EUROPE TAPS GULF STATES ON BEST WAY TO PREVENT RADICALISM
▶ Increased information-sharing is key to tackling global terrorism
European authorities are turning to the Arabian Gulf for help to tackle radicalisation as terrorists continue to strike in the continent’s major cities.
With recent incidents in Barcelona and London causing the deaths of innocent civilians, heads of state are finding it extremely difficult to prevent terrorists from wreaking havoc.
“There are many drivers of radicalisation, one of them being the ideological factor,” said Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s counter-terrorism co-ordinator for the past decade.
“Tackling this means challenging the hijacking of Islam for terrorist purposes. Who better than our Muslim partners to succeed in this?”
While taking part in the online forum Debating Security Plus, moderated by the Abu Dhabi counter-extremism think tank Hedayah and others, Mr de Kerchgove said Gulf countries could play a significant role.
“We have started a dialogue with Saudi Arabia on this and are looking forward to developing this,” he said. “I would be delighted to further this discussion with the UAE too.”
Since the start of 2015, there have been about 20 major terrorist incidents in Europe, resulting in hundreds of people being killed or injured.
Last year, Europol, the Europe-wide police organisation, signed its first agreement in the region with the UAE to share information on countering serious crime and terrorism.
“We were very pleased to sign the agreement with the UAE,” said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol.
“There are important security challenges that connect Europe and the Gulf region in regard to terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering.
“The agreement is in the early stages of implementation, but it has already allowed increased contact between our respective experts and I hope we can develop it further.”
Mr Wainwright said that Europe was in the grip of the most serious terrorist threat for a generation, with national security authorities, their political leaders and the public trying to figure out what more can be done.
“The challenge has become about defining a different kind of intelligence-sharing architecture that binds in many other databases across many different countries to deal with this reality gap of a terrorist threat that has become international in nature, while our response is led overwhelmingly at the national level,” Mr Wainwright said.
And despite the fall of ISIL in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist threat remains serious.
“As we have seen in recent months, we have more and more home-grown attacks,” Mr de Kerchove said. “These are not people who travel to Syria and Iraq nor people necessarily connected to the organisation, but people living in Europe.”
The European Commission made an assessment of the continent’s terrorism policy and its parliament is soon expected to set up an inquiry to look at what needs to be improved.
Another challenge is how to strike the balance between security and privacy.
“It took seven years for the EU parliament to agree on legislation on passenger name records,” Mr de Kerchove said.
“We are now discussing access to the database and interoperability between different database and we have to find solutions to landmark decisions by the court of justice on access to metadata and telecom data.”
Dolgor Solongo, who works in counter-terrorism for the UN Office for Drugs and Crime, said terrorism presented complex challenges with a threat that was becoming increasingly decentralised.
“New and evolving methods by terrorists demand a holistic approach where the actions counter criminal networks and prevent violent extremism and radicalisation leading to terrorism,” Ms Solongo said.
“The adoption of a multi-sectoral approach to terrorism prevention with the capacity of the entire society raised and close co-operation and co-ordination with other countries is perhaps a simple way to answer the question of what can be done.”
Tackling this means challenging the hijacking of Islam for terrorist purposes. Who better than our Muslim partners to succeed in this? GILLES DE KERCHOVE EU’s counter-terrorism co-ordinator