Woolwich killers and Boston bombers point to an emerging trend of extremism - 'loner Jihad'
The two men accused of hacking a British soldier to death last week in Woolwich have been on the UK intelligence radar, just like the Tsarnaev brothers who stand accused of planting bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last month that killed three people and injured dozens.
They were known to America's national security officials, wrote Khalil Al Anani in the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat.
For Al Anani, an Egyptian academic at the UK's Durham University, there is a clear pattern there.
The four men have a lot in common: they are all Muslim immigrants; they were indoctrinated in a similar fashion and have come to represent a new trend of extremism - "loner Jihad".
"First, all these young men were radicalised on the internet, through websites preaching hatred and militancy," Al Anani wrote.
"Secondly, they have carried out these acts only after settling down in their host countries … which points to another problem: alienation syndrome."
Thirdly, both attacks have exposed the limitations of the intelligence services in the UK and US, which should prompt both countries to review their security strategies.
"What happened in Boston and now in Woolwich provides evidence that 'loner Jihad' is a trend which the world can no longer ignore," the writer said.
The terrorist acts that result from "loner Jihad" are much more insidious, thus harder to thwart, compared to larger-scale attacks that are planned by terrorist networks, which require more coordination and time for their execution.
"Individual acts are harder to anticipate," he wrote.
Preachers of "loner Jihad" are not hard to come by, especially online. The most prominent figure in recent years has been the Yemeni-American imam, Anwar Al Awlaki, who was killed in 2011 by a US drone strike.
"Let's not forget the essential role that Al Awlaki played in indoctrinating Umar Farouk, the Nigerian young man who tried to blow up an American airplane on Christmas of [2009], or Nidal Malik Hasan, the US officer, who opened fire on his colleagues at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, killing 13," the author noted.
"I have lived in Britain for the past four years and have been in touch with many Muslims living in north-eastern England. I have come to notice two things: one, the absence, or at least the decline, of moderate, tolerant Islamism among young Muslims in favour of Salafism and radicalism; and two, a growing propensity among those youth for self-isolation."
Indeed, the difficulties in integrating the third generation of Muslims in Britain are real, and they are not helped by extreme-right voices that call for foreigners to be thrown out of Britain.
US is responsible for the big mess in Iraq
Hardly a day goes by in Iraq without blood being spilt in savage, absurd acts of violence, as politicians and extremist sectarian groups point fingers at each other. Surprisingly, the flagrant role of the United States in turning Iraq into such a tinderbox is seldom emphasised these days, noted an editorial in the Dubai-based newspaper Al Bayan.
Granted, the massive tangle of issues currently crippling Iraq has taken decades to get to this level of complexity. The late president, Saddam Hussein, his successors and all other political and religious players share responsibility for the mess, the paper said.
But Washington, which has maintained a crafty detachment from Iraq since its complete withdrawal in 2011, has made some major mistakes that have contributed, in large part, to the country's structural ailments.
"In this whole destruction and mass murder … a key party, Washington, is slipping out of mind," the paper said.
The blunders that the former US administration made - and for which Iraqis are paying dearly - included dissolving the former army and police force (even before establishing a new structure for the Iraqi armed forces) and endorsing a quota format in the country's political system.
The US must take responsibility for those mistakes and assist - without interfering - Iraqis in steering their country to safety, the paper concluded.
Israel threatens to raid Russia arms shipment
Hopes that a second international conference could take place in Geneva to discuss peace prospects for Syria have been dashed by an exchange of muscle talk between the European Union, Russia and Israel, the London-based newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi said in an editorial yesterday.
In response to EU's move earlier this week to lift a ban on arms deliveries to the Syrian opposition, Russia declared that it would no longer withhold its shipments of modern S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Those missiles are meant to help President Bashar Al Assad.
The Israelis, for their part, view Moscow's delivery of these missiles to Syria as a "declaration of war", the paper said. This weaponry would potentially turn Israel into a no-fly zone. "With their pointed accuracy, these missiles can hit Tel Aviv Airport and parry warplanes trying to hit targets in Syria or Lebanon."
Speaking to reporters this week, Moshi Ya'alon, the Israeli defence minister, threatened to raid the Russian shipments if they were to reach Syria.
"Such a threat from Israel is more of an act of defiance vis-à-vis Russia than Syria," the paper observed. "And many in the region and around the world might see it as a form of verbal thuggery, because Israel cannot dictate Russia's foreign policy."
* Digest compiled by Achraf El Bahi
aelbahi@thenational.ae
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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