Both of these articles are from Australia. The first article states “Aggressive policing turns Muslims to terrorism”
A study from the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University suggests that Australia’s approach to stopping terrorism might actually be encouraging it.
Waleed Aly from the centre says the aggressive police approach is alienating young Muslim men, who may be more likely to turn to radical groups as a result.
He says a community-based approach may be more effective than a hardline approach.
“The problem is that as we repeat that [hardline] approach, what we actually end up doing is exacerbating the problem,” he told tonight’s Four Corners program.
“We set in motion drivers that move us towards greater radicalisation.”
He says currently the police are too willing to use aggressive tactics.
“[Police] feel ‘the more aggressive we can be, the harder we can be, the better’,” he said.
“That is, that it’s better to err on the side of being aggressive than to err on the side of being soft.”
I completely disagree with this position as reality and history does not support it. These radicals response to “soft” tactics has always been more demands and more aggressiveness. Softness is weakness and validation of their “mission from god” mentality in their eyes. Many European cities, especially in France, tried “soft” “community based approach” tactics and now have 750+ “Sensitive Urban Zones” (ZONES URBAINES SENSIBLES) which the French Police will not enter and have effectively given up control over. Soft approaches to terrorism lead to more terrorism as Spain has found out. Surrender is not “peace”.
The second article deals with the “next generation” of terrorist/Islamofascist/Islamic Holy Warrior. From the Article “Latest terrorists are ‘looking for thrills’”.
THE third wave of terrorism facing the world is a leaderless mishmash of young and bored terrorist wannabees, according to a leading US expert.
Former CIA officer and now author Marc Sageman says that the latest jihadis taking up the global call for action more closely resemble criminal gang members than religious fanatics.
Dr Sageman who has just published his second book on terrorism networks, Leaderless Jihad: Terrorist Networks in the Twenty First Century, said they were typically young men looking for action, and wanting to copy their heroes, who include Osama bin Laden.
“It is more about hero-worship than about religion,” said Dr Sageman.
“It’s about youth culture … about being cool – jihadi cool.”
Dr Sageman is a medical doctor and a forensic psychiatrist who, after a tour as a flight surgeon in the US navy, joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1984.
He spent a year on the Afghanistan Task Force then went to Islamabad from 1987 to 1989, where he ran US programs with the Afghan mujaheddin. Since 1994, he has been in the private practice of forensic and clinical psychiatry evaluating the behaviours of hundreds of murderers.
After the September 11 attacks, Dr Sageman started collecting biographical material on about 400 al-Qa’ida terrorists to test the validity of the conventional wisdom on terrorism.
His research was published in his first book, Understanding Terror Networks.
He has testified before the 9/11 Commission and is now a consultant to various government agencies on terrorism.
His latest book is the result of two years spent travelling the world collecting information about terrorists.
Dr Sageman said the third wave of terrorists were unlike anything we have seen before.
They have little or nothing to do with al-Qa’ida, they don’t read the Koran and are not particularly religious. But they are enraged by the Iraq war.
“They are looking for glory … thrills, and a sense of belonging to a group,” he said in a recent presentation.
“There is a thrill and excitement attached to belonging to the vanguard of a violent social movement that is irresistible.”
Dr Sageman said the best thing to do to combat them was to take the glory out of terrorism. He has called for politicians to resist grandstanding about the war on terror. He also advised to stop indulging terrorists’ passion for glory by immortalising them on wanted posters and putting bounties on their heads.
I agree that more of what we are seeing in Afghanistan is “drug lord” terrorist style ‘leadership’ in AQ as many of the “old guard” Taliban and AQ are no longer living. However, I do note that in Islamic lands, their schools, television, and ‘pop culture’ and music controlled/allowed/encouraged (depending on the source nation) by their Imams does not support this thesis in the long run. However, like the Barbary Coast Pirates, much of AQ may fall to internal struggles against the greedy religious hardliners and greedy criminals.
It really would be nice if they both lose.