How Radicalization Occurs
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HSE 460
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Revisions Needed: A few notes for your final paper:
– Use Level I headings to set apart each section of your paper.
– Your references to the stairstep models of radicalization is excellent. You should add a graphic showing the model used by Moghaddam and the NYPD. The stairstep models are best understood when they can be seen by the reader.
– Your word count is low. The requirement is 900-1000 words in the body of your paper.
How Radicalization Occurs
The English dictionary says that radicalism is the process of making someone take very extreme views on social or political problems. If someone takes a radical stance, they want to change or replace the basic ideas that govern a society or government. This is usually done through social or structural change, revolution, or radical reform. Most of the time, this process is linked to terrorists. There is not a single direct path to becoming radicalized (Muro & Wilson, 2022). Over time, someone can change from someone who follows the law to someone who is ready to kill innocent people in the name of radical ideas. For someone to become radicalized, they have to go through a transformation that is prompted by external as well as internal variables. Because of this, it should be seen as a way that includes economic, psychological, personal, and social issues that are all connected (Muro & Wilson, 2022). The different models used in this paper will be used to look at how radicalization happens: Moghaddam’s “Staircase of Terrorism” theory, the New York Police Department (NYPD) radicalization process from Sibler and Bhatt report, and Borum’s Pathway of Radicalization.
A six-step staircase is used by Moghaddam to show the process in his “Staircase of Terrorism” concept (Meringolo, 2020). Because the person is going up, the stairs get narrower. Each step is linked to a different brain process. The initial phase is the basis of extremism and covers how people think about the world around them. The second step is how people think about fighting unfair treatment. In the third step, anger is moved, and in the fourth step, the person has a moral obligation to the group. The fifth and sixth steps include making the terrorist act and the group’s ideas stronger and more legitimate. Moghaddam says that the shortening of the stairs means that the person only has a few options for going up, which makes it harder to look back.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) idea by Sibler and Bhatt is made up of four steps (Irwin, 2019). The first step is called “pre-radicalization,” and it refers to the person before they are introduced to Jihad-Salafi Islam. In the second step, self-identification, the person starts to be affected by both internal and external forces. They also start to identify with people who share their views, moving away from who they were before they became radicalized. Indoctrination is the third step (Muro & Wilson, 2022). This is where the person’s views are strengthened and they fully accept the jihadi-Salafi ideas (Irwin, 2019). When someone goes through terrible things, they decide that violent war is the only way to stop them. The final phase is “jihadization,” which means that each member personally agrees to fight in jihad and takes on the title of “holy warrior of mujahedeen” (Irwin, 2019).
This is the other theory: Borum’s Pathway of Radicalization. There are also four stages in this type. If a person looks at the social and economic problems in their state and decides that it is not acceptable, this is the first stage (Guilherme, 2020). During the second stage, the person compares their current situation to a better one out of anger and decides that the current situation is unfair and wrong. In the third stage, the person assigns blame and responsibility to an outside group, seeing them as to blame for their situation. In the fourth stage, the outgroup is stereotyped and made to seem evil, and violence against the rival group is seen as acceptable.
As they are, the above types make it hard to pick one as the best because they all have their flaws and things they have in common. These are just theories that have not been tested in the real world (Muro & Wilson, 2022). These frameworks point to various types of steps in radicalism, which makes the whole thing a matter of speculation. Also, the things that cause the process are different for each person; some include faith and some do not. Others, like Moghaddam’s model, say that the radical group was involved in the process because it talked about joining these kinds of groups. The NYPD model, on the other hand, asserts that the group is made up of people with similar views, so the radical organization has a supporting role. One thing they all have in common is a feeling of relative lack that makes them compare. So, it is hard to say which model is the best and which is the worst for judging the radicalization process. While it may be hard, it is better to take a position whether one or the other better fits the facts you have presented.
References
Guilherme. (2020). A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO RADICALIZATION, TERRORISM AND MASS MURDERING. Revista Brasileira de Inteligência, 14, 35–45. https://doi.org/10.58960/rbi.2019.14.158.
Irwin, K. E. (2019, December 4). After 9/11: the NYPDs policing of violent extremism. Www.elgaronline.com; Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.elgaronline.com/abstract/edcoll/9781786438010/9781786438010.00041.xml.
Meringolo, P. (2020). Theoretical Background of Violent Radicalisation. Research and Interventions from Different Perspectives. Preventing Violent Radicalisation in Europe, 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52048-9_1.
Muro, D., & Wilson, T. K. (2022). Contemporary terrorism studies. Oxford, United Kingdom Oxford University Press.
