Abdel Bari Atwan on Al Qaeda in North Africa and Europe
Jul 31, 202026.5K Shares757.9K Views
The editor of the London Arabic-language newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi, Abdel Bari Atwan, all but begs us not to overlook Al Qaeda’s increasing hold over North Africa.
In Algeria, Al Qaeda in 2006 formally merged with the Algerian Salafist group known as the GPSC to form Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The “next generation” of Al Qaeda leaders will emerge from this group, he predicts.
European radicalization is a big deal too, Atwan adds.
He lists statistics on Europe’s approximately 32 million members of the Muslim diaspora.
“When Al Qaeda starts to feel more confident in Afghanistan, new people start to join, and many of them are from Turkey,” he says.
Same goes for recruits from Yemen and North Africa. “You have to feel like [Europe] is facing a future danger,” Atwan says. The situation is rife for “recruiting new cells in Europe,” owing to the inability of European xenophobia to accomodate Muslims as equal citizens.
Paula M. Graham
Reviewer
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