Je suis Muslim: New Age Islam’s Selection from World Press, 16 November 2015
New Age Islam Edit Bureau
16 November 2015
• Je suis Muslim
By Hamid Dabashi
• Don't Let ISIL Divide France
By Alain Gresh
• Go Ahead, Blame Islam
Mark LeVine
• Paris Attacks Boost Expectations in Turkey's G20 Summit
By David Lepeska
• Is ISIS Now Stronger Than Ever?
By Brooklyn Middleton
• Paris Must Not Do What Washington Did After 9/11
By Dr. John C. Hulsman
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
-------
Je suis Muslim
By Hamid Dabashi
14 Nov 2015
I am a Muslim. As a Muslim, I wish to pay my respect to those Parisians who lost their lives on that terrifying night on November 13. As a Muslim, I wish to express my condolences to all those who have lost a loved one during this diabolic attack in Paris. As a Muslim, I wish to express my solidarity with the French people suffering now the trauma of this murderous mayhem perpetrated on innocent people.
As a Muslim, I wish to denounce any and all acts of genocidal, homicidal, and suicidal violence, anywhere in the world; and in particular, I wish to denounce the criminal gangs gathered under the flag of "Islamic State" or any other similar group terrorising innocent people from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iraq and Syria, from North Africa to Turkey, and from the Arab and Muslim world to Europe and the US.
World leaders condemn deadly attacks in Paris
I wish to ask, can a Muslim today say that she or he is a Muslim, and then say what I just said? Am I - and millions of other Muslims like me - allowed to express our sympathies, solidarities, and sorrows on this horrific occasion, and do so from the innermost depth of our humanities as Muslims?
Talk of Values
In a speech expressing his solidarity and sympathy with the French, US President Barack Obama said, "This is an attack not just on Paris, it's an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share."
Of course, the attack on the French is an attack on humanity, but is an attack on a Lebanese, an Afghan, a Yazidi, a Kurd, an Iraqi, a Somali, or a Palestinian any less an attack "on all of humanity and the universal values that we share"? What is it exactly that a North American and French share that the rest of humanity is denied sharing?
Live blog: Paris attacks
In his speech, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking as a European, was emphatic about "our way of life", and then addressing the French he added: "Your values are our values, your pain is our pain, your fight is our fight, and together, we will defeat these terrorists."
What exactly are these French and British values? Can, may, a Muslim share them too - while a Muslim? Or must she or he first denounce being a Muslim and become French or British before sharing those values?
Civilisational Other
These are loaded terms, civilisational terms, and culturally coded registers. Both Obama and Cameron opt to choose terms that decidedly and deliberately turn me and millions of Muslims like me to their civilisational other.
Today, Muslims have replaced those Jews and become the civilisational other of Europe, and these heads of states, Obama and Cameron, on this particularly traumatic moment in Paris, perpetuate that demonisation by casting Muslims as Muslims outside the purview of humanity.
They make it impossible for me to remain the Muslim that I am and join them and millions of other people in the US and the UK and the EU in sympathy and solidarity with the suffering of the French.
As a Muslim I defy their provincialism, and I declare my sympathy and solidarity with the French; and I do so, decidedly, pointedly, defiantly, as a Muslim.
When Arabs or Muslims die in the hands of the selfsame criminal Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gangs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, or Lebanon, they are reduced to their lowest common denominator and presumed sectarian denominations, overcoming and camouflaging our humanity. But when French or British or US citizens are murdered, they are raised to their highest common abstractions and become the universal icons of humanity at large.
Why? Are we Muslims not human? Does the murder of one of us not constitute harm to the entire body of humanity?
I Am Who I Am
Some 400 years ago, in his Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare turned the internally demonised other of the European Christianity - the European Jew - into a figure of defiance against systematic stigmatisation and allowed his Shylock character to cry out loud:
"I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?"
Today, Muslims have replaced those Jews and become the civilisational other of Europe, and these heads of states - Obama and Cameron - on this particularly traumatic moment in Paris, perpetuate that demonisation by casting Muslims as Muslims outside the purview of humanity.
By doing so, they are making it impossible for Muslims to remain Muslims and join in the universal march of humanity against the barbarity of ISIL or any other murderous act of homicide. Why? I refuse to allow them or anyone else to alienate me from who I am.
