This month’s terrorist attacks in Paris have finally convinced some countries’ leaders of the urgent need to band together to confront international terrorism. It’s a growing threat that is no longer is confined to certain non-Western regions.
As a result, U.S. President Barack Obama announced he will convene a gathering Feb. 18 involving international political leaders to discuss how to counter violent extremism.
However, the key question for the various governments participating in that important gathering is whether they will be prepared to do what is necessary to deal effectively with the growing threat from extremist Islamic groups.
Those include individuals self-indoctrinated into becoming terrorists, as seemingly occurred in Canada in the case of the killings of two Canadian soldiers in Montreal and Ottawa.
Despite the growing threat posed by extremists, some Western governments try to downplay the negative role of various Islamic groups within their borders engaged in activities to radicalize certain sectors of society.
Not wishing to appear anti-Muslim, some governments repeatedly insist Islam is a religion of peace. That comes despite the fact that many imams trained in ultra-conservative Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia repeatedly denounce Christians and Jews in the most bellicose terms and frequently voice support for violence against non-Muslims.
Several well-known imams in Egypt and elsewhere were quick to defend the murder of the French journalists at the satirical Charlie Hebdo publication for publishing material involving the Muslim prophet Muhammad, an action they insisted justified the journalists being killed.
Moderate Muslims everywhere, including Muslim religious and political leaders, must denounce such extremism, which contradicts the true nature of their religion.
During a speech to Egyptian clerics, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that the ideas Muslims held most sacred had become “a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world.” He urged the clerics to rethink how they presented the Muslim religion, as extremism was tearing the Muslim community apart as well.
Many living in European Union countries are increasingly concerned about escalating threats to domestic peace caused by tension arising from religious differences between groups in society. That tension includes growing friction blamed on immigrant groups, many of whom are Muslims.
To add a further concern, recent violence in Germany has not been between native-born Germans and immigrants, but rather between radicalized Muslim immigrants and members of the Yaziki minority Muslim religion. The most recent violence in Germany’s second-largest city resulted in dozens arrested and confiscation of numerous weapons.
Such increasing violence — and growing tension elsewhere in the EU — has fuelled existing anti-immigrant sentiment in Germany and elsewhere.
Although German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other political leaders have denounced attempts by anti-immigrant, right-wing parties to capitalize on such violence, such groups have increased their appeal because of increasing violence.
Support for other right-wing, anti-immigrant movements — some also anti-Semitic — has increased in the EU, including Hungary, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Italy and Denmark, as well as in Britain, where the anti-EU party is growing.
Support for France’s far right, led by Marine Le Pen, is soaring, and Belgium reportedly has provided the greatest number of jihadists fighting in the Middle East.
What might cause greater co-operation between Western and non-Western governments in fighting against growing terrorism by extremist movements such as ISIS will likely be based on a mutually recognized threat to their own continued political stability. Joining forces against such extremist movements clearly makes sense.
One critically important step would be for like-minded governments to finally move against groups in society that secretly provide financial aid and armaments to extremists.
However, are governments or their citizens or organizations secretly providing funds for extremist movements prepared to finally move against such groups?
Equally importantly, are governments prepared to seriously consider the various factors possibly influencing the radicalization of members of their societies who have fallen prey to the siren call of extremist groups?
Will those attending next month’s Washington meeting seriously begin to look at all the factors underlying the radicalization of some within their societies?
That will remain a critical factor in decreasing the threat by extremist groups.
Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator.
