Studies on radicalization & comments

[SWJ Blog]

Prisons and Radicalization

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[SWJ Blog]

Confronting the Narcoterrorism Nexus

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[davidbfpo]

An interesting development in Minnesota, where experience of radicalisation, going abroad to fight and terrorism - from the settled Somali community - as a local court opts for a new non-custodial option:http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...not-jail.html?

The article starts with:

The first attempt to de-radicalize an Islamic extremist is happening in Minnesota right now, and it resembles a high-school civics class.An American citizen who pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS was ordered by a federal judge to leave jail—and go to a halfway home instead. That rehab program is run by a group that had no prior experience with would-be Islamic terrorists, The Daily Beast has learned.
Abdullahi of Minnesota was allowed to depart from jail and stay at a halfway home after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the so-called Islamic State widely known as ISIS in January. (Yusuf was stopped at the airport trying to fly to Turkey in May 2014, at age 18.) Once inside the halfway home, Yusuf was to be “de-radicalized” through regular meetings with a counselor whose curriculum looked more like a high-school civics course than religious deprogramming.

[davidbfpo]

A contrast to the first post, a long, local newspaper article on the Somali-Americans who have fled the USA to fight or who await court:http://www.startribune.com/from-the-...ror/324121191/

[SWJ Blog]

The Country Club Jihad: A Study of North American Radicalization

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[davidbfpo]

A short, excellent BBC World Service podcast (23mins), using four experts to answer the question: What Kind of Person Becomes a Violent Jihadi? I caught Marc Sageman and Andrew Silke's names. The summary:

For decades researchers, academics and psychologists have wanted to know what kind of person becomes a terrorist. If there are pre-existing traits which make someone more likely to kill for their beliefs – well, that would be worth knowing. In this edition of The Inquiry – part of the BBC World Service Identity Season – we tell the story of that search for a ‘terrorist type’. It’s a story which begins decades ago. But, with the threat from killers acting for so-called Islamic State, finding an answer has never felt more pressing.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qr716

One expert towards the end says words akin to:

Friends radicalise friends, nowt else. In Belgium two men started the recruiting off.

The presenter says words akin to:

After the next attack questions will be asked. What kind of person would do this? Anyone.

Marc Sageman has a very short comment:

Intelligence analysts know everything, but understand nothing....his ex-colleagues don't have the skills to find out why some people turn to political violence.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03r5572

By coincidence and being a post-arrest report maybe inaccurate, The daily Mail reports an arrest of an ISIS suspect in Majorca, Spain under the headline:

Revealed: 'ISIS recruiter' arrested in Majorca is Moroccan immigrant 'cocaine dealer' who worked as a chef at a tourist resort hotel

Link:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3549309/ISIS-recruiter-arrested-Majorca-Moroccan-immigrant-cocaine-dealer-worked-chef-tourist-resort-hotel.html?

[Bill Moore]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...bangladeshi-e/

"They are all Bangladeshis. They are from rich families, they have good educational background," said Asaduzzaman Khan, the country's home minister, of the gunmen.

Another source I can't place here because it was based on a phone call, stated the captured terrorist indicated it was becoming a fad for college kids to associate with the Islamic State.

Regardless, these kids weren't motivated by poverty or not having jobs. They were well do to kids. In some ways this reminds me of many who join far left militant groups or protests, and then when they're interviewed they prove they have no knowledge (except for a limited number) of what they're fighting for, or what they're protesting against, it is just something cool to do. We tend to ignore the psychological aspects when we focus on the political factors, which at times can be a red herring.

[Firn]

Regardless, these kids weren't motivated by poverty or not having jobs. They were well do to kids. In some ways it reminds me many who join for left militant groups or protests, and then when they're interviewed they prove they have no knowledge (except for a limited number) of what they're fighting for, what they're protesting against, it is just something cool to do. We tend to ignore the psychological aspects when we focus on the political factors, which at times can be a red herring.

Aren't the higher strata of Arab society also overreppresented in the rank of the Daesh? Maybe somebody has some study at hand...

Obviously that vile murder of foreigners, among them many Italians will have a negative effect on the economy.


*On a side note a distant relative of mine was a Catholic priest in Bangladesh during British Rule. Another, more distant one was murdered in China over a hundred years ago while serving as Franciscan friar. Nothing new under the sun...

[davidbfpo]

There is a short thread Poverty & Militancy do not mix, from 2012-2015:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=16304

This may help readers.

[davidbfpo]

The UK has had considerable experience with convicted terrorists, mainly during 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, so it is hard to understand that the system has been criticised by an official report as inadequate. This report, the public version, may be of interest:

This summary provides an overview of the review led by Ian Acheson into Islamist extremism in prisons, probation and youth justice, namely its context, key findings and principal recommendations.

Link:https://www.gov.uk/government/public...-youth-justice

A different point of view by the Gatestone Institute (US-based, conservative), neat title 'Prisons: Harvard for Radicals':https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8...-radical-islam

[davidbfpo]

An Australian commentary on the UK's Prevent strategy and what lessons can be learnt:http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/dis...ent-extremism/

A BBC report on Sweden, which has problems at home, let alone jihadists going abroad:

Sweden is a peaceful democratic state that has long been a safe haven for those fleeing conflict. Yet many young people whose families took refuge there are now turning their back on the country. More than 300 people have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq, making Sweden per capita one of the biggest exporters of jihadists in Europe.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37578919?

Jason Burke provides links to a World Bank report on who is radicalised in the MENA and aFinnish report on Boko Haram, in Nigeria:https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ion-boko-haram

The UK's Prevent strategy once again is in the foreground, with a variety of opinions on whether it is flawed, "toxic" and working.

