The challenge of talking about terrorism: The EU and the Arab debate on the causes of islamist terrorism

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 539-557

  Behr, Hartmut ^a   Berger, Lars ^b  

^a NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Arab liberals; Authoritarianism; Democracy; Egypt; European union; Hegemonic discourses; Islamist terrorism; Root causes; Saudi Arabia

Indexed keywords

EID: 77950773197     PISSN: 09546553     EISSN: 15561836     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09546550903153001     Document Type: Article

References (111)

1. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the British Academy for funding the research for this article as well as to Meghan Davis, Christian Kaunert, Holger Moroff, and two anonymous reviewers of Terrorism and Political Violence for very valuable comments. A previous version of this article was presented at the 6th Pan-European International Relations Conference in Turin in 2007.
2. This aspect has been debated for at least some twenty years since Alexander Noah, "The Media and Terrorism," in David Carlton and Carlo Schaerf, eds., Contemporary Terror: Studies in Sub-State Violence (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981), 50-56.
3. For a summary on the problems associated with the attempts to define terrorism, see Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 13-44.
4. See Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, ed. by Colin Gordon et al. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1981).
5. Michel Foucault, The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. With two lectures by and an interview with Michel Foucault, ed. by Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
6. also Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, edited and introduced by John B. Thompson; translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991).
7. We agree with the observation made by one of the anonymous reviewers that some of the challenges we discuss here present themselves in an at least equal manner in the case of Morocco. The ruling family enjoys very good relations with the United States and is trying to present the country as a reliable partner of the EU. While this makes Morocco a very worthwhile case study for expanded future research we decided to focus, at this stage, on Egypt and Saudi Arabia which share a special role in the development of Islamist terrorism over the last half a century.
8. See Fawaz Gerges, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
9. The 9/11 attacks have widely been blamed on al Qaeda as has the attack in Riyadh in May 2003. The two Egyptian bombings appear to have been committed by radicalized Egyptian inhabitants of the Sinai peninsula with links to the Palestinian territories.
10. See Egypt's Sinai Question, Middle East/North Africa Report No. 61, 30 January 2007.
11. In 2007, a Spanish court found 21 individuals, most of them of North African origin, guilty of participation in the March 2004 Madrid plot. The London 2005 attacks were carried out by young British nationals of South Asian descent and Caribbean descent.
12. Salih Muntasir, "Mahām Bush (Bush's Missions)," Al-Ahram, 16 Sept. 2001.
13. Muhyi ad-Din 'Amirmur, "Intibáātu 'an infijārāt àmrīkī (Impressions of the American Explosions)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 19 Sept. 2001.
14. Salama Ahmed Salama, "Sore Spots," Al-Ahram Weekly, No. 553, 27 Sept.-3 Oct. 2001.
15. Salama Ahmed Salama, "Tributaries of Terror," Al-Ahram Weekly, No. 753, 28 July-3 Aug. 2005.
16. Karīm Baqr Adwānī, "As-Sadma wa-l-masdūm wa-murājáal-mawgía (The Push and the Pushed and the Painful Revision)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 15 Sept. 2001.
17. Bassam Abu Sharif, "Ŝarūn yastaghil al-'amaliyāt al-igrāmīya fī́Amrīka (Sharon Exploits the Criminal Operations in America)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 19 Sept. 2001.
18. Samir Attallah, "Rasāsatu dh-dharī́a (Bullet of Excuse)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 14 Sept. 2001.
19. "Al-irhāb. al-bint al-murr li-ghiyāb il-́adāla (Terrorism. the Bitter Plant of Injustice)," Al-Ahram, 17 May 2003.
20. "Tajfīf Manābiĺ-irhāb. kaifa? (Drying up the Sources of Terrorism. How?)," Al-Ahram, 15 May 2003.
21. "Al-Islāh al-watanī li-muwājihat natā̀ij al-harb w al-yàs wal-irhāb (Domestic Reform in the Face of the Results of War, Despair, and Terrorism)," Al-Ahram, 17 March 2004.
22. "Tafjīrāt lundun wa-lhāja lil-āliyāt jadīda li-mukāfihat il-́irhāb (The London Explosions and the Necessity of New Instruments in the Fight against Terrorism)," Al-Ahram, 9 July 2005.
23. Atif al-Ghamrī, "̀ Irhāb. harbàm jarīma (Terrorism.War or Crime)," Al-Ahram, 27 July 2005.
24. Al-Irhab lan tantasir (Terrorism will not Prevail)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 14 May 2003.
