Prevent Strategy Failure with Young Somali Men - Dissertation Example

Prof. Reinares et. al (2008), pointed out some conceptual caveats regarding the terms ‘ radicalization’ and ‘violent radicalization'. The process associated with any kind of non-violent development in a society can be termed radicalism as there is no such word as ‘radicalization’ or ‘violent radicalization’ in social science or humanities. A certain number of radicals always existed in every society, but neither was radicalization against the law nor was it violent. The process of radicalization was sometimes successful in garnering widespread sympathy or drawing attention from a significant number of people (European Commission's Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation, 2008, pp. 6). Radicalization can be best viewed as a process of change, about personal and political transformation from one condition to another. Chistmann (2012) also pointed out the differences in opinions that exist among the recent scholars regarding the process. According to them, radicalization was a gradual process that took time to develop (Christmaan, 2012, p.10).

The terrorist threats in the UK comprise a long history. Different groups of terrorists and extremists with various motivations repeatedly attacked UK’s interests, and such attacks have their roots way back in 1969. Between1969 and 1998, more than 3500 people were killed in the UK as a result of Irish-related terrorism. By the early 1990s, few propagandists in support of Egypt and other organizations settled in the UK. With the continuous spread of the anti-British movement, these British-based extremist organizations started to support the involvement of the people in terrorism within the country. According to reports presented to the Parliament by the Prime Minister and Secretary of the State for the Home Department, Al Qaida recruited people from the country and established their network in the UK. By late 2000, the UK became a target of major terrorists and extremist groups from the different parts of the world (mainly from Asia and several parts of Africa). The country was also facing an internal threat of being attacked by several Muslim groups who were motivated by the separatists to go against the British government. The impact of Islamic militants on the UK started way back in 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie. During the early part of the 1990s propagandists for terrorism in Algeria and Egypt had settled down in the UK, and the emerging violent Islamic organizations encouraged the participation of different people (especially the Islamic people, who were in the UK) in violent Jihad overseas (The United Kingdom’s strategy for countering International Terrorism, 2009, pp. 22,29). Soria (2012) in her report pointed toward the fact that al-Qaeda was targeting the British youth from the African communities to spread terrorism in the UK. It forewarned against the potential of greater radicalization among the British youth, belonging to the African community especially among Somali men, as the UK government was facing the homegrown terrorist threat. 

The world history of the last 20-30 years shows that most of the time, radicalization takes place in those countries where the economic condition was very poor and governance was not up to the mark. Hence it was easy for the people who were in favor of violence to provoke the young generation to go against the government and create an unstable political condition.  Different attacks during the last 20 years in developed countries were mainly due to the wrong ideology which these people were able to pass on to the young generation of various poor, less developed countries of Asia, Latin America, Africa, etc.

According to the Great Britain Home Affairs Committee report, the word radicalization can be defined as the process by which any individual or group of people support terrorism -  it is a kind of extremism that leads to terrorism. In this context, radicalization can be described as “a process of adopting an extremist belief system and the willingness to use, support, or facilitate violence and fear as a method of effecting changes in society” (Great Britain Parliament, 2012, p. 4). According to Joffe (2012), radicalization was “a process, where an individual’s conviction and willingness to seek for help and a serious change in the society increase” (Joffe, 2012, p. 245).

There is a fine line of difference between extremism and radicalization. According to reports, extremism occurs when an individual or a group does not agree with any alternate viewpoint and holds their point of view as exclusive. Whereas radicalization is a process in which a group or individual adopts extreme religious or political goals and ideas, and to achieve those goals they do not hesitate to adopt and justify their extreme methods (Analysis Of Radicalisation And Extremism, n.d.). Joffe (2012) in his review has pointed out the fundamental difference that exists between radicalization and extremism.