28 Mar 2024
Saturday 5 December 2015 - 15:50
Story Code : 191426

How one chooses to be ISIS terrorist?

Alwaght- To become a terrorists is actually an exceptionally conscious decision for committing terrorist acts. We may wonder why one chooses to become a terrorist in spite of many life hazards, risks and not warrantied payments? Combining theoretical and developmental criminology, theorists such as John Horgan believe to become a terrorist is a process, and this was also acknowledged by others.

John Horgan, in his book The Psychology of Terrorism examines in separate phases the act of getting into this process which include: involvement (to become a terrorists), engagement (to remain a terrorist), and disengagement (to disengage from terrorism). According to Horgan, naturally no one in an overnight makes the decision to become a terrorist. Horgan speaks of thousands of gradual steps, in other words, a process of internalization or acceptance of terrorism.

Two important factors must be considered to understand the first phase: the stimulus and vulnerability. There must be an incentive, desire, psychological need or something like that which motivates a person to do such an act. We may conclude that there are at least four motivations among terrorists. 1) An opportunity to take actions 2) a sense of attachment to 3) the desire for social status 4) to receive a payment. The vulnerability is a person's inability to surrender to temptations or persuasions.

In interviews conducted with the families whose members had joined the ISIS terrorist group, for example, parents of Aqsa Mahmoud said their girl was constantly exposed to messages of ISIS women on Twitter and she had developed a sense of belonging to them. On the other hand, someone like Mahdi Ghamosh, in France, spent seven years in jail and while he was in jail, he joined the terrorist networks. Although not much is known about the life of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, we know that he has received extremist religious teachings in Baghdad and he was in Camp Bucca from 2004 to 2006.

While he was being released, when he said to an American soldiers that one day we would meet each other in Washington, no one took him so serious. To take religious extremist courses in Iraq, to have extremists cellmates in Camp Bucca and to have done training courses, and collaboration with the Taliban in Afghanistan are probably the thousands steps that Abu Bakar al-Baghdad experienced to become a terrorists.

On the other hand, many high-ranking members of the ISIS terrorist group are former officers of Iraqi Presidential Guard who were known for committing many criminal acts. Some of these officers including Haji Bakr, Abu Ayman al-Iraqi, Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi and Abu Omar Qardosh are former officers of Iraqi Presidential Guard who spent several years in prison together in Camp Bucca. They are likely to have joined the ISIS terrorist group to regain their former social status. Over the last five years, governments have been facing terrorists who have similarities in structure but employed different tactics to achieve their goals.

Certainly, it is not possible to understand all the psychological aspects of terrorism, because the evolution of terrorism has taken place gradually and continuously, but Horgan's efforts to encourage a debate about such a subject is commendable. Horgan says what is known as the so-called causes of terrorism, are not actually the causes of terrorism. He points to social inequality and concludes that social inequality is perhaps the primary condition but it is rarely the main reason for choosing to be a terrorist. Jihadi John (also known as John, the Jihadist), the most famous executioner of the ISIS in his message for the Washington Post and the Guardian called London a big prison; however, he was grown up in London and had spent his childhood and adolescence in London.

The image of a terrorist is depicted as someone who has a deep commitment and is strongly stimulated, conceals a complex reality and it is the fact that incentives to join terrorist groups are as various as the number of these groups which can change with the passage of time. In fact, in the process of engaging in terrorist activities, many people are exposed to extremist ideas or difficult conditions over a long term and that is why they use process.

John Horgan believes the strategy to fight terrorism should focus on this stage i.e., to prevent the entry into the world of terrorism. In fact, terrorists join the ISIS for many big and small reasons that could be called pull and push factors. Main factors include: to feel departed, frustrated, disappointed, victimized and estranged.

Small contributory factors include thinking about the outcomes of entering into the world of terrorism, such as adventure, excitement, friendship, a sense of belonging to a greater whole and so on. The key point is not just to know why people join the terrorism, but we should understand how they enter the terrorist groups and what strategies are applied to attract them. To recruit new members entails the use of any means, whether persuasion to fight, or defend yourself and others, or a way out of the humiliation in which they are caught.

Terrorist recruitment process varies in different periods. They were probably different in the past few years. Even a terrorist who disengages from terrorism, is not able to express any clear reasons. In fact, Horgan believes that to better understand the entry process into terrorism, we should think more deeply about the incentives. Nevertheless, Horgan criticizes the past definitions of the concept of terrorism and believes we should not consider terrorists insane, but they are ordinary people with normal life who choose to become terrorists in a gradual and conscious process.

By Alwaght
https://theiranproject.com/vdccisqse2bqo08.-ya2.html
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