West must offer alternative message to radicalization efforts says civil rights expert

A "staggering failure" of the West to offer an alternative narrative to the "seemingly attractive" message spread by Islamic State and other extremist groups has been condemned by a leading civil rights expert.   

Speaking  on Wednesday (18 November) in the margins of a Brussels policy briefing organized by the Counter Extremism Project Europe (CEP Europe), Nasser Weddady was highly critical of past efforts to combat Islamic terrorism which has claimed scores of innocent lives in the last few months, most recently in Paris last Friday (13 November).

Weddady, a radicalization prevention expert, said: "IS knows its audience and demographics very, very well. It is a case of 'know your customer' and they do.

"The present a very simple, glorified message which particularly appeals to what you might call the 'Playstation generation' of today. You have to say that they certainly know how to get their warped message across."

The problem, he argues, is that, despite the 9/11 attacks, the West has singularly failed to offer a "counter narrative".

"This is one good reason why IS has managed to get such a strong foothold and, in particular, attract so many vulnerable young recruits from European countries like France and Belgium. The West should have been telling young Muslims that democracy is a far superior model to the one being sold by IS but, clearly, it has failed to do so, or at least effectively. This is evidenced by the number who chosen to fight for IS and spread mayhem around the world."

In an interview, he added: "We need to ask why we do not have the same capabilities to reach in the same way out to young people from ethnic minorities.

"We hear all the time about the need for a counter narrative but, for the West, it continues to be something of a holy grail. We have to realise that a putting forward a counter narrative is not just about religion but an ideology as well."

Some 1,900 young French Muslims are thought to have travelled to Syria to join IS while 500 Belgian Muslims have taken a similar path.

Nor does Weddady believe that the most recent IS atrocity, the attacks in Paris which claimed 129 lives, will serve as a 'wake-up call' to Western powers.

"I am sorry to say," he predicts, "that although there will be lots of talk about action, that unfortunately it will not make that much difference."

Entitled 'Post-Paris attacks: what role now for EU radicalisation prevention policy?', the Brussels debate addressed the range of reasons why young Muslim men and women might be tempted to join terrorist groups such as Islamic State.

The briefing, which included EU officials, security experts, think tanks and a number of international organisations, was organized by  the Counter Extremism Project Europe (CEP Europe),  a new joint initiative to counter extremism launched in Europe.

The past few days has seen France intensify air strikes against IS targets in Syria and Weddady is not critical of military action , saying this is "essential to dry the swamp where IS festers".

However, Weddady went on: "Military action in places like  Syria can only be one component in the fight against Islamic terrorism and radicalisation.

Waddady, who is based in the US, went on, "It is also very important to recognize that the fight against Jihadism and radicalization is a generational one and is not something which is going to be resolved in a year or two. The infestation of Islamic radicalisation goes so deep it will require radical action to deal with it. People need to realise this."

Despite his pessimism, a second speaker at the event, Moad El Boudaati, a prevention and community outreach specialist in  Belgium, offered some hope for the future.

El Boudaati works closely with vulnerable youth who are susceptible to radicalization in Vilvoorde, a small Flemish community with a population of 42,000, about 25% of them Muslim.  In recent years, the town has seen an estimated 28 young Muslims leave to join IS in Syria, including a 25-year-old personal friend of El Boudaati.

The figure could be as high as 40 and, in any case, is much higher than other similar sized Belgian towns with one possible reason, according to El Boudaati being a systemic lack of investment in youth opportunities. Others had been radicalised on the internet and Islamic radical groups in Belgium, he believes.

A common theme, he says, is that many have no sense of national identity and often come from dysfunctional families and broken homes.

A group of about 28 left for Syria in 2012 and some, like his friend, remain there. But he pointed out that not all those who leave to join IS remain radicalized.

He said, "We know of some who have come back to Belgium and say they no longer want anything to do with IS. They tell us that they have seen behind their hypocrisy. At least that is one positive."

Despite being unfunded by the state or local authority, he also pointed to the "successes" he and his colleagues had seen in his local community.

"We have tried to put workable solutions into practice and are now seeing the benefits of this. The separate communities in Vilvoorde used to be little islands with little or no interaction.  This has now changed and there is a much broader network. There is more inclusiveness and cohesion."

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