Ways in and Ways out Ways and in Ways Høigård Tajet Kirsti
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Ways In and Ways Out Ways and In Ways Høigård Tajet Kirsti NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology Faculty of Social Sciences Master’s thesis and Technology Management Department of Political Science Trondheim, Spring2012 Trondheim, Science thesisinPolitical Master’s Extremism Islamist versus Right-WingExtremism Deradicalization: and ofRadicalization An Analysis Out InandWays Ways Høigård Tajet Kirsti To SL, with the hopes that you will someday deradicalize as well Acknowledgements I want to express my gratitude to my supervisor Tanja Ellingsen for good help, positive remarks and good assistance along the way. I also want to express my gratitude to my informants for letting me dig in their troublesome and often difficult past, I have learnt at least as much about human grief as I have about radicalization and deradicalization. Without the informants this thesis had not existed. I also want to thank Rashad Ali for meeting me at the British Museum where the atmosphere is great for deep conversations, and for all the assistance he provided me in the aftermath of the interview. I also want to express my gratitude to Hanif Qadir for welcoming me into the Active Change Foundation in London and for letting me interview him. I am also grateful to Pat Parry in the United Kingdom for assistance along the way. In addition I want to express my gratitude to all the people that I have been in contact with regarding finding the right informants, in particular all the local police stations that have helped me along the way, Åfjord Lensmannskontor, Manglerud Politistasjon, Brumunddal Lensmannskontor and Stange Lensmannskontor. Writing a master´s thesis is a rather lonely process and I want to express my gratitude to Jan- Erik Berg at IFIF for always taking the time to answer my questions, and coming with me to the café when the mind needed to be set on something else than extremism. At last I will express my thankfulness to my good friend and roommate Rakel Wika Langvatn for always being positive and for asking and showing interest in my thesis. Possible mistakes or errors are completely my own and none of the people mentioned above are to be blamed. Table of Content 1.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 Terrorism and Counterterrorism ........................................................................................... 3 2.1 Terrorism and Extremism ................................................................................................. 3 2.1.1 Types of Extremism ...................................................................................................... 5 2.2 How much of a Problem is Terrorism Today? ................................................................. 6 2.3 Counterterrorism: Why We Want to Deradicalize Extremists ......................................... 9 2.3.1 Deradicalization Programs .......................................................................................... 10 2.3.2 How Successful are the Programs? ............................................................................. 14 3.0 Radicalization ..................................................................................................................... 16 3.1 Pathways to Radicalization ............................................................................................ 17 3.1.1 Identity Seeking ........................................................................................................... 18 3.1.2 Ideology ....................................................................................................................... 21 3.1.3 Right-Wing Extremists and Their Ideology ................................................................ 22 3.1.4 Islamist Extremists and Their Ideology....................................................................... 24 3.2 Political Grievance ......................................................................................................... 29 3.3 Personal Victimization ................................................................................................... 30 3.4 Radicalization in joining a radical group ....................................................................... 31 3.5 Rewards, Monetary and Status ....................................................................................... 32 4.0 Deradicalization ................................................................................................................. 35 4.1.1 Disengagement ............................................................................................................ 35 4.1.2 Deradicalization and Disengagement- the Tricky Difference ..................................... 38 4.2 How to Measure Success? .............................................................................................. 39 4.3 Model for Success .......................................................................................................... 40 4.4 Pathways to Deradicalization ......................................................................................... 42 4.4.1 Negative Social Sanctions ........................................................................................... 42 4.4.2 Disillusionment ........................................................................................................... 42 4.4.3 Acts of violence ........................................................................................................... 43 4.4.4 Rewards ....................................................................................................................... 43 4.4.5 Burnout ........................................................................................................................ 43 5.0 Methods and Data ............................................................................................................... 45 5.1 Qualitative versus Quantitative Research Design .......................................................... 45 5.2 Interviews as Data Collection ........................................................................................ 46 5.2.1 Right-Wing Extremists ................................................................................................ 47 5.2.2 Islamist Extremists ...................................................................................................... 48 5.3 Quality in Social Science ............................................................................................... 51 6.0 Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 55 6.1 Ways In: Right-Wing Extremists ................................................................................... 55 6.2 Ways In: Islamist Extremists .......................................................................................... 60 6.3 Degree of Commitment: Right-Wing Extremists ........................................................... 62 6.4 Degree of Commitment: Islamist Extremists ................................................................. 62 6.5 Ways Out: Right-Wing Extremists ................................................................................ 63 6.6 Ways Out: Islamist Extremists ....................................................................................... 65 6.7 The Relevance of the Deradicalization Efforts: Right-Wing Extremists ....................... 66 6.8 The Relevance of the Deradicalization Efforts: Islamist Extremists ............................. 69 7.0 Ways In and Ways Out ....................................................................................................... 69 7.1 Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................... 71 7.2 Policy Implications ......................................................................................................... 73 7.3 Further Research ............................................................................................................ 74 8.0 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 76 9.0 Appendix ............................................................................................................................ 85 “A young boy´s destiny is determined of who he hangs out with” (Saying from the East in Husain 2009: 31). 1.0 Introduction Terrorism has during the last ten years received a lot of attention, much as a result of 9.11 2001. Since then, Islamist extremists have been considered the most important threat to international security, also in Norway (PST 2012). However with the attacks in Norway last summer, the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has started to pay attention also to other extremist groups, in particular Right-wing extremists (Ibid 2012). Also elsewhere in Europe there is a growing awareness concerning Right-wing extremism (Kuhlish 2011). The 22th of July events and other terror attacks put prevention of terrorism at top of the political agenda (Justis & Politidepartementet 2011). However, until recently the main focus has been on how to catch most terrorists and extremist and send them to prisons (Bjørgo & Horgan 2009: 1). As this strategy proved to have little effect, a growing awareness emerged on the need to look beyond the security