Jihad and the West Black Flag over Babylon Chapter Two Podcast Three

Profile Three: Portrait of an English Village—“Even the Ice Cream Lady Wears a Burka”             In many ways, the West Yorkshire town of Dewsbury is unremarkable. Along its terraced streets are a few pubs, snooker clubs, and tea shops. The elderly tend their English gardens. Jean Wood, reflecting on her seventy-five years in Dewsbury, notes its transformation: “The change happened so quickly. One day it seemed it was all whites, and then it was all Asians.” The first Asians in Dewsbury were novelties. “We peered at them, and they peered back.”   Slowly, the churches were shuttered, as were the garment-producing industries. The town’s cricket pavilion was torn down. A journalist noted that almost everyone seemed to be Muslim. “Even the woman serving ice cream . . . was wearing a burka.” Girls waiting in line to buy ice cream were also swathed in Islamic garb. Today, Dewsbury boasts a disquieting distinction; it has produced more Islamic suicide bombers per capita than any other town in England.               The leader of the pack of suicide bombers responsible for the attack in London on July 7, 2005, came from this town. The blasts killed fifty-two people. One of Britain’s youngest convicted terrorists, then sixteen years old, was arrested carrying bags of ball bearings. His brother, along with a friend, had traveled to Syria to fight for the Caliphate. There were other Islamic extremists linked to the town’s mosques.               The town’s Muslims publicly condemn the suicide bombing. A journalist asking man-in-the-street questions heard, “He is not a martyr . . . is a statistic,” “He was . . . brainwashed,” and similar comments that disassociate Dewsbury’s Muslims from violence. They denounced the Caliphate. Former Tory minister Baroness Warsi, from Dewsbury, hopes to unmask the “drivers of radicalization” in her hometown.             Nonetheless, many of the remaining non-Muslims are dissatisfied with the demographics. Jean Wood is unhappy about the rise in crime and white flight. Once, some Asians threw stones at her church’s bus, which alarmed her. Most of her friends are gone. Jean Wood misses the long-lost Dewsbury of her youth. England was very different then.   Islamophobia—The Muslim Side of the Story               Many Muslims are dissatisfied with their status in the West, particularly in Europe. Tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe are high. Restive and alienated second- and third-generation Muslims feel like victims in a secular Europe. They see a continent beset by “Islamophobia,” a neologism for an irrational fear or hatred of Muslims. Outside their immediate Islamic neighborhoods, many do not feel at home. This has prompted some to leave for the Caliphate.               Many young Muslims share a fatalism about their social status in Europe. This cohort is a recruiting pool for Islamists. Many Western Muslims who have joined the State say they did so because they could not live according to their faith in Europe. One wedge issue centers on Muslim apparel. In 2004, the hijab, the Islamic headscarf, was banned from French public schools and government office buildings. Women who left for Syria have cited what they claim as unwanted and hostile glares by non-Muslims in Europe when they wear their hijab in public.61   Europe’s Daunting Demographics   “There are twenty million refugees waiting at the doorstep of Europe.” Johannes Hahn, European Union Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, summer 2015               Whatever the current state of relations, Europe’s future is likely to become notably more Islamic because of the high fertility rate of Muslim Europeans, patterns of immigration, and conversion to Islam. Domestic and foreign-funded efforts to convert Europeans to Islam have been steady, dynamic, and successful. In 2016, a former Archbishop of Canterbury warned that the Church of England is “one generation away from extinction.”               A void of faith in the West creates opportunities for Muslims to proselytize and recruit for the Islamic State. Islam comprises a broad community of adherents who share religious, social, and, in many contexts, political values. Some converts to Islam have become enthusiastic soldiers in the Caliphate’s ranks. Other European Muslims provide rhetorical, financial, and logistical support to the State. In many European cities, the Islamic State has its champions, usually young, known as “fanboys.”               Finally, there is a net emigration of native-born Europeans. For example, more Swedes chose to emigrate in 2015 than at any other time since the famine 160 years earlier. The most popular destination was the United States. If many young secular or Christian Europeans are trying to leave for the United States, many Muslim Europeans are content to live on the continent without becoming part of its dominant culture. Others loathe the non-Muslim West, and Asghar Bukhari is one of them. He is profiled in the next reading.