25. For the Saudi case, see Alexander Bligh, "The Saudi Religious Elite (Ulama) as Participant in the Political System of the Kingdom," International Journal of Middle East Studies 17, no. 1 (Feb. 1985): 37-50.
26. for Egypt, Tamir Moustafa, "Conflict and Cooperation between the State and Religious Institutions in Contemporary Egypt," Middle East Studies, 32 (2000): 3-22.
27. Khaled al-Maeena, "Catch the criminals!," Arab News, 13 Sept. 2001.
28. Khaled al-Maeena/Javid Hassan, "Prince Naif Denies al-Qaeda Links in Kingdom," Arab News, 21 Oct. 2001.
29. Graham Fuller, Islamist Politics in Iraq after Saddam Hussein, United States Institute of Peace, Special Report, no. 108 (Aug. 2003): 12.
30. Author Interview, Imam Muhammad Islamic University Riyadh, 20 Nov. 2005.
31. Salama Ahmed Salama, "Sore Spots," Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 553, 27 Sept.-3 Oct. 2001.
32. Salama Ahmed Salama, "Circle of Retaliation," Al-Ahram, 15 Sept. 2001.
33. Samir Attallah, "Qiráatun fī l-rukam: min Kabul ila niu yurk (Reading the Clouds: from Kabul to New York)," ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 20 Sept. 2001.
34. Fahmi Howaydī, "Daẃa li-tahāluf ad-duwalī did al-Kirāhiyā (Call for an International Alliance against Hatred)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 17 Sept. 2001.
35. Ibid. Given the prominence the officially sanctioned debate gives to the purported strategic benefits of the events of 9/11 for Israel, it is not surprising that at the beginning of 2007, 29% of Egyptians still thought that Israel was "behind the 9/11 attacks" with another 9% suspecting the United States themselves; 28% considered al Qaeda to be the perpetrator and another 29% were not sure.
36. See Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, Muslim Public Opinion on US policy, Attacks on Civilians and al Qaeda, World Public Opinion.Org, April 2007, 17.
37. Ibrahim Nafie, "Double-edged Sword," Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 639, 22-28 May 2003.
38. On Saudi Arabia's increasing role in attempts to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, see Joseph Kostiner, "Coping with Regional Challenges: A Case Study of Crown Prince Abdullah's Peace Initiative," in Paul Aarts/Gerd Nonneman, eds., Saudi Arabia in the Balance: Political Economy, Society, Foreign Affairs (London: Hurst, 2005), 352-371.
39. "Sawt al-'Aql" (Voice of Reason), Al-Ahram, 17 September 2001.
40. "Tajfif Manbi'l-irhab. kayfa?" (Draining the Wells of Terrorism. How?), Al-Ahram, 15 May 2003.
41. "Tafjīrāt madrīd al-irhābīya (Madrid's Terrorist Explosions)," Al-Ahram, 13 March 2004.
42. "Lābudda min táāwun duwalī jadīd li-muqāwama al-irhāb (There is no Way around New International Cooperation to Fight Terrorism)," Al-Ahram, 18 March 2004.
43. Ibrahim Nafie, "Beyond Narrow Interests," Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 712, 14-20 Oct. 2004.
44. "Jasā̀ Misr (Egypt's Revenge)," Al-Ahram, 9 Oct. 2004.
45. "Mùtamar duwalī lil-irhāb durūráājila (An International Conference on Terrorism. is an Urgent Necessity)," Al-Ahram, 10 Oct. 2004.
46. "Call for a conference on Terror," Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 751, 14-20 July 2005.
47. "al-Mùtamar duwalī lil-irhāb durūráājila (The International Conference on Terrorism is an Urgent Necessity)," Al-Ahram, 26 July 2005.
48. Ibrahim Nafie, "Towards a Credible Strategy," Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 552, 20-26 Sept. 2001.
49. Amnesty International, "Egypt: UN experts concerned about persistence of torture," 21 Nov. 2002, http://fra.controlarms.org/library/Index/ENGMDE120402002?open&of=ENG-EGY (accessed 17 Feb. 2008).
50. Sawt ul-̀Aql (Voice of Reason)," Al-Ahram, 17 Sept. 2001.
51. "Múājalat asbāb ul-irhāb durūra li-ijtithātha min al-́ālam (The Treatment of the Causes of Terrorism Requires its Uprooting from the World)," Al-Ahram, 15 Sept. 2001.
52. Hani Shukrallah, "Leaps of Logic," Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 712, 14-20 Oct. 2004.
53. The Bush administration had modelled its Greater Middle East Initiative after the Helsinki process and the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe of the 1970s and 1980s. It offered every state from Morocco to Pakistan support for their attempt to join the World Trade Organization as well as privileged arrangements in the field of national security with the United States and Europe in exchange for economic and political reforms.
54. See Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler, "Bush Aims For 'Greater Mideast' Plan," Washington Post, 9 Feb. 2004.
55. Salama Ahmad Salama, "Li-Mādhā qutila as-safīr? (Why was the Ambassador Killed?)," Al-Ahram, 10 July 2005.
56. Muhammad as-Sayyid Sáid̄, "Jarīma did al-Insānīya (Crime against Humanity)," Al-Ahram, 15 Sept. 2001.
