Last week, Associated Press reported Adnan Shukrijumah has taken over the position in al-Qaida once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, and is currently in Guantanamo Bay. According to the FBI, Shukrijumah, lived in the United States for fifteen years, “marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.”

Before turning to radical strains of Islam, Shukrijumah lived in Miramar with his mother and five siblings, excelling at computer science and chemistry courses while studying at community college. He had come to South Florida in 1995 when his father, a Muslim cleric and missionary trained in Saudi Arabia, decided to take a post at a Florida mosque after several years at a mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y.

At some point in the late 1990s, according to the FBI, Shukrijumah became convinced that he must participate in “jihad,” or holy war, to fight perceived persecution against Muslims in places like Chechnya and Bosnia.
That led to training camps in Afghanistan, where he underwent basic and advanced training in the use of automatic weapons, explosives, battle tactics, surveillance and camouflage.

With the uptick of homegrown terrorist attacks, evidenced in the Fort Hood shootings that killed 12 people last November, allegedly at the hands of Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, for example, and the failed Times Square bombing by Pakistani-American, Faisal Shahzad, who plead guilty and warned of more attacks on the U.S., I thought it was appropriate to share this 2007 report entitled, “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” written by Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt to perhaps offer insight into the radicalization process. They are Senior Intelligence Analysts at the NYPD Intelligence Division.

As Police Commissioner of the City of New York wrote, “The aim of this report is to assist policymakers and law enforcement officials, both in Washington and throughout the country, by providing a thorough understanding of the kind of threat we face domestically. It also seeks to contribute the debate among intelligence and law enforcement agencies on how best to counter this emerging threat by better understanding what constitutes the radicalization process.

Following, a preview:

RADICALIZATION: WESTERN STYLE
Terrorism is the ultimate consequence of the radicalization process. In the example of
the homegrown threat, local residents or citizens gradually adopt an extremist religious/political ideology hostile to the West, which legitimizes terrorism as a tool to affect societal change. This ideology is fed and nurtured with a variety of extremist influences. Internalizing this extreme belief system as one’s own is radicalization.

The progression of searching, finding, adopting, nurturing, and developing this extreme belief system to the point where it acts as a catalyst for a terrorist act defines the process of radicalization. Only through an in-depth understanding and appreciation of the societal and behavioral indicators that define the various stages of this process can intelligence and law enforcement agencies array themselves properly against this threat.
Although the process of radicalization is not unique to the West, the scope of this study will be limited to the Western paradigm—focused on highlighting the indicators and signatures that define how populations, many who are more vulnerable to the militant

Islamic message become radicalized while living under the influence of Western culture and values.

Radicalization in the West often starts with individuals who are frustrated with their lives or with the politics of their home governments. These individuals ultimately seek other like-minded individuals and form a loose-knit group or social network. Together, they progress through a series of events, realizations, and experiences that often culminate in the decision to commit a terrorist act. That said, not all individuals or groups who begin this progression end up as terrorists. Different pathways, catalysts and exposure to extremist nodes affect their progress. Individuals may drop out or stop moving along this pathway for a variety of reasons.

Some key factors in determining how this process advances are determined by social and behavioral dynamics of small groups as well as the amount of time that the group or group member is exposed to the various nodes or incubators of extremism. These incubators are often embedded in legitimate institutions, businesses, clubs, and of course, in the virtual world of the Internet (see Text Box p.20).
Radicalization in the West is, first and foremost, driven by:

 Jihadi-Salafi Ideology. What motivates young men and women, born or living in the West, to carry out “autonomous jihad” via acts of terrorism against their host countries? The answer is ideology. Ideology is the bedrock and catalyst for radicalization. It defines the conflict, guides movements, identifies the issues, drives recruitment, and is the basis for action. In many cases, ideology also determines target selection and informs what will be done and how it will be carried out. The religious/political ideology responsible for driving this radicalization process is called jihadist or jihadi-Salafi ideology and it has served as the inspiration for all or nearly all of the homegrown groups including the Madrid 2004 bombers, the Hofstad Group, London’s 7/7 bombers, the Australians arrested as part of Operation Pendennis in 2005 and the Toronto 18, arrested in June 2006.

 The Religious Dimension. Jihadi-Salafi ideology is but one stream of the broader Salafi movement. The general goal of this Sunni revivalist interpretation of Islam, is to create a “pure” society that applies a literal reading of the Quran and adheres to the social practices that prevailed at the time of 7th century Arabia.
Implementation of sharia law and replacement of the system of nation states with a worldwide Caliphate are the ultimate political aims. While other Salafi currents encourage non-violent missionary or political activities to achieve these religious/political goals, jihadi-Salafis utilize endorsements of respected scholars of Islam to show that their aims and violent means are religiously justified.
 Contemporary Saudi (Wahhabi) scholars have provided the religious legitimacy for many of the arguments promoted by the jihadists.1 _ Extreme intolerance and hostility towards unbelievers, including Jews, Christians, Hindus and Shiites, is a core doctrine provided by Wahhabi religious thought. It provides the primary theological foundation for jihadi-Salafi causes and reduces the barriers to violence.

 The Political Dimension. The political aspect of jihadi-Salafi ideology is heavily underpinned by the work of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian author, Islamist, and the leading intellectual of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He believed that Islam was under attack from the West and divided the world into the Muslim and the non-Muslim. To Qutb, democracy challenged the sovereignty of God’s divine law and should be resisted. Moreover, he also contended that militant jihad had to be used to attack institutions and societies in order to overthrow non- Islamic governments and to bring about a “pure” Islamic society. o The Appeal. For many Muslims in the West, especially those of the second and third generation who are seeking to learn about their Muslim heritage, the Salafi interpretation is the version of Islam they are most widely xposed to. It has become more mainstream and is proliferated within diaspora communities. This interpretation of Islam is not the cultural Islam of their parents or their home countries. The personal search for one’s own Muslim identity often dovetails with the desire to find an appropriate Islamic response to the political crises involving Muslims worldwide. Complex disputes like the Arab-Israeli conflict and Kashmir are diluted into one large conflict between “believers” and “non-believers”. This powerful and simple “one-size fits all” philosophy resonates with the younger diaspora Muslim populations in the West who are often politically naïve. This powerful narrative provides evidence of an across-the-board plan to undermine and humiliate Islam worldwide.

As Muslims in the West seek to determine their appropriate response to this perceived “war on Islam” many look for guidance for action from their religion. The jihadi-Salafi interpretation paves a path to terrorism by its doctrines, which suggest that violence is a viable and legitimate means to defend Islam from perceived enemies, even if means attacking one’s own government and/or sacrificing your own life.

THE RADICALIZATION PROCESS
The radicalization process is composed of four distinct phases:
 Stage 1: Pre-Radicalization
 Stage 2: Self-Identification
 Stage 3: Indoctrination
 Stage 4: Jihadization

To read the entire report, click here.

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