Jihadism: the direct conversion to radicalism
10 April 2015 | In the Media
The arrest of eleven suspected jihadists in Catalonia in a police operation this Wednesday has caused alarm and concern. Beyond the necessary security response, Lurdes Vidal, head of the Arab and Mediterranean World department at the IEMed, gives some clues to understand the possible causes of radicalization towards jihadism, which can be found in both open conflicts in the Arab world and in feelings of marginalization in Western Europe.
One of the most surprising facts is that five of the detainees are converted citizens of Spanish nationality. Converts to what? According to Lurdes Vidal, “conversion is not to Islam but directly to radicalism. It is an express transformation towards a violent view of Islam.”
How radicalization is explained
The IEMed analyst stresses the importance of identifying the real causes of radicalization in Europe. She believes that it is a necessary research to understand terrorist logics and to be able not only to fight them but also to prevent them. At the same time, it is important to refute false causes linked to religion to avoid stigmatizing entire communities. In this sense, Vidal is clear about the message that must be conveyed: “Within the religious corpus of Islam there is nothing that makes it impossible to build democratic societies, nor an original sin that justifies the use of violence.”
On the contrary, the IEMed analyst explains that the rise of extremism is due in part to the “seductive capacity” of Islamic State propaganda to capture “maladapted people”. It is a very sophisticated propaganda that idealizes life in the caliphate and has a revolutionary aura that can be suggestive. In addition, the IEMed analyst emphasizes, “no matter how much you can act individually, you are never completely alone. At some point, there was a contact, support or conversation. She thus highlights the key role of the recruitment network system, which, in her opinion, remains the same as those previously recruited for al-Qaeda.
What has fed the monster?
“The big mistake of the last four years has been to turn our backs on the tragedy in Syria.” Far from advocating military intervention, Vidal denounces that the international community should have long ago deployed all diplomatic tools, prioritizing human interests over political or geostrategic ones. And the mistake in Syria has not been the only one. “After Gaddafi, Libya, without a political culture and infested with weapons, has not received enough international support,” she laments.
Facing the fight against terror
This spiral of radicalization poses a great challenge for us as a society, says Vidal, which should not be addressed solely from the security alarm, but should focus on the design of new policies to respond to a problem that has been transformed: “The portrait of jihadism today is different from what it was ten or five years ago.”
However, the struggle is complex and does not begin or end within the Catalan borders. “We can’t solve a global problem with a local approach,” says Vidal. It is important to maintain the coordination of the security forces of the different countries involved, as well as the exchange of integration models. At this point, Vidal warns: “There are no perfect models of integration and if we criminalize communities, the dialogue ends.”