The View | The roots of rebels
While Western-born jihadists display strong traits of a nativist response to globalisation, time will tell whether their movements are effective
The three jihadists shot dead after the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo were all born in Paris of recent immigrant parents, two from Algeria and one from Senegal. These men, and many others like them, exemplify the syndrome of the "acculturated native who rebels".
This is a person who hails from a politically subordinate culture, lives in a politically dominant culture where he may have been born, finds his ancestral roots incompatible with this society and so takes political action against it.
There are many examples in history. The most famous is Moses, who grew up at Pharaoh's court then realised he belonged with the Israelites, the oppressed slaves, not the hegemonic Egyptians.
Nativists, nationalists and Western-born jihadists all share the common paradigmatic Moses syndrome, which has been observed in the aftermath of great imperial expansions, especially those of the Arabs and the Europeans. The native accepts the religion and culture of the hegemonic foreigners, only to rediscover his native identity and rebel.
When there is no political home to go to, the acculturated native has to create it, or rather recreate it, by turning to the past
Hong Kong's problems are hardly on the same scale, but the resumption of making rural lands available for development, such as in Tsoi Yuen Tsuen and in the northeast New Territories, have triggered a nascent nativist movement.