Understanding Radicalization

"If parents, friends, loved ones don't pay attention to changes in behaviour or to the exhibition of any odd interests, who will?"
"If you and I, together or separately, become radicalized, via the Internet and perhaps through others, and then we decide that we're going to hop on a flight and cause mayhem abroad, who is going to stop us? If we keep a low profile, nothing will get in the way."
Ray Boisvert, formerly CSIS AD

"You can only go so far, you can't violate people's rights", says Lorne Dawson at University of Waterloo, a sociology professor and expert on radicalization. It is not enough to suspect, or even to have evidence that someone has bought into radical solutions to perceived insults, if they don't directly act in an overtly radical manner to lend weight to the theory that they are capable of going beyond talk to action.

There isn't the manpower, the funding or the dogged determination to track every suspect on the basis of having at some time or other expressed frustration, voicing it in terms that are clearly alarmingly offensive, or those who harbour ill will toward others, believing them to be responsible for harming you or what you value. The mere expression of interest in violent action can be taken as natural curiosity as long as it doesn't venture into the realm of active violence.

To do otherwise would be to hold an awful lot of disgruntled and ill-informed individuals to a level of suspicion that society cannot sustain. There must be evidence of a real and present danger before security authorities can feel prepared to undertake a deeper analysis leading to apprehending action. If young men want to travel abroad for whatever reason, in a free world it is their right to do so.

If they are not carrying weapons, excessive cash or other incriminating evidence to bolster the theory of their having succumbed to the adventure of violent jihad, nothing further can be done. Close family members can be informed by the departing son, brother or husband that he is intent on travelling abroad for the innocent purpose of studying the Koran and the language in which it is written. Those concerned far prefer to accept an explanation that allows them to avoid reality.

Prevention of youth radicalization takes constant vigilance. Just as the smug phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" once had such popularity, perfunctory monitoring by mildly anxious parents, relatives and friends and community members won't reveal the depth and the extent of a young person's involvement in activities antithetical to their own beliefs and views of their religion; they will know precisely what their involved child permits them to know, and no more.

But it is the family, and its alertness to extraordinary and disturbing appearances and occurrences that represents the first line of defence. And if that family feels burdened by the weight of that responsibility, and if that family feels disinterested in following through to protect the greater society because the family feels offended by greater society's ostensible affronts to Islam then why would they become involved to the extent that they would be prepared to alert authorities about their own?

The attempt to gain trust by authorities within Canada charged with the security of the population and the country somewhat reflects what occurred during Canada's ten-year NATO- and UN-sponsored military role in Afghanistan. Overtures made and social niceties extended in an effort to bring those being studied around to the thought processes and values of the intruders. The RCMP in Canada does what the Canadian military did in Afghanistan.

It ingratiates itself to the Muslim community. It holds joint meetings, explaining the role of each in attempting to apprehend violent jihad from claiming a secure footing among the sons of those who live in Canada as landed immigrants, sons who may have been born in Canada, but whose trust has been suborned by stealthy recruiting agents who have gained their close attention and interest.

"The closer the relationship that law enforcement has with communities, the more they'll have access to those communities when they need advice and help and support", explained Abdul-Rehman Malik, a Canadian now living in Britain working as project manager at Radical Middle Way, a group championing community-based mechanisms to protect young people from violent extremism.

"The RCMP recognizes that the pathways to violence and intervention points are varied. As such, they require a broad-based response. So in a preventive capacity, the RCMP utilizes all of its relationships that have been built on mutual trust to enable all these institutions to recognize and intervene with radicalized young people who are at risk of escalating to violence." That's the reasoning, explained by RCMP Sgt. Greg Cox.

What sounds reasonable in theory is not always as straightforward in reality.

Some community leaders have no interest in becoming intermediaries between Canadian investigative authorities and the people in the Muslim community. The distrust of authorities, according to experts who know of such human proclivities, stems from conditioning, a barrier difficult to surmount. And for some, the knowledge that police or intelligence officials are tracking their behaviour, spurs them on to fulfill those expectations.

Lorne Dawson points out that in the case of the three young men from London, Ontario, Aaron Yoon, Ali Medlej and Xristos Katsiroubas, and any others who may not yet have surfaced, both those who are born into cultural Islam and those who have chosen to convert to Islam, the path to radicalization most likely would have involved a figure influential within their hometown.

Influential enough to give rise to a willingness to break free from family, respond to a purpose calling for a release from boredom and a leap into heroism and rebellion.