Example Of Youth Radicalization Essay

The emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has raised multiple new issues in the fight against religious extremism and terrorism. Perhaps one of the most important issues remains the terror group’s sickening brutality and its uncanny appeal to some Muslim youths across the world, who are flocking to the Middle East to join ISIS. According to McCoy (2014), up to 3000 youths from Europe and North America (including 700, 800, 400 and 70 youths from France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US respectively) had travelled to Syria and joined ISIS by the close of June 2014, with even more expected join them. Further, radicalization of youth within terrorism destination means that barricading borders through tight immigration policies will soon be ineffective as a preventive strategy against terrorism. This paper asserts that the only sustainable strategy against terrorism is the ability of governments and societies in the world, is by exposing its bankrupt ideology and cutting off its supply of radicalized youths that are willing to do their bidding.
According to Yan (2014) and McCoy (2014), radical Islamic groups such as ISIS and Al Qaida have been immensely successful in radicalizing youth across the world because of four key reasons. The group appeals to the youth’s sense of identity as Muslims and their sense of religious duty as a part of the global community of Muslims suffering continued persecution by Western-backed western governments in the Middle East. The jihadist motivation for radicalized individuals is the need to help the global Muslim community from persecution. Further, ISIS runs an efficient propaganda machine heavily reliant on the ubiquitous and instantaneous social media to spread their ideologies. Perhaps even most importantly, is the fact that most of the youths that buy into such ideologies have suffered actual or perceived injustices in their own countries, which drive them to identify with sense of injustices that religious extremist use as a foundation of their extremist causes. This fact is emphasized by the source nations of the youth that have joined ISIS and their respective civil and religious rights records. The main reasons for youths from France, Russia, and the UK joining ISIS has been described as disaffection, aimlessness and identity vacuum, coupled with a sense of injustice. Lastly, extremist groups tend to exert cult-like control over its followers, which ensures that the perverted religious basis of their ideology remains an important driver of their actions.
The driving forces behind religious radicalization both in western countries as indeed elsewhere in the world remains the same and remarkably familiar. In fact, the underlying factors are not unlike what many countries are struggling with in trying to combat gang cultures, drug use, deviancy and other social problems. According to Bigo, Bonelli, Guittet, & Ragazzi (2014), the conventional radicalization wisdom is founded on the combination of the relative deprivation or frustration theory and the contamination/exposure theory. The frustration theory asserts that when material conditions change, and attitudes fall short of the individual’s personal attitude, then they are likely to respond to the changed material conditions violently. This not only explains the rebellion that drives youths into radicalism, but also shows that rebellion is a reaction to the actual or perceived sociopolitical, economic and other conditions. It is also critical to understand that the transition from frustration to violence involves a measure of repression and indoctrination, which shapes the manner in which youths choose to vent their frustrations. As perhaps best shown by numerous propaganda videos created by many youths fighting alongside extremist groups, which betrays their knowledge of indoctrinating materials. The frustration theory shows that the socio-political and economic contexts and sequences of different actions, coupled with the interrelationships between sociopolitical structures and biographical exposure in which extremism/violence is embedded is central to understanding the radicalization process.
However, the willingness and conviction to deploy violence alone is inadequate to lead youths to actual violence, but the active recruitment by terror groups that train and arm them. In fact, a study by the New York Police Department shows that this transition involves four distinct stages that move from the pre-radicalization stage (characterized by experiences of actual or perceived injustices/persecution), self-identification, indoctrination, and jihadization. There are certain motives that drive youths to not only seek, but accept or reject assigned roles in extremist groups, not unlike in gangs. The most important, of course, is the attitudinal affinity with the purpose of the extremist groups and the matching of the goals with personal aspirations. Recruitment is influenced by the efficient use of social media, availability (possibly due to unemployment and social deprivation), expectation or continuity among other factors, which can be controlled by governments and societies.
The evidence points to a failure by governments and societies across the world to disrupt the radicalization process. This void was worsened by the initial brute force approach by most western governments, which attempted to meet terrorism with brute force. The War in both Afghanistan and Iraq, coupled with the abuse of suspects in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere only served to fuel the jihadist indoctrination campaigns as against dent the potential of terrorism. However, the failures by governments can never be equal to the sociopolitical and economic void that created a vacuum that was filled by Jihadist groups. Social and economic deprivation, social and religious discrimination among others are critical drivers behind the radicalization of youths. It comes down to the very basic social units and institutions, to the families and individual communities. These units must be charged with mending the moral and societal fabric that holds them together and ensure that young people remain on the straight and narrow. The battle against radicalization must be devolved to the level of families and communities as against being centralized and left to the governments. On their part, governments must work towards attaining equitable, just and transparent administrations, in order to avert situations (such as Guantanamo Bay abuses) that create fodder for extremist indoctrination campaigns.
It is clear that radicalization of youths in many countries across the world occurs because of sociopolitical, economic and other vacuums. In particular, the lack of identity by youths (possibly due to social deprivation and broken families), perceptions or actual injustices and lack of social support mechanisms allow youths to seek their own identities, and fall prey to extremism. This paper has asserted that it is wrong to treat religious fundamentalism and youth radicalization any different from other crimes. Instead, the war against homegrown terrorism must be devolved to the lowest level possible. Society and governments must assume a joint responsibility of creating an equal society, with which potentially radical youths can identify, and thus resist radicalization.

References

Bigo, D., Bonelli, L., Guittet, E., & Ragazzi, F. (2014). Preventing and Countering Youth Radicalization in EU. Brussels: The European Union.
McCoy, T. (2014, June 7). How ISIS and other jihadists persuaded thousands of Westerners to fight their war of extremism. Retrieved Feb 24, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/17/how-isis-persuaded-thousands-of-westerners-to-fight-its-war-of-extremism/
Silber, M. D., & Bhatt, A. (2011). Radicalization in the West: A Homegrown Threat. New York: NYPD.
Yan, H. (2014, October 7). Why is ISIS so successful at luring Westerners? Retrieved Feb 25, 2015, from http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/07/world/isis-western-draw/