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by Giulio Meotti •
April 4, 2016 at 5:00 am
- Among young
European Muslims, support for suicide bombings range from 22% in
Germany to 29% in Spain, 35% in Britain and 42% in France, according
to a Pew poll. In the UK, one in five Muslims have sympathy for the
Caliphate. Today more British Muslims join ISIS than the British
army. In the Netherlands, a survey shows that the 80% of Dutch Turks
see "nothing wrong" in ISIS.
- Even if these
polls and surveys must be taken with some caution, they all indicate
a deep and vibrant "gray zone," which is feeding the
Islamic jihad in Europe and the Middle East. We are talking about
millions of Muslims who show sympathy, understanding and affinity
with the ideology and goals of ISIS.
- How many
Muslims will this ISIS virus be able to infect in the vast European
"gray zone"? The answer will determine our future.
In the 1970s and '80s, Europe was terrorized by
Communist armed groups, such as the Germany's Baader Meinhof (pictured in
black and white), which had a "gray zone" of millions of
suspected sympathizers. Today's European jihadists, such the late Paris
attack mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud (right), have a much deeper
"gray zone" of sympathizers in the Muslim communities of
Europe.
In the 1970s and '80s, Europe was terrorized by a war declared by
Communist armed groups, such as the Germany's Baader Meinhof or Italy's
Red Brigades. Terrorists seemed determined to undermine democracy and
capitalism. They targeted dozens of journalists, public officials,
professors, economists and politicians, and in Italy in 1978, even
kidnapped and executed Italy's former prime minister, Aldo Moro.
The big question then was: "How deep is the 'gray zone'?"
-- the sympathizers of terrorism in the industrial factories, labor
unions and universities.
In the last year, the Islamic State's henchmen slaughtered hundreds
of Europeans and Westerners. Their last assault, in Brussels, struck at
the heart of the West: the postmodern mecca of NATO and the European
Union.
We should now answer the same question: How deep is the "gray
zone" of the Islamic State in Europe?
Peggy Noonan recently tried to give an answer in the Wall Street
Journal:
by Samuel Westrop
• April 4, 2016 at 4:30 am
- The response of
"non-violent" Islamists to counter-extremism programs
displays a master class in deception. The greatest mistake made by
the Obama administration is to treat groups such as CAIR and the
Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) as genuine representatives of the
Muslim community.
- Very few
American Muslims believe that CAIR is a legitimate voice of American
Islam. A 2011 Gallup poll revealed that around 88% of American
Muslims said CAIR does not represent them.
- It is little
wonder that groups such as CAIR disparage genuine moderates. They
perceive moderates as a threat to their self-styled reputations as
representatives of American Islam. Many in them have learned to
speak the language of liberalism and democracy in their pursuit of
an ultimately illiberal and anti-democratic ideal.
- Counter-extremism
work is best achieved by marginalizing such groups -- by freeing
American Muslims from their self-appointed Islamist spokesmen, and
by working instead with the genuine moderates.
In November 2015, CAIR, which in the Holy Land
Foundation terror financing trial was determined to be a front for the
terrorist group Hamas, organized a "lobbying day" at the
Massachusetts State House.
A number of Massachusetts Muslim groups, led by Cambridge city
councilor Nadeem Mazen, are currently spearheading a campaign against the
Obama administration's program, Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), which
has designated Boston as one of its pilot cities.
From the government's perspective, Boston was an obvious choice. The
city has a long, unfortunate history of producing
internationally-recognized terrorists, including the Tsarnaev brothers,
who bombed the Boston marathon; Aafia Siddiqui, whom FBI Director Robert
S. Mueller describes as "an al-Qaeda operative and
facilitator;" Abdulrahman Alamoudi, the founder of the Islamic
Society of Boston, and named by the federal government as an Al Qaeda
fundraiser, and Ahmad Abousamra, a key official within Islamic State,
whose father is vice-president of the Muslim American Society's Boston
branch.
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