"Radicalisation"

"Radicalisation"
Interest of	• Active Change Foundation • Reinier Bergema • Yusuf Desai • Mark Huband • International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence • Daniel Lafayeedney • Fatima Lahnait • Shiraz Maher • Jahan Mahmood • Muslim Contact Unit • Project Rich Picture • Hanif Qadir • Magnus Ranstorp • Alex Schmid
Together with "extremism" this word is one of many which national governments are seeking to use to demonize any forms of opposition.

"Radicalisation" (of in US, radicalization) is a supposed transformation which occurs when people are exposed to "extremist" information, typically over the internet. The phrase is increasingly being used in the context of "Muslim terrorism" in connection with efforts to carry out internet censorship.

Official Narrative

The official narrative always seems to be defined as regards individuals. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) defines radicalization as “A process by which a person to an increasing extent accepts the use of undemocratic or violent means, including terrorism, in an attempt to reach a specific political/ideological objective.” This is used, for example, as an explanation of the behaviour of "lone nuts" and when framing internet censorship laws.

Concerns

Many national governments and their intelligence agencies are populated by people who - according to the PET definition above - have long since been radicalised. Consider, for example, Lyman Lemnitzer, who as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed Operation Northwoods, Sir Stewart Menzies, who carried out Operation Embarrass, or the Operation Gladio operatives who killed hundreds of Italians in the 1970s and 1980s. Very few of these people were subjected to the legal process, suggesting that their like may well still populate governments and intelligence agencies. These are the same people are now promoting the concept of "radicalisation", in an apparent effort to promote fear and so facilitate public acquiescence to widespread internet censorship.

Popularisation

The word "radicalisation" was little searched upon until 2014. Interest in the term increase by a factor of approximately 10 over the 4 years up to October 2017. The main countries in which it is used are UK, France, and former British/French colonies (most notably Kenya) - the trends data with the US spelling are not so clear cut, reflecting a US usage that goes back at least as far back as 2004.

Examples

In UK, the word "radicalisation" is being widely employed in connection with "terrorism", especially "Islamic terror". Children as young as 9 years old have been surveyed in British schools to check for signs of "radicalisation".

In June 2016, Dean Haydon, head of Counter Terrorism Command of Scotland Yard remarked about Muhiddin Mire "And what we found following his arrest is, certainly from his mobile phone and other digital media, that he had downloaded a vast amount of extremist material which we think certainly inspired him to conduct an attack here."

In July 2016, commercially-controlled media claimed that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel went to Tunisia, where "was he was radicalized within months" and quotes his estranged wife that he "only started visiting a mosque in April", just 3 months before he is supposed to have committed a religiously inspired act of "terrorism".

In 2017, Zahid Hussain was jailed for at least 15 years by UK Nigel Sweeney who stated that the "principal driver" of his (unsuccessful) efforts to create a bomb had been his "voluntary bedroom radicalisation".

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
"Extremism"	“Should these extremist views be allow [sic.] in society with the risk they could incite some to violence?”	Admin	9 April 2011
Yusuf Desai	“I would very strongly recommend review of current Green Paper plans and strategies to address social cohesion in order to combat UK and global radicalization issues and threats to state security. There is little precedent for the scale of action needed over the next decade. The dangers are clear and immediate to those who are involved in safeguarding life and limb and wellbeing of British society.”	Yusuf Desai	2018
Internet/Censorship	“Terrorist propaganda online has a direct impact on the radicalisation of individuals and we work closely with the internet industry to remove terrorist material hosted in the UK or overseas.”	James Brokenshire	2014
Fatima Lahnait	“Spain remains a target for Islamist extremists. Moreover, like other European countries, it is now facing an increasing radicalisation phenomenon that may lead to violent extremism and home-grown Islamist terrorism.”	Fatima Lahnait	2018
MLK	“A doctrine of black supremacy is as dangerous as a doctrine of white supremacy. God is not interested in the freedom of black men or brown men or yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where every man will respect the dignity and worth of personality.”	MLK
Religion	“Some years ago, a leaked MI5 behavioural study of pathways to terrorism concluded that there was no single profile or pathway to violent radicalisation. It also found, contrary to conventional assumptions, that religious conservatism tended to act as a bulwark against extremism.”	Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed	13 February 2015
Joanna Shields	“Where there is more propaganda directing people to kill, we must act to remove it quickly. Where there are new networks promoting radicalisation, we must disrupt them. We need to work with industry to improve solutions that automate the identification and removal of dangerous extremist content at scale and tools that better tackle automated bots and other techniques that support these propaganda machines. This must be done as quickly as possible before people, particularly sympathisers and the vulnerable, get the chance to see it. And we must work with civil society to offer a brighter and more compelling path to young people who feel they have no hope of changing their circumstances. There is no panacea, no single piece of technology, intervention or public policy that will solve this. But we can make it harder for terrorist and extremists to use the Internet to recruit, inspire and incite.”	Joanna Shields	1 August 2016
Strategy of tension	“In order to tackle the root causes of radicalization ("Radicalization" refers to a value shift towards fovouring a more equal distribution of wealth) in particular of young people, the EU should consider strengthening targeted actions designed to raise awareness and promote the respect of fundamental rights and values".”	European Ministers of the Interior	2015

 

Party Members

Politician	Born	Died	Description
Edgar Faure	18 August 1908	30 March 1988	Double Bilderberger French PM
Pierre Mendès France	11 January 1907	18 October 1982	Prime Minister of France in the 1950s, Bilderberg 1968, Le Siecle

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Discernment: Why information statecraft matters	strategy document	26 December 2018	Integrity Initiative Chris Donnelly	Musings on how to keep media dominance and control young minds
Document:Radicalisation - UK.gov gets itself in cluster-muddle over 'terrorism'	article	25 August 2016	Alexander J Martin
Document:The Astonishingly Crap Science of 'Counter-Extremism'	webpage	17 March 2016	Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed	An expose of the crass lack of any valid scientific basis of government strategies to fight radicalisation. Nafeez Ahmed agrues that the "most academically accurate concept to capture this absurd level of crappiness is ‘bullshit’".
Document:The new alliance between anti-vaxxers and the far right is a deadly threat	Article	1 August 2021	Paul Mason	"Though they claim to be “peaceful”......by setting themselves up as the victims of genocide, the anti-vaxxers give themselves permission to threaten violence.....Those behind the “crime” are said to include governments and the World Economic Forum (WEF)" because the real fascists are the ones that oppose oppressive government mandates and forced injections.

Rating

11 February 2019 Robin  A helpful expose
An introduction to this piece of Orwellian language.

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