Personally I find the blog to not be very productive as I think it ignores the actual important things to consider when it comes to radicalized anything.
As far as radicalized western muslims goes I see it this way. The muslim culture is pretty different than our standard western culture. We are far more lax on keeping rules and have far less of them (there certainly are sub cultures that are strict, but I would say society at large in the western world does not have the same rigid structure as any strict religion does). This leads to integration being more difficult, usually becoming part of a new group means the new person has to be the one more willing to change and show that he fits in with everyone else to start. It is usually not until after acceptance to a group that the persons individualism starts being appreciated. I moved from Germany to Canada as a kid and while those cultures are quite similar making fitting in and assimilation fairly easy it still took effort on my part.
Is a country scapegoating foreigners for the countries problems a positive thing? No, that however is not a unique problem to west, every country has their group of scapegoats. Its human nature to not want to accept responsibility for screw ups and every group tend to have some other group they blame for stuff at large that they don't know who to blame for... even the muslim ones.
The people who are radicalizing are generally people who don't fit in and they may have a hard time fitting in with society at large but they also have to be finding the same kind difficulties within their own muslim community before they become vulnerable to recruitment.
Saved this one for last. Thank you for your thoughts.
So if I understand you correctly, you're saying that a Muslim immigrant to the West is more likely to struggle with integration than is an immigrant from other cultures. And the reason for this is that 'Muslim culture' (though it exists in multiple variations) is stricter than ours about rules of how the individual should behave in society. You also seem to be suggesting that Muslim immigrants going through that tough may find themselves criticised by other Muslims in their (immigrant) community, and thereby feel pressure to not only not integrate but become "more Muslim than the Muslims," i.e., to radicalize.
Assuming I've understood you correctly, that is a fascinating way to put it. Migrants who hold on to the traditions of 'back home' are very numerous, and the tendency itself is well known. Some Italian communities in Australia, for example, have maintained traditions that were common in Southern Italy back in the 1930s when their family first migrated, but which are now long-gone back in Southern Italy. I myself moved to Europe from Australia some 10 years ago, and I admit I found myself holding on to certain Australian behaviours rather stubbornly. Was it just home-sickness? Or was I perhaps reacting to the Europeanisation I was going through, and trying to desperately hold onto some pieces of my former Australian self? Interesting...
That said, I don't automatically see why a Muslim going through this process necessarily has to latch on to extremist/radical Islamic practices. If integration into their new country is difficult, I can just as see such people holding more tightly onto peaceful Muslim practices like prayer at a Mosque, strict adherence ot fasting during Ramadan, maintaining a beard, etc. In fact, I can see such Muslims as being deliberately moderate in their behaviour, so as to prove wrong any locals in their communities who are determined to paint them as extremist just because they are Muslim. Many immigrants want to fit in, after all, or at least be accepted, even though the process is tough.
Then again, while I am an immigrant, I am not a Muslim, so I don't want to presume too much about what it's like to be a Muslim immigrant and the effect integration has on Muslim immigrants' identities and behaviours.
Talking about whether Islam texts promote violence seems almost like a waste of time. I am sure you can interpret the text to say anything you want if you need to justify something to yourself.... that's just humans being humans. As much as we can look at how to better integrate them to society at large we also have to look at how their safety net can be more effective. Using the London example from Caravaggio, the recruiters do their recruiting the suburban enclaves, not in the downtown. While I can do my best to help them fit in at work and out in public, I can do nothing to help them fit in with their own muslim groups or point to the more radical people in those groups and work on making sure that the rest of the community knows that I think radicals are wrong.
The solution for recruitment out of the smaller muslim groups has to come from within those groups, likewise radicalization in smaller sub groups of christians has to be first and foremost dealt with by those groups. By the time the radicals reach downtown its too late to do anything about them.
When I see an interview with a muslim community leader who says "we don't preach what they are doing, I don't know why it happened" that's where I see that changes need to happen.... and that goes for any community with radicalized people, muslim, jewish, christian, or otherwise.
I find it hard to disagree with much of this. Muslim communities and leaders absolutely have a role to play in condemning extremism, and just stating "we don't preach/condone this" is absolutely not enough. I also agree that Westerners cannot be expected to specifically do anything to help Muslim immigrants fit in with their local Muslim communities. That said, we can and should call our fellow Westerners on their bullshit, whenever they unfairly scapegoat these Muslim immigrants...and especially when they try to paint all/most Muslims (or Islam itself) as inherently extremist. If we don't do so, we're just giving extra ammunition to any extremist in those Muslim communities who are determined to radicalise the moderates. That we CAN do, and I do try to do it in my day-to-day.
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