Also read: Kneejerk finger-pointing after Paris attacks
I am a man. I am a Muslim. I am a human being - and, precisely, as all of those and remaining true to who I am, I wish to join the march of humanity on every corner of this fragile earth against barbarism.
Please, President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron stand aside and make room for me. I wish to join the rest of humanity and denounce this barbaric act. Would you mind?
Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.
aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/je-suis-muslim-151114163033918.html
-----
Don't Let ISIL Divide France
By Alain Gresh
15 Nov 2015
Never in its history has France experienced in a single evening such a deadly attack on its soil. A first assessment reported more than 125 dead and hundreds injured in the series of coordinated attacks in Paris on November 13.
Unlike the attack against the Charlie Hebdo weekly and against the kosher store, these attacks targeted public places, chosen not for their symbolic character, but because it was a Friday night and they could claim a large number of victims. While it is normal in such circumstances that emotion dominates, this should not prevent us from analysing what happened.
Many commentators have pointed out that such attacks were expected and feared. On the morning of November 13, the daily Le Parisien reported that terrorism had become a major concern for the French. So why, despite all the proclamations on the "merciless fight" against terrorism, were we not able to prevent this massacre?
French president says Paris attacks an 'act of war'
If France is a main target of such attacks, this is because it is (along with the United States) the country most engaged militarily abroad, from Mali to Syria, from the Central African Republic to Iraq. But its policy is incoherent and often aggravates conflicts, resulting in fuelling the phenomenon it says it is fighting.
For instance, French arms sales to countries in the region neither take into account their human rights record nor the fact that those countries contribute to the war.
Failure Is Obvious
Beyond that, we should make an assessment of the so-called war against terror launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks and re-launched after the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the summer of 2014.
The failure of this war is obvious; never before have so many attacks been committed, often in Muslim countries. In recent weeks alone, there was a bombing in Ankara, an attack against a Russian plane over the Sinai and suicide attacks in a popular Beirut suburb.
Never have so many people, especially young people, been engaged in extremist groups, whether al-Qaeda or ISIL, convinced that they are taking part in a resistance against perceived international aggression against the Muslim world.
Never have so many people, especially young people, been engaged in extremist groups, whether al-Qaeda or ISIL...
Is it not time to think about the military dimension of this war? If it is necessary to eradicate ISIL, then we must move beyond ineffective bombing campaigns and prioritise political action to rebuild the Middle East which is caught in a spiral of chaos, especially since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
It is time to push all regional powers which, in their own way, have compounded the Syrian conflict. The Vienna talks, which saw the participation of all these powers, may mark a step in the right direction.
Risk Is Great
It is also high time to really push for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by putting an end to the Israeli occupation. Priority must be given to politics and diplomacy rather than bombs; this should be France's strategy.
But the risk is great as Friday's attacks will no doubt aggravate the rejection of the population perceived as "Muslim" and reinforce the country's far-right party, the National Front, which has already been on the rise.
Other leaders are also capitalising on the rising sentiment of Islamophobia. Philippe de Villiers, president of the Movement for France, did not hesitate to attribute this "immense drama in Paris" to what he called the "mosquéisation" (the construction of many mosques) of France.
In the same vein, the mayor of Nimes, Jean-Paul Fournier, evoked a "civil war".
There is no doubt that ISIL's objective is to cause a split in French society and it is important not to fall into the trap.
Alain Gresh is deputy director of Le Monde Diplomatique and a specialist on the Middle East and editor of the magazine online OrientXXI.info.
aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/don-isil-divide-france-attacks-151115060053631.html
-------
Go Ahead, Blame Islam
Mark Levine
15 Nov 2015
A friend from Gaza posted the following apocryphal story on facebook as news broke of the Paris attacks:
"An ISIL member stopped the car of a Christian couple.
ISIL member: Are you Muslim?
Christian man: Yes, I'm Muslim.
ISIL Member: If you are a Muslim, recite a verse of Quran.
Christian Man recites a verse from the Bible.
ISIL member: Okay, you can go.
Later his wife tells him: Why did u tell him you are a Muslim? If he knew you were lying he'd have killed us both!
'Do not worry!' answered the husband. 'If they knew the Quran they wouldn't kill people.'"
Inside Story: How should France deal with aftermath of Paris attacks?
