Francois Valentin: We are under threat from “Islamist separatism”

Radical Islamist networks are a fertile breeding ground for the next generation of terrorists

London has witnessed viciously anti-Israeli protests and vandalism since Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel and the world’s sole Jewish state’s response. In just 18 days this October, antisemitic attacks in the capital soared nearly fifteen fold compared to last year. The escalating international situation is exposing an ugly minority of Islamists living in the UK. There are worrying signs that individuals and groups espousing these views are feeding the antisemitic surge.

Take, for instance, Imam Shakir of Greenwich Islamic Centre and his repugnant speech calling for war against Israel. Or the Nottingham preacher calling for the murder of Jews in his sermon. Broadcaster Moataz Matar celebrated the Hamas massacre on October 7 with his four million subscribers, calling it a “day of pride and glory.” One UK charity has been banned in the US over their alleged ties with Hamas. Sharia courts, many rife with misogynistic abuse, have been long established in many neighbourhoods in the UK.

But the issue of Islamism in the UK, once a headline concern in the aftermath of 9/11 and the London bombings of 2005, has largely faded out of public concern. Instead, British attention has focused on the ongoing battle against Islamism in France.

France has been hit hard repeatedly by terrorism. It has been nearly a decade since the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan, and attacks of this scale now seem unlikely both because of the territorial collapse of ISIS in the Middle East as well as the notable improvements in French counter-terrorism capabilities. But low-intensity attacks remain a constant, with considerable shock value. Only two weeks ago in Arras, Professor Dominique Bernard was murdered by a young Chechen terrorist, echoing the murder of Samuel Paty in similar circumstances just two years before.

The death of Paty was especially important because it reframed the conversation about radical Islam in France. A young Chechen also murdered Paty after having shown a cartoon of Muhammad in a class on freedom of speech. One of his students gave a very inflammatory account of what happened to her parents, who in turn alerted their neighbours, their coreligionists and local grievance entrepreneurs. They tarnished Paty as an “Islamophobe” and put a target on his back.

Paty was a victim of what the political scientist Gilles Kepel dubbed “atmospheric jihadism.” A long-time expert on the Middle East and radical Islam, Kepel argues that local grievance entrepreneurs attempt to  create an “us versus them” narrative within Muslim communities to separate them from the rest of France., In the case of Paty, it’s this network that created the environment leading to his murder. With the fall of ISIS, this new era will be defined by digital campaigns and networks shaping the narrative on relations between Muslims and their fellow compatriots.

This is not to say that all Islamists are future jihadists - many of them believe peaceful means are better suited to attain their radical worldview - but they are providing a fertile breeding ground for the next generation of terrorists. In response, France pivoted from an anti-terrorism focus to a broader campaign against what they labelled “Islamist separatism.” This pivot was powered by a 2021 law that expanded the state’s capacity to close religious organisations that provoked hate against groups or individuals and cracked down on foreign religious funding.

The UK would do well to also learn from this evolution. As pointed out earlier, the UK has elements of “Islamist separatism” ranging from Salafi preachers to grievance entrepreneurs. And while we are currently in a relative lull of terrorist activities, the past four decades have taught us that jihadi groups tend to ebb and flow. The networks of these “Islamist separatists” will provide the infrastructure for the next generation of terrorist groups.

Britons have reassured themselves by believing that France’s unfortunate fate probably had more to do with its unusual tradition of laicite and that the UK was more resilient. But Samuel Paty could well have been British. In March 2021, only a few months after Paty’s death, an RE teacher from Batley Grammar School was forced into hiding after showing a cartoon of Mohammed to his pupils in school.

In a chilling parallel with the death of Paty, local grievance entrepreneurs decided to label him a “terrorist” and an “islamophobe.” The parallel was not lost to the teacher himself, who has been forced to abandon Batley, his hometown, and has feared for his life ever since. Under considerable pressure from local faith groups, the school apologised to the parents for the inappropriate use of cartoons.

The independent review of Prevent (the multi-agency programme that aims to stop people from becoming terrorists) conducted earlier this year by William Shawcross highlighted that Prevent was “not doing enough to counter non-violent Islamist extremism.” His review was derided despite its very prescient analysis of the abject antisemitism in these Islamist networks. Perhaps the antisemitic vitriol of the past few weeks has given us time to wake up and tackle the dangers of radical Islamism.

Francois Valentin is the founder of the Uncommon Decency Podcast on European Affairs and a Senior Researcher at Onward.