Breeding Bin Ladens: America, Islam, and the Future of Europe

by Zachary Shore

Overview

A look into the state of Islam in Europe and the threat posed by excluding moderate Muslims in Western society.

While American leaders wage war with extremists in the Middle East, they are ignoring a greater threat closer to home. In Breeding Bin Ladens, Zachary Shore asserts that the growing ambivalence of Europe’s Muslims poses risks to national identities, international security, and the transatlantic alliance.

Europe’s failure to integrate its Muslim millions and America’s battered image in the Muslim world have left too many Western Muslims easy prey for violent dogmas. Until America and Europe adopt new strategies, Shore argues, Europe will increasingly become the incubation ground for breeding new Bin Ladens.

The United States continues to spend billions and lose thousands of soldiers to combat Islamic extremists, a group estimated to be as small as fifty thousand. Meanwhile, Western leaders have not sought to understand the millions of moderate Muslims who live peacefully in the United States and Europe. Many in this extraordinarily diverse group are deeply ambivalent toward perceived Western values. Although they may admire America’s economic or technological might, many are appalled by its crass consumerism, sexualization of women, lack of social justice, and foreign policies.

Through in-depth interviews with Muslims living across the European Union, Shore gives voice to people of deep faith who speak of the conflict between their desire to integrate into their adopted societies and the repulsion they feel toward some of what the West represents.

Shore offers a consideration of Islam’s future in the West. Cautioning Western leaders against an anti-terrorist tunnel vision that could ultimately backfire, Shore proposes bold, creative, and controversial solutions for attracting the hearts and minds of moderate Muslims living in the West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801889509
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	04/27/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Zachary Shore is an associate professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He has served on the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State through a fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. He earned his doctorate in modern European history from Oxford University and served as a national security fellow at Harvard's Institute for Strategic Studies. He is the author of What Hitler Knew: The Battle for Information in Nazi Foreign Policy and Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Prolific Assassin
1. London Bridges
2. Islamic Awakenings
3. Two Faces, Two Futures
4. Headscarf, Headaches, Cartoon Chaos
5. Migration Migraines
6. Clash of the Barbies
7. New Europe, Same Old Issues
8. The Future of Muslim Europe
Conclusion: Looking Back to Look Ahead
Epilogue: Attracting the Second Circle
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Raju G. C. Thomas

Breeding Bin Ladens is a contemporary threat assessment of the rise of radical Islam. The method is that of painstakingly detailed investigative journalism based on interviews of some known and potential Muslim radicals in the field. This is quite an accomplishment in itself. The language is narrative, exciting and often anecdotal, reading like a thriller.

— Raju G. C. Thomas, Marquette University, author of Yugoslavia Unraveled: Sovereignty, Self-Determination, Intervention

Anne-Marie Slaughter

'No one is born a terrorist; terrorists are bred.' That is the thesis of this remarkable book. It starts not with assumptions by Americans and Europeans about Europe's Muslim community, but with the voices of Muslims themselves. Those voices are vital for Americans and Europeans to hear and understand. Breeding Bin Ladens is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of the liberal democratic West.

— Anne-Marie Slaughter, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

From the Publisher

Breeding Bin Ladens is a contemporary threat assessment of the rise of radical Islam. The method is that of painstakingly detailed investigative journalism based on interviews of some known and potential Muslim radicals in the field. This is quite an accomplishment in itself. The language is narrative, exciting and often anecdotal, reading like a thriller.
—Raju G. C. Thomas, Marquette University, author of Yugoslavia Unraveled: Sovereignty, Self-Determination, Intervention

'No one is born a terrorist; terrorists are bred.' That is the thesis of this remarkable book. It starts not with assumptions by Americans and Europeans about Europe's Muslim community, but with the voices of Muslims themselves. Those voices are vital for Americans and Europeans to hear and understand. Breeding Bin Ladens is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of the liberal democratic West.
—Anne-Marie Slaughter, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

Zachary Shore realized earlier than most the potentially huge importance of the religious revival among young Muslims in Europe. The interviews and other evidence in his scrupulously researched and lucidly written book constitute powerful evidence of a disturbing trend. It is not simple hatred of the United States so much as ambivalence about Western society as a whole that has driven these teenagers and twenty-somethings into the arms of the extremists. And while America is prepared to fight (albeit clumsily) a war on terror, a post-Christian Europe seems caught between old fashioned xenophobia and post-modern insouciance.
—Niall Ferguson, Harvard University