It's a nice story, but it's also entirely beside the point. To be sure, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant doesn't equal "Islam", a reality demonstrated by its daily brutality against fellow Muslims. And yes, Muslims are the biggest victims of Muslim terror (and most everyone else's terrorism too, it's worth noting).
Fundamentally Wrong
But that doesn't mean that there's not something fundamentally wrong with beliefs and practices drawn from its most fundamental texts, tenets and doctrines.
Even US President Barack Obama has resorted to quoting the Quran, specifically 5:32 - "Whosoever slays a soul it shall be as if he had slain all mankind; and whoso saves one life it shall be as if he has saved all mankind" - to demonstrate Islam's peaceful essence.
But neither he nor most other leaders read the next verse (at least not aloud). It declares the punishment for perceived enemies of Islam to be "execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet".
The crimes commented in the name of Jesus are so vast and heinous that it would take volumes just to highlight them.
The reality is that while only a tiny minority of Muslims actively support or participate in terrorism, a large share harbour all sorts of chauvinistic attitudes towards other sects, religions, races, ethnicities and nationalities, women, sexual minorities and others with non-normative (from an Orthodox Muslim point of view) beliefs and practices.
Indeed, the problem with critics of Islam like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins is not so much that they are wrong about Islam as much as that they assume Islam and Muslims are somehow unique in their prejudices, chauvinism and violence. If only that were true.
If we turn to the original "People of the Book", Jews, the situation is little better. American Jews might be the country's most reliably liberal demographic; but for half-a-century the community has, almost whole cloth, actively enabled and supported one of the world's most brutal and longest occupations, which has been carried out and deepened year after year in their name and in the name of their religion.
But why stop with Jews? By many measures, the worst country on earth to be a woman is not Muslim; it's Hindu India, where Muslims have also been subject to horrific massacres and systematic discrimination. If we move a bit farther east, even Buddhism's reputation as a religion of peace falls apart the moment we cross into Myanmar and observe the near genocidal treatment of the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
If I have saved Christianity for last it's only because the crimes committed in the name of Jesus are so vast and heinous that it would take volumes just to highlight them.
People gather around a peace sign with the Eiffel Tower, realised by candles, during a rally for the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris, in Lausanne, Switzerland [AP]
Bad for Humanity
Yes, the problem is religion, which as believed, practiced and otherwise lived by billions of people across the world remains bad for humanity, and even worse for the planet. As a newly published study of the effects of religiosity on children makes clear, the more religious their upbringing, the more selfish and mean they are. Of course, it only gets worse as they grow older and have the power to affect the world around them.
But religion is only the beginning, not the end of the problem. How many hundreds of millions of people have been sacrificed and slaughtered in the name of "the fatherland" or the "nation"? No one really knows, because the number is just too big to calculate.
The United States' record in this regard is nothing to be proud of, as in the name of US "exceptionalism" and "values" - read untrammeled capitalism - untold millions have been killed and entire countries laid waste with the full support, it must be noted, of the majority of US citizens. France, the UK, Japan, Russia; who can boast a better record during the heyday of their power?
And these sins are in fact dwarfed by the roughly 150 million people murdered or starved to death thanks to the nationalist and economic fantasies of just three men - Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.
If we return to the present day, even as the US, UK and France wage war against terror they cozy up to some of the most chauvinistic and barbaric regimes on earth.
As ISIL wages its war against the 'the grey zones' where peoples of all faiths interact, coexist and even shape each, its worth noting that its strategy was inspired not by the Quran but instead by George W Bush...
Basic Human Values
What should we expect in response to such a betrayal of the most basic human values on such a grand and perpetual scale? A Gandhi or King? France's pre-eminent 20th century philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre put it best in condemning his fellow French for their brutal rule in Algeria: "First, the only violence is [ours]; but soon they will make it their own; that is to say, the same violence is thrown back upon us as when our reflection comes forward to meet us when we go towards a mirror."
As ISIL wages its war against the "the grey zones" where peoples of all faiths interact, coexist and even shape each, its worth noting that its strategy was inspired not by the Quran but instead by George W Bush, whose "you're either with us or against us" threat after 9/11 it directly and approvingly quotes.
So by all means, let us blame Islam for the carnage done in its name. But let's be honest about how much all of our most cherished ideals, identities and ideologies have contributed to the death and destruction piling up around us.
