Azeem Ibrahim: To defeat 'self-starter' terror cells, West must win hearts and minds of young Muslims

Published on Saturday 20 December 2008 18:37

Bila Abdulla's conviction last week has a particular resonance for me because we are a similar age, and we grew up only half an hour away from each other. Clearly, both he and I faced a choice between seeing Islam as setting us against our country, or as setting us up to be a part of it.

Equally clearly, we made different choices. However, that is the same choice facing half a million young Muslim people growing up all over Britain, and about half a billion more the world over. Abdulla is one example of a trend that we must properly comprehend if we are to stand a chance of beating Islamist terror.

We often think of terrorist groups as distinct and independent, like companies. When attacks happen, policymakers and pundits alike ask questions such as: which group did it? Where were they based? Who are the ringleaders? How likely is the group to strike again?

But this is a mistake we cannot afford to make. We must start thinking of the perpetrators as ad-hoc groups of freelancers from the worldwide pool of Islamic radicals. Intelligence services in the US, UK, Holland, Denmark and Sweden all agree that the main threat now comes mainly from freelance cells.

"Self-starter" cells initiated the attacks in London in 2005, in Madrid in 2004 and in Casablanca in 2003. Al-Qaeda has stated it now conducts 50% of its war through the media to inspire more young radicals. Islamist terrorism has changed, and failure to grasp that change is not just erroneous, it is dangerous.

The implications of this shift from a company model to a freelance model are profound. The crucial difference is that any given terrorist can be replaced with another. That means that any given terrorist group cannot be conclusively defeated. This fact calls for a change in how Western governments address terror.

There is only one way to beat Islamist terror in the long term, and that is to reduce the motivation for young people to radicalise in the first place.

One way to do this is to undermine the intellectual conditions in which radicalisation takes root. We must discredit interpretations of Islam which permit the murder of innocent people. Western governments should draw media attention to authoritative Muslim religious and legal figures abroad who renounce violent jihad. This kind of tactic has been used successfully by governments in Egypt and Saudi Arabia for many years.

Abdulla's path from Glasgow doctor to terrorist shows that undermining the intellectual conditions for radicalisation is no less important here in Scotland.

Until recently, there has been no Scottish Islamic organisation working on a national level. But now, initiatives such as the Scottish-Islamic Foundation are filling the gap, working closely with reputable Islamic scholars to increase the theological resilience of young Muslims to violent jihadist interpretations of Islam.

At the same time it gives them the confidence and skills to make a positive contribution to wider Scottish society.

We must all start thinking about terrorism long-term. It is freelance now, and it relies on a pool of young radicals more than ever. The key to beating it is minimising the motivation to radicalise.

Azeem Ibrahim is a research fellow at the International Security Program, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and member of the Dean's International Council at the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago. He is also the founder of ECM Bank