From a Muslim woman activist, who practices Prevent:

Despite the government engaging with hundreds of mosques, community organisations and faith organisations in the last year, many Muslim organisations do not want to publicise the fact that they support Prevent. Sara Khan argues that this is because of a loud anti-Prevent lobby that is dominating the discourse on Prevent and vilifying those Muslim organisations that do engage with it. Khan argues that a far more complex and nuanced picture exists amongst British Muslims than is commonly presented.

Link:http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionpubli...ppose-prevent/

Then there is a prominent criminal lawyer, David Anderson, who is the independent reviewer of CT legislation, who is now calling for change:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/...mmunities.html

[davidbfpo]

An ICSR report released today; the full title being 'Criminal Pasts, Terrorist Futures: European Jihadists and the New Crime-Terror Nexus'. From their summary:

In many European countries, the majority of jihadist foreign fighters are former criminals.
The purpose of this new report is to describe the nature and dynamics of the crime-terror nexus, and understand what it means. To do so, a multi-lingual team of ICSR researchers compiled a database containing the profiles of 79 recent European jihadists with criminal pasts.
What we have found is not the merging of criminals and terrorists as organisations but of their social networks, environments, or milieus. Criminal and terrorist groups have come to recruit from the same pool of people, creating (often unintended) synergies and overlaps that have consequences for how individuals radicalise and operate. This is what we call the new crime-terror nexus.

Link to press release:https://gem.godaddy.com/p/e167d8?fe=1&pact=57646-134827918-8754577104-181c025174f51fc63dd05d9
57a46010a02cbe5ee

One press report:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7352271.html

[davidbfpo]

Just found that one of the authors of the above ICSR report, Peter Neumann, spoke recently @ IISS, London and there is a podcast (just over 1hr):http://www.iiss.org/en/events/events...-jihadist-c84e

[davidbfpo]

A superb IMHO article on radicalisation in London, that appeared on Professor Landis blog on Syria, last week:http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/the...y-tam-hussein/

The author's opening summary:

This is the back story of Abu Musa al-Britani, a young British suicide bomber who blew himself up in Iraq. He grew up in Ladbroke Grove, the area that I worked and grew up in as a youth worker. We also went to the same school. My essay seeks to answer the question as to why such a popular young man went to Iraq when he had planned a trip to Spain two weeks earlier. What compelled him to go, it also seeks to explain why the like of him and Jihadi John came from the same area. What are the factors that lead to their choices?

It is clear that neither foreign policy nor ideology are solely responsible for motivating European youth to go on Jihad. My essay argues that the reason many of these men went to Syria and join specifically ISIS is due to the subtle interplay between religion, foreign policy and gang culture and modernism.

Curiously his neighbourhood was:

a stones throw away from David Cameron’s Notting Hill

Needless to say this thread will be merged one day into the main thread on radicalisation:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=7188

[davidbfpo]

A mother's story about her son who suddenly left for ISIS and died later. In a joint BBC-PBS report she tells:

..the truth about her son’s secret life and death.

Links:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/...4-96cec7824254 and http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/son-j...form=hootsuite

There are subtle differences in the two reports.

[davidbfpo]

Four short video clips where ex-radicals give their stories: three British and one German; three Muslims and one fascist.

One of them, Shahid Butt, I know slightly, as a former Jihadist radical, with a very mixed history; with history in Bosnia and Yemen. His voyage away took years. His video is available on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph3wfvVk01c or the main website of ConnectFutures (linked below).

There are several online references to his story; this one is fair and in one place points out his account about the Yemen is contested:https://themodernthesis.wordpress.co...-to-extremism/

ConnectFutures is a small, Birmingham based company, led by two women and their website states:

Our Formers project aims to tell the stories of four former extremists in their own words. These include a mixture of both former ‘Islamist’ as well as former ‘far-right’ violent extremists.

Link:http://connectfutures.org/formers/

[SWJ Blog]

U.S. Increasingly Concerned About Nexus of Terror, Criminal Networks

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[davidbfpo]

I have just merged in four stand alone threads, three with a UK theme, this thread now has had 185,969 views and has 250 posts.

[davidbfpo]

Two articles found today.

'Jihadi Culture' by Thomas Hegghammer in a short Q&A:

discusses one of the most underexplored terrains of research on political violence, the culture of jihadi groups

Yes there is a new book: Jihadi Culture: The Art and Social Practices of Militant Islamistswas recently published.
Link to article:https://sustainablesecurity.org/2017...as-hegghammer/

From a staff member @ Open Society Foundation, a slightly different viewpoint on 'The Truth About Terror and Youth Radicalization'

One sentence stood out:

A family member of one of the Barcelona attackers said of the terrorists, “All of them were well integrated here. All of them spoke Catalan, went to school and [had] jobs. But here in Ripoll, we are and will always be los moros” (a racial slur for people of Arab descent).

Link:https://www.opensocietyfoundations.o...radicalization

[davidbfpo]

Peter Neumann of ICSR @ Kings College is a SME on this topic and a few weeks ago OSCE published a report he prepared for them. He explains in the summary what it contains:

This report provides a summary of my findings. It seeks to (1) define key concepts and major dynamics; (2) evaluate the OSCE’s current and future role; and (3) identify areas of good practice, with particular emphasis on preventing and countering processes of violent radicalisation.

Link to summary:http://icsr.info/2017/09/icsr-insigh...s-osce-report/

Not read though. The full title is Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalisation that Lead to Terrorism: Ideas, Recommendations, and Good Practices from the OSCE Region.