RadicalizationBrussels attacks: how radicalization happens and who is at risk
As they recover from the shock of the attacks in Brussels, people are asking why this happens, and who the people carrying out these suicide missions are. That such attacks could be launched from inside a European country once again calls attention to a serious crisis: the radicalization of citizens outside the Middle East by extremist groups. Can we expect ever more people around the world to be radicalized to join ISIS? The outlook is mixed. Despite the successes of its recruitment and radicalization campaign since 2011, recent media reports show that IS is struggling to integrate different groups of foreign fighters into its combat forces in the Middle East and North Africa, raising the prospect that competing loyalties could fracture the group and undermine its ability to project an appealing recruitment message. As far as the fight against IS recruitment goes, this is a ray of hope. But there’s plenty of bad news too.
Professor Frederic Limieux // Source: gwu.edu
Two bombings in Brussels have killed dozens of people and injured over 100, only days after one of the Paris attackers was arrested in the city’s Molenbeek suburb. The Islamic State (ISIS) has reportedly claimed the attack.
As they recover from the shock of the attacks, people are asking why this happens, and who the people carrying out these suicide missions are.
That such attacks could be launched from inside a European country once again calls attention to a serious crisis: the radicalization of citizens outside the Middle East by extremist groups.
A willingness to embrace violence
The actions of the shooters like those in San Bernardino, Paris, and very probably Brussels are difficult for most people to understand. But the work of scholars specializing in extremism can help us begin to unravel how people become radicalized to embrace political violence.
Security experts Alex Wilner and Claire-Jehanne Dubouloz define radicalization as a process during which an individual or group adopts increasingly extreme political, social or religious ideals and aspirations. The process involves rejecting or undermining the status quo or contemporary ideas and expressions of freedom of choice.
Newly radicalized people don’t just agree with the mission and the message of the group they are joining; they embrace the idea of using violence to induce change.
And some members of these groups become radical enough to actually get involved in violent operations personally.
So how often does this radicalization process happen in the United States?
A recent report published by the Program on Extremism at George Washington University provides troubling statistics on Islamic State (ISIS) support in America: “As of the fall of 2015, U.S. authorities speak of some 250 Americans who have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria/Iraq to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.”
The report goes on to say there are some 900 active investigations against ISIS sympathizers in all fifty states. As a result of these active investigations, seventy-one suspects have been charged for terrorism-related activities — and those charged share some interesting characteristics.