And then, let's figure out how to recapture the sense of justice, mercy and compassion that have always existed - too often in the shadows - at the core of Islam, Judaism, Christianity and many of the world's other great belief systems, before there's nothing left to fight over.
Mark LeVine is a professor of Middle Eastern History at University of California, Irvine, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Lund University.
aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/blame-islam-151115083644785.html
------
Paris Attacks Boost Expectations in Turkey's G20 Summit
By David Lepeska
15 Nov 2015
World leaders descend on Turkey's spiffed up Mediterranean resort town of Antalya this weekend for the annual G20 summit, hoping to spur broader economic growth and find common ground to combat climate change in the lead-up to the much-anticipated United Nations conference in Paris.
Progress on the economy and climate is crucial, but the elephant in the room is Syria, just a few hundred kilometres away. Never before has a civil conflict in a smallish state unleashed such havoc on the world.
Led by the G20 chair, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leaders are expected to zero in on a trio of urgent, intertwined issues linked to Syria: ending the war, stemming the flow of refugees, and stopping terrorist outfits such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which was behind Friday's horrific and audacious attacks in Paris.
World leaders wrap up G20 summit in Australia
Pressing Issues
Turkey has called the G20 a "global crisis resolution forum", and that's what it needs in Antalya. More than any other neighbouring state, the war has bled into Turkey. More than two million Syrian refugees are nearly ubiquitous in Turkish cities. The war has sparked a steady drumbeat of renewed violence between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, resulting in thousands of deaths.
Two major terrorist attacks, near the border and in the heart of the Turkish capital, Ankara, killed more than 130 people and were most likely carried out by ISIL. Antalya, where authorities last week picked up some 20 suspected members of ISIL, has reportedly lost some $5bn in tourist revenue as a result of the violence. And Turkey recently committed to the US-led anti-ISIL coalition, allowing the US to fly sorties from its Incirlik airbase.
Ankara has spoken of plans for a major ground offensive against ISIL, and in Antalya will again push for international help in creating a refuge area within Syria. The US is stepping up air strikes and recently sent in 50 Special Forces troops.
Bringing world leaders together on broad plans to stem the refugee crisis, end the war, and stop ISIL requires a serious moral conscience, an iron will, and strong, persuasive diplomacy. These qualities are in short supply today, and expectations for the G20 had been low.
The hope is that Turkish, Syrian and Kurdish forces can push out ISIL, seize and hold territory and begin to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Recent signs have been good: On Friday, Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook Sinjar - a strategic town across the border in Iraq - from ISIL with US air support.
One key issue is the list of friendly opposition forces. The 50 US troops will coordinate with the Kurdish militia known as the People's Protection Units (YPG), which has had some success against ISIL. But Turkey sees the YPG as equivalent to the PKK, which the US and EU have labelled a terrorist organisation.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar, meanwhile, want the US to expand its list to include Islamist outfits such as Ahrar al-Sham, one of the most powerful rebel groups. Yet, because it has cooperated with al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, Ahrar is likely to remain outside the US umbrella.
Similarly, for political negotiations to move forward, the US and Russia will have to jointly identify viable groups with which to build a ceasefire and political solution. But in recent weeks Moscow - which purportedly entered the fray to combat ISIL but has mainly been bolstering Assad - has bombed several coalition-backed rebel groups. Now, if the US-led coalition tells Russia who it's working with, it's probably putting a bull's-eye on their back.
Another sticking point is the political transition, as Iran refuses to budge on its support for Assad. Yet, if only to move the talks forward, the US and Turkey seem increasingly willing to leave the door open.
Refugee Crisis
European leaders have more pressing concerns when it comes to Syria. The first, in the wake of the Paris attacks, is terrorism and ISIL in particular. Although French President Francois Hollande is no longer attending the G20, French officials and other European leaders are sure to request stricter border controls and greater international cooperation on counterterrorism efforts.
Then there is the steady stream of humanity making its way to the continent. Germany is closing its doors. Finland is offering tent and container accommodation. Sweden is tightening border controls. And Slovenia is building a razor wire fence. The desperation is clear: Europe needs to stop the flow of refugees, which is expected to reach one million this year.
"The G20 must rise to the challenge and lead a coordinated and innovative response to the crisis that recognises its global nature and economic consequences," the presidents of the European Council and European Commission wrote in a joint letter. It will be an uphill battle.
