Studies on radicalization & comments

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to WoTR for this medium-sized article 'The Social Science of Online Radicalisation' by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Nathaniel Barr:http://warontherocks.com/2015/10/the...dicalization/?

[davidbfpo]

A short article via Brookings by J.M. Berger:http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/marka...online-berger?

[davidbfpo]

A contrarian viewpoint; which starts with:

From “shoebomber” Richard Reid, to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the attacks in Paris, there seem to be increasing examples of people becoming “radicalised” in jails. So how concerned should we be about the role of prisons in producing violent extremists? Contrary to those who argue that jails are at risk of becoming “universities of terror” there is actually relatively little systematic evidence of a link between prison and involvement in terrorism.

Link:http://www.radicalisationresearch.or...dicalisation/?

[davidbfpo]

A different focus, the English Defence League (EDL) seen by many as an extremist right wing group and short article:http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpo...civilisations/

The summary:

Joel Busher reflects on what his 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork with the English Defence League tells us about what distinguishes them from the ‘ordinary English people’ that they claim to represent. His research highlights the importance of linking the attitudes and ideology of EDL activists with their lived experience, and questions what role society at large plays in shaping that experience.

[davidbfpo]

A really interesting critique by two academics, thanks to WoTR:http://warontherocks.com/2015/12/cur...ticism-wrong/?

They end with:

The result is that public policy in the West ignores fanatic agency and responds instead in self-consciously depoliticized ways. In effect, this criminological therapeutic model treats the converted zealot not as a danger to the wider society but as a victim pumped full of ideological steroids by unscrupulous online recruiters who, like predatory pedophiles, groom their otherwise innocent prey. The approach becomes even more suspect when extended to the case of the young women who happily trip off to Islamic State-controlled territories to offer themselves as jihadi brides. De-radicalization paints these young women as the deluded subjects of brainwashing. The simple but harsh truth is that like the men they embrace, they too have found meaning in an enthusiasm, which the wider society finds rebarbative, but which inspires action.

Neither “radicals” nor victims, they are largely immune to community sensitive de-radicalization programs promoted by Western governments because there is not much that is particularly radical in jihadist self-understanding. Arguably, it is we in the West who are deluded and we should make a start by “de-radicalizing” our own thinking.

[davidbfpo]

Malaysia has a long established counter-radicalization programme for those who are interned / detained without trial and rarely do I spot any reports. Here is one after a regional conference:http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/m...sts-says-zahid

[davidbfpo]

A curious mixture of thoughts in this short article, mainly as it is based on East African and Australian experience:https://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/...lent-extremism