Last week the world watched in horror as Belgium experienced one of the worst terrorist attacks in its history, with 31 dead and over 300 wounded. The attacks bring back memories of the carnage that took place in Paris in January and November of last year. In all three cases, the attacks were perpetrated not by foreign extremists, but French and Belgian citizens who had become foreign fighters in the Syrian conflict then returned home.
In the face of terror, people question why such attacks happen and what can be done to stop the next one. Not just that, but many people seek to rationalize the matter as simply a byproduct of the nature of Islam, the refugee crisis or even Muslims in general. A deeper look, however, indicates that radical terrorism is not simply a problem with Islam, as many seem to believe, but a larger problem driven, in part, by the social and economic intricacies of Western Europe.
With this in mind, and with the threat of extremism at an all-time high, it would be prudent to employ methods of fighting terrorism that focus on preventing radicalization rather than just fighting it after it becomes a problem. This is an exceptionally important issue and not just for Western Europe. The U.S. also is fighting to prevent foreign fighters from leaving and returning, and effective methods for limiting radicalization at home could lessen the threat of terrorism. If the mistakes made in limiting radicalization in the two hotbeds of terrorism in Europe, Belgium and France, can be understood, perhaps we stand a better chance of fighting the problem in the U.S.
Western European nations, especially Belgium and France, have significant Muslim populations in their countries. The French Muslim population is 7.5 percent of the country’s total population, and the Belgian Muslim population is 5.9 percent of the total population. Many of these people in France are from France’s former colonial holdings in North Africa. In Belgium, many arrived as part of guest worker programs during the mid-20th century. Regardless of origin, however, these people are still Belgian and French citizens, though many on both sides don’t see it that way.
In France, while the opinion of much of the population has not yet turned against Muslims, many on the right in France have an “unfavorable" view of them. This view seems even more extreme when you look at some of the leaders of the right wing parties in France. For example, Marine Le Pen, the leader of Front National party, has gone so far as to say that street prayer by Muslims is like the Nazi occupation of France. While one would hope that such extreme statements stayed within the confines of party politics, rather than national legislation, France has passed several laws that seem to almost intentionally target their large Muslim population.
In 2011, France approved legislation that enacted a ban on prayer in the street. While this law affects anyone who chooses to pray in the street, Muslims are the primary group affected by such a law, as many of them prayed there before the ban was established. Also in 2011, France banned “the wearing of masks, balaclavas and niqabs,” essentially any object that can cover the face. Again, while this law affects everyone, Muslims are often a target. Questions have also been raised on whether French Muslims are allowed to wear headscarves at universities, perhaps signaling the expansion of more regulations.
France also has an extensive security and legal apparatus that has been reacting to the attacks with swift, decisive and divisive actions. Under the powers given to them by the current state of emergency in France, measures regarding the “deployment of more armed police, who now have vast powers to raid, interrogate and arrest - without judicial oversight,” have been enacted. As many as 300 people have been placed under house arrest, many of them Muslim, simply because they were deemed as potential threats to the state, not because of any pertinent evidence.
Attacks and discrimination of Muslims has also climbed in France, with 116 attacks reported following the Charlie Hebdo attacks last January and 35 following the attacks in November. This, along with other types of discrimination, leads to an overall feeling of not just being unwelcome, but outright hostility.
In Belgium, while the situation is similar in regards to the opinion of Muslims in country, actual laws that seemingly target them are few, a ban on objects covering the face, similar to the one in France being an exception. Despite this, Belgian Muslims still do face discrimination, with reports of anti-Muslim graffiti and harassment in schools becoming more commonplace.
The result of these laws, discrimination and hostility, is the marginalization of the Muslim populations in both Belgium and France. Despite their citizenship, many are treated like second-class citizens or even enemies of the state. In turn, many Muslims have sought the comfort of being surrounded by people like themselves, and many Muslim-heavy communities have cropped up in multiple cities. Outside Paris, for example, the community of Clichy-sous-Bois contains a large number of Muslim residents. A suburb of Brussels, Vilvoorde is also a Muslim-heavy area.
One of the side effects of this has been a decrease in economic opportunities in these areas. While both Belgium and France already have high unemployment, especially among youths, unemployment in Clichy-sous-Bois is as high as 40 percent. A lack of economic opportunity, while not the singular cause of radicalization among Muslims, is surely a contributing factor.
Marginalization and unemployment certainly don’t help the situation, but when paired with radical preachers and extremists utilizing social media, radicalization of Muslim youths in both Belgium and France becomes a much simpler matter.
So what can be done? The current laws and regulations, as comforting as they are to the non-Muslim population, do very little to address the source of the problem — the marginalization of the Muslim community. By pushing these communities away, France and Belgium do nothing but shove their Muslim citizens into the arms of jihadists who would turn them against them.
If France and Belgium would like to seriously fix the problem, rather than further inflaming tensions, they should focus on bringing Muslim communities back into the fold. The first step to this would be to repeal the restrictive laws that helped marginalize the communities in the first place. Another could be further cracking down on those who attack Muslims in both countries. Economic investments in some of the Muslim-heavy areas could also help encourage unity.
The current state of affairs in both France and Belgium cannot continue without further bloodshed. Change is coming, but the real question is whether it will be an attempt to reconcile cultural differences to bring the people together in the face of radicalization or if it will be more laws and measures that further drive a wedge between both communities. As "a house divided against itself cannot stand," peace without reconciliation is nothing but a cruel fantasy.