Europe to terrorists: it's just Monsieur Nice Guy
Europe to terrorists: it's just Monsieur Nice Guy
Jihadist terrorism until recently had Europe on the defensive. Now the continent is hardening and fighting the threat with measures that would have been unthinkable six or seven years ago.
The old notion that Europe is weak in terrorism gained ground in the mid-2010s. Between 2015 and 2017, some 350 people were killed by jihadists across Europe. Terrorism reached the top of public interest polls, and criticisms of European counterterrorism capabilities became explicit. A PBS "frontline" investigation into the Brussels 2016 attacks revealed "a scale of remarkable dysfunction in the annals of modern counterterrorism." Many wondered if Europe was up to defending itself.
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But the continent advanced in a way that many observers, including me, did not foresee. European countries invested money in counterterrorism and improved the exchange of intelligence. They also initiated a qualitative review that involved new radical measures that had previously been considered politically prohibited.
Preventing citizens from going to places like Syria to fight was considered legally difficult. Many European law enforcement agencies now prosecute anyone who simply plans to go abroad to join a jihadist group. The jihadist recruitment organizations proliferated in northern Europe until the beginning of the decade of 2010 because the authorities fought to impose crimes on them. Around 2013, however, governments began to take energetic measures. The clerics of Firebrand were also treated more severely. Britain extradited Sheikh Abu Qatada, based in London, to Jordan in 2013 and sent the hardline Finsbury Park Imam Abu Hamza mosque to the US. UU., Where he was sentenced to life in prison in 2015.
Censorship of extremist Internet material, once considered both unfeasible and authoritarian, is now common and has significantly reduced the availability of jihadist propaganda. A new law of the European Union imposes fines on Internet companies that do not eliminate extremist material in 60 minutes. Censorship can not be limited to digital materials. This year, a special committee of the European Parliament recommended that member countries "prohibit and eliminate all religious literature within their territory that incites violent and terrorist acts".
France passed a law in 2017 that facilitates the closure of radical mosques. Austria closed seven mosques and deported 60 imams this year. Italy has deported 313 extremists since 2015. Britain stripped more than 100 suspected Islamist militants of their citizenship in 2017. These measures add to a substantial increase in arrests and convictions related to terrorism across the continent.
Last but not least, there is a greater willingness to use military force against jihadist groups outside of Europe. The anti-Islamic State coalition deployed in Iraq in 2014 had a large European component, and some countries have sent special forces to Iraq to stop or kill their own citizens fighting alongside the Islamic State.
These new practices have been accompanied by more aggressive rhetoric, reminiscent of the Bush administration after 9/11. In his speech after the Paris attacks in November 2015, then President François Hollande declared that "France is at war", and in 2017 the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Florence Parly, said: "If the jihadists die in the fight , then I would say it's for the best. "
This hardening of European attitudes towards terrorism did not happen overnight. It is part of a longer trend that began after September 11 and accelerated from 2012, when European foreign fighters began to go to Syria in large numbers. We should not exaggerate its repressive nature. Torture and other atrocious practices are not on the table, and harsh measures have been accompanied by many soft programs to prevent and mitigate violent extremism. The hardening is also uneven, with France adopting a harder approach than countries like Sweden. Even so, the changes are substantial and represent a paradigm shift in European counterterrorism.
It's still early, but the new approach seems to be working. There are fewer European jihadists fighting on foreign battlefields. The domestic attacks and casualties were substantially reduced in 2018, not because the conspiracy has diminished, but because the authorities are thwarting more attempts. In the long term, the main challenge will be to prevent militants coming out of prison from regrouping.
Europe's struggle with jihadism is far from over. The new, more muscular approach raises serious questions about civil liberties, minority rights and radicalization in prisons. But Europe can no longer be described as soft against terrorism.
Mr. Hegghammer is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Norwegian Research Research Establishment (FFI) and author of "Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979."
SOURCE LINK ERESVIRAL.COM https://www.beviral.online
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