Journal for Deradicalization
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Building Partnerships Towards a Democratic Police Force in the Post-Revolutionary Tunisia Context
Get PDFThis research analyzes security sector reform in Tunisia, and focuses on Tunisia’s Community Policing (CP) program in particular. CP is identified as an effective form of policing in the context of Tunisia’s political transition and continuing security concerns. This work pinpoints a number of gaps in the existing pilot CP program and areas for improvement, and proposes additional ways to address separate but interrelated problems by means of new policing methods, based on comparative research into methods used in the United States and Germany. It proposes to expand the existing private-public partnerships, which are at the heart of CP, and it identifies some areas of cooperation between the police and society that can be generalized across nations. Finally, the argument is put forth that police reform is a multi-pronged, multi-sectoral effort, relying on the efforts of many actors other than the polic
Civilian Joint Task Force’ (CJTF) – A Community Security Option: A Comprehensive and Proactive Approach of Reducing Terrorism
No full textSince the Boko Haram uprising in 2009, the Nigerian government has employed various strategies as counter-terrorism measures to stem the atrocities of the group. These strategies include amnesty negotiations, implementation of emergency law in the northeast, increase in security spending to the deployment of military force. In the midst of these security measures, the civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) emerged, first as a community effort, and later as a joint effort with the security forces to help fight Boko Haram. The civilian JTF has helped recover towns and villages from Boko Haram, rescued women in the northeast and helped identify Boko Haram members shielded by some local people. Although doubts have been expressed in some quatres that the civilian JTF could transform into ethnic militias, the Boko Haram security threat neutralized by the group indicates an untapped security potential in Nigerian communities. However, one approach that has yet to be pursued is community security option. Community security option is a model built around proactive citizen-driven communal response. This article explains the role of civilian JTF and how civilian JTF can be used to investigate terrorism in Nigeria. This article will contribute to the discourse on the imperative of African-inspired mechanisms to solving African security problems
Western Islamic Schools as Institutions for Preventing Behavioral Radicalization: The Case of Quebec
Get PDFUnderstanding radicalization in the West is more important than ever. Since the onset of the Syrian civil war, there has been increasing media and academic attention on the radicalization process of individuals and foreign Muslim fighters, leaving the comfort of their homes to join ISIS. Numerous initiatives, governmental as well as community-based, were created to combat and prevent this phenomenon. This inquiry sets out the core components to developing a critically reflective approach to Islamic schooling in the West for the purposes of preventing behavioral radicalization of Muslim youth.Extensive research on Islamic education in North America is lacking; in fact, it is scarcer in Quebec. This paper examines the role of Montreal’s Islamic schools in countering or encouraging radicalization. I seek to address two main questions: (1) Do Islamic schools advance radicalization by providing cognitive radical platforms to students? And (2) how and why do certain parents consider these schools a safe haven from the radicalization of their children? I conclude that modern Islamic schooling, at least in part or in some cases, can be regarded as itself a preventive measure to Islamic behavioral radicalization. Indeed, such schooling can help in creating balanced western Islamic identities that are functional from both western and Islamic worldviews.
The Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria: What could have been the precursors?
Get PDFThe problem of insurgency has for several decades occupied a good part of the attention of IR scholars. This paper explores the various perspectives on the formation and radicalization of Boko Haram in Nigeria. The focus is on the extent to which illiteracy, unemployment, poverty, weak state capability, the almajiri crisis and the mobilization of ethno-religious identity explain simmering insurgency in Nigeria. The group has experienced ferocious onslaught on their activities by the Nigerian Military. The article relies on secondary data. This has enabled the author to draw heavily from literature espousing the diverse perspectives put forth as explanations for the uprising. Fragile state theory serves as a framework for analysis. On this basis, the article demonstrates the low-cost availability of foot soldiers from the almajiri pool, resulting from the state’s inability or unwillingness to provide better education, and employment opportunities, and widespread poverty has exposed youths to indoctrination, criminalization and terrorism. In order to ensure the effectiveness of counter terrorism efforts, the military option should not be solely relied on. Rather, efforts should be geared towards addressing the various underlying social, political and economic triggers of violent insurgency, especially in northern Nigeria where such triggers are pervasive
Of Alienation, Association, and Adventure: Why German Fighters Join ISIL
Get PDFThis article provides an analysis of German foreign fighters who have left for Syria and Iraq since early 2012 and make up the second largest contingent among Western foreign fighters. It draws on statistical information about German foreign fighters, but also uses case studies in an attempt to shed more detailed light on their motivations and why they became radicalized. Drawing on recently released government data, trial documents, and media reports, the article seeks to contribute to new research on the prevailing mechanisms of Jihadi radicalization. To facilitate this kind of comprehensive analysis, McCauley and Moskalenko’s Friction framework is applied to fourteen prominent German fighters, including Denis Cuspert (who served as medium-level ISIL propaganda official), Philip Bergner and Robert Baum (responsible for ISIL suicide attacks in Iraq and Syria), Kreshnik B. and Harun Pashtoon (among the first returning fighters convicted of ISIL membership and other terrorist activities). The article concludes with a discussion of countermeasures used to prevent foreign fighters from leaving Germany, deradicalize those who have started to embrace violent ideas and/or actions, and deal with returning foreign fighters.
The Call for Component Analyses of the Saudi Arabian Risk Reduction Initiative: An Examination of Religious Re-education’s Role in the Deradicalization and Disengagement Process
Get PDFIs it possible to dissolve the violent religious ideology behind the majority of terrorist behavior and keep the ‘person’ intact? This proposal suggests a potential method to assess the impact of religious re-education on reducing future instances of terrorist behavior. The paper addresses current terms, problems and limits surrounding deradicalization. It also appraises empirical evidence behind current deradicalization programs. It attempts to analyze one component of the Saudi Arabian Deradicalization program (religious re-education) through a behavior analytic framework. It builds on previous research to suggest that social reinforcement through moderate Muslim clerics may reduce the frequency of terrorist behavior. This proposal hopes to successfully argue the necessity of putting each component of the Saudi Arabian Deradicalization program under similar scrutiny.
