Can Google Make Non-Violence Cool? The company’s new ‘think/do tank’ aims to steer youth away from terroris
Until a few years ago, America seemed relatively resistant to the kind of homegrown Islamist terrorism that has plagued Europe for the last decade. Terrorism experts attribute the resilience of American Muslims to their greater integration into society. In Europe, immigrant populations tend to cluster—with Algerians settling in France, Turks in Germany, Moroccans in the Netherlands, and so on, making it easier for ethno-religious groups to remain isolated, spending time only with others like themselves.
Many Muslim immigrants in Europe arrived as unskilled guest workers, and changes in the labor market have made it hard for them to find jobs. Muslims in Europe are far more likely to be unemployed and to receive lower pay for the same work than “native” Europeans. Thus, Muslim immigrants in Europe are often impoverished. For example, 10 percent of native Belgians live below the poverty line—meanwhile, 59 percent of Belgium Turks and 56 percent of Belgium Moroccan are living in poverty.
In America, by contrast, Muslim immigrants are not poor. They are the wealthiest group of Muslim immigrants in the world. They tend to be better educated and have higher-paying jobs than the average American, and they are more likely to vote. Thus, it would appear, that these Muslims feel American—or no less American than other Americans. The vast majority of Muslim immigrants have thrived in the United States. This is something to celebrate.
But by 2009, it was clear that America was not immune to domestic radicalization. Al-Qaeda’s “psyops” effort, which involved spreading the argument that the war on terrorism was actually a war on Islam, was beginning to bear fruit among American Muslim youth, as well as converts.
In the last couple of years, al-Qaeda has deliberately attempted to tailor its message to attract American youth, even encouraging them to wage jihad on their own, at home….