Several key G20 states, such as Russia, China and India, have been unaffected by the waves of refugees, and would pref
aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/11/paris-attacks-boost-expectations-turkey-g20-summit-151114165710894.html
------
Is ISIS Now Stronger Than Ever?
By Brooklyn Middleton
15 November 2015
The highly sophisticated terrorist attacks, which saw multiple suicide bombers armed with AK47s strike six sites in Paris and indiscriminately massacre over 100 civilians, likely will trigger concerns that ISIS militant group is stronger than ever. But assessing the organization’s overall strength based only on its capability to carry out the bloody attack that it did, could prove to be a mistake.
The militant group could be attempting to goad the international community into an even broader war with it in Iraq and Syria
Over the last two weeks, from North Sinai to the suburbs of Beirut to the heart of the French capital, ISIS has successfully inflicted deep wounds and reminded the world of their limitless barbarity and utter disregard for civilian lives. But on the militant group’s own turf, the United States-led coalition and Kurdish forces have recently dealt the group several major blows. With U.S. air coverage, Peshmerga and Yazidi fighters launched a swift offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Sinjar; in two-days, according to Kurdish reports, approximately 300 ISIS militants were killed, and the militant group’s 15-month long rule over the city had come to an end. Just prior to the Kurds’ offensive, the U.S. aerially targeted Mohammed Emwazi, aka Jihadi John, UK national turned brutal ISIS executioner responsible for the murders of multiple Western hostages. In a single drone strike, that reportedly hit Emwazi’s vehicle in the centre of Raqqa, he and one of his friends were killed.
While the operational value of killing Emwazi is limited, the importance of his death is two-fold; one the one hand, the U.S. is illustrating it has both the intelligence and capability to successfully target ISIS leaders and figures in their own self-declared capital with very little risk. Secondly, as Emwazi joins “cyber chief” Junaid Hussain in death, the U.S. has, at least temporarily, hindered the militant group’s ability to produce propaganda by two now well-known militants.
As the world attempts to make sense of the carnage in Paris and in North Sinai, it should not be ruled out that the two most major ISIS attacks against western interests were carried out at what ISIS assesses is a critical point in the conflict. The militant group could be attempting to goad the international community into an even broader war with it in Iraq and Syria.
While the aerial campaign being waged by the U.S. has its limitations - and the Kurds and anti-ISIS rebels still need broader support – any deployment of ground troops would award ISIS western casualties, which they desperately seek. Moreover, the threat of ISIS cannot be fully addressed without addressing both the Assad regime’s continued, criminal rule and the refugee crisis.
The latter of which must be managed in a manner that addresses the humanitarian needs of civilians fleeing Syria and the security needs of the countries they are seeking refuge in. Both can and must be done. The alternative is as much as a moral failure as it is a security risk. At the same time, Arab states have to recommit to fighting ISIS; the slow abandoning of the agreed upon mission is an unacceptable response to continued U.S. and Kurdish efforts to degrade ISIS.
Brooklyn Middleton is an American Political and Security Risk Analyst currently based in New York City. She has previously written about U.S. President Obama's policy in Syria as well as Bashar al-Assad's continued crimes against his own people. She recently finished her MA thesis on Ayatollah Khomeini’s influence on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, completing her Master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies.
english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2015/11/15/Is-ISIS-now-stronger-than-ever-.html
-----
Paris Must Not Do What Washington Did After 9/11
By Dr. John C. Hulsman
14 November 2015
It is early, very early, to make any definitive statements about the Paris terror attacks of last night. But as I used to say—in the countless counter-terror meetings I attended in Washington following 9/11—I am paid to speculate, so I shall. For counter-intuitively, informed speculation can provide a useful framework for analysis as the real world facts dribble in, constructing a paradigm based on first principles that can help us master where the West should go from here in policy terms in combating our enemies.
Goal of Terrorism
Simply put—but far too often forgotten—the goal of terrorism is to terrorize, to so emotionally throw one’s enemy off balance that they begin to make horrendous mistakes which suit the terrorist’s purposes. The humanly understandable (but in policy terms unforgivable) sin of over-reaction is the most likely benefit terrorists everywhere derive from their acts of violence. Surely, following the carnage of 9/11, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda couldn’t believe their luck as the rightly enraged Bush administration committed one folly after another, leading directly to the debacle in Iraq. As such, above all in this terrible moment, we must calmly think through what the terrorists want us to do, and deny that to them, if we are to triumph.
