exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

July 1, 2013      by Harris Beider       Open Society Initiative for Europe In May, two young British men of Nigerian origin murdered a British soldier named Drummer Lee Rigby on the streets of Woolwich, in southeast London. The event made national and international news. Photos and videos in which one of the men explains his actions were captured by bystanders and circulated widely on social media. The perpetrators, who were born in the UK and had grown up in stable, devoutly Christian homes before converting to Islam, justified the killing as retribution for Britain’s military engagement in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries. In many ways, the response to this event has been predictable. The British government has started a review of its strategy on violent extremism, which could focus on curbing the activities of “hate preachers,” working with schools to save young people from drifting into extremism, and increasing the powers of surveillance on electronic communications. R

by Tobias Hubinette       Open Society Initiative for Europe Since May 20, the media, both in and out of Sweden, has been dominated by the riots in certain suburbs of Stockholm. Reports have focused on outbursts of violence which include large-scale vandalism and damage to cars and shops in the poorer areas of Greater Stockholm with large concentrations of ethnic minorities. Following the fatal shooting on May 12 of an elderly man by the police in the northwest neighborhood of Husby, Greater Stockholm, violence erupted with the burning of cars, arson, and attacks on police on May 19. It soon spread to many other similar suburbs in the periphery of Greater Stockholm such as Fittja, Tensta, Flemingsberg, Hjulsta, Jakobsberg, Hagsätra, Rågsved, Skärholmen, and Skogås. At the time of writing, after eight nights of uninterrupted suburban unrest, the vandalism and the violence have also spread to other Swedish cities like Göteborg, Örebro, and Linköping. Although the scale of the unrest c