By A. Aaron Weisburd, Society for Internet Research
Introduction
On 30 January 2007 the Clingendael Institute of The Hague, Netherlands, issued a report by Edwin Bakker titled "Jihadi terrorists in Europe, their characteristics and the circumstances in which they joined the jihad: an exploratory study". Bakker examines the cases of 242 individuals who either perpetrated terrorist attacks in Europe or were arrested on or charged with terrorism-related offenses in Europe related to the waging of jihad from September of 2001 to September of 2006. Bakker's study analyzes these cases using the approach used by Marc Sageman in his work Understanding Terror Networks.
Nationality, i.e. citizenship
The Bakker report speaks to the issue of 'nationality', which in this instance means citizenship. We prefer to visualize this as the ability to legally acquire a passport. Of the 242 individuals studied, nationality was determined in 221 cases. As a result of dual-citizenship, these represent 307 possible nationalities. Table 1 demonstrates how 11 nationalities account for 77% of the jihadi terrorists studied.
Discussion of Table 1
Moroccans include individuals with dual citizenship in Morocco and Netherlands, Belgium or Spain.
Algerians include individuals with dual citizenship in Algeria and France or Spain.
Britons include individuals with dual citizenship in the UK and Pakistan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, India, Jamaica or Malawi. Note that of 44 individuals holding British citizenship 20 held dual citizenship.
Moroccan, Algerian and British citizens account for 51.79% of the jihadis in the study. The Moroccans and Algerians were all ethnic Maghrebis, while of the 24 who were solely citizens of the United Kingdom 2 were ethnic Britons, while the remaining 22 were from immigrant families.
The French include individuals with dual citizenship in France and Algeria.
Pakistanis include individuals with dual citizenship in Pakistan and the UK or Canada.
Belgians include individuals with dual citizenship in Belgium and Morocco or Tunisia.
Spaniards include individuals with dual citizenship in Spain and Algeria, Syria or Morocco.
The Dutch include individuals with dual citizenship in the Netherlands and Morocco or the USA.
And the Palestinians include individuals with Jordanian citizenship.
Countries of family origin, i.e. ethnicity
Another of the variables studied by Bakker is that of country of family origin, i.e. ethnicity, of the jihadis of Europe. As we see in Table 2, the vast majority of the active-duty jihadis in Europe from 2001 to 2006 came from just a handful of mostly Muslim-majority countries.
This data is of interest because it is consistent with the demographics of the various jihadist forums. The pattern is this: most jihadis appear to be linked by family or citizenship to just a handful of Muslim-majority countries and/or they are residents of European countries known to harbor relatively large populations of immigrants or refugees from those Muslim-majority countries. The following was first presented in a restricted-access report we released earlier this year. Portions of the text have been redacted:
Table 3. Muslim-majority countries
represented by users of a prominent Jihadist forum.
Table 3 presents six countries with Muslim-majority populations. From top to bottom, they are Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Arab Emirates, Algeria and Syria. These countries account for 48.01% of the readership of -----------. They represent a median percentage of the global Muslim population of 1.564%, and a have a median Muslim majority population of 97.5%
In Table 4 we see the five countries in the top "ten" which have Muslim-minority populations. They are Germany, United States, Great Britain, France and Sweden. These countries account for 22.16% of the readership of ------------. They represent a median percentage of the global Muslim population of 0.174% and have a median Muslim minority population of 3.07%.
Table 4. Muslim-minority countries
represented by users of a prominent Jihadist forum.
Of the Muslim majority countries, five - Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria and Syria - have their own traditions of Islamic radicalism and/or political violence, and the governments of each have reputations for being aggressive in their efforts to root out Islamic extremists, producing as a consequence an outflow of refugees and political asylum seekers.
Four of the five countries with Muslim minority populations - Germany, Great Britain, France and Sweden - are known as destinations of choice among refugees and political asylum seekers.
Conclusion
In light of the above, I would like to offer up the following for future discussion and research:
• Most Islamic extremists are either in countries with Muslim majorities, or they are immigrants from such countries or the descendants of immigrants from such countries.
• The failure to assimilate or integrate Muslim minorities into non-Muslim societies fails to adequately explain Muslim radicalization because the vast majority of jihadists continue to hail from Muslim-majority countries.
• Liberal immigration policies and asylum-granting procedures, together with a kind of multiculturalism that actively undermines the ethnic and cultural identities of Europeans, have on the other hand created a situation where a number of European countries are now home to Muslim immigrants and their offspring who are disproportionately from countries with traditions of Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic radicalism and/or political violence.
• Islamic radicalization is at least in part driven by a quest for an authentic Muslim experience, such that when second or even third generation Muslims are in the process of radicalizing themselves, they naturally turn towards their ancestral homes and to the traditions of radical or fundamentalist Islam found in those countries. In this regard multiculturalism is likely a contributing factor, both in terms of legitimizing and enabling those radical traditions, and in propelling European converts to Islam to adopt increasingly fundamentalist and violent forms of that faith.
Posted on 17 March 2007 @ 19:57