The French decision to utilize the Madrid and London bombings as exemplars of what is likely to be the most threatening form of jihadist terrorism against Europe?homegrown cells of alienated, aggrieved, and enraged individuals?and incorporate the lessons learned from the British and Spanish governments’ handling of the attacks into the nation?s counterterrorism strategy is certainly an advantageous approach.
The guiding consideration of maintaining national societal unity in seeking to communicate effectively and diffuse potential racist or xenophobic-driven vigilante attacks against the community from which the attacks are perceived to have emerged might further exacerbate societal tensions and potentially entrench polarized communities against each other. Should the attackers be perceived by society as Muslim, the potential factionalization of the society may present to radical jihadist France as an emerging jihadist ?battlefield? where Muslims must be defended and perceived abuses avenged, in turn elevating France as a target of global jihadist militancy.
The riots in France last November by young Muslim French-born descendants of north African and Arab immigrants gave a stark glimpse and warning of the seething feelings of societal inequality, discrimination, neglect, and alienation vis-?-vis French society among this community.
It remains of utmost importance that the French government take strong initiatives aimed at tempering and assuaging the perceptions and feelings among Muslim and other minority communities of alienation, grievance, abuse and/or racisms at the hands of French society by cultivating a greater sense of nationalist, pluralist equality. It is these feelings of societal inequality that motivate aggrieved communities to rebellion and for Muslim communities, in particular, would provide the bedrock against which the empowering, vengeful, and spiritually redemptive message of al-Qaeda and other militant Islamist ideologies might resonate and rally members to jihadist violence. Thus, these societal tensions and the alienation and grievance felt by the Muslim minority community will likely serve as the ?root cause? of homegrown Islamist terrorism in France. Further, the aggrieved sentiment of such Muslim minority communities in Europe could be exploited by established jihadist groups to recruit operatives or entrench clandestine terrorist networks within a sympathetic and/or supportive community. Homegrown cells present a particularly threatening terrorist actor, as their indigenous nature and knowledge of the society in which they operate and seek to attack allows for greater clandestineness and a more subtle or muted operational signature and warning indicators of the cell?s existence or operations.
Thus, similar societal tensions throughout Europe arguably present the most threatening national and transnational security issue to Europe as a whole in its potential to cultivate homegrown rebellion and terrorism.