We need a new deal for Europe's Muslims

France’s own war on terror, which has generally taken a different tack to that of the rest of the West, leaves much to be desired. The argument that its foreign policies are to blame for the Paris attacks are, however, conspicuously weak. France did not take part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and has been one of Assad’s most ardent Western opponents over Syria. If anything, it was French interventions across Africa that might have caused blowback, but Daesh is not really present in those countries, and the recent Mali attacks have been claimed by Al-Qaeda.

Blame, then, must lie with the attackers themselves, who do not appear to have been devout Muslims and saw fit to vent their anger by killing innocent Europeans who had done nothing wrong to them. Blame should sit further with the recruiters of these brainless beasts. Given the drug taking, late night partying, family estrangements and alcoholism that appeared to be prevalent amongst the bombers, it appears to be the chosen strategy of Daesh to prey on the vulnerable in society, to convince drifters to blow themselves up so that the recruiters don’t have to do it themselves.

So if the foreign policy arguments don’t quite add up, why else might France have been in the firing line?

A useful starting point is the list of European countries which have sent the most fighters to join Daesh. These include countries like Belgium, Sweden and Holland. They may be European powers, but they are not global powers like France and Britain. Attacks in Brussels, Stockholm or Amsterdam would not be so newsworthy, strange though that is. Stripping it down to France and Britain, then, or the famous metropolises of Paris and London, how would Daesh choose between the two potential targets?

In short, Paris was easier to hit. This is partly because of the English Channel, the refugee routes over mainland Europe and the relative shortage of automatic rifles available to buy on British streets; it is also because Britain’s security services are, in general, in far better shape than the French. France also has a much larger Muslim population, many of whom are extremely poor.

It was France, therefore, as an international power with a large, disaffected Muslim population, weak security services, accessed easily by land and with the possibility of buying Kalashnikovs, which was an obvious target. Judged perfectly in political terms, the largely successful terrorist attacks of Friday 13th onwards have been condemned by Western leaders, bolstered Daesh’s flagging credibility, and resulted in yet another kneejerk military intervention in the Middle East. ISIS 1 – Humanity 0.

If Western bombing of Raqqa won’t work – and it won’t – what other options are there? The first is to ask some tough questions of recent French governments. The last time Parisians saw such a heavy police presence on their streets was in 2005, when the suburbs burned amidst serious rioting. Impoverished, unemployed Muslims played a key role in that unrest. In the decade since, why have conditions in the Muslim-dominated banlieues of Paris not been improved? Why, so many years down the line, is it easy to find unemployed young French Muslims (not foreign Muslims, French Muslims) who can’t find jobs? Why are their Arab names taken into consideration by prejudiced employers, and not just their CVs? Why are 70 per cent of the prisoners in French jails Muslims? And why was it ever on the agenda to ban the burqa?

Forget foreign policy as a cause of deadly resentment; if anything, this is about the failures of French domestic policies. Recruiters from Daesh/ISIS could have picked from hundreds if not thousands of disaffected French Muslims, willing to end their own lives based on the recruiter’s false promises, bolstered by the vacuum left by government indifference to its Muslim citizens’ fate.

As a matter of national security for any European nation like France, it should now be a top priority to reduce dramatically the available pool of potential suicide bombers and restaurant killers, of lone wolves and disaffected young Muslims; the same people who Daesh/ISIS prey on, not in the Middle East, but here, in Europe, among us.

That means improving conditions for France’s Muslims; indeed, all of Europe’s Muslims. Not all Muslims are poor, but too many are. Not all Muslims are discriminated against, but too many are. Not all Europeans discriminate against Muslims, but too many do.

Only when such improvements are tangible will the Daesh recruiters, scraping around in Europe’s underbelly picking up and brainwashing young Muslims, be disappointed as they try to find anyone willing to die for their ridiculous cause.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.