“My Muslim sister, indeed you are a mujahidah” - Narratives in the propaganda of the Islamic State to address and radicalize Western Women. An Exemplary analysis of the online magazine Dabiq
Get PDFThe terrorist group Islamic State succeeds in radicalizing thousands of young people from the West, among them a large number of women. Although the phenomenon of female members in terrorist groups is not entirely new, the massive commitment of females for the Islamic State is surprising. The group makes strong use of the internet, especially social media, to spread its propaganda which contributes to female radicalization and might even lead to their recruitment. By now it is known that the push and especially the pull factors appearing in the radicalization process are different than those in male radicalization. Howeverresearch does barely take the gender-specific dynamics into account when it comes to the development of measures that counter Islamic radicalization. At this point, I argue that a deeper understanding of the gender-specific narratives of the group serves as a key point to develop effective measures. In the propaganda of the Islamic State that directly addresses women from the West, certain narratives can be found. With the analysis of articles that address women taken from the online magazine Dabiq, I identified nine narratives outlined in this paper. The investigation of both images and the strategic use of language in the considered articles indicate how the narratives are constructed. The emphasis on religious and gender-specific narratives in the articles leads me to argue in favor of a stronger focus on female-specific counter-radicalization measures. The involvement of the findings from this paper into radicalization research may help to develop effective counter-narratives and adjust them gender-specifically
Toward a Framework Understanding of Online Programs for Countering Violent Extremism
Get PDFThere is an emerging consensus that ideologically-based narratives play a central role in encouraging and sustaining radicalization to violence, and that preventing, arresting, or reversing radicalization requires some means by which to address the effects of these narratives. Countering violent extremism (CVE) is a broad umbrella phrase that covers a wide array of approaches that have been advanced to reduce the radicalizing effects of extremist narratives. There is considerably less agreement, however, regarding the most appropriate means by which the mitigation of extremist narratives might best be accomplished. An important emerging area of interest is the role of the Internet, both as a forum through which narratives are transmitted and as an avenue for delivering CVE programs. At present, very little is known about which principles and practices should inform online CVE initiatives. This study attempts to establish a foundation and framework for these programs: first, by identifying the concepts and constructs which may be most relevant to countering violent extremism online, and second, by examining the available material from six online CVE programs in relation to these concepts. This examination suggests that these programs are lacking strong theoretical foundations and do not address important elements of radicalization, such as contextual factors or identity issues. It is important that future iterations of CVE programs consider not just the specific content of the narratives, but also take into account why these narratives have resonance for particular individuals. Author’s Note: The authors wish to thank Public Safety Canada for their generous support of the research on which this article is based. The article has been adapted from material found in, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, “Assessment of the State of Knowledge: Connections between Research on the Social Psychology of the Internet and Violent Extremism.” The views expressed in the current article only engage the authors
Letting Go: De-radicalization in Egypt
Get PDFThe literature on the causes of how terrorist organizations are formed and how counter terrorism measures can be more effective is immense. What is novel in terrorism literature is de-radicalization in terrorist organizations. This paper hopes to shed light on the de-radicalization process in terrorist organizations based in Egypt. In order to achieve that goal, the first part of the paper will deal with the de-radicalization process. The second part will briefly describe the major radical terrorist organizations that are effective in Egypt. The last part will combine the two parts and bring in suggestions on the de-radicalization process itself. Terrorism and de-radicalization are complicated threats to nearly all societies. Therefore, it is important to go beyond security and intelligence approaches and take proactive measures. It is best to view what is de-radicalization and how it can be achieved
How the War Was ‘One’: Countering violent extremism and the social dimensions of counter-terrorism in Canada.
Get PDFThe current global “war on terror” highlights a fundamental quandary for all liberal democracies seeking to counter the violent extremism of their own citizens while maintaining civic rights and freedoms. This challenge accompanies a transformation in international conflict from inter-state war and superpower rivalry, to homegrown terrorism, radicalization-to-violence, Internet propaganda, and targeting and recruitment of vulnerable persons. These new threats shift the battlefield, as traditionally defined, to the home front, as extremist violence is nurtured by and perpetrated within public spaces, such as schools, places of religious worship, civil society and the home. Today, violence emanates from within liberal democratic society and its extremist motivations bypass the very institutions that would otherwise support civic rights, freedoms and multiculturalism. As such, attempts to counter extremist violence must appeal to the political, social, cultural, religious and familial aspects of human behavior alongside a parallel shift in efforts to keep citizens safe within their own social spaces. In recent years, Canada has been introduced to home grown and lone individual terrorism with the cases of attack against armed forces personnel in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa in 2014. This article identifies the social dimensions of counter-terrorism in the Canadian context, a propitious case by which to evaluate different approaches to countering violent extremism. Canadian initiatives - simultaneously proliferating and in their infancy – raise a host of questions about counter-terrorism in liberal democratic countries. For example, why do individuals radicalize-to-violence in rights-based and multicultural societies? How and when can the liberal democratic state best temper the radicalization process in ways that are effective and procedurally just? What state-society balance works best to counter radicalized viewpoints? Who are the appropriate stakeholders in mounting and monitoring counter radicalization programs? What risks accompany government engagement with communities against terrorist activity? And what are the appropriate measures of success? These questions lay the groundwork for an empirical analysis of prevalent programs in Canada against the background of the “war on terror”, multiculturalism, racial profiling, community policing and other contemporary Canadian values