perennialphilosophy

[perennialphilosophy]

― Rosary, Anna Akhmatova

[text ID: Will you forgive me these November days?]

[perennialphilosophy]

Online vs. Offline Radicalisation

The use of the internet in radicalisation is indisputable, but the question is really how often does radicalisation take place online compared to ‘offline’ (interactions with people in the real world) radicalisation?

A study conducted in 2021 by Kenyon et al. looks at over 200 extremists convicted of terror offences in England and Wales and analyses the way each individual was radicalised. It’s important to note too that these individuals do not all belong to one type of extremist, but it looks at all types including right-wing extremism, Islamist extremist, animal rights etc. 

The findings showed that between the years 2005 and 2017, radicalisation online has been on the rise, while ‘offline’ radicalisation has been declining. Of those convicted on extremism charges, 35% of the offenders arrested between the years 2005 and 2009 were radicalised online. Between the years 2010 and 2014, there was a rise in online radicalisation with 64% of offenders having been radicalised online, and a sharp increase again in 2015 to 2017, where 83% of those convicted on extremism offences were radicalised online.

While online radicalisation has been on the rise, ‘offline’ radicalisation has been declining over the same period. Between the years 2005 and 2009, 65% of offenders were radicalised offline, which saw a decline between the years 2010 and 2014, when 36% of offenders were radicalised offline, and a further decrease in 2015 to 2017 when only 17% of offenders were radicalised offline. 

This reflects society’s increased use of the internet and extremist groups’ ability to radicalise individuals with greater ease. 

I was having a chat with someone over dinner yesterday and we spoke about these statistics, and he asked me why it was that there was a decline in offline radicalisation. He said he understood that online radicalisation was on the rise – this is to be expected with the internet taking off the way it has done and the influence of social media in our lives, but wouldn’t that mean radicalisation as a whole is just on the rise, rather than one increase and the other decrease?

Fundamentally, I think the way individuals are radicalised is different in the digital age and the aims of the extremist groups are also different. Before the year 2000, when an individual was radicalised they usually joined a group, and they acted together. This is the same for all kinds of extremism, including (not limited to) animal rights, right-wing extremism, and Islamist extremism. There was a group element to radicalisation. If we focus just on Islamist extremism for now (because that’s what my PhD is on), individuals who joined a jihad would travel to the country where the jihad was, such as Afghanistan or Bosnia, because a jihad was usually in a country where a war was taking place. But the definition and understanding of jihad started to change for extremists sometime around the year 2000 and it no longer meant joining a fight or struggle but could be fighting against a perceived threat to Islam. This saw, for example, many terror attacks carried out by Saudi men on their own country in the early 2000s, which was to protest against the House of Saud and the westernisation and modernisation of the country.

There are three key terms to know for this bit: dar al-Islam (land of Islam), dar al-harb (land of war), and dar al-kufr (land of unbelief). Dar al-Islam is commonly accepted as being any Muslim country/land that is ruled by Shari’ah law, however, there is some disagreement on what qualifies as dar al-harb and dar al-kufr. The traditional understanding is that dar al-harb is any country where there is a war or jihad happening and is an actual and literal land of war, and dar al-kufr is any land that is not under Islamic rule and is the land of the ‘non-believers’. Islamist extremists in recent decades have been conflating dar al-harb and dar al-kufr, and promoting the narrative that military personnel from any country which partakes in a (perceived) war against Islam (whether they be fighting or stationed there) accept that their country is now a land of war too or dar al-harb. This was pushed in extremist magazines which made the case that the UK and US as well as many other countries were to be considered countries of/for war, because of their involvement in Iraq, their being stationed in Saudi Arabia, and many other reasons. They also argued that any land that is not under Islamic rule is one of war.

The pushing of such sentiments and promoting individuals to carry out attacks in their home countries meant introducing a new type of attack – lone wolf attacks. In the past we saw terror attacks carried out by groups who were affiliated with some higher group such as al Qaeda, but now people are encouraged to act alone from their homes. In the past we had intelligent and coordinated attacks such as 9/11 and 7/7, but now we see more rash and indiscriminate attacks where, for example, individuals use cars to drive into pedestrians. 

In a 2010 issue of al Qaeda’s Inspire, they pushed for the use of vehicles in attacks because of the ease and accessibility, referring to the vehicles as ‘ultimate mowing machines’. The 2010s saw one attack after another where vehicles were used, peaking in the latter half of the decade. 

Think of the film Four Lions (if you haven’t seen it, it’s a comedy about a group of four men who want to become ‘martyrs’ so they leave the UK to go and carry out jihadi training with the aim of returning to carry out an attack in the UK – it’s quite a serious theme but it is funny, I promise) we don’t have that anymore. Individuals or groups of individuals don’t leave their home countries to train in an al Qaeda camp and then return to attack (though they couldn’t return anyway). I’m not saying this doesn’t ever happen, it did happen for the devastating November 2015 Paris attacks where Salah Abdeslam and others had trained with IS and returned to carry out that attack. The general pattern however is that individuals act alone and from their home countries.

