US Calls European Failure to Integrate Muslims a "Security Risk"

April 6, 2006

Source: EUobserver

http://euobserver.com/9/21327

On April 6, 2006 the EUobserver reported, "The failure to integrate Muslim minorities in Europe constitutes a security risk for the US, the US state department's undersecretary for European affairs Daniel Fried told a US senate committee. Mr Fried said unemployment, discrimination and lack of integration among Europe's Muslim communities had created an 'audience' open to extremist messages, according to Reuters. He added that some European countries' far-reaching freedom of expression laws helped radical elements to spread anti-democratic ideologies... Mr Freid also said some Europe-based Muslim militants were directly linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and associated groups such as Abu Musab al Zarqawi's followers in Iraq or northern Africa's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. His colleague, the State Department counterterrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton, who was speaking at the same forum, said 'It is now well-known that the terrorist cell that conducted the 9/11 attacks did much of its planning from a base in Europe.' 'Five years later, and despite many counterterrorism successes, violent Islamic extremism in Europe continues to pose a threat to the national security of the United States and our allies', Mr Crumpton added... The integration of immigrants into European societies has become a big issue at the EU level as well, following the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London that led to a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment across the continent."