California Shooting: How Does Someone Become Radicalized?
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the two jihadists who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. (Photo: Screenshot from video)
After it emerged the two terrorists who carried out the December 2 San Bernandino attack in California were supporters of the Islamic State, speculation began about how and why they became radicalized.
This type of speculation typically follows terrorist attacks, in which pundits and journalists attempt to figure out how an otherwise peaceful person comesto hold an ideology of hatred and violence which ultimately drives them to kill.
When discussing radicalization, there are two important factors which are often missed:
Radicalization Does Not Take Place in a Vacuum
The ideology of Islamist extremism is a spectrum, ranging from the Islamic State at one end, to ‘soft Islamist’ political parties like Ennahda at the other. This ideology shares common values, including the desirability of establishing an Islamic State, ruled by a Caliph, the supremacy of Islamic law (sharia) over man-made law, the importance of enforcing that law as state law, and the supremacy of Islam over other faiths. They are also anti-gender equality and have been disastrous for minority groups in every place they have come to govern.
These ideas are drawn from an interpretation of the Islamic religion and many of the ideas percolate beyond those who are politically engaged in the wider community. The extent to which problematic ideas are held by the wider Muslim community will be the subject of Clarion Project’s upcoming film By The Numbers, which analyzes polling data to paint a clearer picture of how far elements of the Islamist ideology have spread.
It is by no means the case that most Muslims hold these views. Many proudly and actively fight against them. Many others subscribe to very different understandings of Islam which preach peace, tolerance and human rights for all. Yet Saudi-sponsored mosques and preachers echo the line of their government and support extremism internationally. The Saudi state is thought to have spent $100 billion exporting its hardline Wahhabi ideology over the past 30 years.
Even Al-Azhar in Egypt, considered to be the foremost institution of learning in the Islamic world, ruled that the Islamic State are not heretics and fall within the Islamic spectrum. Al-Azhar alumnusSheikh Muhammed Abdullah Nasr noted al-Azhar could not have excommunicated the Islamic State since it preaches some of the same things itself.
“It can't [condemn the Islamic State as un-Islamic]. The Islamic State is a byproduct of al-Azhar's programs” he said. “So can al-Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic? Al-Azhar says there must be acaliphate and that it is an obligation for the Muslim world [to establish it]. Al-Azhar teaches the law of apostasy and killing the apostate. Al-Azhar is hostile towards religious minorities, and teaches things like not building churches, etc. Al-Azhar upholds the institution of jizya [extracting tribute from religious minorities]. Al-Azhar teaches stoning people. So can al-Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic?”
Ideas like ‘a woman must always submit to her husband’s will’ and ‘blasphemers must be put to death’ do not necessarily lead to a person carrying out terrorist attacks. But they provide a broader context for radicalization to take place. And these views are widely supported by international Islamist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, but also by states like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran.
For every terrorist attack that takes place, there are many others who justify and tacitly support it. This ideology must be challenged and defeated.
Jihad is a Choice
No amount of ideological context changes the fact that ultimately jihad is a choice. Every person who comes into contact with the ideology of Islamist extremism, who listens to a lecture by an Islamist hate preacher or who reads a copy of the Islamic State’s propaganda magazine has a choice – to accept it or reject it. We can see from the large number of Muslims and the comparatively small number of terrorist attacks that most Muslims choose to reject jihad. Even other Islamist factions like the Muslim Brotherhood, have chosen to attempt to create their caliphate through peaceful means rather than violent ones.
We can and must tackle the ideology that inspires extremism and the myriad of problems of integration, alienation and funding that fuel that fire. But we cannot stop people from choosing to commit murder in the name of God.
Ultimately terrorism is the fault of the perpetrator.
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Elliot Friedland is dialogue coordinator at Clarion Project.
http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/california-shooting-how-does-someone-become-radicalized
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