Just finished my interview today with Newstalk which should be aired on Sunday about Isis and the worries of foreign fighters from Europe and the USA traveling to these hot spots and falling victim to the recruitment tactics of such cult movements.. للقاء اليوم في الراديو والموضوع كان داعش والشباب الدي يروحو لي سورية من دول الغرب و كيف هده التنضيمات بمندوبيهم في الحدود يستولو عليهم و يغرو بيهم و يدفهم للصفوف و موتهم... Whether we like it or not, today’s debates are also part of the European political panorama. Immigration into Europe of 20 citizens from countries with Muslim majorities does not allow us to look at foreign policy as an ‘external’ phenomenon. During the Arab Spring, hundreds of thousands of young Europeans mobilised for the cause of their brothers across the Mediterranean, as had never happened before. In Europe and amongst the lines of immigrants from the Gulf, in first row Qatar, those political leaderships of the Arab Spring found a sphere of liberty, which then in the revolutionary phase they gave life to the first governments of transition, to many magazines, newspapers and TV. In Europe for example the new strategies of The Muslim Brothers, Libyan Muslims were modelled, between Switzerland and Ireland. In Qatar al- Jazeera TV carried out an essential role of ‘pusher’ for radicalisation, on one side, and of ‘command- and-control backbone’ on the other, linking the territory with the war cabin in Gerba. Al-Jazeera did all this without any terrain in the region of Tripoli, at least up until the regime held firm. We are witnesses to how activist participation on the roads and in the Libyan squares, armed with mobile phones, internet, satellite modems (when the regime blocked the TLC) and commercial video cameras, enabled a continuous feed for al-Jazeera. Both for creating news and images, fundamentals for radicalisation, but also for passing orders, information, logistics and military assistance and co- ordinating the various actions at the front. Often with campaigns of disinformation worthy of the regime itself. In the Libyan war the media or the NGOs increasingly transformed themselves into military forces. In some cases indeed linking up directly with actions on the ground with the allied armed forces. The images that come from the exploration units that were coming off the submarines to show us the territory or save exponents of the opposition, armed with small drones, ended up directly on the opposition networks, like also the images of the POD collected by the AV8 exploring the air craft carriers. Similarly, wherever the activities of the English association Nida’ al-Khayr, financed by a collection of funds in Manchester and completely managed by immigrants who have returned to Egypt and Libya, arrive so do the Thuwwar, the militias, which da Nida’ al-Khayr supported logistically. Nida’ al-Khayr was the Libyan branch of the English Wafa’, managed by Umran Alqattani, a 40 year old who had always lived in Liverpool, England, where he was the President of the Islamic Community of North Wales. Before our eyes, between Switzerland, Europe and The United States today a new form of cultural movement of Islamic inspiration is taking form which connects the applications of the great South with those of neo-third worldism 56, the new variant of traditional Islamism. Again in Southern Europe, under the economic pressure of the recession, thousands of non EU citizens represent the first line of uprising in protest and conflict in the streets always more competitive on the great social themes, from housing to the right to a minimum salary. This phenomenon is not only typical of countries with Muslim majorities. Agenfor Media has detected it also inside the Russo-phone and Ukrainian communities, which are polarized on the new Eastern fronts, neither more nor less than as happened twenty years in the Balkan wars. Included in this flux are foreign fighters that go from Europe to fight on the new Eastern front.57 Like, for example, the environment of the radical European right between those for and against Putin is polarised, in the same way the European Muslim community for and against Morsi is polarised. The extension of the theatre of war into virtual spaces and the role of the media in the mobilisation of the masses and the transformation of military techniques, economic interdependence and the multi- directionality of foreign policies are ever more strengthening the participation of the immigrant community in the events that happen in their places of origin. In the era of Wikileaks all actions seem to emerge transparently. The king is naked. A phenomenon of double loyalty is created, on one side the hosting countries on the other side the countries of origin. The political processes of the latter tend to have ever more relevance in the political processes of the former. Therefore for Europe a new competitive scenario opens, which is that of conquering the state of loyalty of the immigrant community, part of the vast competition between radicals and immigrants. Also on European soil new paradigms must therefore be considered in the game of alliances and of competitions, which appear outside of traditional European political debate. Aggregating and disaggregating becomes one of the non-secondary functions of the competition for control and many of the paradigms to which the media try to re-conduct the competition represent only instruments of conflict, like West against East, Christian against Muslim, immigrant against indigenous, etc. each seeks to mobilise his own resources. The ability to make alliances or not with parts of these community movements of immigrant political activists, which in their turn have inside them dynamic conflicts for control, is increasingly one of the decisive factors for European security. The current anti-terrorist politics, like too the narrative against radicalisation based on anti-Islamism (and also Islamophobia), have little use because they consolidate radical groups and movements which are very different between them.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 13:50:13 +0000
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