Volume VII, Issue 3 June 2013 2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM !! !!!!!Volume!7,!Issue!3 Table of Contents: Welcome from the Editors ..............................................................................4 I. Articles Exploring Support for Terrorism Among Muslims ......................................5 by Adrian Cherney and Jenny Povey Controversies of Conversions: The Potential Terrorist Threat of European Converts to Islam .........................................................................17 by Monika G. Bartoszewicz “Join the Caravan”: The Ideology of Political Authority in Islam from Ibn Taymiyya to Boko Haram in North-Eastern Nigeria ..........................30 by Atta Barkindo Current and Emerging Threats of Homegrown Terrorism:The Case of the Boston Bombings ...........................................................................................44 by Rohan Gunaratna and Cleo Haynal II. Research Notes The Boston Marathon Bombers: the Lethal Cocktail that Turned Troubled Youth to Terrorism ........................................................................64 by Anne Speckhard New Light on CIA “Double Tap” Drone Strikes on Taliban “First Responders” in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas ......................................................79 by Brian Glyn Williams III. Resources 230 Websites and Blogs for Terrorism Research ........................................84 Compiled and selected by Judith Tinnes 2!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!June!2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM !! !!!!!Volume!7,!Issue!3 Literature on Refugee Situations (including Internally Displaced Persons) and Terrorism (incl. other forms of Political Violence and Armed Conflict) ..........................................................................................................99 Compiled and selected by Eric Price IV. Book Reviews Counterterrorism Bookshelf .......................................................................114 Reviews by Joshua Sinai Arabinda Acharya. Ten Years After 9/11: Rethinking the Jihadist Threat.New York: Routledge, 2013 & Abdel Bari Atwan. After bin Laden: Al-Qaeda, the Next Generation.New York: The New Press, 2012 ...........125 Reviewed by David Hensel Jonathan Matusitz. Terrorism & Communication. A Critical Introduction.Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2013 499 pp., ISBN: 978-1-4522-4028-2 (pbk), US $ 65.- ............................................................133 Reviewed by Alex P. Schmid V. Op-Ed Syria – a Best Case, a Worst Case and two Most Likely Scenarios ........135 by Philipp Holtmann VI. Announcements Two Courses on Terrorism – one Free, the other for a Fee...................... 147 VII. Notes from the Editor About Perspectives on Terrorism ...............................................................149 3!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!June!2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM !! !!!!!Volume!7,!Issue!3 Welcome from the Editors Dear Reader, We are pleased to announce the release of Volume VII, Issue 3 (June 2013) of Perspectives on Terrorism at www.terrorismanalysts.com. This issue has been prepared in the journal's European office by the Editor-in-Chief and his team.While the next issue (August 2013), prepared by our American co-editor James J.F. Forest, will be a single theme issue, dealing with the financing of terrorism, the present issue covers various topical themes. There is, for instance, an Op-Ed by Philipp Holtmann on the conflict in Syria wherein he engages in Horizon Scanning, outlining several scenarios for the future. It makes for bleak reading as he concludes that the best possible scenario is also the most improbable one. Also topical are two articles on the Boston Marathon bombings. While a relatively minor incident when compared to the major daily tragedies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and several other places, the events in Boston have received saturation coverage for a number of days in mid- April 2013. Attention, respect, legitimacy and ultimately power is what terrorists want and while few violent individuals and terrorist groups get far beyond attention, massive news coverage is a reward for them and might invite other attention-seekers to engage in copycat crimes. Our public media have yet to learn to distinguish between news coverage of bona fide events and more restrained and responsible coverage of events staged mainly for publicity whereby violence serves as an entry ticket to get into the news system and obtain free media coverage. This issue also features an original reflection by Dr. Bartoszewicz on the phenomenon of converts to Islam and their potential to fall into the terrorist trap. It goes against the grain of much current thinking and shows the power of a good conceptualisation. There is more that might be of interest to you - see the table of contents below. Sincerely, Alex P. Schmid Editor 4!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!June!2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM !! !!!!!Volume!7,!Issue!3 I. Articles Exploring Support for Terrorism Among Muslims by Adrian Cherney and Jenny Povey Abstract In this paper we examine factors that influence support for terrorism, using the PEW 2010 Global Attitudes Survey. We assess aggregate results, drawing on items fielded to all Muslim respondents to identify broad factors that appear to indicate likely support for suicide terrorism. Results from a logistic regression model suggest that being female, having an educational degree, a commitment to certain Muslim beliefs and values, and being a member of the Shi’a minority might be probable indicators of support for terrorism. Some of the results were also counterintuitive. We consider the implications of our findings for understanding passive and active support for terrorism among Muslim communities. Introduction The question of Muslim support for Islamist-inspired terrorism has generated a public and political debate as to whether support for terrorism is rooted in Muslim religiosity and faith, particularly through the concept of jihad, which is sometimes interpreted as providing justification for violence against civilians.[1] Scholars have challenged such views, arguing that it distorts Islamic beliefs and principles.[2] In addition, empirical research has shed light on the complexity of attitudinal support for terrorism among Muslims, with some studies indicating it is shaped by a range of factors, least of which necessarily relate to religiosity or Islamic faith[3]. Given the saliency of the issue, it is important that debates and policies on terrorism are anchored in an informed understanding about why some Muslims may have sympathy and support for terrorism. This is not an insignificant issue because, as Sageman argues, the fight against terrorists groups such Al-Qaeda, is largely about winning over the “hearts and minds” of Muslim communities.[4] Doing so requires an understanding of the content of Muslim beliefs as well as factors that shape such attitudes.[5] Also examining support for terrorism can provide insights into whether terrorism is tolerated by co-religious groups. Such implicit support might be able to provide a “cloak of legitimacy” for terrorists and their causes, providing fertile ground for radicalisation, allowing terrorists to conduct operations more frequently and with greater ease. Research on support for terrorism within Muslim-dominated countries has mainly relied on public polling survey data.[6] There are methodological limitations with such public polling data[7]; one needs to be careful with concluding that results translate into an accurate measure of 5!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!June!2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM !! !!!!!Volume!7,!Issue!3 active support for terrorism itself. Despite this caveat, such polling data can provide a useful proxy for measuring passive support for Islamist-inspired terrorism (i.e. ideological or attitudinal), given the challenges of conducting large-scale survey work on terrorism.[8] In this article we examine support for terrorism among Muslims using data from the 2010 PEW Global Attitudes survey (the most recent available PEW data at the time of writing). Our aim is to contribute to the growing understanding about what influences Muslim support for terrorism and examine if there are any significant commonalities. It has been argued that the content of people’s beliefs about salient issues can be quite uniform, with this being the case for groups of particular religious orientations.[9] The PEW global attitudes survey consists of a twenty-two-nation survey conducted in April and May 2010.[10] The survey specifically includes countries that are predominantly Muslim (e.g. Indonesia and Pakistan), or countries with large Muslim minorities. The PEW survey collects data on socio-economic indicators, but also asks questions on a range of social, political and religious issues, including whether Muslim respondents judge suicide terrorism as justifiable (used as the dependent variable measure of support for terrorism in this study). Not all survey items are fielded to all respondents; there is some variation in the types of questions asked across countries e.g. relating to attitudes towards national political issues. Previous published research on support for terrorism among Muslims has relied on earlier PEW datasets than the one drawn on in this article. Such research has mainly examined variations between Muslim countries when it comes to, for example, the link between socio-economic conditions and support for terrorism.[11] In this article we look at overall aggregate results, and draw on particular items that were asked of all Muslim respondents.