Blaming shadowy Islamist groomers for
‘radicalising’ young Muslims ignores problems closer to home
by Frank Furedi
In recent years, the process through which individuals come to embrace
violent terrorism has increasingly been understood in terms of the idea of
radicalisation. Last week’s brutal knife attack in Woolwich is no exception,
with many claiming that the two attackers, Michael Adebowale and Michael
Adebolajo, were radicalised Islamic militants. And now UK home secretary
Theresa May has warned that thousands more young people are at risk of a
similar radicalisation.
The idea of
radicalisation, in this telling, resembles an infectious pathogen that can
mysteriously infect a multitude of angry young people. The antidote to the
radicalisation disease therefore seems obvious: block extremist messages on the
internet, regulate the media and ban radical groups from expressing their
views.
A new type of ideological threat
Official anxiety
about the spectre of radicalisation represents a radical departure from the way
in which terrorism was conceptualised in the past. Until recently, terrorism
was represented as a form of politically motivated violence, whose sole purpose
was to foment fear in the target society. Today, terrorism is no longer
understood as merely a physical threat, a capacity to wreak mass destruction.
It is also endowed with moral and ideological power over significant sections
of the domestic population. As the response to the Woolwich killing shows,
terrorism can apparently incite others to copycat behaviour. In short,
terrorism can radicalise people.
The idea that
modern terrorists exercise a great influence over the minds of sections of the
public, invests the terrorist threat with an unprecedented power. Sir David
Omand, the former UK security and intelligence coordinator, went so far as to
claim that ‘the most effective weapon of the contemporary terrorist is their
ideology’ (1). The notion of the terrorist as a purveyor of ideas marks a shift
from previous conceptions of terrorism. Indeed, the idea that the terrorist
does not just scare people but potentially appeals to their hearts and minds is
completely at odds with traditional definitions of the terrorist threat. It is
only recently that terrorism has been conceptualised as an effective vehicle
for ideas.
This is why,
increasingly, the battle for moral authority has become an important part of
the war against terrorism. Yet it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the
political and cultural elites of Western societies feel less than confident
about conducting a successful campaign on the battlefield of ideas. Their
apprehension about the powerful attraction of radical ideas on sections of the
domestic population often betrays a deeper problem: namely, that they cannot
convince others of the superiority of their own way of life.
