The Roots of Modern Radical Islam In their new publication, Souad Mekhennet, Claudia Sautter and Michael Hanfeld examine the development of modern radical Islam among adolescents and "teenage" Islamists in Europe and the Arab-Islamic World. Jürgen Endres has read the book. With its many areas of focus, the book is a combination of several different approaches: an analysis of extremist Islamic organization, a micro-sociological sketch of the lives of increasingly radical Islamists, an investigation of prevailing conspiracy theories, and an examination of how Islamists interpret conditions and events in the Middle East. In addition, the authors visit the "Jamia Hakkania" (a college run by the Taliban in northern Pakistan) and show how Islamist propaganda exploits the many possibilities offered by the Internet. A journalistic report The authors have consciously adopted an extremely journalistic style, sometimes to a fault. In retrospect, the declaration by the authors in the preface that "this book is a journalistic report" could be seen as a warning against its over-journalistic, at times even sensationalistic style of writing. In keeping with this style, the authors "have spoken with the 'children of jihad' in person", met with contacts "at secret locations", and changed cars and mobile phones in order to "make contact" with sources. There is nothing really new about these attempts to explain the phenomenon of Islamism or Islamist terror. Nevertheless, the wide array of well-researched personal profiles and interviews do an excellent job of graphically illustrating many aspects of this topic. For instance, the book clearly shows how Islam has become the only remaining point of reference in the lives of many individuals, and it lists the factors that can contribute to an increasingly radicalized understanding of Islam. According to the authors, the "children of jihad" have no home aside from their religion, their nationality is Islam, and they belong to the worldwide community of Muslims. Radicalized understanding of Islam The radicalization processes described here are portrayed within the context of global political developments and events (perhaps precipitated or even triggered by the invasion of US troops in Iraq) and depicted as the starting point of a search for identity that is contradictory, extremely complex, and often marked by defeat. For example, by reconstructing the radicalization of Said Bahaji – one of the alleged hijackers of September 11th – the authors have shown that his actions were a direct consequence of a series of defeats, both at work and in his personal life. Consequently, one of the main strengths of this book is that instead of holding the religion of Islam responsible for its extremist and terrorist manifestations, it examines the roots of the phenomenon and the resulting processes that lead to a different understanding of this religion. Moreover, some of the most impressive passages are where the authors step into the background and let us listen directly to the people whose ideas and behavior they want to explain. by Jürgen Endres, first published on Quantara.de under permission. Translated from the German by Paul Cohen. Souad Mekhennet, Claudia Sautter, Michael Hanfeld: "The Children of Jihad. The New Generation of Islamist Terror in Europe", Piper Verlag, Munich, 240 pages.
