Second-generation Muslims may face Rushdie’s double unbelonging that feeds radicalization

Evidence

Why four young men who called Britain their home and who enjoyed the rights and privileges of British citizenship would carry out such horrific attacks is a question not easily answered. It is possible that they wrestled with an identity crisis. As second-generation British Muslims (for three of the four at least), they perhaps felt alienated both from mainstream British society and from the home country of their parents, victims of what Rushdie refers to as “double unbelonging,” and this may have made them more susceptible to radical Islamist teachings. But this is merely speculation. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 398

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Rushdie’s ‘double unbelonging’ as alienation from both host society and parents’ homeland.
• XREF: Connects to the decade-spanning theme of insecure belonging that the author traces through European Muslim experience.