In terrorizing, terrorists must now again not force the West into a series of cataclysmic mistakes
The facts, as we know them on Saturday morning, are these. At least 128 people have been killed and 180 injured in Paris as a result of seven closely coordinated attacks across the city, including 118 people dying in the single terrorist incursion at the Bataclan concert hall. At least eight terrorists died in the operation, with the possibility remaining that others are still at liberty. The attack was coolly carried out, with reports coming from Bataclan that the terrorists had time to reload their weapons at least three times in the process of slaying their victims. French President Francois Hollande has immediately declared a state of emergency—the first in France as a whole since the troubled days of 1958—and imposed border controls.
The attack exposes all the present weak points of French society. A report issued by the French Senate in April of this year estimates that fully 1430 of 3000-plus European jihadists who had travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS were French. Even more frighteningly, the French secret services believe that at least 200 French jihadis, who have spent time with ISIS, have since returned to the country. France’s inability to integrate its large Muslim population into the country’s mainstream—the Muslim minority makes up a full 7.5% of the population—makes it fertile terrorist ground for recruiting converts. Shockingly, it is estimated that a massive 70% of inmates in French prisons are Muslims, providing an incubator for radical Jihadis from across the globe.
If France’s societal divisions make it vulnerable to both attacks and terrorist recruitment, its long-held, muscular leadership role in combating radicalism also makes it a likely target. Be the issue Mali, al-Qaeda in North Africa, or ISIS, France has forthrightly taken a leading military role. Only this past week, Paris sent its only aircraft carrier, the Charles De Gaulle, to the Gulf, where it is to help coordinate air strikes against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria. Indeed, one of the terrorists reportedly shouted, ‘This is for Syria,’ as he went about his murderous business. If ISIS was either the instigator or inspiration for these attacks (and while I surely cannot prove it, my money would be on them) it amounts to a grim reminder that there will always be a price to be paid in standing up to terrorists.
The next step in analytical understanding is to look at who benefits in terms of domestic French and European politics from the outrages in Paris. The simple answer is that the xenophobic Front National of Marine Le Pen is the specific immediate beneficiary, with those calling for drastic curbs on refugees coming to Europe also winning out. The security fear has always been that in Europe’s chaotic, haphazard approach to the refugee crisis, radical Islamists will sneak through the open door, allowing them to perpetuate the sort of attack we have just witnessed.
Disastrous Outcome
Putting the above analysis together allows us a pretty clear read on what the terrorists want: France to do less in fighting ISIS and jihadists throughout the world, the rise of xenophobic forces within France itself (which serve as an invaluable recruiting tool for jihadists), and the strengthening of nationalistic European forces desiring to keep Syrian refugees out of Europe. Such a disastrous outcome would only widen the already mammoth cleavages between the Middle East and Europe, and would certainly add to the power of radical jihadists, who would have been given a wonderfully compelling narrative of a weak France, but one that is increasingly xenophobic and unwelcoming to refugees. This would amount to nothing less than a geopolitical calamity of the first order.
Instead, France and the West must bravely (and indeed following such a horrendous attack it does require bravery to keep calm and carry on) deny the terrorists the political gains they so fervently desire. France must march shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the west in combating ISIS and al-Qaeda, while at the same time it must remain a generous country, both in terms of European refugee flows in general, and lessening divisions with its own restive Muslim minority in particular. A strong, generous France denies the terrorists the very thing they want. In honour the many victims, that is the outcome that Paris must arrive at.
In terrorizing, terrorists must now again not force the West into a series of cataclysmic mistakes. We Americans are with you, Paris; but you must do better than we did after 9/11, and deny the terrorists the sort of narrative that they want.
Dr. John C. Hulsman is the President and Co-Founder of John C. Hulsman Enterprises (www.john-hulsman.com), a successful global political risk consulting firm. An eminent foreign policy expert, John is the senior columnist for City AM, the newspaper of the city of London. Hulsman is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. The author of all or part of 11 books, Hulsman has also given 1490 interviews, written over 410 articles, prepared over 1270 briefings, and delivered more than 460 speeches on foreign policy around the world.
english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2015/11/14/Paris-must-not-do-what-America-did-after-9-11.html
-----
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/je-suis-muslim-new-age/d/105280