57. Ahmad ar-Rubáī, "al-Insān. Akhū l-Insān (Everyone is the Brother of Everyone)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 15 Sep. 2001.
58. "Those who hoisted victory's insignia and celebrated the death of thousands of innocents in the crime of New York, did not only profane the bodies of the innocents underneath the debris of the World Trade Center in New York, they also defiled us all and the cause of the Palestinians as well as of the Arabs and Muslims in the United States." See ar-Rubái. Ibid.
59. Mamoun Fandy, "Min ghair "lākin (Without 'But')," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 17 Sept. 2001.
60. Abdel-Moneim Said, "Why the killing?," Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 753, 28 July-3 Aug. 2005.
61. Abdallāh́Abd as-Salām, "Kalām̀irhābī (Terrorist Words)," Al-Ahram, 9 July 2005.
62. Ibid. He uses the literal translation "harb muqadisa," not the term "Jihad" which has other connotations as well.
63. See, for example, Steven Barraclough, "Al-Azhar. Between the Government and the Islamists," Middle East Journal 52, no. 2 (1998): 236-249.
64. Michael Scott Doran, "The Saudi Paradox," Foreign Affairs 83, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 2004): 35-51.
65. The Enemy Within," Arab News, 14 May 2003.
66. Amir Taheri, "The Next Great Import from West," Arab News, 29 May 2003.
67. On this interesting aspect, see also Mark Thompson, "Political Religions Revisited: Voegelin and the Fate of Totalitarianism Theory after 9/11," in Hartmut Behr, ed., Beyond National Security: Regional and Global Perspectives on Countering Non-State Violence (forthcoming).
68. Stand Up to Evil," Arab News, 16 May 2003.
69. "The Enemy Within," Arab News, 14 May 2003.
70. This statement could be read as Riyadh́s explanation for Prince Naif's arrest of Sheikhs Ahmad al-Khaldi, Nasser al-Fahd and Ali al-Khudair who had initially called upon Saudi citizens not to cooperate with the security services in their attempt to investigate the May 2003 attacks.
71. see Raid Qusti, "Al-Khaldi Recants Controversial Fatwas," Arab News, 15 December 2003.
72. Adel Darwish, "Ayuhā l-muslimūn: Lā tataradadū fī́idānat il-́irhāb (O, you Muslims: Do not Hesitate to Condemn Terrorism)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 8 July 2005.
73. Amir Taheri, "hujum Lundun. thamaratu t-tataruf al-marira (The London attacks. bitter fruit of extremism)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 8 July 2005.
74. Magdi Khalil, "al-irhāb: suqūt il-furūd wal-tabrīrāt: lundun. sharm ashshaykh. fīt- tafsīr il-hudūth (Terrorism: The breakdown of hypotheses and justifications: London. Sharm al-Shaykh. in the explanation of the events)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 30 July 2005.
75. Mamoun Fandy, "al-̀irhāb: wa-ayna hiya l-fatawā l-mudāda? (Terrorism: where are the opposing fatwas?)," ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 25 July 2005.
76. Turki al-Faisal, Lord Kerry, "Máan min ajlī usratina- l-insānīya l-wāhida (Together in the name of our one human family)," Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, 24 July 2005.
77. The European Council, "European Security Strategy. A Secure Europe in a Better World," Brussels, 12 December 2003, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf (accessed 2 April 2008), 4.
78. Ibid., 8.
79. Gijs de Vries, "Terrorism continues to threaten European Security," Financial Times, 30 Nov. 2004.
80. Javier Solana, "Three ways for Europe to prevail against the terrorists," Financial Times, 25 March 2004.
81. Javier Solana, "Intelligent War on Terror," The Korea Herald, 8 Nov. 2004.
82. European Parliament, "Combating terrorism. European Parliament resolution on 'Assessment of and prospects for the EU strategy on terrorism one year after 11 September 2001,"' 24 Oct. 2002, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/seance_pleniere/textes_adoptes/definitif/2002/10-24/0518/P5_TA(2002)0518_EN.pdf (accessed 2 April 2008).
83. European Parliament, "European Parliament resolution on the external dimension of the fight against international terrorism (2006/2032(INI)," 15 Feb. 2007, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/seance_pleniere/textes_adoptes/definitif/2007/02-15/0050/P6_TA(2007)0050_EN.doc (accessed 25 March 2008).
84. Euro-Mediterranean Conference, "Barcelona Declaration," 28 Nov. 1995, http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/euromed/bd.htm (accessed 21 March 2008).
85. See Eberhard Kienle, "More than a Response to Islamism. The Political Deliberalization of Egypt in the 1990s," Middle East Journal 52, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 234-235.
86. The European Council, "European Security Strategy" (see note 53 above), 3.
87. Ibid., 8.
88. Timothy Garton Ash, "Is this Europe's 9/11?," The Guardian, 13 March 2004.
