Seeking Terror’s Causes, Europe Looks Within

September 11, 2007

Author: JANE PERLEZ

Source: New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/world/europe/11europe.html

LONDON, Sept. 10 — Since the terror attacks on the United States on Sept. 11 six years ago, Europe has faced far more new attacks and reported plots than the United States.

Train bombings in Madrid three years ago killed 191 people, the London transit attack two years ago killed 52 commuters, and a string of plots have been discovered and foiled. Then last week, arrests were made in Germany in a plot that the police said could have caused even worse carnage than in Madrid or London.

In response, Europeans for the most part are looking inward to explain why Islamist extremists have made the Continent a favored target, while the United States has been spared — despite its position of world leadership and the anger it has stirred waging wars in two Muslim countries.

In that setting, questions about how minority populations of Muslims are integrated into the mainstream are coming to the fore, along with basic questions about Islam itself. Less attention is being focused on finger-pointing at the United States, analysts say.