Journal for Deradicalization
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Wilayat al-Qawkaz - The Islamic State in the North Caucasus. Frames, Strategies and Credibility of Radical Islamist Propaganda Videos
Get PDFThe growing influence of the terror organization “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” (ISIS) on Russian speaking communities has come to fruition in the North Caucasus. ISIS has not only managed to attract individuals from the North Caucasus to join the jihad in Syria and Iraq, but further to establish the regional branch “Wilayat al-Qawkaz”. Now, as a major international event in Russia 2018, the FIFA World Cup poses an attractive target for ISIS that has been threatened through ISIS’s online channels. In order to reach different target groups, ISIS has produced several high-quality propaganda videos. According to Benford and Snow (2000), social movements perceive social phenomena differently and communicate their interpretation of reality by using frames. To sustain or increase the number of followers, ISIS spreads a narrative that identifies problems, proposes solutions and offers incentives to join. Benford and Snow describe this pattern as the three frame dimensions: diagnostic, prognostic and motivational frame. This research paper aims to highlight the strategies of ISIS's propaganda videos in the North Caucasus by identifying the main topics within the three frame dimensions. Based on the analysis of five propaganda videos, it points out the main frames addressing the oppression of Muslims as the problem, jihad as the solution, religious duty and rewards in this world and the next as the incentives. Considering that persuasion of propaganda is only effective with credible frames, it can be observed that this requires references to real events and more important the use of reputable speakers that can be religious or militant leaders, as well as ordinary but authentic jihadists. Taking the visual frame analysis into account, the visualization of violence and community plays a huge role to create credibility, offer identity and to claim relevance as a serious opponent
Reintegrating Terrorists in the Netherlands: Evaluating the Dutch approach
Get PDFThis article presents an in-depth evaluation of a specialized reintegration initiative within the Dutch Probation Service focused on individuals convicted or suspected of involvement in terrorism. Using 72 interviews with program staff as well as several of their clients, the authors assess the initiative’s program theory, its day-to-day implementation and provide a qualified assessment of its overall effectiveness in the 2016 to 2018 period. The results suggest that the initiative is based on a sound understanding of how and why individuals may deradicalize or disengage from terrorism behaviorally, but that it continues to face serious challenges in terms of accurately defining success and systematically gathering objective indicators of its attainment. As terrorism remains a key challenge for societies across the globe, the relevance of these findings extends beyond the Netherlands to all academics, policymakers and practitioners working to design, implement and assess terrorist reintegration programs
Processual Models of Radicalization into Terrorism: A Best Fit Framework Synthesis
Get PDFThe pre-emptive turn in the criminal justice system, and more in particular in the counterterrorism context, has brought legislators to intervene as early as possible and to target remote risks. However, when drafting far-reaching legislation, hardly any attention is given to the underlying phenomena. This article therefore aims to review existing processual models of radicalization that provide insight into the sequence of the trajectory towards terrorism. These models are often isolated and comparative reviews have been scarce and partial in scope. Through a best fit framework synthesis, this contribution systematically identifies existing models and frameworks in the literature and analyses them thematically. As a result, a meta-framework, represented by an eight-phased horizontal funnel, embodies the current state of research on phase models of radicalization. The eight phases cover the entire process from pre-radicalization, to five radicalization phases sensu stricto, to implementation and post-implementation. In these phases, multiple concepts that relate to grievances, cognitions, groups and violence are identified. The meta-framework, or integrated funnel model, evidences the pre-crime hypothesis and shows that far-reaching criminal law provisions intervene at too early stages of the radicalization process
Countering Violent Extremism in Tunisia – Between Dependency and Self-Reliance
Get PDFIn current counter-terrorism efforts, the potential of civil society organizations is recognized by international actors for countering radical narratives and implementing prevention activities in non-Western countries. Civil society-led interventions, it is assumed, constitute a more sustainable as well as locally acceptable approach to reduce the threat of radicalization. In line with this, international actors including EU, UN and EU key-member states have lately incorporated this strategy in Tunisia, which since the fall of the Ben Ali regime in 2011 has experienced an increase in jihadist activities challenging the democratic consolidation of the country. In response to growing donor interest, the bulk of civil society organizations in Tunisia have recently started to develop policies and programs to counter violent extremism and radicalization. However, the lack of comprehensive empirical research on civil society engagement in counter- as well as de-radicalization complicates the assessment of scope and impact of these initiatives on local communities in Tunisia. To encounter this lacuna, this paper focuses on the experiences, subjective perception and practices of activists working on the ground in an arising Tunisian Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) landscape. (Critical) peacebuilding and development literature on civil society is introduced to investigate the interplay of international and local actors in the context of CVE interventions. 25 in-depth narrative interviews with local activists and international experts involved in developing CVE initiatives in Tunisia root this paper in rich empirical data that was analyzed by applying a Grounded Theory methodology. Due to the high dependency of civil society actors on external funding, international actors exert a strong influence on how preventative activities are designed and implemented and which local actors are involved. This paper further shows that this dependency does not just result in agenda adaptation, but rather that local actors, to some extent, can resist to the imposed donor agenda or strategically use the increased donor attention for their own purpose
