Hegemonic Discourse of Europe on Criminality and Islamic Extremism: Another Failure/Refusal to Under
The latest squeeze of those in Europe whose task it is to cobble together discourse on Islamic extremism in Europe is to fabricate a causal link between criminality, conversion to Islam or an Islamic reawakening and Islamic extremism expressed via attacks on the social order. The discourse is rooted in positivist causality hence it makes causal linkages that are only valid to those who share the same discourse/worldview but on the ground it is simply causal smoke and mirrors that will drive strategic action irrelevant at best given the characteristics of the threat. The discourse is then flawed and operationally crippled in the world of engaging with the threat.
The attack on New York 2001 and the Madrid train bombings 2004 illustrated two possible operational methodologies for attacks on the west. 2001 New York was the operational methodology of the supposedly devout who were off the radar of the law enforcement agencies. 2004 Madrid was the operational methodology of the operative who were involved in drug trafficking, known to law enforcement and practised the lifestyle of the underworld player not the devout. The leader of the cell known in public for his drug trafficking, club life, motorcycle, alcohol and other drug use and his sexual activity as a player summed up this operational methodology. Since 2004 the talking heads of Europe have been in denial over this operational methodology and effort has been invested in masking the threat rather than dealing with it.
2005 London was a repeat of the 2001 methodology but 2015 Paris, 2016 Brussels, 2016 Nice, 2016 Berlin, 2017 Westminster, 2017 Manchester and 2017 Champs-Elysees are all of the 2004 Madrid operational methodology. Starting with 2016 Nice you have the lone wolf attacker emerging from the 2004 Madrid operational methodology. The issue then is the evolution of the methodology from 2004 to 2017 not the role of criminality in the acceptance of the need to attack the social order in the name of Islam or the impact criminality has on the ability of the individual to launch effective attacks. To pursue this causal path demands an operational knowledge of the discourses of the underworld in Europe and how they transect with attacking the social order in the name of Islam. In fact, they don’t as the discourses and worldviews of both actions are not compatible as attacks on the social order are bad for business especially for the businesses of organised crime. This is why to date the attackers are predominantly products of the lowest levels of the underworld the marginal and expendable of the criminal economy or from the spaces of sex crimes, gendered domestic violence and sex work. The question posed to the propagators of the discourse of crime as jihad is where are the attackers in the name of Islam who are players in the economy of organised crime in Europe?
The reality is potently illustrated by the involvement of elements of the Taliban, the Haqqani network and the Islamic extremists of the Sahel and the Maghreb in the transnational illicit drug trade where they are partners, affiliates and service providers of globalised trafficking organisations involved in trafficking heroin, cocaine, hashish and meth and human smuggling to Europe. Where then is the impact of these groups on the landscape of attacks on Europe? When you are locked into operational relationships with globalised illicit drug traffickers and you choose to maintain this relationship and attack the markets of these groups you pose a grave threat to the illicit enterprises of these global organised crime groups. And most importantly to the security of these groups which demands that you be dealt with for the threat you pose is grave.
The use of recruits from the lowest levels of the underworld has in fact impacted the ability to create a series of attacks as 2015 Paris in the face of the response of the security apparatus as these individuals illustrate their willingness to simply abort their attack when faced with certain death. Such as in 2015 Paris and 2016 Brussels. Much more importantly they lack the connections in the underworld to access the material necessary to launch such attacks for they are dependent on the underworld to source the materiel for such attacks. Hence the operational choice of methodology of 2016 Nice, 2016 Berlin and 2017 Champs-Elysees. Those intent on attacks are being squeezed between the security apparatus and the underworld under the hegemony of organised crime as they are simply bad for business. It’s only the discourse of the rabid threat of Islam to Europe breathes lasting impact into these actions as they are signs in a war being waged of diminished capacity. There can be no war without casualties and capacity.
Crime is not homogeneous neither is it an effective descriptive concept for the power relations of the underworld as it attempts to lump all activity together via their illegality. But all illegal activity has its specificity generated by its operational reality. A member of a minority race in Europe embarks on a specific criminal lifestyle that heightens their alienation and marginality and writes them on the surveillance grid of law enforcement especially if they are active on the margins of the underworld. The margins of the underworld are particularly brutal on the individual and further marginalises and alienates the individual from socialised human collective behaviour. The discourse of the margins is that of the lone predator focused only on self-survival by any means necessary. Prison and a reversion to an ancestral ethnic/race identity long discarded can complement each other where this identity is defined and expressed via Islamic extremism. But they don’t need each other. Islamic extremism channels the anger, hate and self-hate of the marginalised and alienated minority races into the action of self-immolation as Jihad that wreaks revenge on the enemy race and his social order in the name of Islam. The attacks are then the embrace of Islamic extremism to deal with the self-immolation bred by a racist, apartheid social order. Deal with the banlieues of Europe and end the hegemony of the discourse of threat of the non-white hordes to the security, sanctity and “cultural” heritage of Europe as it feeds the dynamic it cannot disarm it. The singular neo-nazi response of Europe to the perceived threat potently illustrates that the banlieues are not accidents of history or the products of political incompetence but the product of a racist worldview driven by a racist, hegemonist discourse therefore an instrument of social control. The cruel joke is the thousands who continue to seek to enter Europe illicitly as if they are welcome in the European paradise. But such is the blowback from European colonial imperialism remember the Berlin conference?