Need to tackle the environment that enables jihadists

Demonising Islam and stereotyping 5 million French Muslims will not bring Paris its peace.

The eight terrorists who launched the attacks in the French capital were not the product of Daesh in Raqqa, they arrived there already ripe for recruitment as a result of French society which failed to assimilate this third generation of Moroccan immigrants.

The heinous crimes they committed on November 13 resulted in 130 dead and over 300 injured. It is the seventh operation against French targets since the Ile-de-France attack on January 7 this year.

French Muslims have been subjected to many forms of humiliation, though some had settled there as former soldiers who had fought along with the French army in two world wars.

The new generation of Muslims was a witness to the sufferings of their whole community when it came to employment, discrimination against them in jobs and even in regard to their dress.

The French citizenship Muslims hold did not give any of them immunity from daily degradation by the racists of the National Front of Marine le Pen. 

Europe has so far more than 20 million Muslims who have not been radicalised to fall prey to Daesh indoctrination.

The French way of scare tactics and military/police confrontation might result in alienating wider segments of Muslims all over the continent, which will be a God-sent gift to Daesh to recruit more Abdel Hamid Abaaouds and Salem Abdel Salams.

The United States and some European countries succeeded in assimilating their Muslims through the educational system, where everyone feels proud of his/her affiliation with the national flag and religious identity simultaneously.

Serious efforts should be exerted by the French authorities to implement a several-year strategic plan to eliminate feelings of frustration and despair engulfing French Muslims, in order to preclude Daesh ideologues from giving that ray of hope to alienated, hopeless radicals.

Jordanians welcomed the air strikes against Daesh fortifications in Raqqa.

Equally welcome was President Francois Hollande’s speech on November 16, when he said: “We will eradicate terrorism so that France will continue to lead the way, because our citizens need to continue to live without fear.” 

A sober strategy, rather than hasty reactions, is needed in France to implement radical changes in the social, economic and educational systems, which transformed the big majority of the 5 million French Muslims into a mass of alienated, impoverished, humiliated, degraded and hopeless community.

Hollande’s military option was wise, as it combats terrorists, but it needs, in parallel, another strategy to tackle the socio-economic and educational dimensions that constitute a breeding ground for 8,000 potential radical jihadists in his home country.