Homegrown Terrorism: Freedom Under Fire I 
By Robert Maynard

There has been a lot of encouraging news coming out of Iraq lately in regards to our progress in dismantling al Qaeda’s most effective branch. With the so much attention focused on foreign threats in the WOT there is a more insidious long term threat that is going largely unnoticed. That is the threat of Homegrown Terrorism. It is imperative that Americans gain a better understanding of this aspect of the war on Terrorism. A good place to start is a recent study done by intelligence analysts from the New York City Police Department entitled: "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat" 

The report points out that 9/11 was an anomaly in regards to the broader War on Terror. How is this so? Essentially, 9/11 represented an attack by a foreign source. While this is the threat that has been getting most of the attention, it is the homegrown threat that has accounted for the bulk of actual attacks and attempted attacks, both here in America and around the world. If we are to preserve our freedom, we had better become more acquainted with the nature of the threat.

The first thing we have to understand is the notion of "autonomous jihad". It is true that we have done a good job of dismantling al Qaeda’s command and communication structure, but that is not going to stop this form of jihad, which does not rely on a central command structure but a loose, unaffiliated collection of groups and individuals welded together by a common ideology. The explosion of internet use has provided the means for these unaffiliated groups and individuals to communicate and spread their ideology. In essence, the real battle is against an ideology rather than a group. That ideology is spreading far faster than we are able to keep track of. By the time we identify a potential terrorist, a process of "radicalization" has already taken place that has transformed the individual in question into a jihadist. The aim of the study is to understand the process of radicalization.

The Report identifies the following stages in the process of radicalization:

Stage 1: Pre-Radicalization

Stage 2: Self-Identification

Stage 3: Indoctrination

Stage 4: Jihadization

"Pre-Radicalization is the point of origin for individuals before they begin this progression. It is their life situation before they were exposed to and adopted jihadi-Salafi Islam as their own ideology. The majority of the individuals involved in these plots began as "unremarkable" they had "ordinary" jobs, had lived "ordinary" lives and had little, if any criminal history."

The report offers no insight into the factors that lead one to advance from the "Pre-Radicalization" stage to the "Self Identification" stage. I will explore some possibilities in a future follow up article.

"Self-Identification is the phase where individuals, influenced by both internal and external factors, begin to explore Salafi Islam, gradually gravitate away from their old identity and begin to associate themselves with like-minded individuals and adopt this ideology as their own. The catalyst for this "religious seeking" is a cognitive opening, or crisis, which shakes one’s certitude in previously held beliefs and opens an individual to be receptive to new worldviews."

Indoctrination is the phase in which an individual progressively intensifies his beliefs, wholly adopts jihadi-Salafi ideology and concludes, without question, that the conditions and circumstances exist where action is required to support and further the cause. That action is militant jihad. This phase is typically facilitated and driven by a "spiritual sanctioner".

"Jihadization is the phase in which members of the cluster accept their individual duty to participate in jihad and self-designate themselves as holy warriors or mujahedeen. Ultimately, the group will begin operational planning for the jihad or a terrorist attack. These "acts in furtherance" will include planning, preparation and execution"

The key to winning this battle is to familiarize ourselves with the radicalization process and counter it BEFORE a potential recruit reaches the point where he becomes a jihadist.

So far, the problem is much more pronounced in Europe than in the United States. The authors of the report believe that the reason for this is that Muslims in Europe are more alienated from European society because they are not a well assimilated as Muslims in America are. I think that there is some truth to this notion, but believe that the there are other reasons as well, which I will touch on in a future follow up article.

To sum things up, the essence of the battle we face is one of "autonomous jihad", where the central factor is a motivating ideology spread through communications technology to a loose collection of groups and individuals around the world. New recruits are being won over at a rapid rate by a radicalization process which is a form of ideological brainwashing that ends up in the recruit becoming a jihadist seeking to attack his own country.

In the next article, I will take a closer look at the ideology motivating the jihadists and its origins.
 

Robert Maynard is the Editor of the True North website