Groups such as IS remind Western countries often that the threat isn’t in some far away country with individuals planning how to attack – the threat is in your home country, walking your streets. With the use of the internet, extremist groups are able to reach a larger number of people and have great influence on people’s lives without having to meet them. The group and social element of radicalisation is no more because extremist groups have found a better way of reaching vulnerable people, which is quicker and more efficient. 

The digital age of radicalisation is well and truly upon us.

#radicalisation #terrorism

[perennialphilosophy]

Lucille Clifton, from The Book of Light; “Here Yet Be Dragons”

[perennialphilosophy]

the infinite lives I'm living

[perennialphilosophy]

Vincent Van Gogh // John Keats

[perennialphilosophy]

an evening of writing, with a fly that hops between the peonies and the candle stick for company. I watch him as he dances between both, unable to decide which perch he is most comfortable on, and I'm frustrated with him for not making up his mind. how can I light my candle while he hasn't yet decided? my mind pleads with him to choose the flowers, and please choose it quickly. but suddenly I realise how unreasonable I'm being, how selfish, and short. how does one choose their home so quickly? it is impossible, surely?

#photos #thoughts

[perennialphilosophy]

and what if our lives are not measured by how many days or years we have lived, but are measured by how many times our hearts beat

what if we have been allocated a certain number of heartbeats and each one is like a countdown until it will beat no more

and what if that is the same reason we are afraid to fall in love? because our hearts race for as along as we love and even though it is our favourite way, we are not ready to die

#thoughts

[perennialphilosophy]

He asked me when I fell in love with him and I knew it sounded dramatic to say the moment I saw him, so I told him this story of my grandma who had Alzheimer's- she forgot her name and the words for fruit and food, she forgot her address and how to use the washroom, all her life lost to the disease. The only thing she remembered was her son's name and when that began to fade, the one thing she always remembered was that she loved him, even in illness, even in insanity. She saw this 6 foot 2 man with a scrubby beard and she didn't know him but she said she trusted him, she asked him to hold her hand when she died. When does memory end and love begin? All I know is- she loved him before she remembered him.

-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire

#she loved him before she remembered him #ready to be ruined today

[perennialphilosophy]

the room is lit by a flame,

soft music fills my heart as

a storm brews outside -

could there be anything more romantic?

my lover may struggle for room

in a heart as full as this.

I watched the snow today

for the first time -

I've seen it all before - the tiny,

white clouds fit for a dollhouse

fall as if their universe is collapsing

but I admit

to never having watched it

with the tender love with which

you look at a new born -

how did something so beautiful

come to be?

how could it be mine?

I learned today that the snow does not fall.

it is too graceful, too wonderful,

too majestic to fall -

it glides.

choose a handful of flakes,

watch them pirouette.

they work their way downstage,

drifting - prancing on their tiptoes

only to run along in unison

to stage left.

I hear the voice of my ballet teacher

shouting plier

and it seems they hear it too.

this dance they perform, they perform

just for me.

the show looks different from

the smallest change in seat.

this one is mine.

#poetry #I should be writing my thesis but instead I'm staring out of the window watching the snow and writing poor poetry for it #are my eyes watering at their beauty? you bet. what's wrong with me?

[perennialphilosophy]

Naomi Shihab Nye, “The Rider.” Fuel

[perennialphilosophy]

Michel de Montaigne

[perennialphilosophy]

just a girl who loves a yellow flower. the heart is simple in its wants.

[perennialphilosophy]

The glow of the candle on a gloomy winter morning is all I need to warm my soul. Between quiet taps on the keys, I yawn and stretch, settling into a new year of work. How glorious it is to be in the company of the steam from my tea, the soft wavering of the candle flame, and the slow living on the streets below.

#photos

[perennialphilosophy]

In another life, this is my home - as much on the outskirt of a society as possible while still belonging. I am the woman who sits by the fire with a dog by her feet, writing poetry and daydreaming of a life I never lived. My hair is ragged and I have no track of what day or time it is, but what does it matter when you only live for the two of you?

I spring up from the armchair in the corner of the room at the slightest sight of sun and I pull on my wellies. They're absolutely enormous and were handed down to me by my mother and I always await the day I can fill her boots, unfortunately the day never came but I wear them anyway.

I trot outside to hang the washing on a line that's always threatening to snap at any given moment, spreading my belonging across the ocean, my life across borders. All the various screws and nails in the little house are rusty from the sea water, the very bones of the place holding it up are decaying, and I grow old with it.

Whatever the different lives may be that I imagine for myself, one thing remains the same - I am always daydreaming of another. The mind always wanders. The heart always yearns.

#photos

[perennialphilosophy]

Woman Reading by Candlelight (1907) by Peter Ilsted (1861-1933). Danish artist and printmaker.

#i want this to be me

[perennialphilosophy]

Congratulations on the bakery Maria!!!

Thank you so much! All the sleepless nights and hard work is so worth it!

[perennialphilosophy]

Eavan Boland, “A Woman Painted on a Leaf”

[Text ID: “I want a poem I can grow old in. I want a poem I can die in.”]