Niall Ferguson

Zachary Shore realized earlier than most the potentially huge importance of the religious revival among young Muslims in Europe. The interviews and other evidence in his scrupulously researched and lucidly written book constitute powerful evidence of a disturbing trend. It is not simple hatred of the United States so much as ambivalence about Western society as a whole that has driven these teenagers and twenty-somethings into the arms of the extremists. And while America is prepared to fight (albeit clumsily) a war on terror, a post-Christian Europe seems caught between old fashioned xenophobia and post-modern insouciance.

— Niall Ferguson, Harvard University

Editorial Reviews

Shore's wise and thoughtful book addresses Europe's "Muslim problems"— those problems faced by the 15 million Muslims in the European Union and those encountered by the EU in trying to cope with them. The issue, Shore points out, goes way beyond the matter of terrorism — and may get more troublesome as Europe, with its aging population and low birthrate, needs more immigrants. In his interviews with Muslims in most European countries, he has found deep "ambi-Americanism" and "ambi-Europeanism." There are, of course, profound political causes for their hostility to the United States, but there is also "among younger European Muslims a growing sense that Europe and America are spiritually empty" and a feeling of being rejected by the Europeans among whom they live. Their consequent fundamentalism (which "simply means returning to the fundamentals of a religious doctrine") is not synonymous with terrorism, but it is often perceived as a first step toward violence — especially since "Muslims on the whole still represent part of the underclass, overrepresented in unemployment, low wage earnings, and political disenfranchisement." Shore is, however, confident that solutions can be found, and he makes a series of "modest proposals" — such as retiring the vocabulary of war from the current language and creating a "Head Start" program for low-income Muslims in Europe. This eminently readable volume deserves to be widely known and seriously pondered.

Foreign Affairs

Well-written overview of the state of Islam in Europe.
—Bloomsbury Review

Shore captures much of the nuance and contradiction of a community being asked to integrate into national polities that exploit them economically, treat their faith as a second-class superstition, and fail to deal with persistent, widespread racism.
—Aziz Hug, American Prospect

The narrative style of this timely work makes it a rewarding read.
—Library Journal

The only one of the American authors to have taken the trouble to talk to a lot of European Muslims.
—Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

Shore's wise and thoughtful book addresses Europe's 'Muslim problems' . . . This eminently readable volume deserves to be widely known and seriously pondered.
—Stanley Hoffmann, Foreign Affairs

[Shore] proposes to alert American policymakers, business people and simply interested citizens to the challenge of paying attention to Islamic culture . . . And who's to say he isn't right.
—John Patrick Grace, Herald-Dispatch

This is must read for anyone who wants to know more about the complex world of Europe's Muslims.
—Choice

Shore's thoughtful and measured analysis stands out in a genre awash in oversimplification, misinformation, and polemics.
—Elizabeth A. Barre, H-Amstdy, H-Net Reviews

From the Publisher

The only one of the American authors to have taken the trouble to talk to a lot of European Muslims.

Financial Times - Gideon Rachman

This is must read for anyone who wants to know more about the complex world of Europe's Muslims.

Choice

Well-written overview of the state of Islam in Europe.

Bloomsbury Review

Shore captures much of the nuance and contradiction of a community being asked to integrate into national polities that exploit them economically, treat their faith as a second-class superstition, and fail to deal with persistent, widespread racism.

American Prospect - Aziz Hug

Shore's thoughtful and measured analysis stands out in a genre awash in oversimplification, misinformation, and polemics.

H-Amstdy, H-Net Reviews - Elizabeth A. Barre

Shore's wise and thoughtful book addresses Europe's 'Muslim problems' . . . This eminently readable volume deserves to be widely known and seriously pondered.

Foreign Affairs - Stanley Hoffmann

[Shore] proposes to alert American policymakers, business people and simply interested citizens to the challenge of paying attention to Islamic culture . . . And who's to say he isn't right.

Herald-Dispatch - John Patrick Grace