Europe's Angry Muslims: The Revolt of The Second Generation

by Robert Leiken

Overview

Europe's Angry Muslims traces the routes, expectations and destinies of immigrant parents and the plight of their children, transporting both the general reader and specialist from immigrants' ancestral villages to their new enclaves in Europe. It guides readers through Islamic nomenclature, chronicles the motive force of the Islamist narrative, offers them lively portraits of jihadists, and takes them inside radical mosques and into the minds of suicide bombers. Through interviews of former radicals and security agents and examination of the sermons of radical imams, Robert Leiken presents an unsentimental yet compassionate account of Islam's growing presence in the West. His nuanced and authoritative analysis-historical, sociological, theological and anthropological-warns that conflating rioters and Islamists, folk and fundamentalist Muslims, pietists and jihadis, and immigrants and their children is the method of strategic incoherence. Now with a new preface analyzing the rise of ISIL, this book offers a cogent overview of how global terror and its responding foreign policy interacts with the lives of Muslim, first-and second generation immigrants in Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199752621
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Robert S. Leiken has been a Senior Fellow at Harvard's Center for International Affairs, the Carnegie Endowment, CSIS, and the Brookings Institution and director of the Immigration Program at The Center for the National Interest. His commentaries have appeared in many major U.S newspapers; his essays in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The National Interest, The Weekly Standard and The Times Literary Supplement. He has authored books on immigration, Central America, and Soviet strategy. He is presently writing a memoir.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix Part One IN FRANCE 1. Europe's First Angry Muslim 3 2. A French Intifada? 17 3. A French Revolt 37 Part Two GUIDES FOR THE PERPLEXED 4. A User's Guide 61 5. The Outside 77 6. The Unwanted 91 7. Angles of Aggregation 103 Part Three IN BRITAIN 8. Ghost Towns 117 9. Cousins 139 10. The Lords of Londonistan 151 11. The Life and Loves of a Suicide Bomber 189 Part Four IN GERMANY 12. Germany's Hot Summer 219 13. Germany's Young Turks 237 Part Five FINALE 14. Figures in the Carpet 261 Acknowledgments 271 Notes 275 Glossary 327 Index 337 XIV. Figures in the Carpet

Editorial Reviews

Leiken (Why Nicaragua Vanished), director of the Immigration and National Security Program at the Center for the National Interest, explores “Muslim anger” in Britain, France, and Germany—the three European countries with the largest Muslim populations—in this extensively sourced and robustly argued treatise. Adopting a comparative approach, the author explores how rage has “played itself out” differently in different countries: riots in France, bombings in Britain. Leiken notes that “extremism in Europe is typically found not among migrants but among their children” and that radicalization has its roots most firmly in the “downward mobility” of the second generation. Leiken wisely includes case studies of individual mujahideen in each country to balance his scholarly focus. While his analysis stops short of recommending specific policies regarding homegrown mujahideen, the author clearly hopes that his study encourages governments to embrace “a theory of relativity in antiterrorism.” Timely and provocative, this is an important addition to the literature on Islamic terrorism. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"[Leiken] writes with eloquence, bringing to life the grim realities of the French banlieues and of the back-to-back houses of immigrant families in Leeds."-The Economist

"Leiken provides a historical, ethnic and socioeconomic context that identifies important differences as opposed to empty generalities. Both well written and researched-a valuable contribution to an ongoing discussion." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"[Leiken] is a wide-ranging, freethinking scholar... who lets his conclusions fall where they may, apparently without regard to intellectual trendiness or easily labeled political ideology."-Christian Science Monitor

"To call it a 'popular account' would capture how good a read the book is, but would scarcely capture the depth of the research he brings to bear on these questions."
-John R. Bowen, author of Why the French Don't Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space

From the Publisher

An expert on national security challenges stereotypes of Islamic militancy and the threat it poses. Leiken (Why Nicaragua Vanished, 2003, etc.) analyzes social policies affecting Muslim immigrant communities in France, the U.K. and Germany, and how these have affected recruitment to Islamic jihadist organizations. Rejecting a one-size-fits-all categorization of Islam, he suggests that it is the "postmigrant" second-generation of young men who provide potential recruits for terrorist organizations in Europe and the United States, especially as they face a crisis of identity in a time of economic stagnation. The author draws the conclusion that the apparently socially repressive policies adopted by the French have proven to be most successful in dealing with a possible threat of terrorism, while the British face a serious problem. Migrants from Algeria are encouraged to view themselves as French and are expected to assimilate French culture. Leiken believes that the 2005 street riots were fueled by economic conditions rather than ideology. In contrast, the terrorist attack on the British subway system was ideologically motivated. The author attributes the rise of Islamic terrorism in the U.K. to British multiculturism. Leaders in Muslim communities received generous government subsidies and were expected to act as mediators for the Muslim population, which was not encouraged to assimilate. Migrant laborers generally maintain close ties to their native communities, which their children lack, leaving them vulnerable to terrorist recruitment. By offering apprenticeship programs and vocational training, Germans provided them a road to economic, if not social, integration and an alternative to radicalism. Leiken provides a historical, ethnic and socioeconomic context that identifies important differences as opposed to empty generalities. Both well written and researched—a valuable contribution to an ongoing discussion.

Kirkus Reviews