Ideology is the central issue that leads to terrorist violence, according to a landmark study that acts as a riposte to Home Office officials who want to widen the definition. The Times has more:
Robin Simcox, the counter-extremism tsar, warns on Thursday that combating ideology that “validates and directs violence” must be at the centre of the government’s response to extremism, rather than focusing on unpredictable individuals with mental health issues.
Simcox commissioned a review of 100 convicted terrorists that analysed the thousands of pieces of “mindset material” they had downloaded and collected.
He concluded: “Time and again, these explanations are ideological. Yet despite this, the centrality of ideology to explain the actions of terrorists and extremists remains disputed by some. Emphasis is instead placed on more material factors, like economics, or psychological factors and mental health.”
Sir Keir Starmer said terrorism had “changed” after the Southport attacks in which Axel Rudakubana killed three girls. The prime minister briefly considered changing the definition to encompass attackers who acted for the sake of violence.
The Home Office came under scrutiny in January when an internal review recommended the approach to tackling extremism should no longer be focused on Islamist or far-right ideology but on “behaviours and activities of concern”. Those included voices on the far right making allegations of two-tier policing.
The independent analysis of material held by terrorists indicates, however, that such a change — which was rejected by ministers but is understood to be a prevailing belief among some civil servants — would be an act of folly.
The study for the Commission for Countering Extremism examined the cases of 100 convicted terrorists arrested between 2004 and 2021 who had collected 6,000 pieces of “mindset material” on electronic devices. Of them, 85 were Islamists, 14 extreme rightwingers and one was an incel.
While their ages, backgrounds and ethnicities differed greatly, the study found that “ideological material was an integral part” in their lives and “one of the few things” they had in common. The review said ideology became “indispensable” in understanding why terrorists fight, what they hope to achieve and what is permissible in their struggle. The analysis found a “consistent presence and volume of ideological material” that was important for terrorists.
Islamist terrorists gathered material from three ideologues in particular — Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaeda operative killed in 2011; Abu Hamza, the cleric from Finsbury Park mosque, and Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican convert. Recently there has been greater interest in Islamic State propaganda.
They also downloaded The Book of Jihad, a 15th-century thesis on holy war; Join the Caravan, a jihadist text on the Soviet-Afghan war; and Milestones, by the Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb. Extreme right-wing terrorists turned to Hitler’s Mein Kampf; The Turner Diaries, a novel by a white nationalist; Blood & Honour, a neo-Nazi pamphlet; and White Power, by the founder of the American Nazi Party.
Such material gave terrorists a “shared reality” that strengthened their bonds with “like-minded individuals”. The focus of the material for all terrorists was on building a narrative in which violence was seen as “proportionate, moral and obligatory in defence of an identified community”.
Simcox said ideology created a framework for behaviour, outlining the rewards, spiritual or otherwise. He added that a terrorist’s mobilisation could be influenced by a multitude of personal factors but ultimately: “It is ideology which validates and directs violence … that guides behaviour.”
Worth reading in full.
