorist attacks against the civilian population, especially involving children and teenagers turned into living bombs.
In the 13th century, both Christians and Muslims were equally grateful to Genghis Khan's warriors, who destroyed the Assassins root and branch. In the 19th century, the British earned the gratitude of the whole of India by putting paid to the Thugs who served the Goddess of Death as dedicatedly as modern-day Shahids serve the jihad against "infidels." In all such cases, extreme circumstances generated extreme measures against those guilty, and restrictions on the right of suspects, while loyalty was demonstrably rewarded. Temporary restrictions of rights may be offensive, but, in the ultimate analysis, the right to live is more important than bureaucratic red tape and political hypocrisy.
Yevgeny Satanovsky is president of the Institute for Israel and the Middle East.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
