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This morning, British author and broadcaster Kenan Malik tweeted a link to a speech he gave last month on "the making of European jihadis".

The International New York Times columnist's talk at the University of Michigan expanded on themes he raised in his 2012 Milton K. Wong lecture at UBC's Chan Centre.

Back in 2012, Malik warned Vancouverites about state multiculturalism policies that provide financial resources to religious leaders, empowering them in the community.

"The consequence is what the great Indian-born economist Amartya Sen has called plural monoculturalism—a policy driven by the myth that societies are made up of a series of distinct, homogenous cultures that dance around each other."

In his more recent lecture, Malik pointed out that just 40 percent of five million French citizens of North African origin "think of themselves as observant Muslims". Only one-quarter attend Friday prayers at mosques.

"Yet all are looked upon by French politicians, policy makers, intellectuals and journalists as ‘Muslims’," he said. "Government ministers often talk of France’s ‘five million Muslims’. Islam has in recent years become increasingly regarded as a threat to French republican tradition."

Malik contended that in trying to assert and define a common French identity, French politicians have turned Islam into the "other".

"Instead of engaging directly with Muslim communities, the authorities have effectively subcontracted out their responsibilities to so-called community leaders," he stated.

That, in turn, contributes to "a more parochial sense of identity and a more tribal vision of Islam".

"In the past, most Muslims, in Britain or in France, would have regarded their faith as simply one strand in a complex tapestry of self-identity," Malik stated. "Many, perhaps most, Muslims still do. But there is a growing number that see themselves as Muslims in an almost tribal sense, for whom the richness of the tapestry of self has given way to an all-encompassing monochrome cloak of faith."

In his speech, he challenged the oft-stated notion that radicalization follows four steps:

* acquiring religiously informed extremist ideas;

* the ideas are somehow acquired differently than other extremist or oppositional ideas, including Marxism or anarchism;

* there's a "conveyor belt" that leads from grievance through various steps to terrorism;

* and the people most vulnerable are those who are poorly integrated into society.

"There is, however, little evidence in support of any of these four elements of radicalization, and considerable evidence to suggest that all are untrue," Malik maintained. "Many studies show, for instance, perhaps surprisingly and counterintuitively, that those who are drawn to jihadi groups are not necessarily attracted by fundamentalist religious ideas."

Intelligence agencies have reported on several occasions that many radical acts of terror have been committed by "religious novices" who grew up in middle-class or upper-middle-class families.

Malik argued that radical Islam is embraced in an attempt to find an identity in an increasingly atomized society with "a growing sense of social disintegration".

"The real starting point for the making of a homegrown jihadi is not ‘radicalization’ but social disengagement, a sense of estrangement from, resentment of, Western society," he stated. "It is because they have already rejected mainstream culture, ideas and norms that some Muslims search for an alternative vision of the world. It is not surprising that many wannabe jihadis are either converts to Islam, or Muslims who discovered their faith only relatively late. In both cases, disenchantment with what else is on offer has led them to the black and white moral code that is Islamism. It is not, in other words, a question of being ‘groomed’ or ‘indoctrinated’ but of losing faith in mainstream moral frameworks and searching for an alternative."

Alienation is accentuated by the "weakening of labour organizations, the decline of collectivist ideologies, the expansion of the market into many nooks and crannies of social life", he declared.

"Social solidarity has become defined increasingly not in political terms, but rather in terms of ethnicity, culture or faith," Malik said. "The question people ask themselves is not so much ‘In what kind of society do I want to live?’ as ‘Who are we?'."