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

Zachary Shore asserts that the growing ambivalence of Europe's Muslims poses risks to national identities, international security, and the transatlantic alliance. Through in-depth interviews with Muslims living across the European Union, he 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 (national security affairs, Naval Postgraduate School) warns that "Europe is becoming a fertile ground for Muslim militancy, and America is its prime target." He argues that Muslims in Europe generally can be described as holding views that are "ambi-American," attracted to some aspects of American society but repelled by its perceived lack of social justice, consumerism, sexualization of women, and hypocritical foreign policies. Meanwhile, Europe's failure to integrate their demographically expanding Muslim populations threatens to push these "ambi-Americans" into the arms of violent fundamentalists. Through interviews with younger European Muslims, Shore seeks to illustrate the issues of identity that he feels lie at the heart of this situation and to provide recommendations as to how to address it.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Shore (national security affairs, Naval Postgraduate School) warns that "Europe is becoming a fertile ground for Muslim militancy, and America is its prime target." He argues that Muslims in Europe generally can be described as holding views that are "ambi-American," attracted to some aspects of American society but repelled by its perceived lack of social justice, consumerism, sexualization of women, and hypocritical foreign policies. Meanwhile, Europe's failure to integrate their demographically expanding Muslim populations threatens to push these "ambi-Americans" into the arms of violent fundamentalists. Through interviews with younger European Muslims, Shore seeks to illustrate the issues of identity that he feels lie at the heart of this situation and to provide recommendations as to how to address it. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

While American leaders wage war on extremists in the Middle East, they are dangerously detached from a potentially 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, combined with 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 of dollars and lose thousands of its young men and women to combat Islamic extremists, a group estimated to be as small as fifty thousand. What Western leaders have not done, says Shore, is seek 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.

Shore taps into this oft-ignored perspective through in-depth interviews with Muslims living across the European Union. He 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 deeply nuanced and hopeful 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.