Resisting Radicalisation: A Critical Analysis of the UK Prevent Duty
Get PDFIn response to the threat of terrorism and radicalisation, the UK government introduced the counterterrorism strategy CONTEST and its four strands ‘Prepare, Prevent, Protect, Pursue’. As one of these four strands, the ‘Prevent’ strategy dates back to 2003 and is tailored to avert radicalisation in its earliest stages. What stands out as particularly controversial is the statutory duty introduced in 2015 that requires ‘specified authorities’ to “have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism” (Home Office, 2015a, s. 26). Based on a critical analysis of the so-called Prevent Duty in educational institutions (excluding higher education), I argue that it not only has the potential to undermine ‘inclusive’ safe spaces in schools but may also hold the danger of further alienating the British Muslim population. Certain terminology such as ‘safeguarding’ students who are ‘vulnerable’ to extremist ideas is misleading and conveniently inflated in order to legitimise the Prevent Duty and facilitate its smooth implementation. Largely based on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, this in-depth analysis is best utilised in combination with empirical research on the impact of Prevent as conducted by Busher et al. (2017). However, the disproportionate targeting of British Muslims intertwined with the dual role of students as both at risk and, simultaneously, a risk, reveals that the Prevent Duty in educational institutions is deeply flawed in its implementation and has significant potential to alienate and radicalise the British Muslim population
Prevent as an Intractable Policy Controversy: Implications and Solutions
Get PDFAcademic literature on the Prevent counter-radicalisation strategy has long been dominated by negative voices. Whilst these authors have made important criticisms of the strategy, this literature has often neglected insights from those who deliver Prevent, which has left a seemingly intractable gap between critics and supporters of the strategy. To address this empirical weakness in the existing literature, this paper analyses interviews with 12 individuals employed to deliver Prevent at the local authority level, and in doing so discusses the potential for bridging this gap between critics and supporters of Prevent through empirical research. Using Donald Schön and Martin Rein’s work on policy framing as its theoretical framework, this paper presents counter-radicalisation as an ‘intractable policy controversy’ in which protagonists hold strongly-held, and opposing, views on the morality of Prevent. However, through an analysis of the interview data, the paper outlines some potential foundations for fostering meaningful engagement between critical and positive voices that need not undermine the strongly-held moral convictions of either side. In doing so, the paper concludes by arguing that a different approach to analysing Prevent rooted in empirical investigation will be needed if we are to move an increasingly stale debate on the strategy forward in a meaningful way
Responding to the Challenges of Violent Extremism/Terrorism Cases for United States Probation and Pretrial Services
Get PDFThis article is intended to share the U.S. District Court of Minnesota Probation and Pretrial Services’ experiences, knowledge, practices, and processes for working with extremist/terrorist defendants and offenders with other criminal justice professionals. Over the past decade, the District of Minnesota has been challenged with meeting the demands of more jihadist-type extremist cases than any district in the United States. The Federal Judiciary’s Probation and Pretrial Services national system does not have specialized risk and needs assessment tools, intervention strategies for disengagement and rehabilitation programming, or specific supervision practices for working with this new generation of extremist/terrorism participants. After conducting extensive research, the District selected international experts to provide training and tools for working with extremists that range from jihadists to white supremacists. The District has implemented a team-based approach for working with extremists to include combining current Probation and Pretrial Services practices with programming developed by Expert Consultant Daniel Koehler, Director of the German Institute on Radicalization and Deradicalization Studies (GIRDS), and a risk assessment tool and manualized intervention strategies developed by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service of the United Kingdom. By necessity, the District of Minnesota has become both a training hub and experimental lab for developing the first of its kind of practices for working with extremist cases in the United States. The District of Minnesota has developed the Minnesota Probation and Pretrial Services Justice Model of Intervention, Disengagement, and Rehabilitation for working with extremists. This model of specialized tools, training, and knowledge has been incorporated into assessing release or detention of defendants pending trial, identifying pretrial release conditions, determining appropriate sentence recommendations, and developing the necessary special conditions for community supervision to ensure both public safety and disengagement from extremism as components of the rehabilitation process.
