Breeding Bin Ladens

America, Islam, and the Future of Europe

Zachary Shore

Publication Year: 2006

While American leaders wage war on extremists in the Middle East, they are dangerously detached from a potentially greater threat closer to home. In Breeding Bin Ladens, Zachary Shore asserts that the growing ambivalence of Europe’s Muslims poses risks to national identities, international security, and the transatlantic alliance. Europe’s failure to integrate its Muslim millions, combined with America’s battered image in the Muslim world, have left too many Western Muslims easy prey for violent dogmas. Until America and Europe adopt new strategies, Shore argues, Europe will increasingly become the incubation ground for breeding new Bin Ladens. The United States continues to spend billions of dollars and lose thousands of its young men and women to combat Islamic extremists, a group estimated to be as small as fifty thousand. What Western leaders have not done, says Shore, is seek to understand the millions of moderate Muslims who live peacefully in the United States and Europe. Many in this extraordinarily diverse group are deeply ambivalent toward perceived Western values. Although they may admire America's economic or technological might, many are appalled by its crass consumerism, sexualization of women, lack of social justice, and foreign policies. Shore taps into this oft-ignored perspective through in-depth interviews with Muslims living across the European Union. He gives voice to people of deep faith who speak of the conflict between their desire to integrate into their adopted societies and the repulsion they feel toward some of what the West represents. Shore offers a deeply nuanced and hopeful consideration of Islam's future in the West. Cautioning Western leaders against an anti-terrorist tunnel vision that could ultimately backfire, Shore proposes bold, creative, and controversial solutions for attracting the hearts and minds of moderate Muslims living in the West.

Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

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pp. vii-

Preface

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pp. ix-13

Everything seemed so hopeful. When Europeans tore down the Berlin Wall, East and West embraced. In the years that followed, Europeans steadily continued knitting a hodgepodge of peoples into an ever closer union. Social cohesion is fundamental to the European dream, but that dream has lately suffered a rude awakening. ...

Acknowledgments

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pp. xiii-xv

I began working on this book immediately after leaving the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State in 2002. In January 2004, I assembled a book proposal, hired a New York–based literary agent, and began shopping it around. Back then, it proved remarkably difficult to persuade potential publishers that the subject ...

Introduction: The Prolific Assassin

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pp. 1-10

Had it been an ordinary homicide, it would scarcely have been mentioned in the local Amsterdam press, let alone in the global media. But this was no ordinary murder, for the victim was famous, the assailant was Muslim, and the motive appeared to be revenge. Yet despite the intense international coverage, many observers remain unaware that the Dutch-Moroccan murderer had ...

1: London Bridges

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pp. 11-29

On the morning of July 7, 2005, Shahara Islam, a lively, outgoing 20-year-old, headed to her job as a cashier at the Cooperative Bank in London’s Islington district. Normally, she took the London Underground to work, but partway through her journey the tube stations were closed; the passengers were told there had been an unexpected power surge. Backtracking from the Underground ...

2: Islamic Awakenings

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pp. 30-47

When Ayaan Hirsi Ali arrived in Holland, her prospects looked anything but bright. A native of Mogadishu, Somalia, she and her family were forced to flee the country after her father, a politician in the opposition, was threatened. But for young Ayaan, her new surroundings were hardly improved. Her family fled to Saudi Arabia, where she was forced to veil and spend most of her life indoors. After her father pledged her in marriage to a cousin she ...

3: Two Faces, Two Futures

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pp. 48-70

In the summer of 2002, normal daily life for Turks and Germans abruptly ceased. For several weeks, millions were riveted to their televisions, consumed by a high-intensity drama. At stake was nothing less than national pride and international fame. I happened to be staying in Kreuzberg, the predominantly Turkish section of Berlin, as the World Cup finals reached their quadrennial ...

4: Headscarf Headaches, Cartoon Chaos

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pp. 71-89

Hindsight, they say, is always 20/20, yet even after the protests erupted, the Danish government still seemed remarkably unaware of the damage it had wrought. On October 12, 2005, eleven ambassadors from Muslim states to Denmark requested an official meeting with the government to discuss the twelve inflammatory ...

5: Migration Migraines

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pp. 90-112

Fleeing Angola with the other villagers, the young Roberto arrived in Sierra Leone, where he remained for six years until a bloody civil war forced him to flee once more. Surviving life in a Nigerian refugee camp, Roberto and 34 other Africans paid a smuggler $200 each to board a ship bound for Europe. After ...

6: Clash of the Barbies

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pp. 113-133

It may not seem as epic a struggle as Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations, but on a doll-sized scale the battle is just as fierce. For more than four decades the Mattel toy company has dominated the doll market with Barbie, the buxom, chic, glamour girl who has delighted little girls around the world since her introduction in 1959. According to some estimates, a Barbie doll is sold ...

7: New Europe, Same Old Issues

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pp. 134-145

If New Europe were to showcase a country, Slovenia would be it. This tiny country of 2 million inhabitants lies south of Austria, east of Italy, and northwest of former Yugoslavia. Over the course of the last few centuries Slovenes have fallen under the dominion of Italian princedoms, been subjects of the Habsburg monarchy, and members of a southern Slav confederacy. Following World ...

8: The Future of Muslim Europe

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pp. 146-161

Aisha woke up crying. She lay motionless on her side in bed, her knees drawn close to her chest. These were the critical moments, the chance to grasp and hang onto the fleeting images that only seconds ago had consumed her. But the stark light of consciousness scattered those remnants beyond her mental reach. All that remained was a queasiness in her gut ...

Conclusion: Looking Back To Look Ahead

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pp. 162-173

There is an old joke about what kind of future identity awaits the European Union. If all goes well, the joke goes, a European heaven will result, in which all the cooks will be French, the mechanics German, and the police British. Everyone will have an Italian lover, and the whole place will be organized by the Swiss. If things don’t go as planned, the joke continues, a European hell ...

Epilogue: Attracting the Second Circle

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pp. 174-198

On September 2, 2004, Republicans gathered in Manhattan, not far from Ground Zero at the World Trade Center site, to nominate George W. Bush as their candidate for president. A crowd of several thousand supporters enthusiastically cheered Governor George Pataki as he declared: “I thank God that on September 11th, we had a president who didn’t wring his hands and wonder ...

E-ISBN-13: 9780801889509
E-ISBN-10: 0801889502
Print-ISBN-13: 9780801892912
Print-ISBN-10: 0801892910

Page Count: 240
Publication Year: 2006