Terrorism and xenophobia: dismantling the vicious circle of the factory of fear
Food for thought: What connects the fight against terrorism to the political culture of xenophobia? / Good practices of analysis, investigation and dialogue in order to break the vicious circle of fear / Role of civil society in denouncing political violence and the use of “the Other” as a scapegoat / Ways of overcoming the repression of human rights and civil liberties in order to defeat political violence.
Objective of this dialogue: Opening a debate free from prejudices on the manipulative use of fight against terrorism and xenophobic propaganda in order to unveil the establishment’s interests and political-electoral ambitions, that encroach on the culture of rights and solidarity.
Summary by Giacomo Morabito, Mediterranean Affairs (moderator)
Participants: Ismail al-Iskandarany, Egypt, political activist and investigative journalist, expert in radical movements, military affairs and terrorism; Emel Kurma, Turkey, general coordinator forHelsinki Citizens’ Assembly, a European citizens’ organization whose founding principles are peace, democracy, pluralism and human rights, and one of the activists of the protest movement in Gezi park; Edi (Edoardo) Rabini, Italy, formerly collaborating with Alexander Langer at the European parliament. He promoted the “North-South: biosphere, peoples’ survivor, debt” campaign, and he co-founded the foundation Alexander Langer Stiftung.
The dialogue “Terrorism and xenophobia: dismantling the vicious circle of the “factory of fear” took place on 11th October 2015, exactly 24 hours after the attack in Ankara (Turkey), which provoked more than 120 casualties and injured over 500 people. International press named the attack after “Tukey’s 9/11”, mostly for its possible consequences. The participants developed the dialogue starting from this event; one of them, Emel Kurma, is Turkish: she’s general coordinator for Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, who has been dealing with social movements, citizenship rights, internally displaced people (IDPs) and fundamental rights for more than 20 years in Turkey and Eastern Europe.
While increasing intolerance towards immigrants (especially towards Muslim people) is growing in Europe, freedom of expression and of political participation have dramatically decreased or have been practically repressed by radical extremist groups and by governments in North Africa and the Middle East. The debate among participants articulates on this topic: in particular, Kurma and al-Iskandarany analyse it giving examples about events and happenings in their respective countries. In the experience of Kurma, Turkish organized citizenry achieved some success and became influential towards institutions, but the conditions for dialogue are still unsatisfying, especially in the light of the attack in Ankara.
The words of al-Iskandarany convey a sense of optimism towards the future; still, he bitterly brings back to memory the Egyptian experience, defined as “the failure of Arab Spring” by some experts. Al-Iskandarany underlines that the power of the establishment is still very heavy in his country, especially the military one: it has strongly influenced the political balance over the last 60 years. Al-Iskandarany depicts a situation which does not look good: he talks about a “counter-revolution”, which built on the threat of terrorism in order to reinforce and suppress fundamental liberties. On the contrary, Rabini recalls the Algerian experience, when 20 years ago a war between Islamist forces and the State broke up. According to many, political authoritarianism, which has been ruling the country for over 15 years, has truly allowed Algerian people to experience a better life, even though future looks very uncertain (in considering the crisis within the FLN party and the narrow space left to movements fighting for rights and freedom).
The audience intervened in the debate enriching the topic with other issues, such as the role of the European Union: formerly the “older Mediterranean brother”, it became a spectator who has lost interest in the internal events of its neighbours living in the Southern Mediterranean. Moreover, the European Union and its member countries showed an inadequate competence in managing the issue of migratory flows and of migrants’ integration within the European context, provoking indirectly uncontrolled xenophobic manifestations, which resulted into violence. The lack of integration also fuelled Islamic fundamentalism within Europe, as in the cases of the attacks experienced in London (2005) and Paris (2015). We are facing a lack of identity also among the European peoples, who are united under the European Union flag but are divided by the serious crisis which have been striking the “Old Continent” for more than 5 years.
