The blowback of repression and the dynamics of North African radicalization

Abstract

The narrative of the historic struggle against colonialism is subject to a high degree of political manipulation in North Africa. Myths, memories and symbols based on the struggle against colonial oppression, whether ‘true’ or not, provide a latent and continually relevant context for understanding and interpreting contemporary events. For both recent North African immigrants, and second, third and fourth generation immigrants to Europe, contemporary injustices and violence, whether perpetrated in Europe or in the Maghreb, are being understood in this historical colonial context. For some, these myths, memories and symbols may be the reason why they join a peaceful, democratic group to lobby for democracy and political transparency. For a minority of North Africans, these symbols of the past are invoked to justify a jihadist challenge to North African regimes and the West. Based on extensive interviews with North African activists and community leaders, this article will show how the collective memory of the abuse of power by the state, both during and after the colonial era, has created a latent mistrust of the West, especially of France. Political repression in North Africa since independence has created a rupture between what was expected from independence and the realities of political life, and North Africans often ascribe this disappointment to the inherently French character of the regimes which were in power during the 1950s and 1960s. North Africans also believe that this is reflected in the continuing active intervention on the part of the West to support these illiberal regimes in the face of democratic and popular challenges. The subsequent senses of injustice and disappointment, relating to the use and abuse of state power, continues to shape North African political mobilization and, worryingly, has created a latent basis for radicalization among North Africans living and working in Europe.

Between Dissent and Power

“…Yet, because the other possible alternativea return to the political turmoil and socio-economic involution of the 1990s -is currently unacceptable to most Algerians, it is also likely that the 'Bouteflika effect' may well succeed in delivering the stability and continuity that has eluded Algeria since Boumediene's demise in 1978. Here the historical memory of the war of national liberation and the more recent civil war generally plays in favour of the President's strategy of normalization (see Githens-Mazer 2009). The one significant imponderable is what happens after Bouteflika?…”

The rhetoric and reality: radicalization and political discourse

“…Taken as whole, the popular media and political discourses now routinely juxtapose issues more usually associated with integration and immigration with terrorism and radicalization, such as the wearing of the Hijab, arranged marriage, and the fundamental compatibility of Islamic religious ideology and practice with liberal democracy. This is the essence of the 'securitization' of Islam, literally labelling Islam as a potential existential threat to the security of western, and in this case British, society, and subsequently suspending legal, social, and political norms to justify this exceptional treatment, by the apparatus of the state, of Islamic faith, belief, and practice and Islamically inspired political engagement (Bicchia and Martinb, 2006;Cesari, 2009;Croft, 2012;Githens-Mazer, 2009;Laustsen and Waever, 2003;Pasha, 2006).…”

Unfairness in Society and Over Time: Understanding Possible Radicalization of People Protesting on Matters of Climate Change

“…Perceived unfairness has been associated with radicalization of people situated at both ends of the political spectrum (see Moors et al, 2009;Doosje et al, 2012) and religious groups (see Doosje et al, 2013;De Graaf, 2021;De Graaf and Van den Bos, 2021) both in Western societies and beyond (see Kozloff, 2008;Githens-mazer, 2009;Botha, 2015). A global context in which people currently experience much unfairness is the climate crisis (Della Porta and Parks, 2014;Schlosberg and Collins, 2014;Thomas et al, 2019;Piispa and Kiilakoski, 2021).…”