89. The European Council, "Declaration on Combating Terrorism," Brussels, 25 March 2004, http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cmsUpload/DECL-25.3.pdf (accessed 21 March 2008).
90. Javier Solana, "Protecting People and Infrastructure: Achievements, Failures and future Tasks," Speech at the East West-Institute: Second Annual Worldwide Security Conference, Brussels, 7 Feb. 2005, http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/discours/83622.pdf (accessed 23 March 2008).
91. The Council of the European Union, "The European Union Counter-Terrorism Strategy," Brussels, 30 Nov. 2005, http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/05/st14/st14469-re04.en05.pdf (21 March 2008), 8.
92. Ibid., 7.
93. de Vries (see note 55 above).
94. European Parliament, "European Parliament recommendation to the European Council and the Council on the EU anti-terrorism Action Plan," 7 June 2005 (2004/2214(INI), http://www.europarl.europa.eu/registre/seance_pleniere/textes_adoptes/definitif/2005/06-07/0219/P6_TA(2005)0219_EN.pdf (25 March 2008).
95. European Parliament (see note 60 above).
96. Claude Berrebi, "Evidence about the Link between Education, Poverty and Terrorism among Palestinians," Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy 13, no. 1 (2007): 1-36.
97. European Parliament resolution of 17 January 2008 on the situation in Egypt, accessible at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ (22 March 2008).
98. All quoted in Middle East Media Research Institute, "The Europeans think they are the Masters while all others are slaves," Special Dispatch, no. 1849, 21 Feb. 2008, http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD184908 (accessed 23 March 2008).
99. Gamal Essam El-Din, "NDP up in arms," Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 881, 24-30 Jan. 2008.
100. EU-Commission, "EU-Egypt: Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner presents €558 million assistance package during her visit," Brussels, 26 Feb. 2007, http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/241&format=HTML&aged=1&language=EN&guiLanguage=en (accessed 21 March 2008).
101. European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, "EU and Egypt - partners for the future, Luncheon hosted by the Egyptian-European Council," Cairo, 31 Oct. 2007, http://www.delegy.ec.europa.eu/en/News/Speech_by_BFW_EEC_Lunch_rev.doc (accessed 22 March 2008).
102. Fraser Cameron, The European Neighbourhood Policy as a Conflict Prevention Tool, European Policy Centre Issue Paper no. 47 (June 2006), 10.
103. Daniel Williams, "Clearing the Path For Scion of Egypt," Washington Post, 10 March 2006.
104. See for example Hartmut Behr, "The Myth of the Nation and Legacies of Nationalism. Immigration Politics and the Creation of Identity in the European Union," International Political Economy, no. 2 (2005): 1-18.
105. Hartmut Behr, "The European Union in the Legacies of Imperial Rule? EU Accession Politics Viewed from a Historical Comparative Perspective," European Journal of International Relations 13, no. 2 (2007): 239-262.
106. This perception is pointedly represented in a speech by the German Minister of Interior, Wolfgang Schaeuble, at the Europa Institut, University of Zurich, 19 Dec. 2006, entitled "Living Europe Safely"; http://www.eu2007.bmi.bund.de 4 Dec. 2007.
107. The European Council, "Declaration on Combating Terrorism" (see note 67 above).
108. Council of the European Union, "The European Union Counter-Terrorism Strategy," Brussels, 30 November 2005, http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/05/st14/st14469-re04.en05.pdf (21 March 2008), 8.
109. We want to thank one of the reviewers who pointed out that our criticism of potentially negative consequences of political correctness increasingly enshrined in common EU's policies does also apply to national strategies such as the decision of the Spanish and Turkish governments to set up an "Alliance of Civilization" under the auspices of the United Nations. Its mission statement seems to ignore the sometimes very poor human rights record and degree of democratization of many of the members of this alliance. In the end, the initiative avoids a rigorous debate about these issues and emphasises instead "cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions. to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism."
110. Such non-threatening language made it very easy for the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (both of which have very few democracies as members) to join the alliance's "Group of Friends" (see Alliance of Civilizations, http://www.unaoc.org/content/view/63/79/lang,english/, accessed 18 June 2009).
111. Saying this, we have to stress that this position does not presuppose an answer to the question whether or not some Israeli political strategies and military tactics might conflict with international law.