Global Jihad: temi, piste di diffusione e il fenomeno del reducismo ...

7. The Immigrant Experience
All of these elements contributed to the growth of the support for jihad movements
among Muslim communities in the West, and to the increasing alienation felt by
many Muslims in Western societies. Hatred of foreigners in not uncommon in these
societies, particularly in Europe. Furthermore, many Muslim immigrants face
poverty, unemployment, difficulties in coping with Western modernization and
values, and disintegration of their own family values, all of which have encouraged
significant Islamist social and political activity among them. Furthermore, Islamist
groups tend to view every symbol and element of Western modern culture as part of
conspiracy against Muslim culture. A Fatwa against Valentine Day, issued in
February 2002 by the group of the Al-Muhajiroun in London, may serve as a good
example of the difficulties of Muslim immigrants to cope with Western culture. Even
Islamic social-welfare movements, which are not part of the radical trend, help to
create the Islamic atmosphere that directly and indirectly assists the radicals.
The major conflicts of the 1990s—the Gulf war, Iraq’s campaign against its Kurds,
and conflicts in Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Algeria, Chechnya, and
Somalia—brought waves of Muslim immigrants to Western Europe, all seeking
refuge and work. Many of these immigrants entered illegally, and thus do not appear
in official statistics. The United Kingdom faced its own significant increase of
asylum-seekers and refugees in the second half of the 1990s, which prompted the
government to announce in July 1998 “an administrative reform to clear the huge
backlog of asylum applications in a parliamentary ‘White Book` called “Fairer,
Faster, Firmer–a modern approach to immigration and asylum”. 50
Muslim immigrants to the United States are a minority among the enormous number
of immigrants from all over the world, but both American and UN statistics show a
significant increase in Muslim immigration applicants over the past decade. The
50 U.S. Committee for Refugees, Country Report: United Kingdom [1999]. Available on-line:
www.refugees.org/world/countryrpt/europe/united_kingdom.htm
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