‘West also responsible for Orlando attack’

Thousands attended events in Orlando

Dubai — Western governments should take equal responsibility for the recent terror acts, an Emirati author said on Wednesday. “The marginalisation of Muslim citizens has paved the way for radical movements,” said author Dr. Yousef Al Hassan, referring to the recent Orlando nightclub terror attack that left 49 dead and 53 wounded. 
Speaking on the sidelines of the first session of the ‘In Book’s presence’ initiative, Al Hassan said most Western governments have failed to culturally integrate Muslim citizens into their societies. 
Europe has recently been a target of terror attacks. A November 2015 attack in Paris left 131 dead and hundreds injured, while the March 2016 twin attacks on Brussels airport and a city subway left 32 dead and dozens wounded. 
Al Hassan added that Western governments have turned their backs on violent movements that have been mobilising Muslim youth, pointing out that most of the attackers had criminal backgrounds. “It is clear they (the youth) have minimum understanding of religion and its teachings.”
The West is also an inadvertent incubator of radicalism, the commentator on international and cultural affairs pointed out, saying that the majority of young extremists learned the concept in collective prisons in Europe, where their ignorance of Islam and the absence of a solid Western identity placed them in conflict. “They are caught between two identities: Western and Muslim. Being uneducated about their religious teachings makes them easy targets for extremist ideologies,” he said.
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com