Enemies among us: Domestic radicalization rises with exclusion
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, we have expected extremists to come from “over there.” But recently, the number of incidents involving home-grown Islamic extremists has spiked. While we might instinctively look to the federal government to protect us from enemies, whether foreign or domestic, the solution to this challenge does not lie simply in better policy, better intelligence, or more police officers. The solution for containing domestic radicalization lies in the hands of the American people and the society we create.
Since early 2009, there has been a significant increase in reports of Americans gravitating toward and internalizing the violent, extremist interpretations of Islam espoused by al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups.
Yet despite being the subject of intense interest in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, the forces driving domestic radicalization remain poorly understood. There is no identifiable demographic profile to predict who is most vulnerable to extremist ideology, or who, once radicalized, will resort to violence. Individuals arrested for and convicted in these cases do not fall into any pattern of age, national origin, economic class, or favored style of clothing.
Of the 132 known domestic radicalization cases since 2001, 25 involved plans to carry out attacks within the United States. In some of those cases, the paths to violence were fairly clear. Faisal Shahzad, for example, who attempted to bomb New York’s Times Square in early 2010, had become progressively more radicalized in the years leading up to the attack. But it was his outrage over Predator drone strikes near his ancestral home in Pakistan that ultimately triggered his turn toward violence. In other cases, it remains unclear what factors or events led radicalized individuals to engage in violence. And in others, still, circumstances that helped to precipitate violence in some cases failed to move others along the same path. The Lackawanna Six case, in which young men of Yemeni descent traveled to Afghanistan from Lackawanna, NY, to train with al Qaeda shortly before 9/11, is a pertinent example. Though these men took the initiative to train with extremists, there is no evidence to date that they were mobilized for violence.
Only one thing is clear from the data: extremists are benefiting from and capitalizing on feelings of alienation among Muslims in the United States.
This is not new. History is full of examples of extremists who take their cue for violence from perceived slights and hostility from the broader society. In the 1960s, extremists in the African-American community seized on continuing discrimination and hostility to justify violence. In the 1990s, members of the so-called “Patriot” movement, such as Timothy McVeigh who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, believed they were members of a repressed minority of white gun owners. They feared the federal government would restrict gun-rights and saw violence as their only recourse.
The common ingredient for radical movements has always been the perception of “otherness.” Perceived exclusion by mainstream society leads some to reject America itself, and, ultimately, choose violence.
Today, we risk isolating Islamic Americans as “others.” Consider the not-so-quiet whispering campaign suggesting that the president of the United States is actually Muslim — as if that would be disqualifying. Or look at how animosity and emotion trumped reasoned discourse and understanding over the proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan. The message, often unstated in all of this, is that Muslims are somehow not truly Americans.
This is not the America intended by the founders, who gave us the wisdom to defeat any kind of extremism. It is this: everyone is included in America.
We have to return to that belief.
As the Declaration of Independence proclaims, we all have inalienable rights. These rights, enshrined in the Constitution, serve to protect individuals but they also bind us together.
These rights include worshiping our God as we see fit, wherever we want, and they also include the right to protest, to disagree, and to debate.
We have to become again, as President Reagan stated, that shining city on the hill — the city where freedom and inclusion reign.
We are all Americans, regardless of our faith. When we tear each other down, exclude others, or suggest that one faith is more American than another, then we are weaker. But when we find our voice as one people, in one land, with common purpose and common values — the values enshrined in the great documents of our democracy — then we are strong.
It is only then that we will find fewer enemies among us.
Germain Difo is an adjunct policy analyst and James M. Ludes is the executive director of the American Security Project. ASP’s report, “Enemies Among Us,” can be found at www.AmericanSecurityProject.org.