Shieldmaidens of Whiteness: (Alt) Maternalism and Women Recruiting for the Far/Alt-Right
Get PDFIn this paper, I outline the narrative frameworks that Far/Alt-Right women use to negotiate their place within extremist ideologies. My analysis focuses on videos made by Lana Lokteff, who has been called the most prominent woman in the Alt-Right. Lokteff produces propaganda spanning the European and US contexts through her marriage and media partnership with Henrik Palmgren via their online outlets 3Fourteen Radio and Red Ice TV. Lokteff has produced hundreds of media products, many with hundreds of thousands of views. As such, her claims and arguments represent current strands of discourse used by women to support and participate in Far/Alt-Right ideology and groups as well as to recruit other women. In her talks and shows, Lokteff must simultaneously articulate women’s proper role – their unsuitability as “leaders” – and her call for women to rise in support of Far/Alt-Right defenses of White culture. To navigate between these two dictates, she returns to the figure of the Viking shieldmaiden to interconnect discursive strands that include: 1) women’s power rooted in gendered complementarity; 2) women’s roles as “life givers” of the Euro/White future, what I refer to as “alt-maternalism”; and 3) white men’s ultimate romantic gesture to white women, the building and defense of Western Civilization. I show how this set of women’s narratives connects to non-extremist women’s movements online to suggest sources of recruitment, to highlight populations available for radicalization, and to show how extremist ideologies using gendered stereotypes can be normalized into more mainstream cultures
Beware of Branding Someone a Terrorist: Local Professionals on Person-Specific Interventions to Counter Extremism
Get PDFThis article is about the effect of local tailored interventions to counter (violent) extremism, and therefore contributes to the academic and policy debates. It focusses on local, professional perspectives on person-specific interventions utilising a Dutch case study as the basis. The interventions are part of the wider-ranging counter terrorism policy that entails (local) measures that are deployed in relation to designated high-risk individuals and groups. By reviewing policy documents and conducting semi-structured interviews, the exploratory study concludes that the key factors for a hand-tailored intervention are a solid network, expert knowledge to assess potential signs of extremist ideology, an awareness of not having too many concurrent measures, good inter-institutional cooperation and information-sharing. The professionals involved felt that person-specific interventions have contributed to reducing the threat of religious extremism in the Netherlands. Nonetheless, municipal officials and security agents emphasised the importance of setting realistic goals and a focus on preventive rather than repressive measures. Furthermore, despite the central role that municipal actors play, they run up against problems such as cooperation within the security and care sector. National entities appear to emphasize information-gathering and monitoring more than community-focused cooperation. Thereby questioning whether, on the national level, local professionals are perceived as playing a key role in dealing with extremism
The spirit of patriotism – How constitutional is German citizens’ national attachment? The case of mosque construction
Get PDFPatriotism can have various facets. It can exclude or include the same group of individuals depending on the situation. However, the more important question is whether it is inclusive when it comes to principles of modern democratic societies namely the democratic constitution. In this respect, the construction of publicly visible mosques is a constitutionally protected right in Germany. In this article, I examine the relationship between German citizens` patriotism and the willingness to restrict that right. Empirical findings from a representative sample of German citizens reveal a pattern of patriotism that drives opposition toward Muslims` right to construct mosques. The more interesting finding is that this effect occurs only among those individuals who generally approve of Muslim claims-making. Results are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented