The real reason for Islamic fundamentalism

In a New York Times op-ed, Olivier Roy says that the roots of Islamic fundamentalism are not Mideast conflicts but globalization. But what Roy actually means by globalization is immigration. In the key passage of the op-ed, he writes:

What was true for the first generation of Al Qaeda is also relevant for the present generation: even if these young men are from Middle Eastern or South Asian families, they are for the most part Westernized Muslims living or even born in Europe who turn to radical Islam. Moreover, converts are to be found in almost every Qaeda cell: they did not turn fundamentalist because of Iraq, but because they felt excluded from Western society (this is especially true of the many converts from the Caribbean islands, both in Britain and France). [Italics added.]

Read the italicized phrase again, then read it again. These Muslims have become jihadists as a result of living in the West. It’s not hard to understand why. As Muslims, they did not fit into the West. Living in the West makes them feel alienated. This drives them to seek a new identity with which to stand against the alienating Western society, and they find it by rediscovering their roots in the pure Islam which is jihadism. Remember that Muhammad Atta became a terrorist while living in Europe.

The lesson is that the driving force in the contemporary growth of jihadism and terrorism is the immigration of unassimilable Muslims into the West, plus the cultural Westernization of Muslim countries. Therefore our current policy of mass Muslim immigration combined with the promotion of democracy in the Muslim world is the worst possible response to the jihadist and terrorist threat. Instead of freely permitting Muslims to immigrate into the West, the West must start sending its resident Muslims back to their home countries. Instead of intruding into and attempting to reform Muslim societies, the West needs to isolate the Muslim world and leave it alone, except when it directly endangers us. If we do these things, not only will we be removing and isolating the direct jihadist threat to ourselves, but we will be reducing the factors that exacerbate jihadism.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 22, 2005 12:19 PM | Send